How About You TRY IT!

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said, "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.  Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

  "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.  But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

  "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

This Gospel lesson is the continuation of “The Sermon on the Plain” which is Luke’s version of the same set of Jesus’ teachings that in Matthew are known as “The Sermon on the Mount.”  You can probably spot the most obvious difference right away.  One happens on a “mount” and the other on a “plain.”  The other big difference is that Matthew tends to “spiritualize” the Blessed Ares… “Blessed are the poor in Spirit”, while Luke does not… “Blessed are the poor”… period.  

Today’s part of that sermon begins with Jesus saying, “I’m now talking to all ya’ll who choose to listen.”  Way back then, not everyone chose to listen to Jesus.  Fast forward 2000 years and not much has changed as we hear that conservatives are now rejecting these core teachings of Jesus as “liberal talking points.”  Russel Moore, a former top official with the Southern Baptist Convention (an organization not typically viewed as a bastion of liberal thought) told NPR over a year ago that “Christian conservatives are openly denouncing a central doctrine of their religion as being too "weak" and "liberal" for their liking.”  He went on to say that “Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount.”  When pastors mention it or preach on it, their people ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”  “When the pastor says, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ'... The response would inevitably be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak.” 

The trouble with declaring that THIS is “weak” and “doesn’t work anymore” is that THIS is the very heart of Christianity we’re talking about!  THIS is Jesus’ core teaching about the proper understanding of the Law of Love.  Jesus’ core teaching is what they are calling weak!  Jesus’ central message is what they say no longer works!  WOW!  What they are rejecting is NOTHING LESS THAN THE NON-NEGOTIABLE CORE OF CHRISTIANITY.  That declaration would make even history’s hardest, hardcore heretics blush!  

Look, if someone doesn’t want to listen to Jesus… they are free to do that.  Absolutely!  BUT, if you’re not going to listen to Jesus because he’s weak, and you’re not going to live your life the Jesus Way because you believe that Way doesn’t work any more, then you just can’t keep calling yourself “Christian.”  IF you make those choices not to listen… not to follow… then frankly, I don’t really know WHAT you’re practicing religion-wise… but I am absolutely certain... it AIN’T Christianity!  

Now, for those of us who do our very-flawed-best to listen to Jesus… for those who do try our hardest to walk this life in Jesus footsteps, I will be the first to admit that the WAY Jesus is showing us here is NOT EASY!  Love enemies?  Do good to those who hate and curse you?  Pray for those who abuse you?  That’s an ENORMOUS ask!  And this isn’t how Jesus is calling us to live our “spiritual” lives either!  This is how Jesus is calling us to live this coming Tuesday, and every other day as well! 

So why listen and why follow if the ask is so hard?  Why?  Because Christians believe that in living this particular “Jesus Way” we, and all the people around us will live more and more deeply into God’s gift of abundant life!  A life where everyone has enough… enough to eat, enough of a safe place to live, enough healing and wholeness, enough dignity and purpose  enough love, compassion, kindness… enough REAL living.  

Christ’s life, death, and resurrection serves as a model of that way of living.  God continues to show us the power of that WAY even now… God continues to love us, even when we’re acting like God’s enemies.  God continues to do good for us even when we show hatred for God.  God continues to bless us and pray for us, forgive us, and give us all we have, even while at the very same time… we curse, abuse, and lash out at God.  This WAY we are called to walk is hardly weak.  Easter serves as an exclamation that this WAY is literally stronger than death!  

For those who insist that listening to Jesus is weak and the Jesus Way of living in this world doesn’t work anymore, I have one suggestion.  Maybe you should actually try it!  Because in my experience, and in the experience of the Saints over the last 2000 years, the only people who call the Jesus Way of living in this world “weak” are those too filled with fear to even give it a try.  The only people who say the Jesus Way of living no longer works are only those who have lacked the courage to take even one step onto the Jesus Way of living!  Before abandoning Jesus’ central teachings as weak… before throwing out Jesus’ core message because you say it doesn’t work any more… how about you TRY IT!  Try living with genuine love for your enemies.  Try living in a way that does good, even to those who hate and curse you.  Try praying for those who abuse you rather than seeking retribution.  

Before chucking it out… How about giving it a TRY?  Because over the last 2000 years, when you look at the people who really HAVE listened to Jesus and really HAVE dared to walk the Jesus Way… the ones who REALLY gave it a good try… they found that along that WAY of living they were in fact, walking into God’s gift of abundant life for all creation.  Amen.

EXPLETIVE DELETED You Who are Rich

Luke 6:17-26

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. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

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 on account of the Son of Man. 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. “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 what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

God has a distinct preference and a very clear focus.  It’s not “new”… It’s not something Bishop Budde created just for the inauguration or I dreamed up just for this sermon.  It wasn't even “new” when Jesus preached it here in Luke’s Gospel.  By the time Jesus preached it, God’s well known preference and focus had been around for millennia… clearly stated through Torah, throughout the prophets, in the wisdom literature and in the psalms.  Folks are being told to BELIEVE it’s a brand new “woke” God that folks like Bishop Budde and I are selling, but those same folks are also being told by the same people to believe that eggs and gas are cheaper, and that two plus two equals five.  

God's focus, which Jesus proclaims again in today’s Gospel lesson, is as it has always been:  It is a preference of blessing for the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the persecuted, and those who weep.  Now, hear me very clearly… God does NOT put people into, nor keep people in those terrible situations and call it a blessing.  That would make God a sadist, which God is not.  God’s preference for the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the persecuted, and those who weep, is to bless them OUT of those terrible situations!  Those out there twisting Scripture to suggest the opposite are doing a special kind of evil.  

No, God’s focus is (and has always been) on showering blessing ON people in terrible circumstances SO THEY WILL NOT REMAIN in those circumstances for so much as one more second of their lives!  And to be clear, we’re not talking about “spiritual” hunger, poverty, or sorrow here that should be worked out in church and not in politics.  Absolutely NOT!  Luke makes it VERY clear, Jesus is talking about genuine, physical belly hunger, real life can’t pay the bills poverty, zip tie and automatic weapon persecution of the foreigner, active stripping of care from the elderly, the disabled, and the orphan.  Jesus is also not talking about some sort of “spiritual” tears.  Jesus is talking about genuine, run down your face tears.  The gigantic tears of pain and loss.  The tears from being told you can’t love who you love or live on the outside the way God created you on the inside.  Jesus is talking about the real tears shed when you are ripped away from your children and the genuine tears, continually cried because you don’t know where your parent has been taken.  God’s very clear and distinct preference, is that people NOT be put into these situations nor remain in them for even one more second of their lives.  

But in Luke’s Gospel, God’s preference is not just made clear with blessings.  Jesus also makes God’s preferences clear by coming at them from the opposite direction with woes.  Luke Timothy Johnson, a Roman Catholic New Testament professor says that the word WOE, as it’s used in the Hebrew Scriptures, is, and I quote “an EXPLETIVE for disfavor or calamity, either described or desired.”  Now, I’m no New Testament professor, so I might be wrong on this, but to this country preacher that sounds an awful lot like Luke Timothy Johnson is saying that Jesus used the WOE word back then, the same way folks these days might use the “F” word.

Sounds extreme, I know, but to be honest, I think it fits pretty darn well!  WOE YOU!  Rich, full, laughing, and popular people who refuse to use your privilege to lift up the poor, hungry, crying and persecuted!  And an even bigger WOE YOU! to you who make policy driving people into poverty, hunger, grief and fear and work to keep people trapped in those horrors!  WOE!  YOU!

Whether or not my reading of the “woe" word is on target or it goes too far, God’s preference and focus could not be more clear.  God’s preference for when we find ourselves to be the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the persecuted, or the weeping (and we all spend time in those places to one degree or another) God’s preference when we find ourselves in those terrible places, is that our neighbors would join God in blessing us… lifting us out of those circumstances so that we might experience the abundant life God created all of us to live.  And then, where it’s possible, God’s preference is that we fix the systems that always seem to land people in those same terrible spots.  

It is also equally clear that it is God's preference that when we find ourselves with more than enough wealth… when we find ourselves with full bellies... when we find ourselves with the freedom, mental health, and security needed to be able to laugh, and we find ourselves in the good graces of the people around us… (and thankfully we all also spend some time in those places as well)  God’s preference is that in those times we would use the privilege we have in that moment to lift those neighbors around us who need lifting. 

Jesus pulled no punches with either the blessings or the woes in reminding us of God’s preference.  So, as Jesus’ disciples we too, must pull no punches in doing the same. Holding back on either simply perpetuates our neighbor’s pain and I would hope that by this point in the sermon we’re all clear on what Jesus would say to anyone perpetuating a neighbor’s pain.  Yeah.  THAT’S EXACTLY what Jesus would say, and to that I say...  Amen! 

To the King and his Men: Talk to the Hem!

Isaiah 6:1-13

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus said, “From now on you will be catching people.”  We usually take that to mean that Simon was being told that he would now be getting people to follow Jesus.  But what if Jesus really meant that from here on out, Simon would be putting out his nets not for fish, but to catch people who, for whatever reason, were falling… to catch them before they went splat?

See someone falling into poverty?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into illness?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into exhaustion?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into life in a war zone?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into addiction?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into loneliness?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into persecution?  Catch ‘em!  See someone falling into fear, anxiety, or despair?  Catch ‘em!

In spite of all the sermons you’ve heard on this and in spite of all the sermons I’ve PREACHED on this, I’m coming to believe that Jesus wasn’t so much talking about “saving people” as in converting people to a new religion but about SAVING PEOPLE as in trying to catch people, who for whatever reason, are on their way to going “splat” in this life! 

This past week, the work of Lutheran Social Services was attacked by Elon Musk as “an illegal use of Federal funds” and by Michael Flynn as a “money laundering operation.”  In reality, Lutheran Social Services provides services outlined in legal, government contracts in the exact same way that Tesla and Space X provide services outlined in legal government contracts.  They don't mind government contracts.  They just don't like the idea of putting out nets to try and catch people who are falling!  The libelous statements about contracts are just a smoke screen.  It’s the organized, willful, enacting of cruelty at work behind the smoke that is the greatest evil. 

Scripture… both todays lectionary readings… and the Scriptures as a whole are clear on what God prefers.  The Gospel lesson shows us God’s preference is for catching people as they fall.  The lesson from Isaiah, on the other hand, shows us what God thinks of those who embrace cruelty when God has called for mercy and compassion.  In the chapters leading up to today’s first lesson, we learn that King Uzziah was called by God to build the Nation of Israel into a beacon of light for the world.  It was to become that beacon by completely embracing of God’s Ways of love, compassion, grace, kindness, mercy and a self sacrificial care of the neighbor.  Do that, God told him, and the nations of the world will stream in to learn from you how to be a successful nation and it will change the world!  

Instead, King Uzziah used the power and wealth he had been given for himself rather than as tools to lead the people into God’s Ways of compassion, mercy, humility, and kindness.  He convinced himself that since he had the might, that made his way of thinking right.  He began to believe he could do anything… go anywhere.  His arrogance deluded him so completely in fact, that he convinced himself that it would be God’s honor to host the king for a visit in God's Holy of Holies.  As the king arrogantly pushed his way into God’s house, his face broke out in leprosy and in an instant, the king went from a person who could see anyone, to a person who could see no one.  From a person who could go anywhere, to a person who could go nowhere.  Eventually that disease, born of the king’s cruel, haughty arrogance, brought King Uzziah to the year of his death, which brings us to the opening line of today’s first reading.  

In today's lesson Isaiah is tasked to bring God's message to all the people who had backed the ways of their now-dead king.  The message was that God, so disgusted by the arrogance, cruelty, and evil of the king and his supporters, was in the process of walking out of Temple in utter disgust!  That, some commentators believe, is the real reason Isaiah saw just the hem of God’s robe.  God was outta there!  “Talk to the hem, the Divine ain’t listening!”  Only a tiny, limbless, leafless stump tasked with remembering and passing on God’s dream to a future generation would remain.  

The choices these lessons present for humanity could not be more clear.  We must choose to walk through this life the Jesus way or the King Uzziah way.  Will we choose Justice or Injustice?  Kindness or Cruelty?  Humility or Haughtiness?  For our little, faithful stump here at the center of the Sheffield metroplex, I am certain we will continue to choose to put out the nets of mercy, kindness, and compassion as we always have.  We will continue to put out our nets even when the king du jour calls mercy “nastiness” and all the king’s men turn cruelty into policy.

And why will we continue to put out our nets?  For the simple reason that someone right now is falling into hunger and we've been called to do what?  To catch ‘em!  Someone right now is falling into illness.  So what will we do?  We’ll Catch ‘em!  Someone right this very minute is falling into exhaustion, addiction, loneliness, persecution, fear, anxiety and despair!  So what will the Lutherpalians of Christ Trinity church choose to do about it?  We will, as we always have,  choose to do justice, love kindness, and with humility… put out our nets and do all we can to catch anyone and everyone who, for whatever reason, needs catching!  Amen.