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Luke 6:17-26

Epiphany 6, February 16, 2025

Holy Trinity Cathedral

 

“Plain Speaking”

 

In the midst of all the ups and downs of our lives, Jesus speaks plainly today.  It doesn’t matter if you are a committed disciple or a curious onlooker.  It doesn’t matter where you have come from or what state you are in.  When people gather to hear and receive his words, remarkable things happen.  Healings occur.  Cleansings and restoration of minds are manifest.  Lives are changed.  And our understanding of blessings and woes is shaken up as we draw near to the kingdom.  By reframing our experiences as opportunities for God’s power to come into our lives, Jesus puts us on the path to life.  So it is a good thing when the Lord levels with us about discipleship.

 

In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus does some teaching in a high place.  Sometimes we call it “the Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew chapters 4-5; Mark chapters 3-4).  There are parallels to our passage today from Luke chapter 6, but the setting is different.  Here, right after the story where Jesus calls the twelve he calls apostles, he comes down with them and stands “on a level place”.  There is a great crowd that have gathered from all over Judea: as far south as the capital in Jerusalem and west from the coastal towns of Palestine.  People have come expecting wisdom and physical healing.  They want to get up close and personal- to touch him and experience the power flowing out.  And Jesus allows them to draw near. 

 

He sits down to teach.  We know this because it was customary Jewish practice in the synagogues, and because in the story he goes from standing to looking up at his disciples.  Maybe they were circling him to keep their Master from getting overwhelmed by the masses pressing in.  But Jesus doesn’t seem to be too bothered.  This time he doesn’t jump in a boat to put a little distance between him and the crowd.  He just jumps into sharing the good news.  There is an upsetting of our modern assumptions of top-down instruction. Jesus speaks from a place of humility and assurance.  And instead of giving instructions, like the Ten Commandments, the teaching is about the results of how we live our lives.

 

As much as we act like disciples, we receive the benefits of the kingdom.  There are both blessings and woes.  If we are doing things right, blessings come our way.  If we are doing things wrong, we will suffer the consequences.  This is not about a transactional faith.  Nor is it about God immediately rewarding the good and punishing the bad.  There is no instant gratification promised.  Rather, Jesus uses the future tense for the results of our present actions.  “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled”. 

 

So how can the poor and the hungry and the grieving and the oppressed possibly be blessed as they suffer?  Blessed means happy.  It’s pretty difficult to sing “don’t worry, be happy” when you are struggling.  We certainly resent others telling us to be brave and carry on, even if they are well-meaning.  How can they see what the future might hold?  In the third Harry Potter book, the main character is taking a divinations class and trying to read the tea-leaves in his saucer.  He tells his friend,

 

‘Right, you've got a crooked sort of cross..." He consulted Unfogging the Future. "That means you're going to have 'trials and suffering' — sorry about that — but there's a thing that could be the sun... hang on... that means 'great happiness'... so you're going to suffer but be very happy..."’                              

(quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling)

Is Jesus trying to tells his followers that they will have some pretty tough times ahead of them if they persist in being his disciples, but heaven will be worth it? 

Happy is one part of what blessed means.  The other significance is that those who are blessed are favoured by God.  Not in the future, but now.  Jesus aligns himself with the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, and the oppressed because God chooses them to be part of the kingdom.  They, in their experience of the brokenness of the human condition, are more open to healing power.  God can work in those who know they can’t get it right themselves.  With healing comes blessing. 

By contrast, those who don’t think they need any help will never experience grace.  There is a downside to being rich and full and satisfied and respected.  It doesn’t leave any room for God.  Only when people know again what it is to be poor and hungry and mourning and rejected will they re-discover the importance of knowing who Jesus really is. 

We each have the capacity to be a prophet with the way we orient our lives.  Our attitude and our actions can point towards the kingdom of God.  Or the way we selfishly act for personal good can embitter our relationships and keep others from seeing the possibilities of the kingdom.  Blessings or woes.  The choice is open to everyone, Jesus tells us plainly. 

The thing is, Jesus is not only speaking about personal choices.  He is addressing his disciples: the ones who are the beginning of a community of faith in him.  They become the Church, which is a community that we are all a part.  “Blessed are you” collectively, Jesus says, when we do these things.  We are not just to remember and pray, or even help, those of our neighbours who are in need.  We are to practice being poor, and hungry.  We are to hold the sorrows of our hearts and the world. We are to be persistent in speaking up about the values of heaven as we engage in works of justice and peace and reconciliation.  If we know and experience the brokenness of humanity, our community has the capacity to receive the healing and power of God among us.  And as we modern disciples model the humility and holiness of Jesus, others who are in need of healing can draw near.

The other half of this is having the courage to face the ways we stray from what God wants of us.  When we get too hung up on wealth and fullness and success, that can block us from growing the kingdom.  The Church is not an organization founded to caretake doctrine, but a community created to bless and be blessed. 

As we worship and convene to out God’s business for the coming year, we ask God’s help. May we follow the way of Christ through the parish of Holy Trinity Cathedral.  May what we say and do speak plainly of Jesus’ love, so that we and others may be blessed.  Amen.