This Sunday's sermon

Epiphany 6, 2022

       Luke is the most compassionate gospel.

       John, on the other hand, has only seven miracles. Jesus turns water into wine, raises Lazarus from the dead and heals a few people.

       Not Luke.

       Luke is full of miracles.

       In today’s gospel, “The crowd were trying to touch him” and he healed them All!

       ALL OF THEM!!!

       What follows next is one version of the Beatitudes.

       “Beatitudes” comes from the Greek word which means ‘blessed”.

       The other version of the Beatitudes comes in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5, verses 1-11.

       Interestingly, Matthew’s version is ‘the sermon on the mount’ since Jesus is on a hillside. In Luke it is the ‘sermon of the plain’, since he is on a flat place.

       Go figure.

       Matthew and Luke (whoever they were) were writing with a copy of Mark’s Gospel and the Gospel called “Q” in front of them.

       The idea for the Beatitudes came from Q, since Mark doesn’t have them.

       The versions in Matthew and Luke have some significant differences.

       Luke says ‘you who are poor’, while Matthew says, “you who are poor in spirit’.

       To be ‘poor in spirit’ implies that you know you need God, not that you have no money.

       So, in Matthew, those who ‘know they need God” will have the Kingdom of God. That makes more sense than Luke.

       Also, Matthew has no “woe to you” verses, only ‘blessed are you’ verses.

       And in Matthew, Jesus heals no one before the Beatitudes.

       The Beatitudes turn thing inside-out and upside down.

       The ‘hungry’ will be ‘filled’.

       Those who weep will ‘laugh’.

       The hated and excluded and reviled and defamed will ‘rejoice’ because their reward will be great in heaven.

       But in Luke, the ‘woe to you’ are even more distinct.

       Woe to the rich. They have nothing to look forward too.

       Woe to the full. They will have hunger.

       Woe to the laughing. They will mourn and weep.

       Woe to those who people speak well of. They will be like the false prophets.

       Inside out and upside down indeed!

       That’s what God wants to do to us.

       God wants to turn our fear into courage.

       God wants to our hatred into love.

       God wants to take away our prejudices and turn it into acceptance.

       God wants to turn our doubt into faith.

       God wants to turn our selfishness into compassion.

       God wants to make us inside-out and up-side down.

       God wants to ‘transform’ us into his children.

       Give thanks and praise to our God who wants to do all that for us.

       Our God wants to make us WHOLE.

       And we should want that—long for that, accept that too.

       Shalom and Amen.