Upside Down

 

Text: Luke 6:20-31

Focus: Discipleship

Function: to show people a different way of living

²⁰Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.

²²“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
²⁵“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.

²⁶“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

²⁷“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; ²⁸bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Good morning to the beloved children of the Living and Loving God!

May you be filled with the peace of Christ today and always!

I am glad for Carol’s discernment earlier this week when she was preparing our worship service for today and she texted me and said that there are several sermons in this passage of scripture.

I hadn’t written my message yet and I didn’t know how I was going to cover so much in 15 minutes and so I decided to look at these beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount as we prepare for Thanksgiving celebration.

So, we are going to spend the next couple of weeks studying this passage of scripture.

I titled the message Upside down because Jesus is here giving instructions to the disciples and us, his followers about how we are to live this Christian life.

Throughout the New Testament we read of the contrast between the value system of the world and the value system that Jesus gives us, especially in the sermon on the Mount which started out with the Beatitudes of Jesus.

When Paul refers to the clash of value systems and he speaks of the non faith based side, or the non loving your neighbor side, he calls it the values of the World and he warns us to reject those worldly values when they clash with the teachings of Jesus.

And it isn’t hard. Jesus said, a new command I give you, Love one another. So, anything that deprives us of the value of loving our neighbor as much as ourselves is part of the worldly value system we are called to reject in this upside down way of living.

I shouldn’t call it upside down because that seems like it is a negative way of living when instead it is actually the way God intends humanity to live. The worldly way of living is in the negative compared to the teachings of Jesus.

What is worldly living? Paul called it doing the deeds of the fleshly body that isn’t controlled by the Holy Spirit.

He gives us a good contrast of this clash of values in Galatians 5: 13-26 when he talks about the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

There is a contrast between the nature we had before we let the Spirit of God lead us in our lives and the one we have after. Beforehand we believed the worldly values of things like “I don’t get mad, I get even.” Or “I refuse to forgive.” ir “me and mine first.”

Let me do a short list to contrast worldly and Christian living: As Christians, we place the value of community and relationship over personal ambition and greed. The world we live in values greed and selfishly hoarding instead of sharing and making sure there is enough for everyone.

The world that we live in values insults in a debate instead of a civil conversation.

The world we live in says that people who are different from us are to be feared and disrespected instead of valued as human and someone from whom we can learn and grow.

The world that we live in says that only certain people are welcome here when Jesus said that the way we treat the stranger is the way we treat him and he will either bless or condemn a nation on how well they treat the stranger among them.

I said those to get us thinking that Jesus actually has the better way for humanity.

There is a huge difference in the way Jesus teaches us to live and the way the world says it is okay to live.

Let me re-read the 4 blessings and the 4 woes from today's text now that we are thinking about living for Jesus as being different from living worldly values.

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.

²²“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
²⁵“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.

²⁶“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

So: Blessed are the poor is contrasted with woe to the rich.

Blessed are the hungry is contrasted with woe to the full.

Blessed are those who weep is contrasted with woe to those who are laughing.

And Blessed are we when we are hated for doing the right thing is contrasted with those who go along to get along.

I can relate to the blessings and see in them the care and the comfort that God gives in the midst of suffering. And we will look at that next week.

But when I get to the woes, I can get a little nervous. Compared to the rest of the known world, we here in America are rich. That is why people are dying to get into this country. I am not hungry and I eat almost every meal until I am full. The only thing I have going for me is that I know how to weep so two of the three woes apply to me.

So what do we do about the implications of these woes?

I think it comes down to the last blessing and woe that Jesus mentions in this passage.

He speaks of people with the boldness to speak up and speak out against the abuses that society places on the poor and the marginalized.

He speaks of their courage and faith in order to face persecution for doing the right thing. Courage and faith go together to accomplish God’s desire for humanity.

It is important for us to live by the values that Jesus taught us instead of the values of the world around us.

This is a radical passage calling the people of God to forgo greed and selfishness and share with others for the common good of everyone.

May we orient our lives to be boldly striving for God’s way of living on earth.