"In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead"
It's Wednesday, so I'm thinking that Jesus really wasn't that good at teaching.
On Wednesdays, I workshop the sermon. Even on weeks I don’t preach, like this one…
Readings:
Luke 6:17-26
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."
Also, I Corinthians 15:12-20
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ--whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Scripture:
Luke: Blessed are you when people hate you. Woe to you who are laughing.
Honestly, the Beatitudes - the part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we read this week - never sounds like Good News to me! It seems like Jesus is giving us a choice: be miserable now, and be rewarded; or be happy now, and be punished.
I don’t like either choice! Where does it lead me? To try and be as poor as I can? Or to feel bad if I’m not suffering? It’s like the race to achieve that it’s so easy to get caught up in, only in reverse. It sets up a competition to be least, lest we find ourselves on the wrong team (the one who ‘wins’ at life).
It makes me think that even though Jesus teaches in the Bible, it isn’t clear what the course is. It’s easy to think it must be, ‘be good, or else!’ Or in the case of this particular teaching: ‘Be poor, or else!’
1 Corinthians:
“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
I love this line from Paul.
I often hear people say that they believe Jesus was a great teacher, they just don’t believe he is the Son of God. But I always think - if you don’t believe he is the Son of God, then I don’t see how you would think he was a great teacher!
Because the Gospel only makes sense in light of the resurrection.
Situation: The Beatitudes can seem to be setting up a kind of no-win situation, that often feels all too real: suffer today/rejoice tomorrow, or it’s opposite.
But what if that’s not it at all? What if Jesus is offering an alternative way to look at the world altogether…
Who would we be if we were free from our constraints? If we were not weighed down by our sorrow and our pain, our hunger or our oppression or our fear? And if we were not weighed down by our need to find our worth in this world?
If we really believed that we are loved as we are, if we were given the freedom of already having won the race, what would drive us then? Would we not be left with what is best inside of us? Our joy, our love, our creativity. All of the gifts we would share if only we felt truly free.
Knowing that Jesus is raised from the dead, we receive the message in a different way.
What if Jesus is trying to say that now that he has come into the world, there is no more need to strive at all, because there is no more need to see ourselves only in our own reflection? We have Jesus’ face in which to see ourselves, we have God’s kingdom in which to seek our riches.