Blessings and Woes - 2/13/22
Call to worship:
L: Rejoice, for the power of God has come -
P: The same transforming power encountered in the risen Christ.
L: Promising to the poor the realm of heaven;
P: Promising to the hungry a time of satisfaction;
L: Promising the weeping a life of happiness;
P: Promising to the reviled the gift of acceptance.
A: Rejoice, O people of God, the transforming power of Christ is here!
Opening Hymn: Christ is the World’s Light #188
1. Christ is the world's light,
Christ and none other;
born in our darkness,
he became our brother.
If we have seen him,
we have seen the Father:
Glory to God on high!
2.Christ is the world's peace,
Christ and none other;
no one can serve him
and despise another.
Who else unites us,
one in God the Father?
Glory to God on high!
3. Christ is the world's life,
Christ and none other;
sold once for silver,
murdered here, our brother;
he, who redeems us,
reigns with God the Father:
Glory to God on high!
4. Give God the glory,
God and none other;
give God the glory,
Spirit, Son, and Father;
give God the glory,
God with us, my brother:
Glory to God on high!
Opening Prayer:
O Christ, whom even crucifixion could not separate from either the love or the power of God, bless us, the members of your body, with the guidance of your spirit, that we might seek God with your singleness of mind, see God with your clarity of understanding, and worship God with your purity of heart.
Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Hymn: Open My Eyes, That I May See #454
Prayer of Dedication:
Gracious Lord and Savior, whose spirit guided Jesus in life and glorified him in death, we adore you for coming to us in him and for leading us through him. We owe a great debt to those who have shaped our traditions and collected the stories about Jesus so that we would know. Let, like them, bestow this knowledge on all those we have the opportunity to do so with. Amen.
Gospel Reading: 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.
Sermon Title: Blessings and Woes
There have been so many times when drought would hit a land and people would become desperate and do desperate things in order to get rain to fall. For example:
Back in 1839 James Espy claimed that rain could easily be produced by heating the air. But his plan to saturate parched farmland by building great log fires across vast stretches of the American West never materialized -- for which Espy's contemporaries were probably grateful! Later in the 19th century a new theory emerged: loud noises would bring rain. This theory was put to the test in Texas, where Robert Dyrenforth piled up enough munitions for a small war. He blasted away at the skies, but as one observer wrote, "[Dyrenforth] attacked from the front and rear, by the right and left flank. But the sky remained clear as the complexion of a Saxon maid."
It seems that we always want the good without the things that we perceive as being bad. We want happiness, but no sorrow; we crave food with no hunger, and we demand sunshine without rain. The truth is, however, that we must have the woes and the blessings together in order to live a full life that is dedicated to God and his mission here on earth.
We cannot arrive at a true understanding of God's Word by detaching texts from their contexts to find personal meaning in them and be feeding them into the world of our private preoccupations and letting that world impose new senses on old phrases.
A theological student whom later I knew as a senior friend had committed himself to starting his ministry in the north of England when he received a very attractive invitation to join a teaching institution in South Wales instead. He did not feel able to withdraw from his commitments, but one day he read in Isaiah 43:6, "I will say to the north, Give up", and concluded that this was God telling him that he would be providentially released from his promise and so set free to accept the second invitation. No such thing happened, however, so he went north after all wondering what had gone wrong. Then he reread Isaiah 43:6 and noticed that it continued, "...and to the south, Do not withhold." At this point it dawned on him that he had been finding meaning in the text that was never really there. Instead, the concerns which he brought to his reading of the text had governed his interpretation of it.
To impose meaning on the text is not the way to learn God's Law. Augustine was quoted saying: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
I was working with a couple once and asked them, like I do all of them, what scriptures would they like me to use in the ceremony. The gentleman giggled a bit and asked if we could use the one that states that women are supposed to submit to their husbands. I told him that we could use that…if I could read the entire thing.
Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. (And then the rest of the story is…)
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
He sort of backed off about then. Actually, I would be very happy if everyone would respect and care for each other.
In the passage we read from Luke today, we are told that Jesus has come down with the apostles that he has chosen, and he is surrounded by many people; all who came to hear his message and to be healed of whatever ailment they might have. Everyone in the crowd was pressing in to be touched by him because they knew that great power was within him; and one by one, he healed all who were there that day.
Then he looked at his disciples/apostles and started speaking what must have sounded a little like jiberish. He was talking backwards saying that the poor and the hungry are blessed for they will have the kingdom of God and they will be filled. You are blessed if you are crying now, because later on, you will be able to laugh. You are blessed if people hate, exclude, and revile you because you are loyal to Jesus because your reward is going to be fantastic. You will be able to rejoice in all of this.
He continued with this backwards talk and told them that if they were rich, they would be filled with woe because they had already received their reward. And if you are full now, you will be hungry.
Luke is talking about three audiences here – the apostles and considerable amount of disciples, the people in general gathered from Galilee and adjacent areas, and a smaller group of people who are troubled with unclean spirits – all of whom are the recipients of Jesus’ ministry whether in miraculous deed or word.
Jesus begins his sermon with a carefully balanced series of blessings and woes. What he is telling them and us is that there is a balance that cannot be upset; in nature, in our lives, and especially in our faith.
We must have the rain along with the sunshine or nothing will grow. We must have the sorrow along with the joy, or nothing will be understood or appreciated. Blessings and woes are not the good and the bad; they are the necessary commitment to Christ that we must endure as much as we enjoy.
In Christ’s Holy name, I pray many blessings and woes to you all. Amen.
Majesty, worship his majesty;
Unto Jesus be all glory, honor, and praise.
Majesty, kingdom authority,
Flow from his throne unto his own, his anthem raise.
So exalt, lift up on high the name of Jesus.
Magnify, come glorify Christ Jesus, the King.
Majesty, worship his majesty,
Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings.
In this place your healing has begun. Now begins the healing of the world. Go in peace.
