Embrace to Flip the World: A Sermon for Epiphany 6, 2019

Text: Luke 6:17-26

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who embraces all.

         Hoo boy, anyone else get a few tingles going through them in the later half of Luke?  We like the first part. …. Screen…

         Then the woes though. At first read of this I got very midwestern, oof da. And I wanted to figure out where I sit here on this list. I’ve said it a few times the last few weeks, but well, it’s still true today, we like to define groups, who’s in what, where do they fit, where do I fit. We see this list of blessed and woes, and we immediately want to figure out well, where do I belong, and am I therefore on the good end or bad end of what’s coming.

Ok, so, I’m not rich, but in comparison I am. I certainly eat my fill, got the gut to prove it, but, I’m not eating like a pig every meal, and while I’ve gone through some tragedy and loss, it’s certainly not like others.

         We try really, really hard to put ourselves into the woes, or to take ourselves out of them.

Which completely defeats what Jesus is trying to teach.

What does it mean to be blessed? Well, we usually define it is that good things have happened to you. I was so blessed because I won the lottery. People forever have defined it this way. If you look at contemporaries of Jesus, how they thought about blessing then as well as now. It was all about, well, because you have good things, you’re rich, you’re powerful, you’re well to do, well, God must have blessed you.

In this list of people who are blessed why are they blessed?

         They are not blessed because they are poor, they are blessed while they are poor. The point isn’t to be poor, but that the poor will be blessed. The hungry aren’t blessed because they are hungry, but because God will fill them. The weeping aren’t blessed because they weep, but because God will comfort them, their grief will be removed and they will laugh, they will shout and jump with joy. They are blessed because the hope of Christ is there for them.

         They are blessed, because Jesus will flip what it means to be blessed upon its head. Blessing’s here have nothing to do with what you have, who you are, but it has everything to do with who’s you are.

         All those people who are blessed belong to God, they are loved, cared for, comforted, embraced by God.

         And so are the people woes. They are loved by God, so much that Jesus is declaring these woes to them. Paraphrasing John 3:16 and 17, For God so love the world that God sent the only Son, not to condemn the world, but to save it. The word woe here literally means whoa! Hey! Watchout! The word is ouai. Woe! Oi! Take note! It’s not a condemnation, but a warning. Things are going to flip the right way up, poor will be blessed, hungry be filled, weeping filled with joy, and instead of being a part of achieving that flip, of being active members of the body of Christ working good in the world, you’re being too concerned about how you fit in the current order. You’re too busy noticing that you think you’re already blessed in how the world defines it. So, Woe! Slow down! And turn around. Don’t work to try to figure out how blessed you are, but work to make others blessed as well.

The point isn’t to find where we are, but to be a part of what Jesus is.

         We aren’t called to figure out where we are before the world flips around, but to be integral parts with Christ in flipping the world.

         Is that hard? Yes.

And it’s easy.  Sarah sent me this quote this week, and I found it extremely profound.

Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

Desmond Tutu

         Or to paraphrase it to what we’re talking about. The little bits that we do, when combined with what all the rest of the full body of Christ can do in this world, are integral in flipping the world around.

         I had something pointed out to me a couple weeks ago by Kayden Moore, (and since he’s not here, I told him I’d use this a week he is, so you’ll all get to hear it again then). Our sanctuary is built in a semi in the round style. Meaning it’s not the old traditional long two column rows of pews going back, but not completely surrounding the table, font, and pulpit. And Kayden’s comment was that he really liked that, because it was like we are in a big embrace by Jesus. Let me show you.

         This is what it means to be the body of Christ, my friends, Children of God. To be a people who are embrace together into one group, into one church, here, in United Parish, in St. Joseph, in Elk Point Baptist, St. Paul, Brule Creek, and every other church in this state, in this country, in this world, all together working to enact Christ’s mission of flipping the world.

         People of God, you are blessed, just as you are, you are blessed, to be blessings for each other and all of God’s wonderful creation. Amen.