The Blessed Life

[Below you'll find the video of today's second worship service with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, and then, the text of today's message.]



Luke 6:17-26

In today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 6:17-26, Jesus, describes the kingdom of God, not a place on a map, but a state of being, a state of blessedness. 

All who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, live in this blessedness today (even when we feel burdened by grief, money, disagreements, guilt, sin, discouragement, or death) AND will live in even greater, perfect blessedness in God’s presence after Jesus has raised us from the dead. 

In verse 17, Jesus begins His description of the blessed life like this: “He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.”

Jesus has just been on a mountaintop, where He has chosen twelve of His followers (disciples) to be His apostles. In Luke’s gospel, mountaintops are always places of prayer and closeness with God. We need mountaintops: times of worship and prayer and reading God’s Word. It’s these times that help us face our days and weeks with the grace and hope that God wants to give to us. But there are also jobs to be done, bills to be paid, decisions to make, kids to shuttle this way and that, groceries to buy, lawns to be mowed, driveways to clear of snow, life to be lived. We have to leave the mountaintops and go to the level plains. While He was on earth, even Jesus had to do that.

When Jesus and the twelve apostles get to the flat plain, there are all kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles, gathered to hear and be helped by Him. Down on the Plain--down in the everyday places of life, Jesus makes Himself accessible to all people: apostles, disciples, and the crowds who don’t yet believe, but know that there is something different about this preacher from Nazareth.

The very fact that Jesus went down to the Plain from the mountaintop, just as He once had gone from the throne room of heaven to a cattle barn to be born into this life and would one day go to a cross He didn’t deserve, tells us something about the kingdom of God. It is God’s passionate desire that all of us who would otherwise be condemned to death and separation from God will be part of it! He wants everyone to hear His call to repent and believe in Him and so, be part of His kingdom. He puts everyone on an evil plain so that those who are full of themselves and their sin will be brought down to repentance and new life through faith in Jesus and those who are oppressed or ground down by this life can be lifted to that same new life through faith in Him. 

This is what Mary had said God would accomplish in the baby Jesus then in her womb: “...[God] has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)  Through Jesus, the kingdom of God overthrows the old order of this world. Richness and health and power and full bellies are no advantage to those who want to walk with God. The only thing that matters is whether we trust in Jesus as our God and Lord. “The work of God is this,” Jesus tells us, “to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Jesus first describes the blessed life, the kingdom of God life. Verse 20: “...Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

Here Jesus describes two blessings enjoyed by people who are in the kingdom of God today and two that we will enjoy in eternity. 

According to Jesus, the poor are blessed. Jesus isn’t saying it’s intrinsically sinful to have money. But it’s easier to make money your god when you have more of it than others do. Money has a way of fooling us into thinking that we have everything under control. We don’t. In the kingdom of God, we relish the fact that God is in control and we don’t have to be. 

Jesus also says that persecuted believers are blessed because in their faithfulness, they join a long line of persecuted believers who experienced a promise that only a crucified and risen Savior can make: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

The hungry who trust in Christ will be blessed one day to sit at the eternal feast with God. This is the feast that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah foretold centuries before Jesus’ birth: “The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.” (Isaiah 25:6) We get a foretaste of this feast every time we receive Holy Communion.

The grieving who trust in Christ will be blessed one day when Jesus welcomes them into eternity. It’s a place in which, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Jesus’ description of how He turns the ways of this world upside down in the kingdom of God continues in a set of curses. They describe the lives of those who refuse the gifts of forgiveness and new and everlasting life He offers to all people. Verse 24: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:24-26)

Jesus flouts the wisdom or common sense of this world. This false wisdom tells us that the goal of this life is to make ourselves comfortable, to get as much as we can, to avoid problems and troubles at all costs, to live like kings and queens. But in the kingdom of God, the last are first and the first are last. The blessed are those who know that it’s in Jesus that we find life (John 1:4) and in Jesus alone (John 14:6). This world may make us comfortable for as long as we live here, but the person who trusts in Jesus is blessed now and in eternity. People who experience the blessedness of life in God’s kingdom know God gives so much more than what this dead world can offer to us!

I knew a woman who came from a wealthy family. She never wanted for anything. She had food to eat and money to spend. Cancer, which came to her, doesn’t care about those kinds of things though. (Neither do car crashes, heart attacks, or any of the other things that can rob us of health, life, or happiness in this world.) But this woman was blessed because she didn’t put her faith in wealth or plenty, laughter or the acceptance of others. She trusted in Jesus Christ. She was blessed.

Even as she drew her last breath, she was blessed. She is even today. You and I don’t have to imagine the kingdom of God or rely on other people’s descriptions of it. We can live in God’s kingdom right now. It’s the kingdom into which we are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s the Kingdom in which Jesus blesses those who believe in Him with forgiveness, life, peace, and hope. It’s the place we live in whenever we turn to Him to be our God and King and Savior. And through Jesus, this blessed Kingdom is ours forever. Thank God for that, the greatest blessing of all. Amen

Welcome to the Kingdom

[This message was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, this past Sunday.]

Luke 6:17-26
I first heard of the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of Saint James, when Ann and I watched the movie, The Way, starring Martin Sheen. The Camino is a series of pilgrimage pathways on which people walk to the shrine of the apostle James the Great in northwest Spain. Our own Theresa has trekked on this pathway. Recently, we watched a TV travelog on the Camino. Friends of ours are going to Spain with a group to walk a portion of the way that has been so important to Christians since the Middle Ages. I’m looking forward to hearing their descriptions of the Camino. It’s one thing to read about or see pictures of a place; it’s another thing to hear from people who have actually been there.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 6:17-26, Jesus, incarnate God, Who was both an occupant and the architect of a place where He wants all people to live describes both what this place is like and what it isn’t like. Jesus describes the kingdom of God, not a place on a map, but a state of being, a state of blessedness. 

All who live under the reign of God, who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord Who came into this world in order to give us the kingdom, live in this blessedness today (even when we feel burdened by grief, money, disagreements, guilt, sin, discouragement) AND will live in even greater blessedness after Jesus has raised us from the dead. 

Like someone Who has been there then, Jesus describes the kingdom of God for us. Maybe like me, in the midst of challenging times, you need to hear about the kingdom of God. Jesus seems to think that we have need to hear about it.

So, please look at our lesson. It begins at verse 17: “He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.”

Here we see that Jesus has just been on a mountaintop, where He has chosen twelve of His followers (disciples) to be His apostles. In Luke’s gospel, mountaintops are always places of prayer and closeness with God. We need mountaintops: times of worship and prayer and reading God’s Word. It’s these times that help us face our days and weeks with the grace and hope that God wants to give to us. 

But there are also jobs to be done, bills to be paid, decisions to make, kids to shuttle this way and that, groceries to buy, lawns to be mowed, driveways to clear of snow, life to be lived. We have to leave the mountaintops and go to the level plains. While He was on earth, even Jesus had to do that.

When Jesus and the twelve apostles get to the bottom of the mountain, onto a flat plain, there are all kinds of people gathered to hear Jesus and to be helped by Him. Jesus teaches and heals. Down on the Plain--down in the everyday places of life, Jesus makes Himself accessible to all people: apostles, disciples, and the crowds who don’t yet believe, but know that there is something different about this preacher from Nazareth.

The very fact that Jesus went down to the Plain from the mountaintop, just as He once had gone from the throne room of heaven to a cattle barn to be born into this life and would one day go to a cross He didn’t deserve, tells us something about the kingdom of God. It is God’s passionate desire that all of us who would otherwise be condemned to death and separation from God will be part of it! He wants to give everyone an opportunity to be part of His kingdom, whatever pigeonholes the world might put us in. 

Jesus embodies what Mary, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knew would happen through Jesus. Remember what she told her relative Elizabeth what was happening through the baby Jesus then in her womb: “...He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53) 

Through Jesus, the kingdom of God overthrows the old order of this world. Richness and health and power and full bellies are no advantage to those who want to walk with God. 

Jesus puts everyone on the same level. He wants all of us, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. And He loves all of us, the whole human race made in His image.

Now, Jesus describes the kingdom of God. Verse 20: “Looking at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

Here Jesus describes two blessings enjoyed by people who are in the kingdom of God today and two that we will enjoy in eternity. 

According to Jesus, the poor are blessed. Maybe it’s because they’re not weighed down with stuff. Years ago, a friend of mine was the CFO for a company that had been in on the early years the dotcom boom. He also did the founding millionaire’s taxes. One year after my friend had done the founder’s taxes, his boss confided, “You know, when I was poor and had nothing, I thought that if I only had money, I’d be happy and carefree. Now that I have this money, I worry all the time about how I’m going to keep it.” Rich or poor, those who enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus are blessed. Money has a way of fooling us into thinking that we have everything under control. But that’s a lie. In the kingdom of God, we relish the fact that we’re not in control; God is. And when we trust in Jesus, God has us in the palm of His hands. 

Jesus also says that persecuted believers are blessed because in their faithfulness, they join a long line of persecuted believers who experienced a promise that only a crucified and risen Savior can make: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

The hungry who trust in Christ will be blessed one day to sit at the eternal feast with God. This is the feast that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah foretold centuries before Jesus’ birth: “The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.” (Isaiah 25:6) We get a foretaste of this feast every time we receive Holy Communion.

The grieving who trust in Christ will be blessed one day when Jesus welcomes them into eternity. It’s a place in which, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Jesus’ description of how He turns the ways of this world upside down in the kingdom of God continues in a set of curses. They describe the lives of those who, like the oldest boy in His parable of the prodigal son, refuse to enter into the kingdom, even though it's offered to them as a free gift. 

Verse 24: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:24-26)

Here, Jesus is flouting the so-called wisdom or common sense of this world. This false wisdom tells us that the goal of this life is to make ourselves comfortable, to get as much as we can, to avoid problems and troubles at all costs, to live like kings and queens. But that’s the way of death, of separation from God and separation from others. In the kingdom of God, the last are first and the first are last. The blessed are those who know that it’s in Jesus that we find life (John 1:4) and in Jesus alone (John 14:6). 

Jesus makes me want to belt out the words from an old song, “You can take the wisdom of this world / And give it to the ones who think it all ends here.” (Bruce Cockburn, The Hills of Morning)

People who experience the blessedness of life in God’s kingdom know God gives so much more than what this dead world can offer to us!

I knew a woman who came from a wealthy family. She never wanted for anything. She had food to eat and money to spend. Cancer, which came to her, doesn’t care about those kinds of things though. (Neither do car crashes, heart attacks, or any of the other things that can rob us of health, life, or happiness in this world.) But this woman was blessed because she didn’t put her faith in wealth or plenty, laughter or the acceptance of others. She trusted in Jesus Christ. She was a citizen of the kingdom of God, the place in which all who trust in Christ know that nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) 

Even as she drew her last breath, she was blessed. She is even today. You and I don’t have to imagine the kingdom of God or rely on other people’s descriptions of it. We can live in God’s kingdom right now. It’s the kingdom in which Jesus blesses you with forgiveness, life, peace, and hope. It’s the place we live in whenever we turn to Him to be our God and King and Savior. And through Jesus, it is ours forever. Thank God for that, the greatest blessing of all. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

From Epiphany to Discipleship

[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, during worship celebrations on February 10 and 11, 2007.]

Luke 6:17-26
He was a sophomore second-string quarterback at Boston College. The son of a former NFL player, he had all sorts of talent. But, maybe because up to that point in his life everything had come so easily to him, he was, by most accounts, a so-so college player. Years later, he recalls, “...also...I didn’t work as hard as I needed because I think that gave me an out if I wasn’t successful...”

Then, during his second year of college, he took a mission trip to Jamaica with a priest and sixteen classmates. First stop was a place called Riverton City, “a shanty-town built on a garbage dump near Jamaica’s capital city of Kingston...” There, the young quarterback saw poverty as he’d never seen it before. For several days, “he worked in a home for elderly lepers.” Leprosy, Hansen’s Disease, “can eventually cause a variety of skin problems, loss of feeling, and paralysis of the hands and feet.”

A recent article in the magazine, Sports Spectrum, says: “He cleaned, scraped, then painted a bathroom in the home. In the evenings after a day’s work, he’d join the lepers for song and worship. It was then that [he] met George McVee, [a] man disfigured by leprosy. That first evening, [the college athlete] was the last to arrive and only one chair remained. It was next to McVee.

“’I’m ashamed to say this, but it was hard to look at him,’” he recalls. “’I didn’t really want to sit next to him. His leprosy was so much worse than everyone else’s. They said it wasn’t contagious, but I was a kid. I didn’t know.'"

Once the young man was seated, George McVee, the man disfigured by this horrible disease, who had lost his forearms, held a harmonica to his mouth with his remaining stumps. He played songs of praise to God. All around the room, accompanied by McVee’s harmonica, voices emanating from aged bodies being destroyed by leprosy joined together to worship God.

“In between songs, McVee...[recited] long passages of Scripture and poems he had composed. One of his poems he called, ‘My Cup Runneth Over.’” In his affliction and desperate poverty, McVee still regarded himself as a blessed man, all because of the God we know in Jesus Christ.

The athlete from Boston College recalls: “’I’m saying to myself these people should be angry. What they were born into--poverty, poor health. What do they have to be happy about?...But in their eyes, it was the exact opposite. Their attitude was what my attitude should have been like.”

The young man saw a lot of other things on that trip to Jamaica. And the thing that struck him most was how faithful and how joyful the people he encountered in Jamaica were.

Shortly after his return, the quarterback was stricken with Hepatitis A, which he probably contracted while in Jamaica. In the hospital for six days, he went from 215 to 185 pounds. As “he lay in the hospital, [jaundiced], waiting for his release” he wondered “about his future in football. ‘But I never really thought, “Why me?”’” he says. “’I thought, “This is nothing compared to what the lepers in Jamaica deal with.” And they had so much joy in their hearts because of the Lord, despite their circumstances.’”

It was then that sophomore Matt Hasselbeck, who would go on to play in Super Bowl 40 in 2006, “made a promise to God.” He first apologized to God for not being all that he could be and told the Lord that in all departments of his life, he would always try his hardest. Second string, practice squad, also ran, whatever, he would always do his best. Hasselbeck says that it was not only the moment that changed him as an athlete, but also the moment that changed him as a human being. And it all happened because of the faith and joy he saw in people suffering from the worst poverty and disease, people the world would say had nothing. But Hasselbeck knew that the world was wrong: George McVee and the others he met had Jesus Christ!

Today’s Bible lesson begins a section in Luke’s Gospel in which Jesus delivers what’s called, The Sermon on the Plain. It has a lot in common with the more famous Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew. You’d expect to find similarities in them; after all, Jesus was the preacher in both cases. But I’ve sometimes wondered, why is the sermon in Matthew more quoted than the one in Luke? Both are equally beautiful and important.

I think I know the answer: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” In our lesson today, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor.” Jesus was saying: Blessed are the George McVees, the elderly lepers in Jamaica, the homeless in downtown Cincinnati, the destitute in New Orleans, the fleeing refugees of Darfur, the orphans in Iraq, the military veterans of America living on the street.

This is a jarring thought, this notion that those who have nothing of the world’s wealth are blessed by heaven. We’d much rather quote Jesus’ words from Matthew and speak of ourselves as “poor in spirit.” (I know that I would.) To be poor in spirit sounds less specific, like a description of people who are, well, just like us...you know, humble, kind, nice folks.

But when Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” it may make us feel left out. I know that I do. My wife and I are by no means wealthy. But we raised our kids in two different houses, one in northwest Ohio and the one in which we’ve been living for the past sixteen and a half years. Both houses are much larger than the homes in which I grew up. And my parents raised five of us in them! Five kids in a house with one bathroom and two bedrooms, one of which my dad subdivided. For much of the first twenty-two years of their marriage, my folks had to sleep on hide-a-beds to make room for all of us. Yet, my parents and our family in those years wouldn’t have fit under the category of the blessed poor Jesus describes in His words today. We were strapped, to be sure. And my Dad worked two full time jobs for a chunk of my childhood. But we never lived in grinding poverty. And few of us in white middle class America ever have!

But where exactly is the blessedness of poverty? Matt Hasselbeck saw how the poor are blessed during his mission trip to Jamaica. They were stripped of the things the world counts as valuable, things I appreciate as much as anybody else, things like money, property, position, even health. But precisely because they lacked such things, these people turned to Jesus Christ and found...

• a God Who loved them,
• a Friend Who would stand by them no matter what,
• a Lord Who would give them a peace that passes all understanding,
• a life that will never end.

They lived in the tattered rags of horrible poverty, their bodies deformed in ghastly ways. Yet they knew that the God of the universe cared for them, empowered them to face pains and hurdles few of us can imagine, and allowed them to look with joy to an eternity in which they would live with their Lord! We should be so poor!

Jesus, of course, isn’t saying that only the poor can have a relationship with Him.

Nor is he saying that the poor aren’t sinners.

Salvation is still a matter of sinful human beings--and that’s all of us--turning from our sin and trusting our whole lives to Jesus Christ. That’s true whether we have money or not.

But the poor have less of the stuff of the world, the medical care, the clean water, the luxury items that allow you and me to pretend, sometimes for decades, that we’re not mortal, not vulnerable, not in need of God. The poor have a much easier time knowing how much they need God!

So, where does that leave you and me, we, the world’s wealthiest people?

We find the answer to that question at the very beginning of our lesson for today. It says: “He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd...”

Just before our lesson, Jesus had called the twelve apostles. It happened up on a mountaintop. We all love the mountaintop. But Jesus calls us to go to the level places, to live among and to share with those of all economic conditions. He calls us to love our neighbors in practical ways: to donate coats for the homeless; to give gifts to children in Third World countries; to help build homes for the homeless.

He calls us too, to fill the empty hearts of those suffering from the ultimate poverty, a life without Jesus Christ.

All around us are people hungry for Jesus Christ, spiritually disconnected people who need the Savior.

They need someone wealthy with the riches of heaven--someone like you and me--to bless them by telling them the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The life of the Church, the continuing life of this congregation, depends on our willingness to tell others about Jesus and to invite them to worship with us. But more importantly, we have been commanded to make disciples.

How many disciples will you and I allow God to make through us this year? With how many people--wealthy or poor--are you and I willing to share the Good News that can allow a person to live with God forever?

You know, a funny thing happened to Friendship Church. I remember that in our early years, we had nothing: no sanctuary, no classrooms, no place for our youth to gather, no rooms for meetings or dinners. Yet, for all the things we lacked, we did have a passion for telling others about Jesus.

But since we moved into our building, we seem to have grown passive. We are a praying church. We are a serving church. And both of those things are marks of people who follow Jesus.

But we aren't reaching out to others as we need to.

We're not inviting others to worship with us as we need to.

We're not telling others about Jesus as we need to.

And I am as guilty of this oversight as anybody else!

All of this needs to change.

It's great that we serve others in Jesus' Name. But we also need to be willing to tell others why we serve in Jesus' Name. We need, as I told the Church Council the other evening, to "close the sale": We need to let others know about the Savior Who motivates and empowers our serving and gives us confidence for living this life and for facing the one to come!

From today, let's change the way we've been thinking and living.

Let this be the first day of a new life at Friendship!

I hope that each of us will make it our goal to invite at least one person to worship each month and to make at least one disciple before the end of this year...and every year!

We also all need to take responsibility for telephoning or emailing the people we haven’t seen in worship for awhile. People expect to hear from the pastor, the hired hand, when it comes to inviting people to worship or to check on how folks who haven't been around for awhile are doing. But when you do these things, your simple gestures of love have tremendous impact!

We have so much to give--to the poor in money and the poor in spirit.

Let’s make a vow this day that like Matt Hasselbeck, we will do our best every day for Jesus Christ!

Let’s share the riches of heaven with everybody--in word, in deed, and in telling the good news of Jesus.

Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 6:17-26

[To see what this is all about, go to the first pass at this weekend's Bible lesson, here.]

These verse-by-verse comments are going to necessarily be down and dirty, not as detailed as I would ordinarily make them. There's been too much going on this week for that.

17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
(1) For the significance of a level place and to learn where Jesus were coming from, see the first pass at the lesson.

(2) Tyre and Sidon were foreign, that is Gentile, cities. This demonstrates that Jesus' Kingdom is welcoming to all peoples, Jews and Gentiles.

(3) The people around Jesus here were the apostles, the disciples, and the crowds. A disciple is any follower of Jesus Christ.

18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
(1) This calls to mind the woman with the hemorrhaging whose story we find in Luke 8:43-48. Power exuded from Jesus.

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
(1) The sermon starts with three beatitudes. But one, the first one, in v.20, is an umbrella for the other two. This is a sermon about the blessedness of those in poverty, financial and otherwise. Poverty isn't being idealized here. Jesus is saying that those who are poor understand their vulnerability and their need of God. Faith comes more easily to people living on the margins of society. Wealth can insulate us from the realities of life. Wealth causes people to think that they are self-sufficient. See here.

(2) The second and third beatitudes here describe two common elements of impoverished lives, hunger and weeping.

(3) Notice that the first beatitude is in the present tense. The next two are in the future tense. Jesus doesn't promise that all will be well in this life.

22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
(1) I think it's fair to say that here, Jesus is including both those who are poor and those among the wealthy who dare to share with the poor. In the first pass, I talk about Luke's emphasis of Jesus' call on those who have money and property to share with those who don't have those things. This isn't a political program. It's a call on the Church to undertake John the Baptist's ministry of leveling so that all can see and experience the Savior. See here.

23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
(1) You'll know you're being faithful when people are ticked off at you for believing in tough times!

(2) The word translated as leap is the same one used to describe the reaction of the baby in Elizabeth's womb (John the Baptist) to the sound of Mary's voice. See here.

24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
(1) Here, we see the blessings in the foregoing verses reversed. See here for a definition of woe. Throughout Luke's Gospel, we find Jesus turning the world's values upside down, announcing that the Kingdom of God is opposed to what the world values.

(2) Those intent on wealth and attain it have already received their consolations, Jesus says. They have the ultimate blessings which can be given by the god they worship, money. God can't bless those who have made anything or anyone other than Him their god; they've effectively blocked God from their lives by their idol worship.

A passage carrying a similar argument about the consolations offered by an idol can be found in Matthew. There, Jesus talks about those who give to the poor for the sake of being noticed by others. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward." (Matthew 6:2) In this case, if being applauded for being good is your god, you also have blocked God from your life.

God won't share His throne with any other idol!

26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
(1) This reverses the beatitude in v. 23.

(2) This doesn't mean that we're to make ourselves obnoxious, as some self-righteous people who claim to speak for Christ do. But it does mean to be fearless in standing with Christ.

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 6:17-26

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

Luke 6:17-26
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

General Comments:
(1) If the Epiphany season ran longer this year, our lesson would be the first of three taken from Luke's presentation of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. As it is, we'll only encounter the opening portion of the sermon this Epiphany season, although some of it will appear later in the Church Year.

(2) Once again, I remind you of one of the most important principles for understanding a passage of Scripture: context helps explain content. In other words, where a passage falls within a particular book's narrative or argument, can tell a good deal about its meaning.

In Luke's narrative, the Sermon on the Plain happens immediately following Jesus' selection of the group of disciples called apostles. The word disciple, translating the Greek term mathetes, has the meaning of student or follower. In ancient Jewish culture, a rabbi would usually be an itinerant teacher and preacher. He would attract disciples. Some would follow him in his itinerant life. Of course, to be a follower also had the meaning of following the way laid out by the rabbi. Jesus calls all people to turn from their sin and have new life. He calls all people to be His disciples.

The word apostle literally means sent one. The apostles were entrusted with a particular ministry. They were to lead the new community that Jesus established, the Church. Their mission was to call people to faith in Christ, to eternal life in Him, and to the Kingdom of God to be lived out within the Church in this world.

After calling the apostles, an event begun with intense prayer on Jesus' part that took place on a mountaintop, the twelve follow Jesus down to the plain. While the crowd and other disciples are within earshot of Jesus, His teaching is most especially pitched to the apostles in order to prepare them for their ministry of church leadership.

(3) Luke frequently blends topography, history, and theology to make points about Jesus and His meaning for us. Harking back to Old Testament times when altars to God were built on high places, Jesus often goes to mountaintops for times of intense prayer and connection with the Father.

But as in the account of Jesus' Transfiguration and of events that follow it, narrated in Luke 9, Jesus always insists on going back to the plain to carry the Good News to others. Our encounters with God aren't for us only. Through them, God strengthens and inspires us to share the Kingdom of God with others. We must leave our mountaintops to love and serve the world.

(4) The plain is a place that allows everyone to see Jesus and the coming of His Kingdom. This equality of access to Christ is an ongoing theme in both Luke and in his second Biblical book, Acts.

You see it in Mary's song, called The Magnificat. You see it too in the road construction language taken from Isaiah to describe the ministry of John the Baptist. I hope to discuss this in more detail in the verse-by-verse comments in the next few days.

(5) Is this the same sermon as the one in Matthew, called The Sermon on the Mount. Traditionally, Bible commentators taught that these were two different sermons. Most modern scholars believe that they're the same sermon, presented in two different ways by Matthew and Luke.

There are sound arguments for both interpretations and I find no particular need to adopt either one. Both are now part of New Testament canon, deemed to be the Word of God, based on the prayer and experience of the Church over many centuries. Whatever the case may be, both sermons have important things to tell us. Their nuances of difference also tell us a great deal.

One big difference between them is that in Luke, Jesus says, "Blessed are you who are poor," while in Matthew, He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Both the Luke and Matthew sermons tell us that the poor are blessed because in their humility, they rely on Christ. But Luke more specifically tells us that those who are financially poor are blessed, as are those who are wealthy but share with the poor. As is seen thoughout the books of Luke and Acts, Jesus has a special concern for the poor. In Acts, we see the Church become a community in which, once infected by the love and grace of Jesus Christ, wealthy Christians provide for poor Christians:

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. (Acts 4:34)

The sermon in Luke underscores Jesus' intention that the Church is to be a taste of the Kingdom of God living in the midst of the world now.

I also hope to explore this more fully in the verse-by-verse comments.

(6) This is a rich passage. It will be tough for me to do it justice. So, I would appreciate your prayers, asking God to guide and inspire me as I prepare my message on it.

Stay safe, warm, and dry as the snow falls!