&
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
I want to start off by thanking John and Sharon for taking the lead on worship last weekend while I was home. I am sad that I was not able to preach my theme sermon in person with all of you but I am grateful for technology that allowed us to use my recorded sermon for all of you to hear it.
As a life-long Christian something I have heard for as long as I can remember is the comment, “That is not a very Christian thing” to say or to do or even be. As a young Christian I used to let the idea of shame and perfection weigh me down personally when I heard that comment said about myself or another person. I would really struggle with this idea that I was supposed to strive for the greater things. I used to be weighed down by the words of the Bible that called us to what seemed to be perfection. Then hearing other Christians and non-Christians call myself and others out for not being that way really caused me to struggle.
I distinctively remember my first step-mother used to use the fact that I was a Christian and that I was supposed to be perfect as a way to shame me into doing things or be very apologetic when I didn’t do things in the timeframe she felt that I should do them. If I forgot to walk the dog or take out the trash or do the dishes, or even spoke to her in a way that she didn’t like she would throw my Christianity in my face.
I can see how the words from Jesus during his sermon could be used this way. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus gives a sermon on a plain or a flat place, which one commentator said could be thought of as a mesa, which caught my ear as something fascinating. What is even more fascinating is how these words have been understood. On the one hand you have a list of all the ways that people are being blessed. We would think that we would want to always been on the list of people that are blessed right? Jesus blesses the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and when you are hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed because of Jesus. If I’m honest, at this moment I am none of those things. If I am not on the blessed list then am I not blessed by God? If I am not on the blessed list then does that mean I am on the woe list and what does that mean?
Let’s take a look at the woe list. Jesus says woe to those who are rich, those who are full now, to those who are laughing now, and to those who speak well of us because that is how the false prophets thrived. I don’t know about you but I fall much more nicely into this list than the blessing list. Although I may not be considered ‘rich’ in the United States, on a global scale I know that I am far better off than most people in the world. Many people in the US are. I have a fridge and a pantry with food in it and I can grab a meal or a snack whenever I feel hungry. I laugh often with my family and for the most part people do speak well of me.
So what does that mean for me? What does that mean for all of us? I believe there are several things we can look at to better understand this text and this concept of a perfect Christian that we talked about. First, we need to see the first part of what Luke tells us. Even through there are many who were coming to listen and be cured by Jesus, Luke 6:20 tells us that Jesus looked to his disciples and said these things. Jesus is speaking specifically to just the disciples. That’s important. The reason that is important is that Jesus has just specifically called the 12 disciples literally right before this story. We know how careful Jesus was in calling the 12 so why would he blast them as soon as he calls them? And not just blast them, but alienate some of them right after he has called them?
That leads me to an understanding that what Jesus is talking about here is what Martin Luther would call a both and moment. Luther famously called us both sinner and saint. We are a fully redeemed and claimed child of God and there is nothing that can separate us from being claimed by Jesus through his life, death, and resurrection. We are also a full sinner. We live in a broken world where no matter how much Christ has redeemed us, we still say and do things that we shouldn’t say or do. Think about our confession we say each week. We say those very things…we ask for forgiveness for those things we have done and those we haven’t done that we should have done.
If this were a complete reversal of things then why would Jesus say that someone who weeps will then be happy to later say that the happy will be sad? And if he were proposing a complete reversal then how does that change anything? How does making one group blessed and then creating a new group of woes change anything?
Just like I finally learned through a lot of theology classes and studying the Bible that I am a Christian even when I fail and maybe even especially when I fail, for it is in my failings that I realize how much I need Christ in my life. So, no maybe the thing I did, said, or didn’t do or didn’t say wasn’t a very Christian thing, but I would argue more that it just wasn’t a nice thing to say or do. But it’s not for me or anyone else to say whether or not someone is a Christian or not based on something like that.
In fact, I would argue that it is our failings in those things that are the exact reason why we are Christian. I confess that I am in need of a savior because I know that I will fail and I need the love, grace, and forgiveness of Jesus to help me when I fail.
This is a great way for us to thrive together. Together we can thrive when we recognize that we are all both sinners and saints. Together we thrive when we see all of us as blessed in the eyes of God and yet experience woes when do lean and live too much in the world that calls us away from our savior. Together we thrive when we realize that we are all Christians no matter what happens in our lives. For we must all strive for the greater things and rely on each other in the times we feel blessed but especially those times when we are experiencing woes. Together we thrive when ultimately we realize that we are all children of God, that God calls us and claims us as both fully sinner and fully saint. God holds onto us as both blessed and a woeful. That is the kind of God we have. Amen.