Luke 6: 17–26
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Lord, may we hear your voice in the words spoken in your Name. Amen.
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This morning, on the cover of your bulletin is an image of a young
shepherd bringing some wayward sheep back to the fold. For early
Christians, Christians in the first few centuries after the Resurrection,
this image of a faithful shepherd preceded any image of the cross as an
image of their faith. For they all knew what it was to need a
shepherd who would bring them safely back whenever they wandered
off — comforting them, caring for them, loving them. In
fact, every one of us has known moments when we needed to be carried,
comforted, brought back. So this morning in the Sermon on the
Plain, Jesus is revealing to the crowd the full extent of their
shepherd’s care and concern. And it turns out to be far
greater than they – or maybe we — ever realized.
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The Sermon on the Plain that we read this morning in the Gospel of Luke,
is similar to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount in that it uses
beatitudes. Beatitudes were short, two–part affirmations
that summed up common knowledge about the good life. The equivalent
today would be something like, “Blessed are those who exercise,
for their minds will be sharp.” Or “Blessed are those
who invest wisely, for in old age they will be well off, financially.”
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So the Beatitude form was one that Jesus’ listeners knew
well. But the content of Jesus’ beatitudes this morning
surprised everyone. For this morning Jesus doesn’t seem to
be describing the good life at all. On the contrary, he is
telling people they are blessed in God’s sight when they are
poor. Not just spiritually poor, as Matthew puts it, but well
and truly poor and needy. Even so, Jesus says, if they are poor
they are blessed — for the Kingdom of God is theirs. Similarly,
he tells them they are blessed if they are hungry now – for they
will be filled. And then he only adds to their confusion when he
says they are blessed in God’s sight when people criticize them
and sneer at them because they trust in God — for in the same way
people treated all of God’s prophets.
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You can imagine them, at this point, nudging each other, confused.
Had they heard him right? Is he saying they are blessed
when they are needy, hurting, reviled by others? Whatever
is he talking about? Is he mocking them in their
difficulties? What’s going on here?
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What’s going on here is the same thing that was going on when
Luke told us a few weeks ago the Angel Gabriel appeared to teenage
Mary in Nazareth, saying, “Greetings, Mary, full of grace; the
Lord is with you.” And then added, “Blessed are you
among women.” Luke told us then that Mary was as puzzled by
that greeting as we are this morning when we hear Jesus’ strange
beatitudes. So let me clear up some confusion.
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Why is Mary full of grace? She is full of grace because
God is with her. She is blessed because God has noticed
her. To be blessed, after all, is to know you have God’s
attention, to know that wherever you go, you will not be alone. To
be blessed is to know that you are valued and important — simply
because God has made you priceless.¹
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It’s in that sense that Jesus can tell the crowd listening to
him on the plain that they are blessed, even if they are poor,
even if they are sad or hungry. They are blessed because God, l
ike a good shepherd, pays special attention to the lost, the
least and the lonely – the ones who thought they had nothing but
misery and fear as companions. In fact, the word that our New
Revised Standard Version translates as “poor” in
“Blessed are the poor” – is actually — in
Greek — the word for cower. Blessed are those who
cower, who are feeling beaten down for any reason – for
God is closer to them than they know. It’s in that sense
that they’re blessed – whether they know it or not. For
God’s ear will be specially tuned to their cry, to their
situation. And if he is noticing, he will help. Just as the
Good Shepherd is concerned for the smallest, the most vulnerable
lambs in his flock, God is concerned for the poor, the hungry, the sad
ones among us.
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It’s all about a special way of seeing – a Godly perspective
that most of us don’t have — unless, of course, God gives
it to us. And as I say that I remember a little video I saw years
ago, a video that was all about that special perspective.
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A businessman starts out for work one morning on what he thinks is a
regular day – but it isn’t a regular day at all. And
it doesn’t begin well. As he pulls out of his driveway, he
nearly hits a child riding by on his bike. Then he heads toward
his usual coffee shop – only to have a woman cut right in front of
him and take his favorite parking space. In line at the coffee
shop the man ahead of him places a huge order – for his whole
building. So by the time the businessman is finally able to give
his order the salesgirl says, “Sorry, Sir. This will take a
while. We have to brew a new pot.”
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Barely able to contain his frustration, the man heads to a booth and
sits there, stewing. At this point a man he doesn’t know
walks up to him and hands him a pair of sunglasses. Curious, the
frustrated man puts them on – and suddenly he is seeing little
clouds – like the clouds in comics books — appear over each
person’s head. Only the words in these clouds don’t
tell the man what each person is saying. The words in these clouds
tell him what is going on in each person’s life.
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The woman who cut him off that morning is distracted because her child
is sick. The man who placed the huge coffee order is worried
about a medical diagnosis he just received. The barista is
struggling with addiction. And finally, returning home later
that day a bit shaken, the man sees the child he nearly hit that morning
with a cloud over his head that says, “Just need someone who
cares.” The man gets out of his car and walks over to help
the boy fix his bike.²
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I’m not sure, but I suspect this special way of seeing might be
open to all of us. For we can all pray to understand what each
person in our day is going through so we can treat them as God our
good shepherd would – with compassion, with understanding, with
love. And these days, I think we are surrounded by people who
are troubled by what they see, by what they experience going on all
around them. We see violence, we see greed, we see duplicity,
we see exploitation, we see pandemic exhaustion and social inequities
all around us – and we don’t begin to know how we might
alleviate these situations. Maybe worst of all we see indifference
to other peoples’ pain. So caring Christians can’t
help but mourn, not just in this country but all around the
world — at what they are seeing.
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But maybe that care, that concern, that willingness to weep with those
who weep is all God is asking of us. Not the ability to fix every
situation, but the willingness to see and care. For you notice
that the only people Jesus warns in this passage are the ones who
refuse to care for the broken ones around them, who refuse even
to see them, to notice them. Maybe, on this day before
Valentine’s Day, all God is asking of each one of us is to engage
our hearts and see someone else as He sees them – broken but blessed.
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Amen.
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¹ Mark Larson “We Deserve to Weep”
Sermon given on Day One February 17, 2019.
² ibid.
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