{"id":6973,"date":"2022-02-05T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2022-02-08T14:05:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T13:05:19","slug":"luke-617-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-617-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 6:17-26\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Epiphany Six (Revised Common Lectionary) | 13.02.22 | Luke 6.17-26 | by Carl A. Voges<\/strong>&nbsp;|<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">The Passage<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And he (Jesus) came down&nbsp;with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of&nbsp;people&nbsp;from all Judea&nbsp;and Jerusalem and the seacoast of&nbsp;Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear&nbsp;him and to be healed of their diseases. &nbsp;And those&nbsp;who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. &nbsp;And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And&nbsp;he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBlessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBlessed are&nbsp;you&nbsp;who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBlessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBlessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you&nbsp;and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the&nbsp;Son of Man! &nbsp;Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBut woe&nbsp;to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWoe to&nbsp;you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWoe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWoe to you,&nbsp;when&nbsp;all&nbsp;people&nbsp;speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.\u201d&nbsp;\u200b&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>[English&nbsp;Standard Version]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBut in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.\u201c\u200b&nbsp;<\/em>\u200b&nbsp;[1 Corinthians 15.20]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;this&nbsp;past week,&nbsp;we are&nbsp;struck&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;illnesses that keep piling up in&nbsp;a&nbsp;person\u2019s life,&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;strains&nbsp;impacting&nbsp;marriages&nbsp;and&nbsp;work, by&nbsp;the&nbsp;inabilities&nbsp;to free up our lives.&nbsp;To get away from&nbsp;such&nbsp;realities, one is tempted to&nbsp;turn&nbsp;into a&nbsp;Super Bowl gathering later today or&nbsp;to run down the latest information&nbsp;from the new James Webb telescope&nbsp;orbiting&nbsp;the earth.&nbsp;Thankfully,&nbsp;however, the Lord\u2019s faithful people&nbsp;have the opportunity this&nbsp;morning to have this passage from Luke&nbsp;6 cross their lives and flood them with the richness of the&nbsp;Life the Son is bringing to this world\u2019s people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What has been occurring in these six weeks&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Epiphany season&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;growing realization that&nbsp;the&nbsp;Life being brought to this&nbsp;world by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection&nbsp;and&nbsp;ascension&nbsp;is markedly different from&nbsp;and&nbsp;far&nbsp;superior to&nbsp;the&nbsp;life offered by&nbsp;the&nbsp;world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such&nbsp;a&nbsp;realization is drawn out clearly in today\u2019s&nbsp;Gospel. This is&nbsp;an&nbsp;intriguing passage that&nbsp;is much like&nbsp;Jesus\u2019 Sermon on&nbsp;the&nbsp;Mount (Matthew 5-7). This section from Luke&nbsp;6 is known as Jesus\u2019 Sermon on&nbsp;the&nbsp;Plain. Just&nbsp;prior to this&nbsp;passage&nbsp;Jesus has chosen his twelve apostles.&nbsp;In its teaching our Lord&nbsp;addresses&nbsp;many of&nbsp;the&nbsp;beliefs that&nbsp;were current among&nbsp;the&nbsp;faithful&nbsp;Jews of&nbsp;his&nbsp;day. The&nbsp;Old&nbsp;Testament&nbsp;background for&nbsp;this teaching is seen&nbsp;in Leviticus 26&nbsp;and&nbsp;Deuteronomy 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leviticus 26 is&nbsp;the&nbsp;concluding part of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Holiness Code (chapters 17-26)&nbsp;where&nbsp;the&nbsp;LORD God&nbsp;addresses his people through Moses. The&nbsp;Code reminds&nbsp;the&nbsp;people that&nbsp;the&nbsp;holy God has come to live in&nbsp;the&nbsp;middle of&nbsp;a&nbsp;sinful people.&nbsp;Deuteronomy 28 is&nbsp;the&nbsp;conclusion of Moses\u2019&nbsp;second address to&nbsp;the Lord\u2019s&nbsp;people. He calls them to alertness by announcing&nbsp;the&nbsp;blessings that flow&nbsp;from obedience to&nbsp;the LORD&nbsp;God&nbsp;and the&nbsp;curses that emerge from disobedience to him. This Old&nbsp;Testament&nbsp;background positions us to&nbsp;step into Jesus\u2019 sermon.<br>Jesus&nbsp;is coming down&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;mountain&nbsp;with his&nbsp;twelve apostles&nbsp;(biblically,&nbsp;mountains serve as pointers to&nbsp;the&nbsp;presence of&nbsp;the&nbsp;LORD God;&nbsp;in that presence&nbsp;Jesus&nbsp;has&nbsp;called&nbsp;the&nbsp;apostles&nbsp;to serve in his ministry). &nbsp;Luke&nbsp;tells us he is standing with&nbsp;a&nbsp;great crowd that includes&nbsp;people from&nbsp;all of Judea,&nbsp;Jerusalem, Tyre&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sidon. These people&nbsp;have come to hear&nbsp;Jesus&nbsp;and&nbsp;to be healed of their diseases. Those who are troubled with unclean spirits are being cured&nbsp;and&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;is trying to touch&nbsp;him&nbsp;because&nbsp;his power is&nbsp;radiating from him&nbsp;and&nbsp;healing&nbsp;them&nbsp;all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then&nbsp;our Lord&nbsp;says to&nbsp;the&nbsp;disciples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is&nbsp;the&nbsp;kingdom of God&nbsp;(remember that \u201cpoor\u201d is not just&nbsp;an&nbsp;economic reality, it describes one\u2019s dependence&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;LORD God).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blessed are&nbsp;you&nbsp;who&nbsp;are hungry now, for you will be filled&nbsp;(eating from&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s life offers&nbsp;just&nbsp;temporary&nbsp;satisfactions;&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s Life offers permanency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh&nbsp;(the&nbsp;stresses of&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s life trigger all sorts&nbsp;of suffering&nbsp;and&nbsp;affliction;&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s Life frees us from&nbsp;such stresses).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u200bBlessed are you when people hate you&nbsp;and&nbsp;exclude you, revile you&nbsp;and defame you on account of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Son of Man (this harassment is not triggered&nbsp;by&nbsp;who we are, but because&nbsp;we have been drawn into&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s Life;&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;person&nbsp;living&nbsp;more fully in&nbsp;one\u2019s&nbsp;Baptism rather than in&nbsp;the&nbsp;birthed life, this is what will occur).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rejoice in that day&nbsp;and&nbsp;leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven&nbsp;(that \u201cday\u201d&nbsp;and that&nbsp;\u201cjoy\u201d are&nbsp;eternal&nbsp;realities&nbsp;coming&nbsp;into&nbsp;the&nbsp;present life).&nbsp;The&nbsp;hating, excluding, reviling&nbsp;and&nbsp;defaming is what has always been done to God\u2019s&nbsp;people,&nbsp;reaching&nbsp;deeply&nbsp;into the&nbsp;Old&nbsp;Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBlessed\u201d is&nbsp;a&nbsp;rich biblical word describing&nbsp;the&nbsp;joy&nbsp;that comes to&nbsp;a&nbsp;person&nbsp;who has been pulled into&nbsp;the&nbsp;Life of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Holy Trinity;&nbsp;it reaches far beyond&nbsp;all&nbsp;the&nbsp;definitions that we&nbsp;and&nbsp;our culture attempt to put on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Lord&nbsp;continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But woe&nbsp;to you who are rich, for you&nbsp;have received your consolation&nbsp;(\u201cwoe\u201d is&nbsp;a&nbsp;word from eternity describing&nbsp;the&nbsp;never-ending separation from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Holy&nbsp;Trinity; \u201crich\u201d points&nbsp;to those&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;world who are able to improve their economic situation&nbsp;and&nbsp;conclude that they alone made this possible).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry (\u201cfull\u201d describes those who have&nbsp;feasted&nbsp;exclusively on&nbsp;what&nbsp;the&nbsp;world&nbsp;offers&nbsp;and&nbsp;are quite satisfied with what has&nbsp;emerged).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn&nbsp;and&nbsp;weep (\u201claughter\u201d&nbsp;is describing&nbsp;those who believe&nbsp;they have&nbsp;the&nbsp;ability to&nbsp;overcome or avoid any&nbsp;difficulty they encounter).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woe to you when all speak well of you&nbsp;(again, this \u201cspeaking&nbsp;well\u201d means that everything is focused on&nbsp;the&nbsp;self because this is&nbsp;the&nbsp;core of&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s life).&nbsp;This speaking well&nbsp;among us in&nbsp;the&nbsp;world not only hides&nbsp;what is false&nbsp;and&nbsp;wrong&nbsp;in our lives, it also expands our&nbsp;self-centering&nbsp;and&nbsp;self-asserting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWoe\u201d&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;rich biblical word&nbsp;that unpacks what occurs when&nbsp;the&nbsp;gods of this world crowd out&nbsp;the&nbsp;real&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;God&nbsp;and&nbsp;push him to side&nbsp;of&nbsp;or away from&nbsp;a&nbsp;person\u2019s life.&nbsp;Those unreal gods unloaded on Jesus when&nbsp;the&nbsp;Father sent him to&nbsp;the&nbsp;world to redeem its people from&nbsp;such&nbsp;self-wrapping.&nbsp;Those same unreal&nbsp;gods unload on Jesus\u2019 people when we attempt to reflect&nbsp;and&nbsp;carry his Life into this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While&nbsp;the&nbsp;world was created&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;God to be&nbsp;excellent&nbsp;and&nbsp;its people were brought into being to fully live in him,&nbsp;the&nbsp;unholy trio of sin,&nbsp;Satan&nbsp;and&nbsp;death&nbsp;is committed to disrupting&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s intent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why today\u2019s&nbsp;passage is clarifying our vision as&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s people&nbsp;and&nbsp;toughening us&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;work we&nbsp;are baptized to do. It is clear that overwhelming&nbsp;blessings stream in on those who struggle to be obedient&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord who has rescued&nbsp;them (even when&nbsp;the&nbsp;blessings seem to be non-existent or hidden!).&nbsp;It is also clear that&nbsp;overwhelming woes stream in on those who easily follow&nbsp;the&nbsp;obedience to one\u2019s self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These woes&nbsp;are unbelievably cruel to&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s&nbsp;people. They insist that if we have enough money we can purchase all kinds of happiness&nbsp;and&nbsp;have&nbsp;a&nbsp;satisfactory life (an&nbsp;insight from&nbsp;C S Lewis). Or if we have good upbringing&nbsp;and&nbsp;intelligence, health&nbsp;and&nbsp;popularity,&nbsp;we can be satisfied with ourselves (again, C S Lewis). But there is so&nbsp;much cruelty&nbsp;and&nbsp;tragedy in these conclusions because they crowd out&nbsp;the&nbsp;real LORD&nbsp;God from people\u2019s lives&nbsp;and&nbsp;offer&nbsp;sorry&nbsp;substitutes&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s gods. People who are so wrapped up in themselves have no&nbsp;idea&nbsp;of where their lives&nbsp;are&nbsp;headed or of&nbsp;the&nbsp;deadly emptiness waiting to swallow them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why our task, as&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s baptized people, is to live among such individuals&nbsp;and to&nbsp;let&nbsp;the&nbsp;Trinity\u2019s Life radiate through all that&nbsp;we are&nbsp;and&nbsp;do. We cannot&nbsp;barge&nbsp;into&nbsp;the&nbsp;world\u2019s messes&nbsp;and the&nbsp;lives of such individuals with simple prescriptions&nbsp;like&nbsp;\u2013 take&nbsp;a couple of&nbsp;ibuprophen&nbsp;and&nbsp;things will improve!&nbsp;Instead, we&nbsp;take&nbsp;the&nbsp;time&nbsp;(sometimes lengthy)&nbsp;to&nbsp;remember how our Lord rescued us from&nbsp;the&nbsp;terrifying realities of&nbsp;being wrapped up in&nbsp;ourselves.&nbsp;He lets&nbsp;us&nbsp;find that wrapping on our own&nbsp;and&nbsp;then steers&nbsp;us to&nbsp;the&nbsp;holy places of his&nbsp;Scriptures&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sacraments,&nbsp;the&nbsp;places that&nbsp;are already significant&nbsp;to the people in&nbsp;Lord\u2019s&nbsp;parishes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, we are not in this Liturgy&nbsp;this morning&nbsp;because our lives are roaring successes,&nbsp;we are here because we are&nbsp;continually&nbsp;and painfully&nbsp;finding out&nbsp;how dependent we are on&nbsp;the&nbsp;real LORD&nbsp;God&nbsp;and&nbsp;how vital it is for us to be in his presence!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May our&nbsp;Lord continue to&nbsp;sustain us as&nbsp;we&nbsp;carry&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lord\u2019s&nbsp;Life to this world, making it possible for&nbsp;those&nbsp;who are trapped in their self-absorption to be&nbsp;rescued&nbsp;and&nbsp;to be&nbsp;freed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our&nbsp;hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus&nbsp;our Lord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns are-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Pastor Carl A. Voges,&nbsp;STS,&nbsp;Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Epiphany Six (Revised Common Lectionary) | 13.02.22 | Luke 6.17-26 | by Carl A. Voges&nbsp;| The Passage And he (Jesus) came down&nbsp;with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of&nbsp;people&nbsp;from all Judea&nbsp;and Jerusalem and the seacoast of&nbsp;Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear&nbsp;him and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,173,108,110,756,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-6973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-06-chapter-06-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6980,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions\/6980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}