The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany ---- 24 February 2019

Luke 6:27-38

27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

…for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

·       This doesn’t seem right. Isn’t God supposed to bless the good and punish evil? Shouldn’t those who do evil –whatever that may be- be afraid of some sort of punishment? Shouldn’t life turn on them and bite them?

·       Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t that be exciting? Wouldn’t we then feel justified? We might agree with all those things. And wouldn’t we feel like gods if all that were to happen? Now THAT would be a real problem.

·       We can’t control all the things that happen to us in our lives. There are things we have to accept. What we can control is how we react to those circumstances that are beyond our control. Hence Jesus’ admonition: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

·       We might wonder: Does God bless the ungrateful and the wicked because God does not care? Or does God bless them because God cares for all God has created? We might think that God cares too much from our small point of view? It’d be hard to speak from God’s point of view since my own life and circumstances cloud the larger and wider view. Maybe it’s the same for you.

·       There is a conflict in our lives, one that keeps some folks up nights. We want our lives to make sense and we want them to make sense according to our own lights. Many ideas have developed to help things make sense.

·       The book of Deuteronomy is written from this point of view. Blessings and curses are traceable to behavior and curses flow from sins. One odd thing is this: the Book of Job was written in direct opposition to this idea.

·       The idea that people get what they deserve, that “what goes around, comes around” is often called Karma. That’s a term that comes to us from Hinduism and it implies that our actions determine our future and determine it precisely. It’s a concept of justice and getting exactly what we deserve.

·       The comparative Christian concept is not karma but grace. Karma has to do with what is deserved while grace has to do with what is not deserved and what is freely given as a gift, not what is deserved or worked for or achieved.

·       We live in a broken world and life is unfair. The rich get rich and the poor get poorer, as the old song says. We cannot trust that people will get what is deserved. In fact, we might actually rejoice that we don’t get what we deserve.

·       This might seem quite unfair and rather perverse in a way. But remember Jesus’ words: … he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. That is a reminder that the grace of God is available and can be given to every person.

·       As far as our role as disciples of Jesus, we are to realize the grace of God in our lives, live in that grace, be grateful for it, and proclaim it to the world around. And sometimes grace is not so pretty.

·       Here I want to quote a contemporary theologian from the Reformed tradition. His name is Walter Brueggeman and this quote seems appropriate to today’s topic: The prophetic tasks of the Church are to tell the truth to a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.

·       This sounds painful in some ways and he is right. We are to be truth tellers among a society that lives illusions and lies. We are to tell the truth about what is bought and sold, what is real, what is alive, and what is really worshipped.

·       We are to stand against the denial that pervades all around us. Death and sickness are denied; pain is not acknowledged; the reality of a broken world and broken lives is allowed to fester as if it were an open wound.

·       Finally we are to live and tell others about hope in the face of despair. In speaking of forgiveness, blessing, kindness, and free grace, we challenge the despair of our world which clings to passing things and makes a big deal out of so much that will fail us all.

·       I don’t know… maybe if I tried to live like grace makes a difference for me, then I might understand what Jesus said in that sermon. Love your enemies… treat others as you’d want to be treated… Do not judge… do not condemn… Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

·       If that is the case, maybe then the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ will make a difference where-ever I might be. Imagine the sort of world we’d live in if we all did this.

…for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany ----- 17 February 2019

Luke 6:17-26

17 He 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. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20 Then 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. 23 Rejoice 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."

He 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.

·       Today we hear Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. In Matthew’s Gospel, this is part of the ‘sermon on the mount’, because it takes place on the mountain. Luke has Jesus deliver these words (and more) on a level place, so this is called ‘the sermon on the plain.’ And it does make a difference.

·       The “high places” are often seen as closer to God. How many special things in scripture and Church history take place on mountains? Mount Sinai… Mount Tabor… Mount Carmel… Mount Calvary… the Wartburg…

·       The level places - the plains – are depicted in Scripture as the place of chaos and brokenness, of disgrace, suffering, and hunger, of death and mourning.

·       There are people who make graphs of things like this, charting the ‘high’ and ‘low’ points of weather, the economy, and even sports. For the most part, higher is better on graphs… with certain exceptions, such as graphs of corruption, flooding, or unusual summer temperatures.

·       This is not the end of things. The prophets spoke of God renewing the level places of the world. We hear of this promise every Christmas, and other times as well:

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” (Luke 3:4-5)

·       For Jesus to bring this Gospel message ‘to the plain, to the level place would be to bring the Good News to the broken world. It isn’t a case of the world ascending the mountains to search out the Good News; the Good News has come to them… in the words and deeds and the person of Jesus Christ.

·       We can look back on the brokenness of the world in Jesus’ time. Ordinary life was often short and cruel. Famine was not uncommon. Political oppression by rulers was violent and deadly. (Remember Herod’s slaughter of the innocents and Pilate’s killing of worshippers.) Superstition was everywhere. The poor cried for bread and prisoners and the enslaved cried for freedom. The powerful did all they could to keep their power and to see that everyone believed they were Heaven’s chosen.

·       We can look at the brokenness of our own world of our own time. How different is it? Many people live longer and healthier live, but not everywhere. Famine… oppression… superstition… poverty… slavery… pursuit of power… The brokenness of ‘the level places’ is still with us, no less than in Jesus’ time.

·       We could despair. We could… yet we also could hear the same message Jesus brought to a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people that day so long ago.

·       "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice 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.” Even today, we are called to show and live the values of the Kingdom in the world we live in today. The Beatitudes are a great place to start.

·       Luke adds ‘woes’ to the blessings: woe to you who are rich… Woe to you who are full now… Woe to you who are laughing now… Woe to you when all speak well of you Although these sound like condemnations (and honestly, they could become that), what they really are are invitations to repentance and change in values. Repentance might not mean casting off all what they have, but it certainly means a change of heart and a change what is valued. It is a call to redirect lives toward the Kingdom of God, to change the founding values of their lives.

This idea of radical change in value and direction can be scary; it frightens me anyway. When it does, it is good to remember that in the centre of the storm of injustice and brokenness in the world’s ‘level places’, Jesus said Rejoice 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.

The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany ------- 10 February 2019

Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

5 And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

[9 And he said, "Go and say to this people: "Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' 10 Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed." 11 Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; 12 until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. 13 Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.]

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Luke 5:1-11

1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.

• ·    It's unusual for all three readings to have a common theme. The first reading and the Gospel often have a similar theme with the Epistle on it's own. Today is a bit different.
•    If we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that we are who we are and we are what we are. We may try to be someone else but that is a false self. The authentic self is really a gift from God, a grace if I may use the term. We could say we owe it all to grace.
• ·       Why would Paul insist on grace having the central and primary role in his ministry? Well, that’s how he saw it. It had to do with his past life and with his ministry for Jesus.
• ·       Paul brought the Gospel to the people of Corinth and although they were Gentiles unfamiliar with the Hebrew scripture, they heard his word and believed. It was not easy for them. Religion was huge part of the life of the people of Corinth and there were many temples dedicated to many gods. The resurrection of Jesus was often the sticking point for their faith.
• ·       Paul insisted on this: For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures… That first part – I handed on to you… what I in turn had received – reminded the people that Paul was in line with the preaching of the apostles.
• ·       Paul’s past is what led him to say that he was unworthy of the call to preach the Gospel. He hid the fact that he was a persecutor of the Church. That changed on the road to Damascus with an encounter with the risen Christ in a blinding flash and a time of reflection and learning that followed.
• ·       This was an experience of resurrection for Paul. He was raised from the death of hatred and persecuting to new life in Christ. He knew the grace of Jesus Christ intimately and he gave all the credit for everything he did to that grace. So he could write by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
•      Isaiah says he is unworthy since he is a man of unclean lips. God sends a seraph who cleanses the prophet's lips with a burning coal from the altar. Peter asks Jesus to leave because he is a sinful man, but Jesus say not to be afraid; he has been chosen for a mission... to catch people!
• ·       What doesn’t always occur to us is this: we are in the same situation as Paul. Not that we’re apostles to the nations; Paul served well enough in that capacity. However, we pass on what we have received in accordance with the scriptures.
• ·       We too are what we are by the grace of God. Our faith and our practice grow from the grace we received at our baptism, no matter how long ago that might have been. Whatever has been made of our lives is by the grace of God. The idea that our baptism is a dying and rising in Christ is no lie or falsehood. We are risen with Christ and in a way, we die and rise daily.
• ·       Could we consider tragedies to be the grace of God? I would say ‘no’. Tragedies happen to us all, but our response to those tragedies and to whatever suffering we have endued comes from God’s grace and God’s presence in our lives. Sometimes, in a very real way, our survival has been and is a grace as well.
• ·       We all know that grace is unearned and unmerited. It is also often unlooked-for and unexpected. It is by the grace of God that we are here today and it is by and through the grace of God that we have done whatever good we have done in our lives. It is something to be grateful for.
• ·       Whether we follow the words of Francis of Assisi- “What we are before God is all that we are and nothing more.” or if we hold to the words of the great modern philosopher, Popeye the sailor- “I am what I am, and that’s all that I am.”, we owe all things to our God through our saviour, Jesus Christ. We can confidently say with Paul: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.

                     

          

The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany ---- 2 February 2019

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

·       I know we’ve all heard this passage before. It is most often used at weddings, or I might say, it is often over-used at weddings. It is a lovely passage, outlining the reality of love. However, despite Paul not referring to the love of spouses, none of us are off the hook with regard to love.

·       English has one word for love; obviously it’s “love.” It can say “I love you” to a spouse or to a child, with different meanings. However, we could also say “I love mashed potatoes.” All are equally valid uses of the word and all mean different things.

·       In Paul and Jesus’ time, there were five words in the Greek language for “love”, all with slightly different meanings. Without going into the words themselves, it’d be better to give a thumbnail sketch of each.

·       One word meant familial love, the love of a parent for a child. One meant “brotherly love” or really, friendship. A third involved hospitality. One was romantic or sexual love. The last was self-emptying or divine love. This last word is the word Paul used all through-out this passage from his letter.

·       As we heard last week, the passage just prior to this on in the letter outlines the gifts Paul saw in the Corinthian community: healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, leadership, assistance and service among others. He says that many of the gifts of the Spirit are present in that Church. He also taught that all these gifts could not be prioritized, as one being greater or more worthwhile than the other.

·       Then he says But strive for the greater gifts. And he goes on to say that all the spectacular and powerful gifts are empty. They are hollow without love. I am a noisy gong… I am nothing… I gain nothing…

·       Paul called this self-emptying love the greater gifts. The Christian community in Corinth was loaded with gift of the Spirit, but they were lacking in one thing – love for each other. In other parts of that letter, Paul admonishes the Corinthian Christians with regard to conflicts, rivalries, and even law suits pending in the courts. It could be said that, quite simply, Paul wanted the people to love each other. From the reading, it appears that he felt he needed to give the community a glimpse of what that sort of love would look like.

·       Love is the greater gift… and it appears to be available to all. Healing, moving mountains by faith, words of prophecy are all hard to come by, although modern day prophets are around, telling us the will and mind of God, often in the face of ridicule and anger. Foretelling the future is not prophecy; it is another gift entirely. Speaking in tongues can be found, but when I know when I heard it years ago, it scared me.

·       What’s so special about love then? Well, anyone can do it. It is a decision, and not something that overwhelms you, that you are driven to do. (That’s referred to as “Passion.”) No special and dramatic gifts are required, like tongues or prophecy. Odd how this greatest gift seems so ordinary.

·       What is truly special about it is this: love is the very life of God and if we love, the life and power of God is in us and can be shown through us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16b)

·       It is how Christians are to be known to the world. Jesus told his followers at the Last Supper: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

·       Paul says that love is the most lasting thing. If we hold to what John says and God is love, then to love is to live in God… and we Christians believe that’s the ultimate goal of human life.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.