Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "An Upside-Down Community"

Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10

I was part of a group of pastors

that met every week to study the lectionary …

It was an interesting mix of folks,

everything from Catholics to Methodists to Church of Christ

and everything in between.

Anyhow, I can still recall the week we studied today’s texts,

and discovered what the lectionary editors

had done with this passage from Luke.

Most of you probably know

that there is a very similar section in Matthew’s gospel,

in chapter 5 …

There, it gets called the Sermon on the Mount,

whereas Luke’s version has usually been referred to as

the Sermon on the Plain.

There are differences between the two …

not surprising, since both were written down

many years after the event actually happened.

But this particular segment,

these "blessings" and "woes,"

are so much alike that they must have come from the same source.

Anyway, what our group noticed was this:

Matthew’s version of the story

makes a regular appearance in the lectionary cycle,

so it comes around as the gospel reading

once every three years, in Year A,

the year that focuses on Matthew’s gospel.

Whereas Luke’s version,

because of where it gets placed in the lectionary cycle,

and because the date of Easter moves around so much,

doesn’t get heard every three years.

You’ll only hear it if we’re in Year C, which is Luke’s year,

and if Easter falls late enough

to where we actually have a Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We may hear Luke’s version only about

once every nine to twelve years.

Now you might be wondering, "So what?"

Why does that matter, if the two are so similar anyway?

Isn’t that just a bit of trivia

that only preachers would care about?

And/or New Testament scholars, perhaps?

Well – maybe, and maybe not.

Because, what our group suspected is that

the differences between the two versions

probably explains why Luke sometimes gets shortchanged.

Matthew comforts us; Luke indicts us.

Matthew can be discussed and interpreted

and explained away to a certain extent.

Luke is clear and brief, and leaves no doubt.

We can read Matthew and believe that we have been blessed,

whereas Luke offers us a steady does of woe.

So who wants to hear that

even once every three years?

According to Matthew, Jesus said,

"Blessed are the poor in spirit."

That could describe us, at least on our better days.

But Luke says that he said,

"Blessed are you poor,"

and that leaves us out.

According to Matthew, Jesus’ words were

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst

for what is right …"

which is mostly quite true of us.

But Luke says he said,

"Blessed are you who are hungry now,"

period, end of sentence;

and that isn’t true of us.

Luke is just a whole lot less comfortable to listen to,

if we take him at his word,

or his memory of Jesus’ words.

Something else that we also need to notice,

at least in passing …

In verse 17, Luke told us that

there was a great multitude of people there,

from all kinds of places around the area.

But in verse 20, as he is setting the scene for the sermon itself,

he tells us that Jesus

"looked up at his disciples and said …"

For a moment there, it sounds like

we’re going to be let off the hook.

Like maybe these really tough sayings of Jesus

weren’t meant for everyone who heard them,

just for that inner circle of disciples.

Unfortunately, we aren’t going to get off that easily.

Because verse 17 has described the disciples not as "the twelve,"

but as "a great crowd of his disciples."

So Luke is using the word disciple here

to mean anyone who has followed Jesus at all,

not just the twelve closest to him.

And when the sermon is over,

in chapter 7, verse 1, Luke continues,

"When Jesus had finished his sayings

in the hearing of the people …"

So everyone was there, and listening.

These were not – unfortunately for us! –

just special words for the privileged few.

Luke’s distinction between the crowd of disciples

and the larger crowd of listeners

may mean that this teaching was particularly important

for those who had made a decision to follow Jesus …

but the words were for the rest of the crowd as well,

even though at that point in time,

many of them may not have been ready

to understand and to respond.

Because these are not easy words to respond to …

at least, not in any serious way.

I suppose we could respond by just saying,

"Jesus is crazy … he expects too much."

Or, "He’s totally unrealistic."

Or, "That might have worked in the first century,

but it isn’t going to work now."

Or, we could just turn the page in our Bible,

and find something a little less uncomfortable,

a little more to our liking.

But if we want to take Jesus seriously,

we’re going to have to stay on this page,

with these words.

Not even flipping back to Matthew,

who remembers them in a less severe way.

No, according to Luke,

Jesus tells us that the ways of God

are completely turned around from the ways of the world.

And he tells us by implication

that this means we have a choice to make.

Are we going to choose wealth and success

and happiness, by human standards …

knowing that they may have nothing at all to do

with what God has in mind?

Or will we choose poverty, simplicity,

and suffering, as God seems to desire,

knowing that other humans

will call us foolish, or lazy, or worse?

And is Jesus really saying that

only the destitute, the hungry, and the weeping of this world

will ever see God?

And that those of us with full tummies,

and comfortable homes,

and who enjoy a good laugh every now and then,

are forever condemned?

We need to understand that Jesus does come very close

to saying just that,

at least in this particular instance.

Other places, even in Luke’s gospel,

he’s not quite so cut-and-dried.

But in this particular text,

it is almost that simple.

It is almost that hopeless … for us.

And before we move on,

we need to let that hit us with all of its force.

We need to let it convict us.

But then, what we need to understand as we move beyond,

is that the key is not

our wealth or poverty,

our hunger or satedness,

our laughter or tears,

but our attitude about them.

Remember what Jeremiah told us:

"Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals,

and make mere flesh their strength."

That is the attitude we have to be on guard against.

And that doesn’t let us very far off the hook!

Because it is next to impossible

for folks as fortunate as most of us are, most of the time,

not to put our trust in

our achievements, our abilities,

our intellect, our financial security.

For us to put our trust in the Lord only

is just about impossible.

It is so much easier

to trust the things we can see,

the things we can control.

Which is what makes it so very hard for us

to accept the values that Jesus preaches.

The values of that upside-down community

he called the kingdom of God.

We want to believe that

everyone gets what he or she deserves, or has earned somehow.

Don’t we still hear all the time

that people are poor because they are lazy, or stupid?

But haven’t you also known of wealthy people

who were also stupid or lazy or both,

yet no one ever concluded that

their riches were a reward for stupidity and/or laziness!

You can hardly have it both ways.

We don’t all get what we deserve.

Some get much less.

But many have received much, much more.

To live in the upside-down community

is to recognize that much of what we have

and so easily take for granted

is a matter of chance, or luck.

I’m hesitant to call it blessing,

simply because whenever we use the verb "bless,"

we seem to be implying that God

had something to do with how things have gotten distributed.

Like we got blessings,

but God decided not to give blessings to others.

I just don’t think that God is so cruel or so arbitrary

as to distribute blessings so unevenly

as we see the good things in our world distributed.

We are lucky people;

we are fortunate people.

I’m not saying that we haven’t worked hard,

or that we aren’t smart enough to do things on our own …

We do work hard, and we are intelligent!

Yet there are others "out there"

who have also worked hard,

and who have plenty of "smarts."

but have not been as fortunate as we have.

So for us to suggest that our good fortune

is due only to our own hard work and good behavior,

or to God’s special blessing upon us,

is to invite woes upon ourselves.

That’s the bad news.

That’s sign that we are still looking at the world

from a human perspective,

from a limited and worldly point of view.

The good news is that

the invitation into the upside-down community, with all its blessings,

remains open to us.

Many of us might still be classed among the multitude overhearing Jesus’ words,

trying to muster up the courage

to make the leap and join the disciples.

The thought that we might have to endure and accept

poverty, and hunger, and grief,

scares us; as it probably should.

It’s not a decision to be made lightly.

Often, it’s a decision that we have to make more than once,

because sometimes when the path gets difficult,

we wander off it for a while.

And even when we have decided

to be disciples and not just hearers,

we still need Christ’s reassurance that

the way we have chosen is blessed,

even if the rest of the world says we’re nuts.

And, we need Christ’s reminder and encouragement to stay at it,

even in those times when we look "unsuccessful,"

and foolish, and like failures,

by the world’s standards.

One last word: the community, the collective, aspect of it is essential.

The Christian life is too demanding

to try to live it in isolation.

We need one another’s support and encouragement,

and we will occasionally need one another’s correction.

Even Jesus at times seems to have needed

the support and the prayers of the friends around him.

If we want to try to live up to the ideal,

and work toward the coming of God’s kingdom into this world,

we’re in it together.

After all –

if all of us are upside-down,

one of these days it will start to look right side up.

Then we will really know

what it means to be blessed.

Amen.

© 2004 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)