A family had sold everything possible to pay bills and to put food on the table. Nevertheless, a burglar broke in one night when the family was gone. The family returned and found the door knocked off its hinges. "What did the burglar get?" the police officer asked. The head of the house just shook his head.

"Practice," he said.

It's not easy being poor. What did Jesus mean, "Blessed are the poor?"

Jesus was a master at keeping his listeners off-balance. He always said the unexpected. He praised people others despised. He lifted up those others put down. “It is more blessed to give than to receive." “For whoever wants to save his live will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." And two thousand years after his death and resurrection theologians still wrestle with his exact …