February 16, 2025
Luke 6:17-26
Introduction
I don’t’ know about you, but I have some big problems with today’s Gospel. I’d rather be rich than poor. I’d rather be full than hungry. I’d rather laugh than weep. And I’d rather be spoken well of than be hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed. What about you? Who’s with me? Any of you have problems with today’s Gospel?
After all, today’s Gospel doesn’t align well with the values of a capitalist society. It doesn’t really support our constitutional right to “the pursuit of happiness.” And it certainly doesn’t back up our own personal efforts for happiness. It’s a hard Gospel to hear for anyone who has been taught or come to be believe that happiness is the primary goal in life. So is that what Jesus is trying to tell us? That we can’t be happy? Or, if we are happy, then woe to us? No. That’s not at all what Jesus is saying. But what Jesus is saying has the power to change our lives, the power to heal us, the power to help us be happy, and it has the power to change our “woe” w-o-e into “whoa” w-h-o-a.
Move 1
Still though, today’s Gospel is a bit troubling. Isn’t it interesting that in all the prayers we say—here at church in worship, in meetings, or at home or wherever—in all those prayers we pray for the poor, the hungry, the persecuted, and yet, Jesus says they are blessed. What about those to whom Jesus says, “Woe to you?” Why don’t we pray for them? If we took to heart today’s Gospel shouldn’t we pray for them? So let’s try that out. We’re going to have a little class participation today. Every time I say, “Let us pray to the Lord” you all are going to respond with, “Lord have mercy.” Got it? Ready?
For the rich in bondage to their assets, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For all who are full and successful but have no satisfaction or meaning, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For all who laugh to hide or avoid the pain of their life, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For all who seek or find their identity and value in being spoken well of by others, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
*******
That exercise in prayer was meant to be a little tongue in cheek, but there is a slight edge of reality within it all as well. Because I wonder if the reason we don’t pray such prayers is because those who would fall into such prayers always look and sound happy. And for most of us happiness is the goal, or I wonder if we don’t pray such prayers because we don’t want to face those aspects, those truths, in our own lives, right? After all, there are some hard truths in those prayers we just prayed right? The “rich in bondage to their assets? There’s a saying, “The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you.” Is “stuff” the stuff of happiness? The “full and successful, but have no satisfaction?” Where’s the happiness in that…if you have no one to share it with?
All “who laugh to hide or avoid pain”? Is putting on a “happy face” enough to make us happy? All “who seek or find their identity and value in being spoken well of by others”? Is what others think of us the source of happiness?
It’s like the song “If It Makes You Happy” by rock n roll artist Sheryl Crow, where the chorus says, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?” I kind of jumped out of my skin the other day when this song came on the radio and I screamed, “That’s it! That’ll preach!”
What if… what if the goal of life is not happiness? What if, instead, the goal of life is meaning? What if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just another pursuit of happiness, not just another late-night infomercial program for happiness? What if the Gospel of Jesus Christ was about the pursuit of meaning in life?
And then if the Gospel of Jesus Christ was about the pursuit of meaning, then what if blessings and woes are guideposts—that which gives us green lights and red lights to help us navigate our lives— guideposts for living a life of meaning?
Move 2
Now, before anyone starts to wonder or assume… No, I am not suggesting that Jesus and the Gospel are opposed to our happiness. I am suggesting, however, that there is something deeper and more lasting than happiness. After all, happiness is circumstantial and often happenstance. Happiness is dependent upon what is or is not happening. Which we all have experienced, right? One day we are happy, but the next day we are not. Wait. What happened? I didn’t change, but I’m not happy today. What happened was the circumstances around us changed.
And that is exactly what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel. Circumstances change. Those who are hungry will be filled and those who are full will be hungry. Those who are laughing will weep and those who are weeping will laugh. That’s true in each of our lives, about each of the blessings and each of the woes. Jesus is describing the pattern of our lives.
Think how often we cycle back and forth between days of blessing and days of woe. Go down the list of blessings and the list of woes and you will find every one of them in your life: poverty, hunger, weeping, to be spoken ill of, richness, fullness, laughing, and to be spoken well of—we all have experienced all of them.
It’s easy and tempting to set blessings and woes in opposition; to see one as better and more desirable than the other; and to wonder which category we fall into. But they are not at all about falling into one or the other. Jesus is not establishing a hierarchy between blessings and woes. Jesus is saying that he understands this is how life is.
Luke makes a point of telling us that Jesus “stood on a level place” when he spoke about blessings and woes. Jesus is leveling the ups and downs of our lives—letting us know he understands. And then, with that understanding, he is inviting us to do something. He’s inviting us to look beyond the circumstances of life that happen day to day, look beyond a status level of life… and find meaning in every day life.
Move 3
It’s really important to remember that today’s Gospel happens in the context of healing. “A great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people … had come to hear [Jesus] and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.” That context of healing is the context in which we need to hear and understand the blessings and woes we experience. So I want to encourage you to consider… What if blessings are not a reward and woes are not a punishment? What if blessings and woes are not categories of two different kinds of people? What if there are aspects in each of our lives to which Jesus says, “Blessed are you”? What if there are aspects in each of our lives to which Jesus says, “Woe to you”? And what if both are said as guideposts for our wholeness, and intended for our healing?
The blessings and woes of our lives are not a conclusion made, or a status given, by Jesus. They are insights about our lives for us to consider, lenses through which to see ourselves and understand our lives.
Look at the poverty, hunger, and weeping in your life today. Look at the richness, fullness, and laughing in your life today. Listen to what others are saying about you. The question isn’t, “Which one of those am I?” The question is, “In what ways are all of these a part of my life and what do they mean for me today?” What are the blessings and woes telling you, or showing you? In what ways do they enlarge and enliven your life, and in what ways do they narrow and constrict your life?
Do they align with and support the values you claim to hold and the life you want to live, or do they impede and contradict the life you want to live and the way you want to be?
What are they asking of you? In what ways might they be energizing your life, obstructing your life, or redirecting your life? How are they affecting your relationships? What are they pointing to that needs your attention and work today?
Conclusion
The answers to those questions, and a thousand others like them, are insights that open our eyes and heart to a life of wholeness and meaning. The answers to those questions, and a thousand others like them, are insights that help us discern the life that wants to enter the world through us.
But it takes more than insight to live the life that wants to enter the world through us. We also need courage to risk living a life of meaning in the world. We need endurance to do so in the face of opposition from others as well as ourselves. We need balance to help us understand that just because one day holds certain circumstances, it doesn’t mean that’s where we will be tomorrow. We need support, encouragement and love from others to cheer for us, and to help us rise back up. And we need grace— grace from God, but maybe even more so, grace from ourselves.
All of this is difficult and often painful work, and it asks a lot of us. And the natural question to ask then is, Is it worth the effort? Well, listen to what today’s Gospel says: “Power came out from [Jesus] and healed all of them.” And that power…from Jesus…that can heal…well that power can change any woe w-o-e, into whoa w-o-a-h.
And hey… difficult and painful work that turns woe into woah… well…
“If it makes you happy…then it can’t be that bad”… right? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 16, 2025
Creator God, we celebrate you, the source of every blessing—even the blessings we don’t see or embrace, or turn away from. For you sent Jesus into our lives to save us from our sins that caused us to be separated from you—the sins of selfishness and greed; envy and the lust for power and control; the sins that cause us to withhold compassion, empathy, and love.
You sent Jesus to forgive us, but you sent him too to be a teacher of hard truths—yet they are all truths that have the power to set us free from the sins that bind us to this world.
We confess, Holy God, it is difficult to let go of our anger toward those who prosper through deceit and unscrupulous ways. It is not easy to make ourselves believe the meek will inherit the earth, when they are being crushed by the unjust systems stacked against them. We long to see the vindication of the righteous and the prosperity of those who work selflessly to bring your realm here on earth. We yearn for the day when all people will treat one another as they wish to be treated.
So to see such change in the world, then we need to be that change. So help us to live that way, keeping us aware that on the days when we feel your blessings immensely, we are called to share your good ways. And keep us aware that on the days when we struggle to feel your blessings, to know they are still present, we are still called to share your good ways. For this is the way that can change our woe, and the woes of every person we cross paths with into awe inspiring whoa of life on earth as it is in heaven.
We humbly ask for you to hear the prayers of our hearts and spirits as we share them in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”