Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 17:5-10 (C, E); Jeremiah 17:5-8 (RC)
Jeremiah, called by some the "father of true prayer," was a prophet from, according to majority dating, 626-586 B.C. He placed great importance on the role of the individual as well as that of the community. He also emphasized the difference between genuine inner goodness and outward conformity to laws.
This passage seems to me to offer two main themes. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord" is his main emphasis. He uses the analogy of a tree with roots reaching down to a stream. That tree is well nigh impervious to the damage heat and drought might otherwise cause, because it draws on an inexhaustible source of refreshing water. So the person who trusts in God also has access to the constantly refreshing and renewing powers of the Spirit.
The other emphasis which draws my attention is the somewhat cynical assessment of humanity, as "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt." The consequence of this will be "every man according to his ways" will be dealt with. Judgment. This reminds us of Paul's later assessment that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," or Jesus' own reported words that "no one is good."
I find this a difficult choice given the state of our country as I write. My natural tendencies are to "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative" as a song from the forties put the matter. And yet, I think mainline Protestants need to hear some word of judgment, some reminder that there are consequences of our selfish and deceitful conduct.
As I look at the other passages for this Sunday, I see that in the passage from Luke we will be reminded by Jesus himself of the unhappy consequences of irresponsible living, so I will choose to place my emphasis on Jeremiah's assurance that "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord."
Lesson 2: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (C, E); 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20 (RC)
Paul here affirms the promise of life after death for those who accept Christ as Lord. "If Christ has not been raised," he contends, "then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God...." "If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins." Then, having so vehemently put those who might quarrel with this assertion straight, he states, "It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, than we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world."
What a powerful affirmation of resurrection, both of Christ, and of those who believe in Christ. "The truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." This is the perfect funeral sermon text. It also constitutes what may be the clearest statement of life after death to be found in the Bible. Paul isn't merely stating his belief. He premises all of his faith on that belief. He is saying, in effect, that if there is no life after death then our faith is a fake, a "delusion."
This at first seems best used as an Easter text, although the truth is, it is relevant at any time. Deep down, we all experience periodic feelings about death. The older we get, the more certainly it lies in the near future, the more we are reminded by the deaths of others around us, the more important it becomes for us who preach to affirm this promise again and again.
Gospel: Luke 6:17-26 (C, E); Luke 6:17, 20-26 (RC)
This Lukan version of the Beatitudes contains a solemn warning to those who make the pleasurable, successful life their main priority. "How terrible for you who are rich," Jesus warned. "You have had your easy life." Jesus wasn't condemning the possession of wealth (that word "wealth" needs defining anyway). He was speaking about the emphasis on wealth which leads one to feel disdain for others, like the story of the rich man in Luke 16, who totally failed to recognize the needs of the poor man, Lazarus. We'll look at that story later.
"How terrible for you who are full now," Jesus warned. "You will go hungry." Also, those who laugh will weep. Now we need to get this into perspective. If we were to buy into a literal interpretation of these threats, we'd all be in trouble. Anyone who has eaten dinner with a clergy person will know immediately that we'd be in trouble. Surely, Jesus was speaking against the self-centered, greed-centered life of those who did not share their wealth, did not feel equality with nor sympathy for those less fortunate. As for popularity in the market place, Jesus was probably addressing the Pharisees who judged each other by their devotion to the letter of the law with little concern for the spirit of the law. While there's nothing at all wrong with one having a good reputation among one's peers, it becomes wrong if that reputation is merely based on wealth, or success, or fame, if there is not also generosity, and kindness, and integrity.
Place emphasis on Jesus' promise that the poor and the hungry and the bereaved will receive comfort in due course. They will finally look back and laugh at their trials. They will dance for joy. That is, if they face their problems "because of the Son of Man." Try to display the central difference between the two groups: not wealth or health or comfort but generosity, kindness, and integrity -- in a word, love.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Prayer Can Change Your Life"
Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Theme: Jeremiah assures us that "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord." He likens such trust to a tree the roots of which reach down into a nearby stream, flooding the tree with life-giving waters, even when the weather is dry and hot. So, by implication, when we remain in constant closeness to the source of living waters, we too will be able to stand fast in the face of life's destructive forces. Hence, a sermon on prayer.
1. Prayer must be honest. We're familiar with the Collect For Purity Of Heart which includes this phrase: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid...." Clearly, God knows far better than we do about our fears, our lusts, our secret longings, our feelings of inadequacy and failure, as well as our pridefulness, our prejudice, our snickering satisfactions at the failures of other people. Effective prayer requires that we totally place ourselves in the Lord and trust the rest.
2. Prayer must be selfless. It does no good at all to ask God for some benefit at the expense of another person, no matter how undeserving that person may appear to us. Nor will God rearrange the universe in any way in order to comply with our requests. Sockman pointed out that a boatman with a boat hook doesn't try to pull the land to the boat, he pulls the boat to the land. That is, prayer can put us in harmony with God's plans and God's will, it cannot change them.
3. Prayer must be daring. That is, we are all capable of much greater achievement with our lives than most of us ever realize. I'm not talking about worldly acquisitions, I'm talking about fulfilling our potential for good, for making this a better world, for rising to the heights which God has equipped us to attain. If that brings worldly rewards, I believe God applauds that so long as we use those generously and modestly. If it brings suffering of one sort or another, I believe God will use that too to bless our lives.
Title: "First The Darkness, Then The Dawn"
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Theme: Paul's conviction about the possibility of survival after death is total. It is a non-negotiable tenet of the faith as Paul sees the matter in this passage. Everything else becomes doubtful if we allow ourselves to doubt this. Anyone who subscribes to Pauline theology must believe in the reality of life beyond the grave. Though we sometimes call this "eternal life," I'm not absolutely sure they're the same. Eternal life implies a quality of life which can begin here and now, whereas life after death refers to some form of conscious existence after one dies. In any event, the older we get and the more we see of life, the more this promise reassures us.
A few years ago while on a bicycle trip through France, some friends and I visited Omaha Beach in Normandy. If you've been there, you know how unforgettable the experience can be. Seemingly endless rows of white crosses, each marking the final resting place of a young man, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, few more than very early twenties. What a colossal waste. Multiply those graves by the mothers and fathers, the brothers, and wives and children, not to mention the unborn generation deprived of the right to experience life, and you have terrible tragedy. Added to the Holocaust and to all the people who died at Gettysburg, and the Marne, and Guadalcanal, and Chosin, and the jungles of Vietnam and the loss is immeasurable. It is unthinkable to me that a God of love could create such a world, allow such a price in grief and suffering, then not have some redress for all those who paid. I for one am able to see that beauty may appear beyond the grave if Paul is right. I believe he is.
1. All must die. Obviously. But God will not let that be the final act of a person's life. "To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not," said Socrates. I'm convinced there's a deep, primordial instinct in the human psyche which half knows this truth. "Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God," wrote Wordsworth. "Hence in a season of calm weather,/ Though inland far we be,/ Our souls have sight of that immortal sea/ Which brought us hither;/ Can in a moment travel thither,/ And see the children sport upon the shore,/ And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."
2. There's debate about immortality versus resurrection. The former implies continued, uninterrupted existence. The latter implies cessation of existence, then restoration of life. My guess is this is all semantics, a nicety for theologians to debate. Not long ago, I had a minor surgery which necessitated the use of an anesthetic. Because of a complication, I was out for nearly eight hours. But my sensation was that I was speaking to my surgeon about a mutual friend, only to awaken with a nurse looking down at me. I had absolutely no sense of the passage of time. Likewise, if we have to wait for a period of time as some people believe, no matter, we will experience death as continued existence. Paul used the word resurrection here. That does have one complication as compared to the idea of immortality. God could decide that one or another of us is a mere bit player in the game of life and not worth being restored. Paul says if we accept Jesus Christ, we have no such worries. In another context, I would debate some of the fine points of such thinking, but at least Paul felt sure that true Christians will be resurrected.
3. God's love is our guarantee. When Rufus Jones' only son died, he was overwhelmed with grief. One day he went walking, struggling with the question of whether his faith was sufficient to see him through his nightmare. Then, as he turned a corner, he saw a small child playing in a yard which was surrounded by a high wrought iron fence. As he watched, the little girl stepped out through the partially opened heavy gate, onto the sidewalk. Then, fearful, she turned to go back into her yard, but the heavy gate swung shut. Now terrified, the little tyke grabbed the iron gate and began to cry. But just then, the door to her house opened and Mother, who had clearly kept an eye on her daughter, ran outside, opened the gate, gathered her little child in her arms. And as the crying ceased, Jones heard the mother saying, "Dear, didn't you know Mother was here watching you?" He said that in that moment, he realized that here was the answer to his grief. "Behind the gate of death," he realized, "waited one who watches over us and will see us safely home." Then he said this: "I know now as I look across the years that nothing carried me up into the life of God like the fact that love can span the break of separation, can pass beyond the visible and hold right on across the chasm " Then, thinking of his own beloved child, he said this: "Where there is so much love, there must be more."
Title: "The Secret Of A Happy Life"
Text: Luke 6:20-26
Theme: As did Matthew in more detail, Luke describes some characteristics of Jesus, and promises that to emulate those characteristics will bring a blessing to us. "Happy" is the word Luke prefers. The poor, the hungry, the grieving -- those who feel rejected because of their religious beliefs, all will receive from God the comfort which they deserve.
This is a little complicated. Just being poor has no merit. Some people are poor because they're lazy. Some grieve because of their own foolishness. A teen-aged boy was in constant trouble. One night he and his father had a raging argument; perhaps alcohol or drugs played a role. The furious boy fought with his father, finally got hold of a gun, and killed the man. The boy was apprehended and placed in prison. One night a guard told of passing the boy's cell, and seeing the young man doubled up in a corner, weeping, and saying over and over, "I want my dad."
Surely Luke had in mind the innocents who, because of repression of one kind or another, were prevented from having the food and probably the spiritual and intellectual nourishment they needed for a fulfilled life. Sometimes we grieve over lost opportunities, or failures we regret, as well as grieving the loss of loved ones. We also may hunger for love, for acceptance, for peace or freedom, and we may be denied those things unfairly. Early slaves in America are a too painful example, as we learn that families were often sold piecemeal on the auction block in New Orleans and St. Augustine and elsewhere.
The other side to this is the promise that there are consequences, and they can be very painful, of obtaining wealth unfairly. I can't believe there is divine disapproval of wealth for its own sake. That would be a dirty trick to create us with desires, surround us with so many pleasurable items, then condemn us for working hard with the talents He gave us, successfully. Luke meant that if we act out our lives with loving sensitivity to others, with generosity, and integrity, God will be happy with us. If, however, we take advantage of others, if we hoard what we have while surrounded by those with terrible needs, then that insensitivity will be punished. This is an example of the hyperbole which sometimes characterized Jesus' teaching methods. As Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "Remove from Christianity its ability to shock and it is altogether destroyed. It then becomes a tiny, superficial thing, capable neither of inflicting deep wounds nor of healing them."
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
William Willimon told of the time Carlyle Marney was speaking at a college to an upscale audience, and one attender asked Marney what he believed about resurrection of the dead. Marney replied, "I will not discuss that with people like you." When the shocked questioner inquired why, Marney explained: "Look at you. Prime of life, potent, never have you known honest-to-God failure, heartburn, impotency, solid defeat, brick walls, mortality. So what in God's name can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?" (I found that somewhat unfair and judgmental. Probably someone there had, indeed, known such pain. But the point is still worth thinking about. He also said he would only discuss the question with people over thirty.)
____________
Some time ago, I chaired a meeting of clergy. As will not surprise the reader, most of us were finding opportunities to report various successes in our congregations. After an hour of this, one sensitive, quiet minister remarked to us: "I wish you guys would quit talking about your successes and tell about some of your failures. Then I could take part in the discussion." Bulls-eye. We started being honest after that. Of course we all did have successes to report. But we had a few failures too, and from that point on, our discussion was a lot more fruitful.
____________
Bruce Larson illustrated the tremendous power we have over other people by telling, in his book Living On The Growing Edge, of a woman of his acquaintance who became seriously ill, paralyzed. For many months she was homebound. But partial recovery enabled her to leave her home for a trip to the grocery, accompanied by a dear friend. After shopping for a bit, the woman wheeled her wheelchair into the checkout line, but was bumped by a man in a hurry. Irritated, he looked at her and said, "Why don't people like you stay away from busy places like this? You should be at home." Thoroughly crushed, the woman returned to her home and did not leave again for eighteen months. Larson pointed out that one person's annoyed, heartless remark cost a woman a year and a half of her life.
____________
A mother wrote this touching tribute to her beloved son who had died. I regret I do not now know who wrote this, only that it was a well-known woman who loved her son very much. I have used this in funeral services, but have lost the name of the author. Possibly some kind reader will drop me a line with the answer.
"You, my son, have shown me God. Your kiss upon my cheek has made me feel the gentle touch of Him who leads us on. The memory of your smile, when young, reveals His face to me, as mellowing years come on apace. And when you went before, you left the gates of Heav'n ajar, that I might glimpse, approaching from afar, the glories of His grace. Hold, son, my hand; guide me along the path that, coming, I may not stumble, nor roam, nor fail to show the way which leads us -- home."
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 1 -- "Blessed is the man."
Prayer Of The Day
Eternal God, giver of life, you have shown us the power of love, and have instilled in each of us the capacity to give and to receive love. But as you know so well, there are forces at work around us and in us which seek to smother out that love. Stay near us, we pray. Grant that the very love which made Jesus Christ our Savior might work in us as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 17:5-10 (C, E); Jeremiah 17:5-8 (RC)
Jeremiah, called by some the "father of true prayer," was a prophet from, according to majority dating, 626-586 B.C. He placed great importance on the role of the individual as well as that of the community. He also emphasized the difference between genuine inner goodness and outward conformity to laws.
This passage seems to me to offer two main themes. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord" is his main emphasis. He uses the analogy of a tree with roots reaching down to a stream. That tree is well nigh impervious to the damage heat and drought might otherwise cause, because it draws on an inexhaustible source of refreshing water. So the person who trusts in God also has access to the constantly refreshing and renewing powers of the Spirit.
The other emphasis which draws my attention is the somewhat cynical assessment of humanity, as "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt." The consequence of this will be "every man according to his ways" will be dealt with. Judgment. This reminds us of Paul's later assessment that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," or Jesus' own reported words that "no one is good."
I find this a difficult choice given the state of our country as I write. My natural tendencies are to "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative" as a song from the forties put the matter. And yet, I think mainline Protestants need to hear some word of judgment, some reminder that there are consequences of our selfish and deceitful conduct.
As I look at the other passages for this Sunday, I see that in the passage from Luke we will be reminded by Jesus himself of the unhappy consequences of irresponsible living, so I will choose to place my emphasis on Jeremiah's assurance that "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord."
Lesson 2: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (C, E); 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20 (RC)
Paul here affirms the promise of life after death for those who accept Christ as Lord. "If Christ has not been raised," he contends, "then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God...." "If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins." Then, having so vehemently put those who might quarrel with this assertion straight, he states, "It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, than we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world."
What a powerful affirmation of resurrection, both of Christ, and of those who believe in Christ. "The truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." This is the perfect funeral sermon text. It also constitutes what may be the clearest statement of life after death to be found in the Bible. Paul isn't merely stating his belief. He premises all of his faith on that belief. He is saying, in effect, that if there is no life after death then our faith is a fake, a "delusion."
This at first seems best used as an Easter text, although the truth is, it is relevant at any time. Deep down, we all experience periodic feelings about death. The older we get, the more certainly it lies in the near future, the more we are reminded by the deaths of others around us, the more important it becomes for us who preach to affirm this promise again and again.
Gospel: Luke 6:17-26 (C, E); Luke 6:17, 20-26 (RC)
This Lukan version of the Beatitudes contains a solemn warning to those who make the pleasurable, successful life their main priority. "How terrible for you who are rich," Jesus warned. "You have had your easy life." Jesus wasn't condemning the possession of wealth (that word "wealth" needs defining anyway). He was speaking about the emphasis on wealth which leads one to feel disdain for others, like the story of the rich man in Luke 16, who totally failed to recognize the needs of the poor man, Lazarus. We'll look at that story later.
"How terrible for you who are full now," Jesus warned. "You will go hungry." Also, those who laugh will weep. Now we need to get this into perspective. If we were to buy into a literal interpretation of these threats, we'd all be in trouble. Anyone who has eaten dinner with a clergy person will know immediately that we'd be in trouble. Surely, Jesus was speaking against the self-centered, greed-centered life of those who did not share their wealth, did not feel equality with nor sympathy for those less fortunate. As for popularity in the market place, Jesus was probably addressing the Pharisees who judged each other by their devotion to the letter of the law with little concern for the spirit of the law. While there's nothing at all wrong with one having a good reputation among one's peers, it becomes wrong if that reputation is merely based on wealth, or success, or fame, if there is not also generosity, and kindness, and integrity.
Place emphasis on Jesus' promise that the poor and the hungry and the bereaved will receive comfort in due course. They will finally look back and laugh at their trials. They will dance for joy. That is, if they face their problems "because of the Son of Man." Try to display the central difference between the two groups: not wealth or health or comfort but generosity, kindness, and integrity -- in a word, love.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Prayer Can Change Your Life"
Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Theme: Jeremiah assures us that "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord." He likens such trust to a tree the roots of which reach down into a nearby stream, flooding the tree with life-giving waters, even when the weather is dry and hot. So, by implication, when we remain in constant closeness to the source of living waters, we too will be able to stand fast in the face of life's destructive forces. Hence, a sermon on prayer.
1. Prayer must be honest. We're familiar with the Collect For Purity Of Heart which includes this phrase: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid...." Clearly, God knows far better than we do about our fears, our lusts, our secret longings, our feelings of inadequacy and failure, as well as our pridefulness, our prejudice, our snickering satisfactions at the failures of other people. Effective prayer requires that we totally place ourselves in the Lord and trust the rest.
2. Prayer must be selfless. It does no good at all to ask God for some benefit at the expense of another person, no matter how undeserving that person may appear to us. Nor will God rearrange the universe in any way in order to comply with our requests. Sockman pointed out that a boatman with a boat hook doesn't try to pull the land to the boat, he pulls the boat to the land. That is, prayer can put us in harmony with God's plans and God's will, it cannot change them.
3. Prayer must be daring. That is, we are all capable of much greater achievement with our lives than most of us ever realize. I'm not talking about worldly acquisitions, I'm talking about fulfilling our potential for good, for making this a better world, for rising to the heights which God has equipped us to attain. If that brings worldly rewards, I believe God applauds that so long as we use those generously and modestly. If it brings suffering of one sort or another, I believe God will use that too to bless our lives.
Title: "First The Darkness, Then The Dawn"
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Theme: Paul's conviction about the possibility of survival after death is total. It is a non-negotiable tenet of the faith as Paul sees the matter in this passage. Everything else becomes doubtful if we allow ourselves to doubt this. Anyone who subscribes to Pauline theology must believe in the reality of life beyond the grave. Though we sometimes call this "eternal life," I'm not absolutely sure they're the same. Eternal life implies a quality of life which can begin here and now, whereas life after death refers to some form of conscious existence after one dies. In any event, the older we get and the more we see of life, the more this promise reassures us.
A few years ago while on a bicycle trip through France, some friends and I visited Omaha Beach in Normandy. If you've been there, you know how unforgettable the experience can be. Seemingly endless rows of white crosses, each marking the final resting place of a young man, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, few more than very early twenties. What a colossal waste. Multiply those graves by the mothers and fathers, the brothers, and wives and children, not to mention the unborn generation deprived of the right to experience life, and you have terrible tragedy. Added to the Holocaust and to all the people who died at Gettysburg, and the Marne, and Guadalcanal, and Chosin, and the jungles of Vietnam and the loss is immeasurable. It is unthinkable to me that a God of love could create such a world, allow such a price in grief and suffering, then not have some redress for all those who paid. I for one am able to see that beauty may appear beyond the grave if Paul is right. I believe he is.
1. All must die. Obviously. But God will not let that be the final act of a person's life. "To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not," said Socrates. I'm convinced there's a deep, primordial instinct in the human psyche which half knows this truth. "Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God," wrote Wordsworth. "Hence in a season of calm weather,/ Though inland far we be,/ Our souls have sight of that immortal sea/ Which brought us hither;/ Can in a moment travel thither,/ And see the children sport upon the shore,/ And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."
2. There's debate about immortality versus resurrection. The former implies continued, uninterrupted existence. The latter implies cessation of existence, then restoration of life. My guess is this is all semantics, a nicety for theologians to debate. Not long ago, I had a minor surgery which necessitated the use of an anesthetic. Because of a complication, I was out for nearly eight hours. But my sensation was that I was speaking to my surgeon about a mutual friend, only to awaken with a nurse looking down at me. I had absolutely no sense of the passage of time. Likewise, if we have to wait for a period of time as some people believe, no matter, we will experience death as continued existence. Paul used the word resurrection here. That does have one complication as compared to the idea of immortality. God could decide that one or another of us is a mere bit player in the game of life and not worth being restored. Paul says if we accept Jesus Christ, we have no such worries. In another context, I would debate some of the fine points of such thinking, but at least Paul felt sure that true Christians will be resurrected.
3. God's love is our guarantee. When Rufus Jones' only son died, he was overwhelmed with grief. One day he went walking, struggling with the question of whether his faith was sufficient to see him through his nightmare. Then, as he turned a corner, he saw a small child playing in a yard which was surrounded by a high wrought iron fence. As he watched, the little girl stepped out through the partially opened heavy gate, onto the sidewalk. Then, fearful, she turned to go back into her yard, but the heavy gate swung shut. Now terrified, the little tyke grabbed the iron gate and began to cry. But just then, the door to her house opened and Mother, who had clearly kept an eye on her daughter, ran outside, opened the gate, gathered her little child in her arms. And as the crying ceased, Jones heard the mother saying, "Dear, didn't you know Mother was here watching you?" He said that in that moment, he realized that here was the answer to his grief. "Behind the gate of death," he realized, "waited one who watches over us and will see us safely home." Then he said this: "I know now as I look across the years that nothing carried me up into the life of God like the fact that love can span the break of separation, can pass beyond the visible and hold right on across the chasm " Then, thinking of his own beloved child, he said this: "Where there is so much love, there must be more."
Title: "The Secret Of A Happy Life"
Text: Luke 6:20-26
Theme: As did Matthew in more detail, Luke describes some characteristics of Jesus, and promises that to emulate those characteristics will bring a blessing to us. "Happy" is the word Luke prefers. The poor, the hungry, the grieving -- those who feel rejected because of their religious beliefs, all will receive from God the comfort which they deserve.
This is a little complicated. Just being poor has no merit. Some people are poor because they're lazy. Some grieve because of their own foolishness. A teen-aged boy was in constant trouble. One night he and his father had a raging argument; perhaps alcohol or drugs played a role. The furious boy fought with his father, finally got hold of a gun, and killed the man. The boy was apprehended and placed in prison. One night a guard told of passing the boy's cell, and seeing the young man doubled up in a corner, weeping, and saying over and over, "I want my dad."
Surely Luke had in mind the innocents who, because of repression of one kind or another, were prevented from having the food and probably the spiritual and intellectual nourishment they needed for a fulfilled life. Sometimes we grieve over lost opportunities, or failures we regret, as well as grieving the loss of loved ones. We also may hunger for love, for acceptance, for peace or freedom, and we may be denied those things unfairly. Early slaves in America are a too painful example, as we learn that families were often sold piecemeal on the auction block in New Orleans and St. Augustine and elsewhere.
The other side to this is the promise that there are consequences, and they can be very painful, of obtaining wealth unfairly. I can't believe there is divine disapproval of wealth for its own sake. That would be a dirty trick to create us with desires, surround us with so many pleasurable items, then condemn us for working hard with the talents He gave us, successfully. Luke meant that if we act out our lives with loving sensitivity to others, with generosity, and integrity, God will be happy with us. If, however, we take advantage of others, if we hoard what we have while surrounded by those with terrible needs, then that insensitivity will be punished. This is an example of the hyperbole which sometimes characterized Jesus' teaching methods. As Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "Remove from Christianity its ability to shock and it is altogether destroyed. It then becomes a tiny, superficial thing, capable neither of inflicting deep wounds nor of healing them."
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
William Willimon told of the time Carlyle Marney was speaking at a college to an upscale audience, and one attender asked Marney what he believed about resurrection of the dead. Marney replied, "I will not discuss that with people like you." When the shocked questioner inquired why, Marney explained: "Look at you. Prime of life, potent, never have you known honest-to-God failure, heartburn, impotency, solid defeat, brick walls, mortality. So what in God's name can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?" (I found that somewhat unfair and judgmental. Probably someone there had, indeed, known such pain. But the point is still worth thinking about. He also said he would only discuss the question with people over thirty.)
____________
Some time ago, I chaired a meeting of clergy. As will not surprise the reader, most of us were finding opportunities to report various successes in our congregations. After an hour of this, one sensitive, quiet minister remarked to us: "I wish you guys would quit talking about your successes and tell about some of your failures. Then I could take part in the discussion." Bulls-eye. We started being honest after that. Of course we all did have successes to report. But we had a few failures too, and from that point on, our discussion was a lot more fruitful.
____________
Bruce Larson illustrated the tremendous power we have over other people by telling, in his book Living On The Growing Edge, of a woman of his acquaintance who became seriously ill, paralyzed. For many months she was homebound. But partial recovery enabled her to leave her home for a trip to the grocery, accompanied by a dear friend. After shopping for a bit, the woman wheeled her wheelchair into the checkout line, but was bumped by a man in a hurry. Irritated, he looked at her and said, "Why don't people like you stay away from busy places like this? You should be at home." Thoroughly crushed, the woman returned to her home and did not leave again for eighteen months. Larson pointed out that one person's annoyed, heartless remark cost a woman a year and a half of her life.
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A mother wrote this touching tribute to her beloved son who had died. I regret I do not now know who wrote this, only that it was a well-known woman who loved her son very much. I have used this in funeral services, but have lost the name of the author. Possibly some kind reader will drop me a line with the answer.
"You, my son, have shown me God. Your kiss upon my cheek has made me feel the gentle touch of Him who leads us on. The memory of your smile, when young, reveals His face to me, as mellowing years come on apace. And when you went before, you left the gates of Heav'n ajar, that I might glimpse, approaching from afar, the glories of His grace. Hold, son, my hand; guide me along the path that, coming, I may not stumble, nor roam, nor fail to show the way which leads us -- home."
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Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 1 -- "Blessed is the man."
Prayer Of The Day
Eternal God, giver of life, you have shown us the power of love, and have instilled in each of us the capacity to give and to receive love. But as you know so well, there are forces at work around us and in us which seek to smother out that love. Stay near us, we pray. Grant that the very love which made Jesus Christ our Savior might work in us as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
