February 23 2025
Scripture Reading: Luke 6:17-26
Jesus 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 everyone in the crowd was 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. “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[a] on account of the Son of Man. 23 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.
Sermon: Blessings and Curses
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be a reflection of you, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
One of the first sermons I ever preached (forty years ago!) was on this gospel passage. A friend and I were both candidates for ministry, and we were invited to preach at a congregation in Montreal Presbytery, when their minister was on study leave one Sunday.
And we had this brilliant idea: at least it seemed brilliant to us. We were taking New Testament studies at the time, and we were fascinated with what I would call Gospel Parallels. These are passages that are taken from two or three or even four gospels, lined up side by side, so that you can mine the meaning of a story which all the gospel writers found important enough to be included in their account of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Even though they are all telling the same story, however, by their placement in the gospel, and by the words that are used, and phrases that could be added or omitted, we can learn a lot about each individual author and their personal connection to Jesus and the fledgling church.
My friend and I wanted to take the two versions of Jesus’ teaching, commonly called the Beatitudes, and preach on what made their two versions different, and what they held in common.
So for example, you might recognize the words of the Beatitudes from the gospel of Matthew.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…
Meanwhile, in Luke we hear something else – same cadence but different words:
“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…
They’re similar, but different. Why did Luke say: “Blessed are you who are poor…” while Matthew said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
In Matthew’s famous Sermon on the Mount we read: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…” But in Luke it just says: “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled…”
Matthew also located his version of Jesus’ teaching on a mountain, with only the disciples. In contrast, Luke located it on a plain or level place, where a great multitude could listen in.
The biggest difference, however, is that Matthew’s version is all about the blessings. That’s probably why it’s the more popular version of what we call the Beatitudes. Matthew’s version comforts the mourning, promises the meek they will inherit the earth, and feeds the poor in spirit with words of hope.
But Luke concludes the teaching this way:
“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.” It’s not a very comfortable teaching, is it?
Our English translations don’t use the word “curse” but the meaning is there in the Greek. My favourite translation is from Eugene Petersen’s Message Bible, which says “there’s trouble ahead…” Some others say “How terrible for you…” Or “How miserable for you…” Or even “oy to you who are rich!” (from the Orthodox Jewish Bible.) That is actually closest to the original Greek for woes or curses, which is the word “ouai”.
We really like the Jesus of blessings, the one who raises up the lowly, the one who feeds the hungry. But the flip side of all that blessing is that someone else has to give something up – and that’s what Luke is underlining in his version. For the meek to inherit the earth, what happens to all those billionaires and corporations that already own most of the world’s resources? There’s a sacrifice that has to happen to make the universal blessing possible. We don’t find that easy, let alone embody with our lives.
Luke was not afraid to make it very plain. If you read the four gospels side by side, Luke is the most political gospel. His gospel is all about the lowly being raised up, AND the powerful brought low, the outsider welcomed, even if it makes insiders uncomfortable.
Luke was also very clear that it is not God who doles out these blessings and curses – the ones we experience in today’s world are human created inequalities. God in Jesus would reverse those blessings and curses, the way they appear in his gospel.
So if you have had a string of bad luck and you wonder if God has it in for you, that’s not the gospel.
The gospel truth is that God longs for all to live in the fullest blessing, according to God’s kindom. But human systems and society have got it in reverse.
This is not an easy sell. Because when we hear of things that are unjust or unconscionable towards any of God’s children, and we challenge them, then we become the ones who receive that back-handed blessing found in the middle verses of our reading:
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you[a] on account of the Son of Man. 23 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.”
I’m not sure I want to be a prophet! Hated, excluded, reviled and defamed? Did Jesus say this is the “blessing”? Trolls and fake news and cancel culture are the blessing?
One of the things I think churches can and must do is to share the stories of those whom we wouldn’t usually encounter. People on the other side of the globe, who we don’t see because of distance and racism and poverty. People on the other side of the street, who we don’t truly see because they are afraid to openly be who God created them to be. The church of Christ helps us to hear all those stories and then to be prophets in our own neighbourhoods.
Here’s an example: The next hymn we are going to sing is Peace Like a River, which I learned as a camp song, complete with actions.
One of my colleagues in ministry helped me to see that song in a very different light. She remembered a time when she attended a service where people were singing this, with all the campy embellishments, and lots of laughter.
For her, as a person of colour however, she knew the history, the roots of that song. This is a song that was sung by enslaved peoples, a song that lifted their hearts in times of great suffering and grief and injustice. So it struck her as inappropriate – not the singing or the actions so much, but the fact that we rarely acknowledge the history of this song, we rarely remember the people who sang it because they needed to. We rarely remember that they sang to generate the courage and hope to survive.
It must have been hard for her to write that article – knowing that it might hurt the feelings of people she cared about. But she had courage and faith to speak the truth the she thought we needed to hear, and it has changed the use of this song for many.
So let’s sing Peace like a River 577 Vu, and hold its history in our hearts.
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