Have you ever been in one of those fun houses where you start off in a relatively normal room, but then as you progress through the house things change. Maybe in one room the floor seems to be crooked and in another you are suddenly walking on the ceiling and all the furniture is hanging above your head. How does it feel to go from room to room in a place like that? Disorienting? Maybe makes you a bit nauseous? Perhaps it is a bit scary. Whatever your reaction, I think we can all agree that it does not feel normal or the way things are supposed to be. I went to one of those with April and the kids a few years ago on our way through South Dakota. It was called “Cosmos Mystery Area.” Anyone been there? There were several different things to do besides the fun house, but that was the main attraction. Each room of the house was a little different, disorienting you further with each pass through a new doorway. Even the return to a normal was rather off-putting for a little bit.

What do you think would happen if, instead of walking through the house quickly, you stopped in one of the rooms and stayed there for several hours, maybe even a full day? I suspect that the room would begin to feel more normal. Your body and mind would adjust to the strangeness of it, even if you still knew that the room was not how it should be. And what if your whole house was upside down or crooked, and you stayed there for weeks or months without leaving? You might forget what that world outside feels like. Then once you finally leave, how do you think the world would feel? Probably a lot like it did when you first entered the fun house, right? Disorienting. Might make you a bit nauseous. Might be scary.

How many of you know what Stockholm Syndrome is? It’s basically the idea that captives can, over time, become sympathetic to their captor. Sometimes they even defend their captor or, in rare cases, fall in love with their captor. Stockholm Syndrome was first defined in 1973 in Sweden. A standoff began Jan-Erik Folsson, a prisoner on furlough, robbed a bank and police responded quickly. Folsson took four bank workers hostage and began making demands to the police. At one point in the negotiations, one of the hostages told the Swedish Prime Minister over the phone that she was more afraid of police than of her captors. A psychologist and criminologist named Nils Bejerot named the phenomenon “Norrmalmstorg Syndrome” for the city square where the bank robbery took place, but as it spread worldwide it became known as Stockholm Syndrome after the capital city of Sweden. Like in the fun house, people experiencing Stockholm Syndrome began disoriented by their capture, but over time adjusted to this new “norm” and even became attached to it.

In the TV show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kimmy was abducted as a teen and forced to live in a bunker underground with the unhinged reverend who kidnapped her, two other girls he kidnapped that were about her age, and an older woman who speaks only Spanish. Kimmy and the others were trapped in the bunker for 15 years under the guise that they were the sole survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. Now, after 15 years living underground, the women have been rescued. But now they have to reacclimate into a world they’ve been away from for a very long time. Each one of them seeks to adjust in very different ways, but one of the women, Gretchen, seems to exhibit the clearest signs of Stockholm Syndrome when she decides she wants to start her own cult. Gretchen, Kimmy, and the others are back in the “real” world, yet they haven’t been able to shake off the trauma of their experiences in the bunker.

You may be wondering at this point how all of this pertains to our Scriptures for today. I am, too. No, I’m kidding. I know how it all connects, but let’s work our way into it. So, this passage from the gospel of Luke is traditionally called the “Sermon on the Plain.” It is Luke’s rendition of the Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew. In Matthew’s version, Jesus offered eleven blessings. In this version, Jesus offers four blessings and four woes. And what Jesus says in these blessings and woes is equally controversial to the eleven blessings in Matthew. So, what does Luke have Jesus saying that’s so shocking to people?

Let’s look first at the blessings. There are four. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” And then, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.” And then, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” And finally, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.” Jesus says that those who are blessed are: the poor, the hungry, the ones weeping, and the ones being hated because of their association with Christ. Jesus is showing his heart for the least of these.

That is not what Roman society valued, and very similarly, it is not what our society values either. So, what does our society value? Call out some things that our society values…

I would say that when we think about what our society values most, some of the things at the top of the list for me would be: money, happiness, being liked, and food. There are certainly other things we could add to this, but I would wager that most of the things our society values lead right back to one of those four things. And those things are the exact opposite of what Jesus proclaims as blessed.

And Jesus knows that because he follows up his blessings with some woes. Listen to what he lists in that category. He says, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” And then, “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.” And then, “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” And finally, “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” Jesus proclaims woe upon the rich, the well-fed, the happy, and the well-liked. Does that list sound familiar? Money, food, happiness, and being liked. Jesus speaks out against the same things that our society values today. And just like the Pharisees and Sadducees had assimilated many of those societal values into their daily living, so too have many of us in the church fallen prey to those things.

This is where we circle back to the fun house and Stockholm Syndrome. You see, the normal world, the world we were supposed to live in, the world we were designed for, got twisted along the way. We all ended up in the fun house with the furniture on the ceiling and we didn’t know how we got there or how to get back. And somewhere along the line, we became comfortable, even sympathetic to this new reality. We become okay with defining the value of ourselves and others based upon how much money we have or how well we eat or how happy we seem or how well-liked we are. We have Stockholm Syndrome. We were taken captive to sin and we began to fall in love with it. We began to defend it and protect it. And we lost sight of what is really real and true and normal.

Jesus came into the world to help give us a reset. He came to lead us back to the place we were meant to be. He came to show us the right path and lead us along the way. But many of us haven’t wanted to go. We’ve become comfortable with these new values, even if they contradict what we know is really true. So we begin to defend those new values. We even begin to twist Scriptures to prove that these new values are actually the right way to live. They don’t really contradict Jesus’ words. We just aren’t reading the right Scriptures. Far too many have gone from being comfortable with these new values to loving them and fighting for them instead of against them.

This was just as true for Rome as it is for us today. But Jesus shows us a different way…the right way. Jesus teaches us how to return to our roots, to who we were created to be. And what Jesus says is the way is that, blessed are the poor and the hungry and the grieving and the hated. Blessed are the outsiders, the weirdos, the oppressed, the disenfranchised, the lonely and depressed, the sad and rejected, the lost and the voiceless. As we look around us in our daily lives and throughout the world, who are those who Jesus says are blessed? And what is our responsibility to help?

One thing that Jesus says similarly at the end of both the blessings and woes references the ancestors of the people and the prophets of old. At the end of the blessings, he says, “for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.” And at the end of the woes, Jesus said, “for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” The people treated the true prophets, the ones who spoke truth, with kindness and generosity. But at the same time, the people treated the false prophets as if they had it all correct and that they were something special.

We’re pretty good at pushing aside the concerns of the needy and focusing instead on aligning ourselves with those who have what society values: money, food, happiness, and fame. And maybe this Scripture is our call to return to normal, return to how we were created to live, with concern for the poor and hungry and grieving and hated. We don’t have to look far in our world to see people in need. We also don’t have to look far to see false prophets being lifted up and so many captives succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome and falling in love with the wrong values. May God open our eyes to see the true way to live through the love that Jesus showed to all of the least of these. And may we bless and lift up the lowly just as Jesus taught us. Amen!