In Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells us that the poor are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of God. Those who are hungry are blessed because they will be filled. Those who weep are blessed because they will laugh. (Lk 6.20f.)

CS Song preaching at Third Reformed Church

"I am puzzled by this," admitted CS Song, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, in his sermon at the opening service of the WARC executive committee. "The history of the world for the past two thousand years tells us, and the stories of many of our communities remind us again and again, that the hungry are not fed, that those who weep do not laugh."

Song reminded told the congregation at Third Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan that "54% of Africans live below the UN poverty line."

"Add to this a great number of people in Asia sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and you have a pretty good grasp of what our world is like today."

Matthew, however, reports the words of Jesus a little differently: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Mt 5.3)

"Who are the poor in spirit?" Song asked. Those who are caught up in the spiritual fads sweeping the affluent nations of the north? "Now that their standard of living has risen sky high, they can afford to worry about their spiritual destiny."

Matthew doesn't give us the answer, Song told the congregation, but leaf through the Gospels and answers come tumbling out. The good Samaritan who shows compassion to a stranger he stumbles over on his journey. The father who sees his wayward son coming home in rags and runs out to welcome and embrace him. The tax-collector who cheats his own people, but has a change of heart. The Roman centurion, an officer in an occupying army, who sees in Jesus a power greater than Caesar. The woman who pours ointment on the head of Jesus, knowing that he is about to die. These are all "poor in spirit".

"For Jesus," Song said, "the rule of God is a project, not a concept. It is an enterprise, not a dream. It is a deal, a contract, not just pious talk or religious platitude. And it is a deal and a contract to be signed by the poor and the poor in spirit together."

Third Reformed Church was organized under the leadership of Albertus C Van Raalte, founder of the Holland colony. The original building dates from 1867, but was destroyed in the great Holland fire of 1871. The present church, "a structure of beauty and symmetry", was dedicated in 1874. The congregation has traditionally combined an active missionary outreach with a strong social awareness.

Our world today, Song reminded the congregation, has plenty of the poor - more than three billion of them - but "there is a terrible shortage of the poor in spirit."

"That is why the rule of God remains jargon, a castle in the air, a religious fantasy."

"Is it possible for the World Alliance in the coming years to get many of the poor in spirit to join Jesus' project of God's rule?" he asked. "And when we meet in Accra, Ghana, for the 24th general council, will there be jubilation over the deal sealed between the poor in spirit and the poor?"