Luke 6:17-46
So our reading today for this 7th Sunday of Epiphany is Jesus’ sermon on the plain. This sermon it is similar (but not exactly the same) as the more well known sermon on the mount in Matthew.
While some have referred to it as Luke’s version of the sermon on Mount, they could also be different events. It is easy to imagine that Jesus delivered similar teachings on multiple occasions, adapting His message to different audiences and contexts.
As the name suggests the Sermon on the Mount is delivered on a mountainside, perhaps Jesus here is emphasising his connection to Moses and the giving of the Law. The Sermon on the Plain on the other hand takes place on a level place. In this context Jesus wants to emphasise accessibility to a diverse crowd.
The lectionary only gives a portion of it but as I read it this week I felt that it is best heard in its entirety as Jesus intended and so today we will do just that.
For something a little different our reading will come to us from the “faith comes by hearing project”. They have created some footage to go with the text that gives us a picture of what might have been going on for Jesus and his disciples.
The reading is a bit longer than usual (just over 6 minutes and yes I have adjusted the sermon length in light of that). But it is very engaging. So I invite you to settle in, as much as you can try to imagine yourself there listening to these words of Jesus. I know most of you have probably read this before but open yourself up to hear it afresh, today, in this place.
https://live.bible.is/bible/ENGESV/LUK/6
So I just want to begin by saying that I am a little bit uncomfortable giving a sermon on Jesus sermon. It’s a great sermon all on its own and I certainly do not feel I have anything to add to it. I really could say nothing and you would probably all go home with a pretty clear understanding of what Jesus was teaching here. He was being direct.
But preaching is what happens here and so despite my awkwardness about it I will offer some thoughts that I have been thinking about this text.
Three weeks ago we reflected on Jesus so called “inaugural address.” Jesus just beginning his ministry, reads these words from the prophet Isaiah,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
His only reflection on these words is ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
Jesus now expands on this. I said in my sermon on Jesus inaugural address that this mission is not one more thing you have to do, rather it is a way of life. A way of life that is lead by the Spirit if we would only ask.
The beatitudes (as they are now known) are a description of what the world looks like when we are living that way of life. They a description of what the world looks like when we are living in what Jesus calls the Kingdom of God.
For those of us who are comfortable and privileged this is uncomfortable to say the least. If Jesus was serious (and I think he was). If he was not exaggerating or speaking figuratively (which I think he wasn’t) then the beatitudes confront us with the reality of what liberation theology has come to call God’s preferential option for the poor.
This is not to romanticize poverty in any way. The fact that Jesus prefaces this teaching by alleviating suffering in every way possible suggests that pain in and of itself is neither holy nor redemptive. But God hears the cries of the oppressed and Jesus has a heart for the poor.
We tend to describe ourselves as blessed when things are going well for us. We often describe our children, our homes, our successes as blessings and certainly there are times in the Bible when God is described as blessing his people with these things. And so this is not inherently bad. It is good to be grateful.
Although might I dare to suggest that writing #blessed under a picture of your feet in the foreground of a spectacular view of your latest holiday is probably a misunderstanding of the word.
If the only way that we are able to experience God’s love is through these kinds of blessings then something has gone awry with our relationship with God. We would certainly say this if the only way we experienced love from our families or friends was when they gave us stuff. Just as if we assume that all failure, pain and hardship means we are no longer favoured by God. Jesus is saying here, in the Kingdom of God this is simply not true.
The beatitudes and the sermon on the plain are Jesus emphatic no to coming to any conclusions about someone’s moral righteousness or moral failure based on where they find themselves in the world’s standards of blessing.
In all our lives there will be blessing and there will be woe. Sometimes the blessings will feel great and sometimes they won’t. Only in hindsight will we be able to see them as such And sometimes the woe too will feel great and sometimes it will just feel like woe. In this sermon Jesus points to the reality that as humans we are often terrible judges of what is in fact good and right and true and what is not.
As usual there is no getting out of the work of discernment and thoughtfulness.
The coming of the Kingdom of God changes things. It transforms the way we see things. Barbara Brown Taylor says the beatitudes are not advice, nor judgment. They are simply the truth about the way things work.”
The coming of the Kingdom of God also transforms our relationships. It transforms the way we treat each other.
The truth is, loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, praying for those who abuse us is not the way of this world.
In this world those who do try to practise things like “turning the other cheek” can leave themselves vulnerable to ongoing abuse, violence, mistreatment and being woefully taken advantage of. This is especially true of women, people of colour and other minorities but it can happen to anyone. Of course not what Jesus wants for his people. This is not living in the Kingdom of God.
But here Jesus is saying that for those living in the Kingdom of God, the cycle of revenge, the cycle of violence, the need to win at all costs, to always have the last word, ends. In the Kingdom of God our response to someone should not be decided on by their behaviour towards us but by what we think is right.
Anne Lamott describes withholding forgiveness as like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.
The truth is if we allow ourselves to become so consumed with our own hurt, if make it our identity and insist on weaponizing our well-deserved anger in every interaction we have then we are drinking the rat poison, and it will kill us long before it does anything to those who hurt us.
Debie Thomas says, “To choose forgiveness is to release myself from the tyranny of bitterness. To give up my frenzied longing to be understood and vindicated by anyone other than God. To refuse the seductive lie that revenge will make me feel better. To cast my hunger for justice deep into God’s heart, because justice belongs to God, and only God can secure it.”
This is not easy, perhaps impossible if you try to do it on your own, it is as counter cultural today as it was when Jesus first said it. But the invitation Jesus is putting before us and our community, I do not think is to just try harder, to just in your own strength be a more loving, more forgiving, less judgy person. The invitation is to relationship with Jesus, to live with him in the alternative reality that is the Kingdom of God. In this Kingdom there is no need to be angry or defensive or anxious or revenge filled because your identity is not in how others see and treat you, it is not in what you have or do but is in Christ.
This Kingdom was made a reality in Jesus. It remains available to us now but will be fully and finally revealed in the time to come.
Amen
