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.