Year C

Luke 6:17-26

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Plain Saving Talk

There is a story of two men who were traveling in a small airplane to a business meeting in Alaska. Somewhere over the tundra the plane’s motor failed and they were forced down. When they returned home each wrote an article for his favorite magazine about the experience. One man was an avid outdoorsman and his article was titled, “Survival in the Frozen North.” The other was a pastor and his article was titled, “How Prayer Saved Me.” The stories were about the same incident. Yet, the authors were different, and so was their audience, therefore their article’s though similar were also different.

Luke and Matthew both record in their gospels many of the teachings and sayings of Jesus. Matthew’s version of today’s text we know as, “The Sermon on the Mount.” Matthew writes for a Jewish audience, and every good Jew knew that all important events happened on a mountain. The law came from Mount Sinai. Moses views the Promised Land in the Book of Deuteronomy from Mount Pisgah. The temple is built on Mount Zion and Jesus goes to a mountain to meet Moses and Elijah. It is also on a mountain, where he commissions his disciples and leaves the earth. Therefore, for Matthew Jesus’ important teachings are given close to the sky.

Luke on the other hand, writes for a Gentile audience. His gospel is more of a down-to-earth account for the common people. When Luke records this teaching of Jesus today as Matthew did, the site of the sermon is not on a mountain, but in the lowlands. We read “And Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place.” We call Luke’s account today, “The Sermon on the Plain.” There are some major differences between Matthew’s account and Luke’s but the essential message about God’s values is the same. Matthew in his gospel wants to prove Jesus is the Messiah sent to save the Jewish people from their sins. Luke, on the other hand, is not concerned with some spiritual quest. He is out to prove that Jesus came to do away with all the distinctions which make some people think they are better than others.

Luke’s gospel is a universal gospel, and that universe is populated with the poor, lepers, Samaritans, beggars, women, foreigners, and tax collectors. Those who have nothing left in life to trust in, and so have to fall back on God, these are the ones who are blessed, Luke tells us. The rest of us have had our blessing from what we choose to put our trust in whether it’s in possessions or money or whatever. Jesus is standing surrounded by people who are hungry to benefit from the power that flows from him, and he announces, both through his healings and through his words, God’s care for the poor, the hungry and the suffering. The power of God is a power that will work, through the cross and resurrection, to comfort and renew the world. But it is not a power we instinctively recognize or trust, unless we are powerless ourselves.

Look at the evidence and who heard Jesus gladly? The well-to-do? Those who sat high up in the power structure? Those who held the chief seats in the synagogue? Most of the time, no, it was the poor who heard gladly. He had an enormous amount of trouble with those who had more than they could use but were never satisfied. It is harder, he said, “for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through a needle’s eye.” “Sell all you have and give the proceeds to the poor,” he told a rich young ruler whose possessions possessed him and who therefore turned sadly away. In Jesus’ ministry, for the most part, the well-off had a terrible time hearing and rejoicing in the gospel. It told them they had to share, and that came back not as good news. If I informed you this morning our lives would be meaningful only if we wrote a check to Episcopal Relief and Development equal to everything we owned. Not one of us today, including myself, would be overcome with joy.

But the poor heard him gladly, because he came to them with a message of hope. It was not their poverty which he blessed. They were blessed. Jesus painted a picture which included them and of a world where poverty, injustice and terror were gone forever. We call that world, “the Kingdom of God,” and we pray that it comes on earth as it is in heaven, where there is no rich or poor, every time we gather around the altar. If the kingdom for which we pray were suddenly to come, everyone would share alike in the world’s resources. Much like the very early church did but I’m not certain we American’s would like that very much. We are at least 7% of the world’s population but we consume over 40% of the world’s resources.

But the poor would like it. For them the out-breaking of God’s kingdom is overwhelming, blessed, good news. If our possessions are not possessing us, we can begin to see what Jesus meant, when he said, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Let me tell you where people are feeling blessed: in Africa, Latin America, and India, from Anglican to Pentecostal, the poor are hearing the good news and finding feelings of hope. It’s very possible Eastern Europe is on the edge of a revival of faith. It has been reported that in Shanghai, China, thousands of people have stood outside in every kind of weather waiting to go into church and worship Jesus “who for their sakes became poor so that by his poverty they might become rich”.

The truth for most of us is that we are rich and are full. Yet, most of us here today, don’t think of ourselves as rich, for we see the income and lifestyles of others in our culture, those who make so much more. When we do compare ourselves to the lifestyles of most of the world’s population, then we have to confess that we are, in fact, rich. Is Jesus saying “woe” to us? The Greek word for “woe” when translated is “alas.” The word “alas” is not a harsh kind of exclamation. It doesn’t have the bite that makes it a curse word. Rather, it might be better understood as a sigh, an expression of grief. “How sad for you”, Jesus says. As a parent, I knew the difference between those things my child did that made me angry and the things she did that make me sad.

And so our Lord says, “Woe,” to us. He is sad when we put our trust and hope in the things of this world. If we are preoccupied with this life and this world, we are living for “now.” And the kingdom teachings of Jesus invite us to live for “later.” To see this world’s treats for what they are compared to the great banquet in the kingdom. Choosing to put our trust in the God of the resurrection is not without risk. But in the end it is the only thing that makes any sense. Jesus descends to the plain, near the seacoast where the humble of Tyre and Sidon gather. “Blessed are you poor,” he said. They heard him and rejoiced. That’s plain talk—saving talk. Our God is the God of those who have nothing but God. Therefore, Jesus tells us today the truth, plainly, of what faithful living looks like.