Rev. Joseph Boyd

The meek will inherit the earth. This single line has agitated, inspired, and baffled many great minds, and it makes sense to wonder if this idea works practically in the real world. Nietzche believed it did. He believed this single line from the gospel is the central belief that brought democracy to the West. The belief that all people have a right to inherit the earth – regardless of wealth, stature, or power – every single person should have a voice, a piece of the law that governs this land. He thought this was a ridiculous vision. He blamed the Christian tradition for creating these principles meant to benefit the meek, those will little or no power. He said democracy is for meek people…people who disempower themselves with the belief that we should champion freedom and equality for everyone as the priorities of government. He said only a meek  person would celebrate democracy, because in any other government the meek would only inherit pain and suffering. They would certainly never inherit the earth. They wouldn’t even dream of it.

Democracy is one of the guiding principles of our faith. We do not put our faith in a single book, or a single person, or in transcendence.

When we govern our church, make big decisions, our authority is placed in a very clear, and concrete place – the members of the congregation who have the right to govern by voting and elect trustees to make decisions on their behalf. If you tried to find one thing that all Unitarian Universalists put their faith in…in practice I would have to  say democracy. We believe in the potential of each person, grounded in goodness, and we believe that members of the community are fully equipped to make sound and visionary decisions on behalf of our church, and our wider faith. I cannot over exaggerate how central the democratic ideal is to our understanding of ourselves. It’s the water we swim in often without even realizing it.

I have had many ministers share with me that our faith is the quintessential American faith, and I think this makes a lot of sense – our absolute faith in the democratic process, our belief that freedom and equality are two things that worth living, even dying for, and the optimistic future oriented outlook that things can improve and get better through human effort.

Well, how are we doing with that today? Would you say you have absolute faith in our democratic process today? Do you think things are better now, better than they’ve ever been?

These are tough questions. If I look at a lot of facebook posts and reactions from many people on social media – the answer is no. There’s a sense that something is not quite right, that perhaps our present moment is a big mistake, that our  present fails to cohere to the narrative we’ve come to rely on without realizing it – democracy being at the heart of it. That’s one of the most painful thoughts I can imagine – that our present moment is a mistake, that we’re living in the wrong time.

My in-laws asked me once if I could live in any time period, when would I live? They threw out possibilities like the middle ages, the Renaissance, the Victorian period. My answer was immediate. If I could live in any time period in history…if I had the chance to meet Jesus, or Socrates, or Joan of Arc, if I could live at any time, I would choose to be alive right now, right here – 2017 in Youngstown, Ohio. My in-laws were surprised – now? Are you sure?

I’m going to give you a little context for this radical line – the meek will inherit the earth. Before the gospel says Jesus uttered this line, Jesus is fasting out in the desert to purify himself before beginning his ministry. He’s out in the heat, hungry and tired. And the scripture says the devil came and tempted him.

The devil tempts Jesus on 3 separate occasions. The first time the devil comes up to Jesus and says “I notice you’re hungry. I know you have special gifts. Why don’t you turn these stones into bread? The devil wants Jesus to show superhuman powers. Jesus declines, and says he’s ok with going hungry. Next the devil asks Jesus to bow down to him, and if he performs this simple gesture, which only takes a second, the devil will give him control of all the earthly kingdoms and their riches. Again, Jesus declines. The third and last time, the devil says it looks like you put your trust in something other than money and power…okay – throw your  body of a cliff, and see if that trust will save you from dying. Again, Jesus declines. All of these temptations from the devil are tied to power – the power to do or be seen to possess superhuman powers. Jesus replies with his actions – I’m not superman. I’m just a man…a man who gets hungry, a man with nobody to rule over, a man who knows he’s fragile and can die. Shortly after Jesus is out of the desert, he is surrounded by a crowd of people that have heard about him, and he sits on a piece of earth on the side of mount – and tells them a radical and simple statement –

a meek man like him who is familiar with his limitations has just sat on the side of this mount, just like all of these searchers who are looking for salvation and satisfaction for their questions – he tells them by sitting on the side of this mount together – we have all inherited the earth.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk, thought this statement was the most brilliant thing Jesus said. It inspired him to say: “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth.” The greatest miracle is to walk on the green earth, and know it for what it is…our natural inheritance.

I don’t think being meek is an attractive aspiration. Synonyms for meek are submissive, compliant, easily imposed on, yielding. You’ll find lots of alternative definitions from scholars that try to make the verse more attractive – defining meek as humble. One interpretation of the greek word for meek is the same word used for Greek war horses that were trained for battle, made meek by soldiers for battle. So I found scholars celebrating that they are like a trained war horse ready to go into battle to inherit the earth. But I don’t buy any of this. I think the word has been interpreted in English as meek, and we can’t take it back, even if it’s wrong. It’s already embedded in our consciousness.

According to Nietzsche this translation has led to an alternative morality which is responsible for democracy. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, so I’m not going to take an easy out, by massaging the word meek.

I think Nietzche and Jesus are both half right. Nietzche was right to think that a truly democratic culture is concerned with those who have the least power and are most vulnerable to coersion and violence. He’s right to say this is a strange proposition – that we should have structures in place to ensure individual freedom, and try to let everyone have a say in matters that affect them. It’s a very optimistic proposition, a proposition that has rightfully earned a good amount of skepticism and doubt. Nietzsche is wrong to think this is how democracy actually works, especially when power and money can’t help but come into the picture. Almost everybody in Youngstown could tell you that. We have the democratic ideal and the reality, which is very, very far from the ideal of true freedom and mutual respect. Our democracy is quite compromised, which shouldn’t be a shock…because who in their right mind is going to follow the line that the meek shall inherit the earth while the strong threaten to roll their tanks over your meek body.

It doesn’t seem practical or helpful to keep this fantasy alive. If Nietzche was alive today, I don’t think he would say America as a democratic nation has adhered to the gospel in how we elect leaders, and how those leaders think and act. I don’t know of any politician who is trying to be meek at all times. We historically have tried to find the middle ground of a leader who is simultaneously strong yet relatable, able to instill fear in world leaders but not turn into a tyrant. We’ve compromised our democracy. Nobody seems to want a meek president, or a meek leader…our history has shown this. The only popular leader we have had who demonstrated meekness as a cornerstone of their leadership was Martin Luther King Jr. King followed an ethic of non-violent resistance, and this came at great  personal cost. It was a great cost to his family, his health, and eventually his life. It’s no surprise that we are wary to take his place.

King was a Christian, no doubt impacted by the line –  the meek shall inherit the earth. I bet he sensed Jesus was onto something, but I think King experienced that Jesus was only half right. Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth, but Jesus never said the meek will get to keep it for very long. The meek will inherit  the earth, but they won’t get to keep it for long.

This is where strength and resilience come in. We cannot inherit the earth we depend on without an attitude of meekness or humility, but we will most definitely lose it if we fail to also cultivate strength and resilience.

Wendell Berry captures this relationship between meekness and strength in a single line – to stand like slow growing trees on a ruined place, renewing it, enriching it. We stand on a ruined place, whether the rain falls or not. This a time when people are learning that in order to stay in relationship with their families, or friends, they must cultivate meekness, or the instinct to yield – wait our turn to speak our truth, listen, take in the world of people who see things differently than us. Without this openness, we can never inherit the earth. All we inherit are our own ideas, and the world we’ve created in our head. We fail to enter the world, and let it surprise and impress us, because we already believe we know what the world is like. This kind of certainty rather it be rooted in fear or righteousness is deadening, isolating. This why the best way to get overwhelmed is through social media and newsfeeds…it’s a one way communication directly to our minds, but we are not meeting with earth. We’re only meeting our worst fears. It takes the ability to be quiet and relax enough to feel the earth supporting our every breath, and not take this for granted. It takes practice to remind ourselves that the earth is here right now, supporting us, giving us life. This basic appreciation of the connection of our fragility to this fragile blue planet is the key to our inheritance. But this is not enough to let us keep our inheritance, not if all it takes is a good wind to impress us, and knock us over.

We need to find our roots, that which gives us strength and nourishment, so that we can stand like a slow growing tree on our patch of earth, especially if the ground we stand on is considered ruined. We can use our roots to nourish this place. There’s a reason why if I could live at any time, I wouldn’t give up the chance to be alive right now, at this present moment in history. The reason is I see a bunch of slow growing trees. When we’re growing we’re often not aware of it…we feel the same, like nothing has changed. It sometimes takes another person to notice, wow, you’ve changed. Our church has been standing on this place for 125 years. Many of you have been standing here for decades, a time when this place was considered paradise, and the times when it’s been considered ruined. You’ve stood in this place, renewing, enriching it.

Some of you may be here for the first time. I welcome you to stand with us. We are optimistic but we are not naive, we know that sometimes we need to open our heart and mind, and sometimes it’s appropriate to stand our ground. The trick is to do this both at the same time – grounded in strength and open, open to new revelation, new vision, rooted in song, in sacrament. None of us individually possesses all the insight we need to skillfully meet this present moment. We trust in the democratic principle – the more minds, the more hearts, the better.