Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26

As I read these lessons, I envision an old-fashioned two-tray, weight and balance scale like the one used in the image of the statues of “Justice,” On the only hand Jeremiah balances off those who trust in the Lord against those who put their trust in something other than God. Jeremiah lists under that column such things as putting trust in “mere flesh,” putting trust in “mere mortals.” His description is that of one who is cursed, “Like a shrub in the desert,” living in the “parched places of the wilderness” in the “uninhabited salt land.”

In contrast those who trust in the Lord are blessed, “like a tree planted by water,” “sending out roots by the stream.” There is “no fear of the heat because the leaves stay green.” They bear fruit even in the draught. There is not need to be “anxious.”

In the course of the balance, Jeremiah reminds the reader of need to keep watcher over the heart. He reminds us that the heart is perverse. It can be tricky and deceptive. The tests the mind and searches the heart. There is a warning here in the midst of the perverse and shifty heart. Where does the scale tip? That is the question before the house. Which side out-weighs the other, trust in the Lord, or trust in the self? In a social atmosphere of “self reliance,” this is an important question to settle in our own minds. We have been schooled in the old adages, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;” and “look out for number one because no one else will;” “God takes care of those who take care of themselves.” We have all grown up with such ideas as part of the repertoire of growing into adulthood. As comforting, secure, and common sense that they may seem, they are not of the God’s perspective, and certainly not of Jesus’ persuasion. In fact, they are about as diametrically opposite of Jesus’ teaching as one can get.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians places faith in the resurrection of Jesus on the scale to be weighed with severe consequences of faith. Hope in the present and in the future hangs in the balance. Paul places faith in the resurrection of Jesus as the fulcrum upon which the scale balances. All hope in God’s fulfillment rests on the hope that as Jesus was raised from the dead, so will the world be raised on the last day.

Luke addresses another balancing act in the blessings and woes of Jesus teaching. There is a true balance between the present and the future. We see the alternation between the present and future. Observe

Blessed are you who are poor yours is the kingdom of God

Blessed are you who are hungry you will be filled

Bless are you who weep now for you will laugh

Blessed are you . . . hate you

Exclude you . . . revile you . . . defame you your reward is great in heaven

Woe to you who are rich 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

The Jesus reflected in the gospel of Luke is very concerned with the present and the condition of people’s lives in the present. Jesus’ entrance into the world as the Christ, the Messiah is the “great equalizer.” Mary’s song prior to Jesus’ birth speaks of the balance to the scale that God is bringing into the world. “He has brought down the might from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” “He will feed the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” We see the same balance worked out in the story of Lazarus the beggar and the rich man (Luke 16:19ff).

We Christians live our lives on a balance beam having one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the present age. Christianity is a balancing act between our sinfulness and our sainthood. It calls for us to keep our eyes on the truth that Christ is risen and that we too have been transported into the Kingdom of God. In baptism, we have already been crucified with Christ and raised to new life while still living in the reality of our frailty and failure to be all that God has called us to be. In this world, we are being called to live keeping those in mind whom God has sent us to raise up. Where do we fall on the scale of justice – God’s justice?

Thursday, February 08, 2007