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!