“THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD?”

6TH Sunday after Epiphany    February 11, 2007

United Lutheran Church, Red Wing, MN

Luke 6:17-26

Grace, Peace, and Mercy be yours, in the Name of Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

              He walked into a bookstore to return a purchase.  “It’s a Bible!” he said.  “Was it a gift?” asked the clerk.  “No, I bought it for myself but I made a mistake!”  “You didn’t like the trans-lation or the format?” questioned the clerk.  “Oh, no,” he said, “the format was clear and the translation was fine.  I just made a mistake.”   The clerk replied, “Well, I have to write down the reason for the return.”  “In that case”, he said, “write down that there is a lot in that book which is tough to swallow!”

              Depending on how you read and what you hear, the words of Jesus in today’s text might make you squirm.  There are passages in the Bible that are difficult to accept and swallow. This may be one of those for you.  The issue here is not accepting some amazing miracle although there are times when some of the miracles recorded in the Bible may stretch our belief system.

At other times there are strong demands in the Gospels where Jesus demands that we act in certain ways.  If you read ahead to the next paragraphs there are some examples of what I’m talking about, such as: “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you!”  “Bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you!”  If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer them the other and if someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt.”  “Give to everyone who begs from you and expect nothing in return.”   “Do to others as you would have them do to you!” 

              But here in these brief paragraphs, Jesus doesn’t make a demand, Jesus describes the world in ways quite different t from the ways we like to see it.  For here he says,

              “BLESSED ARE THE POOR…WOE TO THE RICH

              “BLESSED ARE THE HUNGRY NOW…WOE TO THOSE WHO ARE FULL NOW”

              “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO WEEP NOW…WOE TO THOSE WHO LAUGH

                            NOW”

              “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE HATED…WOE TO THOSE WITH A GOOD

                            REPUTATION”.

As one person writes, “In what strange land do folks leap for joy when they are hated, reviled,

and excluded?  In what parallel universe do the poor, the hungry, and the persecuted feel good about their prospects?  Where do you find people who are uneasy when others speak well of them, but who figure they must be doing something right when they are defamed?”

              What a strange way to look at reality?  The ones the world ignores are the ones who receive God’s blessing. The ones honored are “woed” upon!  A complete reversal of the way we usually see things. While such passages do appear rather frequently in the Bible, when they do many of us(myself included) will do whatever we can to “soften” the blow, or make them more acceptable to the world in which we live.   There have been attempts to remove such words from the faith experience or to put a different spin on them.’

              The Gospel of Matthew states, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.”  It seems turn into a spiritual virtue.  But in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “BLESSED ARE THE POOR!”

(Not a virtue at all to be poor—in spirit or material things—rather, God cares about and blesses those who are impoverished.  But being poor isn’t a blessing, yet the poor are loved of God.

Matthew states, “Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness”.  But Luke writes, “BLESSED ARE THE HUNGRY!”  We cannot spiritualize the circumstances nor glamorize the condition.  While there is room for both Matthew’s and Luke’s reporting, here in Luke, I believe Jesus means what he says.  Poor is poor and hungry is hungry!  Both are blessed!

              Why should we be so surprised at what Jesus says here in Luke?  From the beginning of this particular Gospel, we’ve been confronted with the focus of God’s deep concerns for those who suffer injustice and without power.  Take a look at these passages:
              a./ Luke, Chapter 1---“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

              Savior, his mercy is on those who fear Him.  He will scatter the proud in the thoughts

              of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry

              with good things, sent the rich away empty.”(Mary’s Magnificat)

              b./ Luke, Chapter 4--- Here Jesus opens the scroll in the synagogue and reads from Isaiah,

              “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the

              poor.  Sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let

              the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  And then with a

              “punctum” he says, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

              c./ Luke, Chapter 6(today’s text), Jesus blesses real poverty, the poverty of the disciples

              who have left all and followed Him. It seems like a echo of the reversal he announced

              at his coming.   David Tiede in his Luke Commentary calls this Sermon on the Plain,

              “a major policy statement of the Kingdom.”

              Later Jesus would continue to uphold this theme in the story of the rich farmer who keeps building bigger barns storing up treasures for himself but who is not rich toward God.  Add the story of Zacchaeus who once visited by Jesus gives away half of his possessions to the poor and returns four-fold what he has absconded from others as a tax collector.  Then of course there’s the story of the rich young ruler who is told to give away everything and follow.  He turns away saddened for “he is very rich.”

              Does Jesus speak to our human condition or not?  The Gospel of Luke, more than any of the other Gospels; reminds us that Jesus speaks more to our accumulation of life’s treasures and the condition of the poor/impoverished than any other theme in his ministry other than the Kingdom of God.  Even more than Jesus says about prayer.  But doesn’t Jesus come to pronounce the coming of the Kingdom?  To heal the sick, grant forgiveness to sinners, open a way of reconciliation to God through his death on the cross and resurrection?  Absolutely!

And in this chapter, after calling the disciples, teaching, healing, casting out unclean spirits from all in the crowd who have gathered to hear him and to touch him…he shares these statements in the Sermon on the Plain.

              Theologian Fred Craddock in his commentary on Luke writes: “Jesus is making the official proclamation of how the way of life is inside and outside the rule of God. These are not suggestions about how to be happy or warnings lest one become miserable; blessings and woes as words of Jesus are to be heard with the assurance that they are God’s word to us and that God’s word is not empty.”

              Many of us exempt ourselves from any biblical reference to being rich because we always think the term refers to someone else.  You know, the out-of-sight income and wealth of some athletes, entertainers, CEO’s of multinational corporations in our society who by comparison make us believe we are not rich.  We kid ourselves, though, even if we manage to deny that we are rich by the world’s standards. We cannot deny that we are full.  My garage, basement, refrigerator, cupboards, even my stomach for the most part are full.

              The Greek word translated “woe” shouldn’t be understood as an expression of condemnation with Jesus pointing his finger at us in a scold.  Rather, might sense that he is acting from the feeling of a broken heart.  For I believe that Jesus knows how easily intoxicated we may be with abundance, good times, and a good reputation.  And when the Lord sees us under the influence of all the distractions and allure, he recognizes the dangers and cries out, “Woe!”  He might just as easily say, “WHOA!” as if to say, “Stop and think!”

              If we hear these words spoken to us as an “insider” rather than an “outsider”, we can begin to see the world differently.  The poverty is blessed within the context of the response to Jesus and the call to the Kingdom of God.  It isn’t just poverty or riches per se that are blessed or woed, but poverty in the context of trust in God and riches in the context of rejection of God. They go hand in hand in Luke.    While he holds up the assurance to the poor that God is for them and a promise for the future; the present hope is in the fellowship of a new community where justice, equality, and compassion are very much alive and experienced.

              For those who hear, there is an urgent call for a clear evaluation of what we have and the place of those blessings in the Christian life and community of faith.  What Jesus in Luke commends for followers in his day is a style of life in which possessions are placed at the service of those in need.

              Rather than shy away from such difficult words, we need to understand that they are instructive and valuable for our faith as the Body of Christ.  We let the Word broaden our understanding, tap the source of our values and beliefs, and touch us in matters eternal. We let them speak to us, allow the Spirit to work, and introduce us to a world of values and experiences about which we don’t often wish to talk.  The words of Jesus cast their blessings into the room and it is like being in the presence of someone whose life counts for something.  These words don’t say what we should do for we already know.

              Here’s the gospel truth.  If God has embraced you, the world can’t take that away.  Who are you, rich or poor?  You are a child of God. Who are you, hungry or full?  You belong to Jesus Christ.  If you can swallow these words, you know that God refuses to leave the world in the same way we found it.  Whether we find ourselves among the rich or the poor is to know that this is the gospel of the Lord.  These words motivate us to see that for the full blessing of God to become realized, it calls us to seek out and fight injustice wherever we find it.  So that we become a blessing to the poor and to realize that we are blessed in their presence for Christ lives in their midst.

              I believe we know that God has an agenda for human life. That God will win over the forces that take away a person’s dignity.  Shortly before she died, Mother Theresa of India was asked, “Why do you spend so much energy on the poor, the hungry, and the weeping of those in Calcutta?”   She responded, “DON’T YOU BELIEVE THE BIBLE?  JESUS SAID THE POOR ARE THE BLESSED ONES.  I TAKE HIM AT HIS WORD.  I TREAT THEM AS ROYALTY IN GOD’S KINGDOM, BECAUSE THEY ARE!”

              Is this morning’s word from Luke---Gospel?  I imagine it depends on where we are seated in our lives.  But it is a vision of who God is and what God’s Kingdom looks like. It is Gospel if we hear it as a call to who we are and are to be.  To grow into our calling as Christians is in no small part to be converted to seeing the world as God sees it.  We see that the future belongs to those whom God blesses.  It is Gospel to be told the truth, to hear it as a word of hope for my life, and for the life of all my brothers and sisters in Christ and in this human family.

                                                                                                                Pastor Clark Cary