LK 6: 17-26 

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 6… Revised 2019 

We’re long past times when we could assume church people & many others could say the ‘Lord’s prayer’ & recite the ‘Beatitudes’ (in MT’s version). A warning against making assumptions as we prepare to preach LK’s version! Was it William Barclay who said we should think of  ‘beatitudes’ as ‘congratulations on a present state of blessedness, not hopefulness of some future blessing’? I’m all for enjoying my blessedness now, rather than having to wait for later! LK though, has Jesus going on to teach being hated, ostracised, denounced, & scorned for His sake as another kind of blessedness. What to make of this? 

Being a disciple doesn’t remove us from ‘the world’, but beds us more firmly in the world, though not of it. I suggest it’s worth exploring whether LK is really transform -ing Jesus’ ‘Blesseds’ as they appear in MT from generalisations, to being a matter of personal experience. Not just ‘the poor in spirit’ but you & I when we’re poor now! Not simply ‘the hungry’ but when you & I are hungry now! Not simply ‘those who weep’ but you & I when we’re weeping now! When we’re hated now. Excluded now. Reviled now. Defamed now! Mind you, any / all of this ‘on account of the Son of Humanity’! “For my sake!”

What can it mean that Jesus says, “Rejoice, Jump for joy!”? Are there depths in how LK reports what Jesus says here that need to be sounded before we can discern what it means? How to explore these depths without explaining Jesus away in the process?     

How can we best explore what it might mean to discern the depths of ‘un-comfort-able words’? Not the ‘comfortable’ ones we might prefer, & that once graced our liturgies. 

 To preach this passage in the Spirit in which Jesus does, we need people to be un-comfortably on the very edge of their pews rather than relaxing back into any cushioning they may be fortunate to have! Jesus preaches words comfortable only in the best biblical sense - which involves discerning their uncomfortable edges in real life & in real time as LK, not to mention Jesus Himself, proclaims them.

Of course people need comforting now. The poor need to get a life; the hungry need bread (at least); the sad need hope for a future without a loved one. If God is Alpha & Omega, it's logical God is also the God of the in-between time, the God of Now. When & where you & I minister. What's going on in our congregation, our district, our nation that we need to explore in relation to Jesus' hard sayings rather than His nicer & easier ones? 

Brian

Afterthought: Can any of what LK reports Jesus as saying become true; any of us be blessed, congratulated, right now, rather than in some later life? Except when the rest of us, Christ's Body here on earth, make it happen in His Name & by His Spirit; tough going as it will inevitably be. And no excuses will be found acceptable! 

LK 5: 1-11 

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 5…Revised 2019

I can’t approach this passage without remembering the day when, long ago, & in a new parish, I wandered at random into a Sunday School class. Only to hear the teacher explaining that when Jesus tells Simon to 'put out a little from the land’, He means they need to break off some more land into the water because fish needed more room to swim in! A warning to me & to us all: don’t assume everyone ‘gets’ even what we believe are seemingly obvious bits of Scripture. (Needless to say, we instituted training soon after for S.S. teachers & would-be teachers!)

LK tells us the crowd ‘presses upon Jesus’ to hear the word of God. How can we encourage people to ‘press upon Jesus’ in our endeavour to discern the Truth in Him Who Is the Word of God? (The God I've come to recognize during life's journey doesn't fit the One some preachers peddle to keep their particular hobby-horse galloping!)

That I am acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ, is evidence that what Jesus teaches when we 'press upon him' in the right Spirit may be hard going, but it's always lovingly & acceptingly inclusive. (Remember Nazareth from the last two Sundays!)  

The scene by the lake is idyllic, but when Jesus teaches, someone is always going to be disturbed. Our apple cart - or fishing boat - may well be over-turned. Rather than being comforted (except in IS’s sense in Ch.40) & sustaining the status quo, Jesus’ Gospel is always challenging, re-shaping, re-directing. What we must discern here is that Jesus’ teaching & call will inevitably begin to bite into lives. It's easy enough for Simon to humour Jesus by 'putting out a little from the land’, in itself not all that  demanding an exercise. Are we, though, too easily settling for undemanding forms of discipleship’? If so, isn’t it time to fall down on our knees & move on like Simon? 

Whatever Jesus tells us when He teaches, it’s sure to invite us outside our comfort zone. Once He starts telling people who know all about fishing where the fish are shoaling, He's moving the goal posts.Yet it's Simon & his fellow fishers who’re out of their depth, not Jesus! Must we admit we’re out of our depth, too, before we can progress our discipleship? Simon's falling down at Jesus' knees is not only a first step but also a sign of what lies ahead for those who will follow Him.

Brian

Afterthought: Simon's admission that he has 'missed the mark' (Gk.) is a good first step for any of us to take. But, what to do next? Instead of digging out more land for fishes, let’s try, instead, launching out into the deep-ness of YHWH God.

LUKE 4: 21-30

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 4…Revised 2019

Jesus’ exposition of IS that enrages those in the synagogue centres on pointing out  one of Israel’s failures. Exclusiveness. The Sidonian woman & Syrian man He draws attention to each represent different ends of the human scale. The woman - give her a name & let’s call her, say, ‘Sida’, is poor, foreign, & a widow. The man, Naaman - note how he’s given a name - is powerful, foreign, a General, a ‘leper’, & therefore outcast & untouchable! Add to all this that one is a woman, the other a man! Why does Jesus hold up these two, different as chalk from cheese as they are, to His hearers attention?

Because these two from Elijah’s, & Elisha’s times are lessons for us all - not just for that audience in that synagogue at Nazareth! (1) Both then &, now, all genders are equal in YHWH’s eyes; (2) The poor & down at heel count as much as the rich & powerful in YHWH’s eyes; (3) That there is no such person as an outcast, anyone untouchable in YHWH’s eyes; (4) Being other than home-grown Jewish is also OK with YHWH. What are the implications of His teaching here & now for us in our churches?

Jesus is preaching a lesson in God’s inclusiveness. His hearers, I’m sure, get these points only too well! And don’t like them! Or Jesus, anymore! They don’t want these kinds of attitudes taking hold, coming true today - or any other day. It's all right as long as Jesus sticks to the text, but once He starts applying it, & wanting them to do the same, out he goes! Is it still the case in congregations today? In ours?

Are we preaching - & practising - as inclusive a God as Jesus is preaching YHWH?  Is inclusiveness as much on our agenda as it is on God’s? It’s inevitable there will be differences of opinion in Faith & politics & other spheres of life, but how are we to handle those ‘intersections’? Are we seeking to discern our way through the issues involved, under the guidance of Holy Spirit, Jesus’ Spirit? One way we may be helped discern God’s ‘mind’ on such relationships may be to invite the congregation to reflect on how their families & friends are responding to people who are ‘different’ in our midst.

Brian 

Afterthought: One thing that appeals to me about Jesus’ approach to people is that He doesn’t see, or teach, that God's loving purpose is a closed shop! No-one can put a stopper on God’s love. YHWH’s loving purpose is still unfolding, & always will be. Our calling is to find out where we - & others, even those as different from us as Sida & Naaman & what they represent - fit into God’s purpose. Isn’t that a top priority in any preacher's task? 

LUKE 4: 14-21

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 3… Revised 2019

(Preachers in OZ may connect with Australia Day - or, Invasion Day as our indigenous folk see it.)

If my train of thought seems even stranger than usual, please ponder before dismissing! Two Sundays ago we celebrated Our Lord’s Baptism by JB. Last Sunday, a wedding at Cana. Today we’re celebrating Jesus returning to Nazareth ‘in the power of the Spirit’. (Next week concluding today’s passage, we’ll be celebrating His surviving an attempt on His life!)

When people in the synagogue hear Jesus telling them IS’s great prophecy from long ago is being fulfilled today in His own person, everyone’s attention is ‘riveted on Him’². Later, as we’ll hear next week, people are at His throat, but let’s explore that then. Today, though, expectations are raised! 

Like Moses before him, IS can only speak his prophecies because he’s a person who speaks with YHWH God - continuously! Prophets who tell us about God before speaking with God - not talking with themselves - are likely to be false! Come back to Jesus’ baptism by JB; John, too, can only speak about God because he converses with YHWH God continuously. Jesus’ baptism happens because JB yields to God’s judgment over his own. And God then confirms this with the proclamation of His Son.

Baptism should always raise expectations. For ourselves & each other. The first words of IS that Jesus reads to the congregation: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me’… is indication Jesus recognises His baptism by JB in Jordan as His own anointing to be God’s promised Messiah. Are we living out our own baptism as the anoint-ing by Holy Spirit of God to be ‘Good news for the poor, pardon for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, YHWH’s amnesty^1. 

There’s a ‘joining of all the dots’ here too good not to explore. The power of Jesus’ Baptism makes its presence felt in Nazareth where we meet up with Jesus today, & in earlier visits He pays to synagogues in Galilee. He is ‘acclaimed by everyone’^2. Isn’t His first Sign, at Cana, also an outworking of being baptised & ‘in the power of the Spirit’ as Jesus is?

A good way to go, is to make ourselves a significant sized Baptismal Candle if we don’t have one already. Check the date of our Baptism, & start to celebrate our being born of water & Spirit all year round with that candle as a down-to-earth reminder in a prominent place in our home to remind us constantly to converse with God. Light it each anniversary, & by all means on other significant days in our life. As I’ve grown into my own baptism over the years, I discern a closing of the gap between theologising, &, practising the Faith! A seed for this train of thought was sown for me years ago in ‘Together at Baptism’, by Fr. Joseph Payne, CSC.¹ Time to start growing today? 

Brian

Afterthought: There’s no escaping that ‘fulfilled today’ bit. ‘Today’ is always today, whenever it happens. As that old wisdom has it, ‘tomorrow never comes!’

¹   Ave Maria,  Ind. , 1971    ² Complete Gospels, Polebridge, ad loc. 

 LUKE 3:15-22

Laterally Luke…The Baptism of Our Lord…2019

Expectation’s in the air! You can breathe it. You can feel it. Taste it, even! Back then, that is! Can we preach to help people recover that sense of expectation today? In an age when expectations are universally low. Except, that is, of one disaster after another! An all-too-obvious example is the way so many of our politicians constantly fail our expectations to the point where we have stopped having any expectations except poor ones! Is it much the same with religious leaders & what they espouse? Including preachers? Preaching about expectations back then to people who have few or none, now, isn’t going to be much help, is it? Also, a word of warning: don’t let’s try to avoid the real today issues by preaching expectations in the next world? That’s pure escapism! Often to cover up our inadequacies in this one! 

The key not only to preaching all this, but actually living it, is to grow into our Baptism as Jesus grows into His. Let our Baptism really happen to us & in us as Jesus lets His happen to Him & in Him. An interesting thought for Someone who doesn’t need to be baptised in the first place, but chooses to align Himself with us, as one pf us? What we make of our Baptism & what we let our baptism make of us determines our usefulness to God & each other in this world, quite apart from any other! 

So, how & where might we start raising the kind of expectations rising in JB’s time by preaching them for our own day? A starting point: explore how JB’s preaching raised expectations of Faithfulness towards God, that lead to Justice for ordinary folk, which means a Fair go for everyone. FJF! Notice how both JB & Jesus Himself emulate YHWH by starting, not with those at the top, but with God’s ‘little ones’ at the bottom of the ladder. Starting with what we’ve got may be hard to accept, but fits in with God’s way of doing things ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’!

  

Both Jesus & JB build on faithful revelations of God before their own day. You & I are called to do so now! So, let’s preach Jesus & how His life & work make God’s expectations come to reality in His own Person by His Spirit. As they need to do in us!

Brian

Afterthought: The lesson of Jesus’ Baptism by JB & His growing into it, letting it happen to Him, is a well-rounded spiritual, Biblical, & ground-level approach. We can expect the same today.  

LUKE 2: 41-52

Laterally Luke…Christmas 1…Revised 2018

It may be the Sunday after Christmas, but today’s Gospel event takes place 12 years after Christmas! But what’s 12 years to God?! We have range of possibilities here. Starting with the Journey the Holy Family makes, along with other Hebrew families, to celebrate Passover. To journey to God, & with God, is a metaphor at the heart of Hebrew, Christian & other faiths. Isn’t what we have in common as we journey side by side often more important than where we differ? Perhaps that’s another way of expressing what it means to ‘travel in company’, as Mary, Joseph, & Jesus do? Are you & I still journeying on in Faith, to & with God, & each other, & in God’s time? 

The Holy Family journeys in this case to Celebrate God & what God has done for their people long before at Passover. Celebrating, a term we use often, keeps all the ‘God-events’ & us with them, alive & well & up to date. As Christians will celebrate Passover under another guise after the events of Good Friday & Easter. How good are we at celebrating the Liturgy? Are we personally involved in participating to the full? The answer to this may be a ‘marker’ of our progress along the way today. 

Might it be because Jesus experiences being a kind of ‘lost sheep’ in this episode that leads Him to have so much care for lost sheep throughout His ministry? On earth, as in heaven? In Heaven, as on earth?

This passage could help us explore the whole question of Obedience. To God, to those who have proper authority over us in the faith community or our natural family, or society - including our duty to our country. Are there priorities that call us to over-ride the authority someone else legitimately holds - or think they hold - over us? Who decides any ‘over-riding’? Does our style of ministering allow opportunities for questioning as well as listening? As young Jesus does in the Temple courtyard? Experience tells me small groups, Home Groups, formed from within congregations, are essential in providing opportunities for wrestling with issues of faith. Sermons to larger gatherings may open issues up, but can’t explore them as far as is needed. 

Another important principle established here is that Mary & Joseph don’t simply turn a blind eye to Jesus’ behaviour; though clearly He is ‘different’, ‘special’. Issues in natural families & church families need to be recognised, confronted (is that too strong a word?) & dealt with. If we don’t know how, why not make that part of the questioning & answering process above?

Brian

Afterthought: Does v.51 imply Jesus ‘turns over a new leaf’? If so, does that open some intriguing possibilities to explore? In Our Lord’s own ‘hidden’ life, & in ours, too? What new ‘leaves’ might we need to ‘turn over’ in order to be faithful disciples?

JOHN 1: 1-5, 9-14, 16-18

Jottings on John…Christmas…Revised 2018

Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures launches with its magnificently imaginative & evocative story of a Creation told into being by YHWH God: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth..…’ Is it simply a co-incidence that the writer of John also chooses to start with ‘In the beginning…’ & a magnificently & imaginative, evocatively poetic expression of how the New Creation comes into being? Can any account of Creation improve on that of the Genesis tale-teller? Any more than accounts of how the New Creation comes into being can improve on JE’s? For me, it’s always JE when it comes to Christmas Gospel & Christmas preaching! 

For one thing, it offers us the opportunity of reflecting on our own physical & spiritual beginnings. But has JE’s Hymn to the Word with its deep, meaningful, imaginative, & creative take on the Christmas event become too hard to preach? Compared with stables, mangers, & other MT & LK trimmings? Some Christmases ago, I happen to be sitting near another priest I know at a Midnight Mass. The ‘sermon’ turns out to be a kind of watered-down ‘kids’ talk’. This at one of the big, largely adult, congregations of the year. After the Dismissal, as we’re leaving, my colleague turns & whispers to me, “He sure dumbed that down, didn’t he?!” Do we really need to do that? Are we really called to do that?

I always omit vv.6-8 because they’re an interruption - by whom we don’t know - to JE’s original hymn. A distraction that destroys its integrity. They belong, with v.15, after the hymn where JB properly makes his entrance after v.18. Let’s not gazump the Evangelist’s mind-blowing, spirit-expanding verses! Is interrupting the flow of the Gospel with the insertion about JB perhaps a metaphor for us inserting ourselves in the wrong place between God & God’s purposes. A warning we need to heed all year around, not only at Christmas!

The Word who speaks Creation into being now speaks a new, restored Creation - personal & universal - into being in Jesus. God’s Divine Word, God’s ‘new beginning’ for us. Jesus doesn’t simply speak God’s language to us, He is God’s own language! Are we recognisably God’s language, God’s ‘Word’ for others?

Brian

Afterthought: Whatever else John wants us to take in from his magnificent poem he wants us to glorify God as Jesus does. If our Christmas worship, including a sermon on this passage, gives glory to God, John the Poet has achieved what he sets out to achieve, hasn’t he?