Sermon: Choices, Choices
February 17th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Luke 6:17-26, Psalm 1
Thanks for singing that rousing song of assurance. I needed it before heading into a sermon on the passage that we have before us today. Maybe we all need that assurance before we face this good news / bad news passage – particularly when what is presented as good news doesn’t sound so good – poverty, hunger and tears – and what is presented as bad news is wealth, laughter and acclaim. Don’t they seem good? These are difficult words that Jesus speaks, but every time I was tempted to just throw it out and pick another passage, the thought would echo in my head, “Betsy, Jesus didn’t speak any throw away words!”
So then I began to look for advice on how to preach this passage – from authors and bloggers and podcasters. Here’s the best advice I found: if you choose to proceed with Jesus’ Blessings and Woes in Luke 6, the preacher should put on a hard hat and protective gear, for there is no way to preach this without some blow back. (put on hard hat) (Jo Anne Taylor, pastorsings.com)
For starters, this passage is disturbing because it sounds vaguely familiar, but just a little off from what we remember. We are generally more accustomed to hearing the Beatitudes from Matthew’s version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This sermon, that Luke records, is known as the Sermon on the Plain – for it starts with the explanation that Jesus came down and stood on a level place, a plain, with the crowd. Matthew’s version has 9 blessings and they are worded a little softer: blessed are those who are poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We can hold whoever “those” are at a little distance as we consider what Jesus meant.
On the other hand, in this version there are 4 beatitudes and 4 woe-titudes. Jesus’ words are sharper, edgier, more in your face. Jesus isn’t just talking about “those who are” poor, hungry, weeping, he says “you”. Blessed are you… Woe to you… And the blessed are not just you who are hungry spiritually, but you who are hungry – in every way, soul longing and tummy growling.
New Team, New Rules
I think it might be helpful to start by wondering for a moment about what Jesus may have been trying to accomplish as he starts this sermon. What is Jesus doing here?
First, I can tell you what Jesus is not doing. He is not pronouncing some people saved and other people damned. That’s just not what those words, ‘blessed’ and ‘woe’, mean. So if you might identify yourself as someone who is wealthy or well fed (as every single one of us here are in relation to the world at large), you can let your defenses down just a bit for Jesus is not saying that you are going to hell.
Furthermore, Jesus is not making a bargain here. He is not saying that you will be blessed if you become poor, you will be blessed if you skip a bunch of meals to starve yourself. This is not a series of directions on what we should do we if want to seek God’s blessing. These are not commandments.
So what is Jesus doing? I believe the clues are in the wider context of Jesus’ sermon. Imagine for a moment that I came down from the pulpit and hung a hoop with a net on it on either side of the room, then walked around the sanctuary and picked out 5 people. What would I be doing? (Picking a basketball team, some version of basketball) Then, if I called those 5 together and said, “OK, here’s the deal. This isn’t the basketball that you think you know; the game has changed. I’m going to give you 8 basic rules – 4 things to remember that’ll keep you in the game, and 4 things to remember that could get you put out of the game. There’s other regulations you’ll need to know but I’ll fill you in on those as we go along.”
Now, recall what Jesus did right before this sermon. He was up on a mountain with a group of disciples and picked 12 of them to be his main team. Among the Jewish people, the number 12 was significant. Just like a team of 5, represents basketball to us, a team of 12 represented Israel, God’s chosen people, to them. Twelve tribes, descended from the 12 sons of Jacob, were chosen as God’s special people, through whom God would fulfill His purposes for the whole world. They were given a set of laws by which they were to live. Unfortunately, over time the rules had been adapted, some ignored, some skewed because of other games being played out there in the world. But now, Jesus has arrived. He is putting into effect a renewed set of rules for how God’s work would be accomplished going forward.
Notice that Luke is careful to tell us where Jesus’ attention is focused for his opening words. Verse 20, “Looking at his disciples, Jesus said…” Then in verse 27, Jesus appears to look around at the wider crowd as he says, “But to you who are listening, I say…” This sermon opening is addressed to the new community that would become the church, the new faith team. Jesus begins by laying out the basics for those who are going to be on the Jesus Team, of how life works under the rules of God’s kingdom rather than the rules of the world.
Beatitudes
Now let’s look at the blessings. Again, I want to start with a corrective. Most of us have come to understand the word, ‘blessed’ and blessing as some kind of benefit or gift from God. We look around at the things we have and we say, “Oh, I’m so blessed.” We find a $20 bill in the pocket of a jacket and say, “God blessed me.” We talk about the benefits of having Christ living in us, the peace, the love, the joy, as blessings God has given us. In the biblical languages there is a word for that, for benefits from God, but that is not the word that Luke uses in this passage. Luke uses the word makarios, which is also translated into English at times as “happy”. It means being at peace, satisfied, unburdened, and content.
We normally would not associate those kinds of feelings with being poor, or hungry, or sorrowful, or rejected and excluded. In fact, those who are poor often feel as though they have been pushed aside and discarded by society. I heard an interview of a single-mother in Venezuela this week, she had just put her children to bed hungry, and was saying she felt tricked and exploited by President Maduro. Those who are hungry may feel that they have been forgotten by their leaders, forgotten by the world and even forgotten by God. Those who have friends and family, or even strangers, speak to them in ways that are hateful or insulting likely feel abandoned and alone. Jesus is not glorifying poverty, hunger and hurtful words. Rather, Jesus is reassuring those who have reason to feel the most hopeless and most forgotten that God is present with them. They can feel at peace for there is hope, God has not abandoned them.
So under God’s rules, the way the game is going to be played on the Jesus Team, is that all of you who feel most rejected by the world should feel the most encouraged because of God’s long standing concern, even preference, for the down and out. From ancient times, God’s people were instructed to care for the foreigners among them, to provide for the single-mothers, for abandoned children. God sent the prophet Jonah to preach a saving message to the most sinful city of all, much to Jonah’s chagrin for he would have preferred that God just wipe them off the map. But God wanted to save them, too. Mary sang over the unborn Jesus, that he would bring down proud rulers and lift up the humble, that he would fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (Lk.1:52-3). Jesus himself, at his inaugural sermon in Nazareth, would announce that he had come to bring good news to the poor, to set the oppressed free.
So if these are God’s priorities, if these are Jesus’ priorities, then don’t you think, Jesus Team, that they must be our priorities, too? We are the Jesus Team, here, today. Have you embraced the priorities of Jesus’ mission?
Woes / Warnings
Now the woes. The word “woe” is an expression of grief, such as when someone says, “Woe to me, everything bad thing that could possible happen to me has happened.” But when spoken to someone else, it is a word of warning, like “Watch out!” And when someone, especially Jesus, issues a word of warning, it means that it is not too late to heed that warning, to get turned around and avoid the disaster that is ahead if you keep going in that particular direction. That is what the word repent means, to turn and go the other way. Jesus is issuing a warning of the things that can take us out of the game.
Wealth. Jesus will go on to issue many more warnings about money. We are so often tricked into think it will solve our problems. We think a little more will make us happier. But in the end we become slaves to our stuff, caring for our stuff, guarding our stuff. How many battles over money have torn families apart? We end up serving our own financial interests rather than God’s interests.
Food. Food is essential to survival, it’s delicious, yet how often do we eat not to live and thrive but to satisfy some other cause? We eat when we get bored, we eat to fill lonely hours, we eat to ease anxiety or cover sadness. We eat more and more hoping to finally feel satisfied, only to just feel worse, while at the same time we neglect to feast on God’s word?
Laughter. I believe God gave us laughter as a gift, but have you noticed how many comedians lived through traumatic situations in their early years, developing the art of covering up their pain with jokes? The class clown, who is really the kid that’s hurting the most. Parties, fun and leisure may take our minds off of our pain or the pain of the world for a moment, but it doesn’t make it go away.
Approval and worldly acclaim. We all like to be liked. We all want to have people say nice things about us. But it is a slippery slope from there to the place where we are seeking to please the people around us more than we are seeking to please God.
And that is the point Jesus is making! His woes list things that can blind us and entrap us, that easily get in the way of our following in the direction Jesus is leading. Watch out, Jesus says, for these are the things that will put you in danger of abandoning God.
This week Jeni Pedzinski, our missionary in Thailand, posted a link to a song titled “Only Jesus”, by Casting Crowns. The song begins with advice we often hear: Make it count, leave a mark, dream your dreams, chase your heart, above all else, make a name for yourself, a name the world remembers. As the song goes on, they sing: But all an empty world can sell is empty dreams. All the kingdoms built, all the trophies won, will crumble into dust when all is said and done… Jesus is the only name to remember. Then chorus goes: I don’t want to leave a legacy, I don’t care if they remember me, Only Jesus. I’ve only got one life to live, so I’ll let every second point to Him, Only Jesus.
As he spoke blessings and woes, Jesus must have wanted his listeners to ask themselves, “Where do I fit in? Am I comforted or am I warned?” I invite you to take home the worship bulletin and in a quiet moment later today, reread Jesus’ message in Luke 6 printed on the back, Eugene Peterson’s interpretation in The Message. Pay attention: What made you feel encouraged? What made you feel convicted? Listen to God directing you; listen for the choices Jesus is inviting you to make in your life to play on the Jesus Team.
Closing Song: “Seek Ye First” # 447
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