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Epiphany 6C
February 13, 2022
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 6:17-26
INTRODUCTION
There is a very clear theme tying together the Old Testament and Gospel readings today: blessings and curses, or woes, as Jesus calls them. Jeremiah, who is known for his doom-and-gloom messages, makes a clear distinction between those who are blessed, and those who are cursed. The larger context of this passage (what comes directly before this reading) makes it appear that in particular, those who practice idolatry shall be cursed. Or as today’s reading will say, those who trust in human powers rather than God – they will shrivel up in a dry desert. On the other hand, those who do trust in the Lord above all things will have a consistent stream from which to drink.
Although Jesus uses similar words, the meaning is somewhat different. Today we will hear what is known as the Sermon on the Plain, or Level Place – which you will find is very similar to Matthew’s more well-known Sermon on the Mount, but with a couple of important differences. One is the location – a flat place vs. a mountain. The other is the addition of the woes (not curses – it’s different!). And I warn you, this version of Jesus’ sermon is pretty squirmy. But where Jeremiah’s message is more prescriptive (acting a certain way has a certain outcome), Jesus’ sermon has a different feel. It is more descriptive, saying, “This is the way it is,” and that word, “woe,” is less curse and more warning. Like, “Watch out, if this is the case for you” – which gives the possibility of a change. So as you listen, listen for that warning. What is the Word calling out from you, from your heart this day, and what in you may need to be addressed? Let’s listen.
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| Bryan Ahn |
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, no doubt about it, this text from Luke is a difficult one to hear. That’s probably why Matthew’s very similar sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, is much more popular and well-known: Matthew makes it possible for us to find ourselves on the blessed list. I may not be poor, we think, but sure, sometimes I’m poor in spirit. I am not, nor have I ever been, food insecure, but yeah sure, I hunger for righteousness, like Matthew says. Having comfortably located ourselves as among the blessed, hearing Matthew, we can go about our days.
But not so with Luke. Luke makes it clear he is talking to those of you who are poor now, hungry now, not spiritually, but physically. And just in case you missed the message, thinking that maybe you are still blessed, but your particular category just didn’t get mentioned, Jesus adds these “woes,” warnings to those who are full now, rich now, laughing now, spoken well of now, saying we have received our reward.
Hm, last week I gave you a funny sermon. But I’m not sure fish jokes are going to fly this week.
So, what’s a preacher to do with a text like this – if my task is to give you some good news, then what good news is there for a group of people who, by and large, fall into the woes category?
Well first let me say this: while there is always good news to be had, the tough truth is that it might not always be for you. For those who are rich and full, this sermon doesn’t sound good, at least not at first pass. In fact, it might even sound bad, like you’re going to have to give up something important to you. But imagine if you really are poor, and someone is finally saying to you, “God sees you. God is with you. God blesses you, and is filling your deepest needs.” Now that IS good news! This text is good news for the poor.
Now, I hope that means that it is good news for the rich, too. I know people don’t always agree upon how to solve the problem of poverty and hunger – in Rochester, in the world – but I hope we all have the same end goal: that everyone has what they need to live and thrive. Access to work, dependable housing, education, healthcare. That would be good news! Don’t we all want that for our neighbors?
But do we really, if it means we might have to compromise some of our own comfort for it to happen? And I’m not saying, give up your own access to these things and live in squalor. That isn’t helping anybody. Jesus clearly doesn’t want that the roles reversed, because complete reversal means we’re still in the same boat! We still have the haves and the have-nots, just in the other direction. But it might mean that, maybe the very comfortable could give up some of their comforts, for the sake of those without. After all, if you start bringing down the high and lifting up the lowly, as Mary so beautifully sang about in the Magnificat earlier in Luke’s Gospel, then what are you left with? A level place – a level place like the one from which Jesus chose to preach this sermon. Remember I mentioned that was one difference with Matthew’s version of this sermon? In Matthew, Jesus is on a mount. In Luke, he preaches from a level place – a place where all people’s needs are met.
It still might not seem like good news to the rich, fed, laughing, and well-spoken of. But I will argue that it is. Because Jesus does not say that this is a done deal. Remember, that word, “Woe,” doesn’t imply a curse. It means “warning.” And warnings are actually good things. A warning keeps us from slipping on the ice. A warning keeps us out of a high radiation area. And a warning can keep us from going into spiritually dangerous territory, and direct us toward a life of faith that is dynamic and alive, that helps us truly to live out Jesus’ command to love one another as he has loved us.
I know, it still doesn’t feel like good news at first. But sometimes good news needs to start with us being confronted, shaken from our comfort, and then the confession that comes from it. And these difficult words from Jesus’ sermon on a level place do confront us. His sermon does not let us get away with complacency. “Take a good hard look,” he seems to say, “you who have all your physical needs met. Your satisfaction does not mean that you have somehow earned God’s favor and now are good to go. Being successful is not the sign or goal of a life faithfully lived. The fruit of faith is this kingdom I’m describing – in which the hungry are fed, the weeping laugh, and the reviled rejoice. It is when we stand together on a level place, where everyone has what they need.”
That’s a hard message for me to hear, for sure. And it does drive me to confession – confession that I have grown so comfortable in my relative wealth (even as I still never feel like it is enough wealth, right?), that I can afford not to even notice the poor around me. I drive by them on my way to work. I read about them in the news. But if I choose (and I too often do), I can live my life without worrying about it.
And perhaps even worse, my wealth and comfort allow me, if I choose, to live my life without turning toward God. That is, I am so full of earthly satisfaction that I don’t always remember my need for God. I can turn toward my financial resources, when I’m in need, or the counselor I found, or the comfortable home I have cultivated with money that I have earned.
Oops, did you see how quickly I slipped into the sin of self-sufficiency there? How easy it was to, as Jeremiah calls it, “trust in mere mortals” – even when the mere mortal in whom I’m trusting is myself. That’s not to say we can’t be accomplished and capable and successful – we can! And we can use our gifts and resources to make this world better. I just mean that I think Jesus is onto something when he says, in essence, “Woe to you whose lives are marked by success,” because those of us who have gotten so far on our own hard work can easily forget that it was not our self-sufficiency, but God who got us where we are. And as long as we are full of ourselves, trusting in ourselves, we don’t leave a lot of room for God’s fullness.
So Luke drives us to our knees in confession, warns us to recognize our own sin. And I stand by that this is a good thing – it’s good because suddenly when we are there, in despair, there is where we are ready to hear a word of grace. Emptied of our self-reliance and complacency, we can receive God’s good word for us. We can hear a word of grace from Jeremiah – “Blessed are you who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought, it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” You see, having put our trust in the Lord, rather than in ourselves and our own, faulty resources, we are given the great promise that God will not forsake us. When times get rough, when there is a drought, God will provide. When anxiety around us is high, we will reach our roots toward that life-giving stream, and stay spiritually healthy and full of life. When uncertainty reigns, we will still bear fruit – caring for our neighbor, loving the unlovable, comforting the weeping.
And this promise we can trust, because of what Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: that we believe in a God who is about life, not death. We believe in a God who in fact brings about life out of death – who can fill the hungry, make the weeping to laugh, and bring about the kingdom of God among the poor. If we believe that Christ has been raised, then we can also believe that God can raise us up, out of our complacency and the sin of idolizing our self-sufficiency, out of our ignorance, out of our self-serving. God can and will bring this world to life, on a level place, where we all have what we need.
Let us pray… God of life, when the drought comes, direct our gaze not to ourselves, but to you. Shake us from our complacency, that we would seek your kingdom among the poor, and empty us so that we could receive your fullness. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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