From Empire to Kingdom - Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
February 01, 2026
A small tribe of Indigenous people in the Andes mountains
tell a story about a hummingbird and a fire.
There was a time when the Great Forest caught fire. The
flames roared and the smoke billowed, and all the animals fled in fear.
Gathering at the edge of the forest, they watched as their home burned and
burned.
“What can I do?” cried Buck.
“This fire is so big and I am so small!” howled Fox.
Among them hovered a tiny hummingbird, her beak the size
of a bumblebee. She flew to a nearby stream, picked up a single drop of water,
and flew back, dropping it into the fire. She made her way back and forth from
the stream to the flames, carrying one drop at a time. Over and over.
The other animals watched, confused. Finally, Bear asked
her, “Little hummingbird, what are you doing?”
The hummingbird looked at the animals and said, “I am
doing what I can.”
There in the presence of all of the larger
and mightier, no one expected the hummingbird. But instead of seeing herself as
insignificant, she sees her worth. And her purpose for others.
Today Jesus tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But who was he talking to?
Jesus has been healing people with diseases, chronic
pain, seizures, paralysis, and troubled spirits. The sick, the disabled, the
spiritually oppressed. Those who are seen as social outcasts or at the very
least, so insignificant they are devalued and dishonored. They are not seen as
having worth or purpose. Instead they are the kind of people some might say
must live under a black cloud or curse. Now they are blessed.
Before he gets to any of the other “blessed” in what we
call the Beatitudes, Jesus starts with “the poor in spirit.” The Greek here
means “bent low, cowering, emptyhanded.” Jesus has centered himself in their
midst to proclaim that though they have felt rejected by the empire of Rome or
of the religious structure, they are in fact being liberated.
First. The cast aside, the least, are now called
kin. Heaven comes to earth. It’s an
exodus from empire to kingdom.
All the way back in the book of Exodus, God acted for
those who had become enslaved and walked them from cruelty toward promise, to
build a just society.[1] That was
the vision of the promised land. The law was given as a call to moral action so
that people would avoid oppressing people as they had been oppressed. It didn’t
take long for love and mercy and justice to seem too small, so that by the time
of the prophet Micah, the world was groaning yet again in need of a savior.
Jesus took the time to sit down with to teach kingdom
reversal to those who have been rejected
by the systems of the day, both governmental and religious. In fact, some
religious struggled with how much to align with the empire to stay in good
graces until was hard to tell which is which. Just as Moses did, Jesus on the
mountain is giving what people they need to draw upon so they believe what God
can do. So they don’t just fall back into empire when they live in the
framework of God’s kingdom here.
Jesus reveals a love that restores dignity and it looks
like the mercy and justice of Micah who says it’s not about all the trappings we
use to build ourselves up. This is what we often do to distract from our
discomfort and unease. These are the ways we separate ourselves from others
because we become captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.
Just as the animals could not imagine what the tiny
hummingbird could do, we cannot imagine what love and mercy and justice can do
in the face of the might of large and ferocious empires. Empire is a way of
expressing a system that controls how we see time, our priorities,
responsibilities, our families, our bodies and others. Often times people are
seen through the lens of economics.
Whether we are talking about the Roman Empire of Jesus’
day, or the empire of Pharaoh in Egypt, or any other dominating power, such
structures function and thrive by shaping ideas, attitudes, practices and
even the stories people tell as they imagine the world around them. So much so
that we can deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. As Jesus came to lead
people on an exodus from empire to kingdom, so the word now meets us.
What does “empire” look like? In our time it’s when we
internalize the distortion that if we don’t “produce” we are worth less. We
chafe against what our bodies or those of others need. All of us in some way,
especially as we age or slow down, might feel compelled to say if we rest that
“we earned it.” And those who we think did not become lazy, less deserving,
weak, or takers– modern day terms for “poor in spirit.” We convince ourselves
we cannot falter and we worship the hustle. We become brittle and small.
While I would love to say we don’t ever find ourselves
struggling, I know I do. We all do. I know we would prefer a Bible telling that
keeps it manageable and feels like easy comfort. But we are instead called to
resist the urge to sanitize reality. Ambivalence, paradox and contradictions
are a part of our everyday human lives. If we make Scripture simply the place
of the ethereal, it has nothing to offer us when our world is a daily reckoning
between empire and kingdom.
What Jesus is doing today and in all our days, is
offering us the chance to journey again from empire into kingdom.
It is often so baked into our world at so many levels
that we don’t even realize how much dignity and worth gets stripped away. We
stop seeing humanity even if we may not want to, but it all feels too large to
tackle.
Which leads me back to the hummingbird. When the world
feels daunting it can be so very easy for us personally or us as church to
wonder if what we do matters. Is it too small in a world of darkness? Here is
the light.
We are continually met, restored and taught by Jesus who
doesn’t ignore our struggles. He names them and then blesses us for ourselves
ad a “poor in spirit” world. We become little beams of light in a dark and
hurting world. Right after this gospel, Jesus will tell the same “now reconnected
and blessed” ones, to be salt and light. In our ever “advancing” techno world,
just like drops of water, salt and light don’t seem like much either. And yet, virtually
all living things cannot survive long without them.
Wherever being poor in spirit in this age may be found,
we will meet Jesus there. He still has much to teach us.
May we approach in honesty and humility as those who know
we feel emptyhanded in daunting times but we trust that wherever Jesus calls
us, blessing will break forth because he is at the center.
There are many ways you and I can each shine the light of
mercy and justice, grace and love in this world. Small things can focus upon
the dignity and humanity of others each day. Do not let the powers of this
world convince you that such things are irrelevant or wasted on the wrong
people. We are not here to contribute to a world on fire, but to a gentle flame
that in meaningful small loving ways illuminate Jesus. Imagine if the other
animals had helped the hummingbird.
Earlier we blessed candles to shine the light this year. Let’s
shine together.
May courage rise within us like a quiet flame, small yet
steady. In Jesus’ hands, even the smallest motions can shift the world into the
kingdom of heaven. Amen.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2026 All rights reserved. May
not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
[1] Kat Armas, Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging and Peace in a Dehumanizing World, p. 11
Gospel Text: Matthew 5:1-12
1 When
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his
disciples came to him. 2 And
he began to speak and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed
are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed
are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed
are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed
are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
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