(Luke 6:17-26)

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

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“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 on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

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.

Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

            I think most of us are much more familiar with the Gospel of Matthew’s Beatitudes than we are with Luke’s version.  In contrast to Matthew’s which is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s is different in many ways.  First, it takes place on level ground—like the picture you see on the bulletin cover.  Luke’s Sermon on the Plain includes not just Blessings, but also Woes.  If you want to compare them later, look at Matthew chapter 5.

            What struck me as I began to look at Luke’s Blessings and Woes was the introduction that Luke brought to Jesus’ words.  There were many people there.  They were looking for healing and to be cured of unclean spirits.  They were sure that Jesus could help them, and, so, they were desperate to touch him because of the power that came from him, and that power was healing. 

            Several years ago I reconnected with a friend from my childhood.  She was the older sister of one of my best friends.  Cindy is a Reiki Master.  Now, Reiki is, at its heart, spiritually guided life energy. It taps into ancient healing arts.  Reiki was discovered in Japan in 1922.  It is a laying on of hands with the intention of stress reduction, relaxation and promoting healing.  It’s not some kind of woowoo magic, but is a discipline that uses the healing power of the universe.  Reiki’s logo includes symbols that represent God moving toward humanity.  Isn’t that just what we Christians experience in Christ? 

            I think of Reiki today for that very reason.  Listen again to Luke’s introduction: “Everyone in the crowd was trying to touch Jesus, for power came out from him and healed all of them.”  And I think of all the people who came to touch and see and hear Jesus.  They were people who were desperate for hope, and hope was what Jesus brought to them.  He also brought wisdom and truth, and he brought all this to those who were the neediest in his world: the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the sick, the persecuted.

            Now, Matthew’s Beatitudes are more crowd pleasing.  His version says “blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Do you see the difference here?  Luke’s blessings are raw; they are aimed at those whom we know Jesus was absolutely concerned about.  There are no punches pulled here.  The woes make it clear that his mission was to bring comfort and hope to those who were hurting and desperate.  The rich who are full when they leave the table, those who are without worries and fears: these folks are not Jesus’ immediate concern.

            Jesus is telling it like it is.  You know, we well-off Christians talk a lot about how blessed we are, and I get it.  I talk like that too, but there are people out there who are desperately hurting, people who are despairing.  Is that true because they are not blessed by God?  I don’t think so, and this is the truth of this lesson.  We need to listen closely to what Jesus is saying here through Luke’s Gospel….

            Now, I am not minimizing our own pain and our own difficulties, not at all.  We, many of us, are suffering from illnesses, from sorrow, from spiritual hunger, from depression and anxiety, from worry about our loved ones.  And we need healing from Christ too.  We need that healing touch.  We need the healing power of the universe.  I have experienced it as you all have reached out to me while I grieve the loss of my brother.  You have prayed for his family, and all that matters greatly….

            Yet, I cannot ignore Luke’s message today.  What stands out for me in big, bold letters is that we cannot buy into the narrative that those without money, jobs, nice cars and homes, those without enough food, those who suffer from ill-health are not among those blessed by God. 

As if God would get God’s magic wand and wave it over the football team that ended up winning the Super Bowl or the church that has the best building or the family that has the most scholar athletes or the wage earner in the highest tax bracket or the tax filer who manages to avoid paying the most taxes. 

            …You get where I’m going here, I think.  We must be careful in our minds and in our speech and in our hearts that we don’t connect earthly success with God’s blessings—we must be very cautious. 

            Are we not blessed by God if our spouse leaves us or cheats on us?  Are we not blessed by God if our child does not excel in school?  Are we not blessed by God if we are not able to afford a fine looking home?  Has God withheld God’s blessing from someone who is incarcerated?  Are we not blessed if we have been diagnosed with a disease?  Are those from another country not deserving of respect and care and God’s blessing?  Do we have the right to depict them as enemies or, worse, I guess, undeserving of those very blessings?

            The thing is, we are all going to fall into the hurting category at one time or another, because that’s the way life goes.  We can get really spoiled thinking that life is going to be a bed of roses, and we get kind of mad when it’s not.  We figure someone or something is to blame and we make it our business to find out who and why. 

            But when it comes to poor and hungry folks, we kind of figure there’s a reason, that, maybe, they have brought this upon themselves.  That kind of thinking gives us permission to be unsympathetic….  And Jesus is not about to give us that permission today.

            Let’s take another look at Jesus’ Blessings and Woes from the Gospel of Luke.  There is a symmetry to them that can give us a way to interpret these words.

            Let’s match up the blessings and the corresponding woes:

>Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

>Then, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

>Then, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

>And finally, 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 on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

            Did you hear that back and forth?  Did you hear the way that life has its ups and downs? 

            And, very importantly, did you hear how we are expected by Jesus to tell the truth, to speak the Gospel regardless of the consequences.  Look out, folks, look out preachers, if we soften Jesus’ message just so we get spoken well of. Look out, because that’s how false prophets act. 

            So, let’s bring this up to today.  So Christians, listen up!  Preachers, beware!  Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are those who are weeping, blessed are those who are hated or excluded because they have told Jesus’ truth.

            I have many stories of colleagues who spoke the Gospel truth as they understood it.  There was Roger who thought he had hit the jackpot when he was appointed to a big wealthy church.  Maybe he even felt blessed!  He didn’t understand that he was expected to support the status quo in that place.  He didn’t understand that, instead of paying attention and preaching the Gospel about such passages as the blessings and woes, he was expected to massage the well-to-do and those with power.  As a good preacher should, he called his congregation to use some of their money to help the needy instead of throwing it all into their sizable endowment. 

It wasn’t long before he got a call from the guy who was the Bishop at the time.  Roger was told that he would be moving mid-year to a smaller, poorer congregation.  The person replacing him knew that he should listen to the guy in the large, wealthy congregation who was chairperson of the Annual Conference’s Board of Trustees.  And so, that was a match made–somewhere….

            Woe to those of whom people speak well.  That’s how our ancestors treated the false prophets. 

            And there’s a friend named John who shows up at City Council meetings speaking at length about justice issues.  Many folks roll their eyes when John steps up to the microphone.  And yet, he refuses to stand down and accept the status quo when it is not supportive of the poor and the hungry, no matter how annoying this can be.

            So, think about what this means in today’s world as our nation is being turned upside down, as policies are made that make the rich richer and, well, you know, the poor poorer.  Hard-working Americans’ jobs are at risk.  Money is being taken away from studies that are intended to help sick folks.  People in charge of our government, both federal and state, are busy ripping apart basic and fundamental truths that we hold sacred in our universities and schools of all types.  There seems to be no care or compassion for ordinary citizens of our nation.

            I’m so proud of our church as we are doing what we can to help immigrants in this time of fear and confusion and as we are making phone calls to our representatives advocating for love and justice across the board, for echoing Jesus’ blessings and woes.

Thank you for all you do for justice, and for witnessing to the truth about what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Christ… and be blessed, all of you!  Amen.