Luke 6:20-31

The Feast of All Saints | 6 November 2022 | Luke 6:20-31 | Samuel D. Zumwalt |

Luke 6:20-31 English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. 27 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

HOLY BAPTISM: TRANSFORMS

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Child of God, you have been born into the eternal life and love of the one God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). You are not your own. You are not the center. On the day you were buried and raised with Christ Jesus in the washing of Holy Baptism, you died to yourself, yes, to your old sinful life. When you were made a child of God through no effort or merit of your own, life here was transformed.

So, then, your opinions, your ideology, your politics, your sense of who you think you are or who you say you are apart from your Baptism into Christ Jesus? None of that matters. You are food for worms or cremated dust in the dirt or sea. That is the inevitable wages of sin due when your old body is destroyed. Thereafter, when each human body is raised, and it will be, each body will either enter into the eternal joy of the Master or into eternal separation from the God who made us in His image.

The early Church understood that far better than we. The baptized living in cultures where Christians are nowhere near the majority understand that far better than we living in a dying culture in a dying world where most citizens once claimed to be Christians… at least in name. Holy Baptism changes everything, and woe to those who would gain the whole sinful world as if one could, as a child of God, continue both in the new life and the old. No, the old is passing away. Be mindful of that when you affix labels and initials and preferred pronouns to your name. At best, they are penultimate. At worst, they are a lie (the devil’s works and ways) that cannot be true of the children of God.

So, then, Child of God, are you among the worldly poor, the hungry, the weeping, and/or hated on account of the Son of Man? If the world is too much with you today, the is-ness of your present earthly existence is not a sign of divine disfavor. Your present life situation in this world cannot separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The mark of the holy cross on your forehead and the seal of the Holy Spirit, yes, the promise of your Baptism into Christ cannot be undone by the shape of your own cross-shaped journey through this dying world.

www.stmatthewsch.org

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

From the safety of their own moral certitude, Christian romantics often idealize the poor, the hungry, and the suffering as if these placements were the way of salvation. Such a confusion of Law and Gospel (God’s No to sin and God’s Yes to sinners) leads to a misbegotten “gospel of justice and peace” that is a thinly veiled worldly baptism of Marxist economics and rhetoric. In American Roman Catholic praxis and their wannabe friends, the preferential option for the poor is little more than a guaranteed large voting bloc for a particular political party. In American Calvinist praxis, the confusion of Law and Gospel, in some circles, looks like a guaranteed large voting bloc for the other party. But, no, we will never bring in the kingdom of God on earth by bureaucracy, gun, ballot box, or “educational” or social media manipulation. Often, we do our neighbor harm in our romanticism.

There are also Christian romantics who idealize those hated on account of the Son of Man, creating bureaucratic machinery with the necessary fundraising to support these martyred few in the valiant fight. Like Luther on penance in his 95 Theses, we ought to wonder why God’s free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation through the Blood of Jesus is being hawked by a marketing plan in support of martyrs but benefiting those who aren’t. Luther’s point was clear. If you need money to build a building or pay a salary, ask for it. Tell the truth. Forgiveness of sins can’t be purchased with silver or gold. Don’t put a surcharge or user tax on the Blood of Jesus.

Qoheleth, that wise old curmudgeon, pointed out the problem with formulaic theology. In his goodbye sermon, Pastor Moses had laid out the blessings and curses that came with keeping or not keeping the Sinai Covenant, which the LORD God had made by grace with His rescued people. This helped to explain, after the fact from a Babylonian ghetto, what went wrong with David’s United Kingdom and its divided successors. But, as a-too-late-smart Solomon had pointed out: You’re not in charge in a broken world, and sometimes those who do good get the shaft while the evil get the gold. You can do all the right things and end up with rotten kids, whose god is their belly, and who will run through your accumulated assets like waste through a waterfowl’s alimentary tract.

Child of God, both now and then, you are not your own. When your life is woe-full, you don’t say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” You are more likely to cry from the heart, “Why is this happening to me?” You are more likely to look for the obvious causes that led to such effects. You may insist you are a good person to whom bad things have unjustly happened, and, then, like a book by that name, rewrite God’s story to bring God down to a more manageable and acceptable size. It is harder to admit as Paul of Tarsus did, “Now we see through a mirror dimly…. Now out knowledge is partial” (1 Corinthians 13). Staring at and holding on to the cross of Jesus, we may see that our suffering is joined to His and vice versa. In time, we may come to see blessing in what was a woe.

Pain is a great teacher if we will learn from it. The child of God knows he or she remains in sinful flesh, and so the effects of our sins can humble us. In time, the scars of those seasons no longer are sensitive to the touch but remind us we do not live on Olympian heights. We can be wrong. We can do wrong. We can leave undone the good our Father demands and which our neighbor needs. Past woes can be great blessings. They can bring us to our knees and cause us to repent in dust and ashes.

Child of God, go for private confession when you do not know the way forward because of where you are today. Holy absolution, relief, and new vision awaits you. Grasp with empty hands the Host and the Cup, where the Crucified Lord Jesus has promised to be there for you, reminding you that you are not cursed in your woes nor blessed in your comforts. Be real. Be who and Whose you are right now where you are. Your future is sure. The present struggles will not last. Be, child of God!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

www.stmatthewsch.org

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Wilmington, North Carolina USA