Jesus calls both poor and rich
A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey
at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, February 17, 2019
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (year C), Luke 6:17-26
Luke 6:17-26 (NRSV): Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” Many of you have had the experience of sending students off to college. Others of you were sent to college yourselves, or perhaps you look forward to the day when you will go off to school. When parents send their kids off to college, they send them with blessings and warnings, all in hopes of helping them thrive. To the students who are constantly stressed about the next test and the need to succeed, parents offer assurance. It’s going to be OK. You are prepared for this. It will be hard, but you can make it. We are here for you even if you fail; we will help you back on your feet.
Parents also offer advice and caution. Sometimes students have coasted through high school without working hard, and they face a rude awakening when college steps up the challenge. And sometimes the same student needs both reassurance and advice and caution. The advice and caution probably comes from the parents’ experience, and out of love and a desire to spare their kids the challenges parents faced when they were in school. College is harder. Grades won’t come easily. With less structure, it will be easy to get behind. If you don’t pay attention to your work, it won’t end well.
Parents send students off with blessings and warnings. Each part comes from a deep and compassionate love for their kids, wanting the best for their kids in this next chapter of their lives.
Jesus is doing something similar with his disciples in today’s Gospel reading. This reading from Luke is similar to another scene of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount. In this case, Jesus is in a level place, so we call this the Sermon on the plain. Like most traveling preachers, Jesus repeats some of the same themes. But in this case, his words are more blunt, and he sets up a polarity of blessings and woes. In Matthew, we read about Jesus’ words ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers.’
Here in Luke, Jesus says ‘blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the despised and unpopular, those just like the prophets.’ Then he adds woes, matching every item on his list of those blessed to a list of those he tells “woe.” ‘Woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full, woe to you who laugh, woe to you who are popular now, fo
