Luke 6:17-26
He came down with them 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. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20 Then 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. 23 Rejoice 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.

 

Please open up your bulletin to the scripture, because we are going to walk through this together, because I want you to see just how “weird” and offensive the teachings of Jesus were to his first century people.

Our reading begins with a little context.  Jesus has just “officially” chosen the 12 disciples, so the disciples are the “them” who came down with Him and stood on the level place with the great crowd of disciples, because it wasn’t just the 12 who followed Jesus around everywhere.  And there was also a great multitude of people from the nearby places:  not just Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, but also people from Tyre and Sidon, which are in modern day Lebanon and were not Jewish cities, they were Syrophoenician cities.  I point this out because, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ ministry is for All people, not just Jewish people, from the very beginning!  This is different from the gospels of Mark and Matthew, where Jesus calls the Syrophoenician or Canaanite woman a dog stealing food from the children of Israel. (Mark 7:26 Matthew 15:22)

The idea of God being for All People, is one of the central shifts in belief from first century Judaism, to Christianity.  Before the first Century every nation had their own personal deity, but in the first century the Roman roads brought immigrants from everywhere and people began to explore other religions.  Christianity was one of the first religions to promote the idea that God loves people of All Nations.  The idea that anybody, from any and all nations could become a Christian was absolutely radical at the time! 

Luke/Acts were written as a 2 book set for all of us theophilus-es, which is Greek for God-lover, who were born after the death of the apostles. (Acts 1:1-2)  By the time Luke/Acts were written, the theology of One God for All Nations has been firmly established in Christianity.  All of the Theology in Luke/Acts is more *formed,* especially in comparison to the gospel of Mark, where the disciples are constantly confused – reflecting the confusion that many of the earliest Chrstians felt at how strange and new the teachings of Jesus felt to them.

So in Luke, Jesus is healing and teaching all kinds of people, Greeks, Romans, and Syrophoenicians who used to be called Canaanites  — in other words – Jesus is showing love to the enemies of Israel.  This indiscriminate love is offensive, because, then as now, this world teaches us that we should only show compassion to those who “deserve,” it.  But Jesus showed compassion to everybody.

Verse 20, “Then he looked up at his disciples and said:”

Notice that Jesus isn’t looking at the crowd when he starts teaching.  Jesus is looking at the people who have already said yes to God. Jesus is looking right through the souls of his disciples, all the way through history, and straight into us, who claim to follow him now.

“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.

I know many of you have heard this passage all your life.  Maybe you had Sunday School worksheets covered in yellow bees for the Bee-Attitudes.  But look more deeply, because this teaching is weird.

Is it a blessing, to be poor, hungry and grieving?
Shall we go outside and ask our houseless neighbors if they experience poverty and hunger as a blessing?

Is it a blessing, to be hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed?
Personally, I don’t enjoy it when angry neighbors call the church and yell at me,  “you better not be giving out food or anything to those homeless people!”

Even when it’s for all the right reasons, I don’t enjoy being yelled at, do you?

I want you to notice that the Bee-Attitudes are weird. 
They are upside down and backwards from the way the world works.

Look at verses 24 – 26.

Woe to you – is a classic Hebrew prophet style of saying, God is NOT pleased!

The main goals of our culture are to become rich, have plenty of yummy things to enjoy, to be laughing out loud happy, and to be popular and well thought of, right?

I mean, our country has codified, “the pursuit of happiness” into our bill of rights! 
And the original version was “the pursuit of wealth.”

Jesus just stared us down through the ages and told us that everything that we think is bad, is actually good and everything we think is good is actually woeful!

Why? Look at verses 23 and 26, and remember that Jesus is looking straight at his Disciples – the people who become the Leadership and the Clergy of the Church.

 Jesus explains that false prophets are rewarded with wealth, good food, happiness, and popularity, because they are saying what the rich and powerful want to hear.

And true prophets are often poor, hungry, grieving, hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed for daring to preach the gospel of Love for All people.

So, rejoice with Eccumenical Ministries of Oregon, that the current administration has cut off their federal grants, because this is what the corrupt kings of the past did to the prophets.

Rejoice when neighbors yell at us for sharing our building with Rahab’s Sisters, because surely our reward in Heaven will be great for taking this risk.

Rejoice that we are a small poor church, who serves the poor, because we really are acting like citizens of the Kingdom of God!

Rejoice, because this IS a place where our weeping is transformed into laughter.

Rejoice, because even though right now, it feels like everything good is being crucified – we know — we believe — we believe beyond believing– that Resurrection is Coming!

So let us celebrate at God’s table, where the hungry will be filled.

Luke 5:1-11
One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret when the crowd pressed in around him to hear God’s word. 2 Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake. The fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. 3 Jesus boarded one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, then asked him to row out a little distance from the shore. Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he finished speaking to the crowds, he said to Simon, “Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch.”

5 Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets.”

6 So they dropped the nets and their catch was so huge that their nets were splitting. 7 They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They filled both boats so full that they were about to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw the catch, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner!” 9 Peter and those with him were overcome with amazement because of the number of fish they caught. 10 James and John, Zebedee’s sons, were Simon’s partners and they were amazed too.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” 11 As soon as they brought the boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

We’re continuing our “kind of a Baptismal Vows Series” this week, so you can go ahead and bookmark page 38 in the hymnal now if you like!  

 The first week we read the story of the Baptism of Jesus alongside our Baptismal Vows and noticed how there was real risk, for John the Baptist, in accepting the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.  With freedom and power comes risk and responsibility.  Maybe we’re uncomfortable with risk, but we trust God enough to accept the risk.

Then, we visited the uncomfortable verses about evil doers from Psalm 36, revisited the English translation of the Apostle’s Creed, watched a little Star Wars, and pulled this all together to say that Resistance is about saying Yes to Love.

Then we did our annual, Book of Discipline Mandated review of our Safe Sanctuary Policy, because our Congregational Vow to the Baptised includes our promise to provide a community where they may grow in their trust of God.

And I reviewed with you how to report a clergy person who does harm.  Look up the Oregon Idaho UMC webpage and use the staff page to find the Bishop and District Superintendent’s contact info. 

Last week, we turned the page in our hymnal to p36 in Baptismal Covenant 1, looked at how Thanksgivings in Baptism and Communion liturgies are stories of God’s salvation and that the word that Jesus used that we translate as, “Salvation,” is Sozo – which means salvation in this world and the next.  And we remembered that in our Baptism we recognize that this Spirit of the Lord is upon us.

Today we’re going to start with our Bible reading, so you can keep that handy.  It’s in the inside of your bulletin.

In today’s reading, Jesus is just beginning his public ministry.  Jesus has been traveling around teaching and healing people, so he’s starting to draw a crowd of people desperately in need of help.  And when people are desperate, they can get a little pushy, so Jesus is about to get pushed right into the lake!

So Jesus just climbs on into Simon’s boat and asks him to row away a little and proceeds to use Simon’s boat as his pulpit.

So, imagine you are just getting off work, and some preacher hops into the back of your work truck, asks you to pull up onto the sidewalk and starts preaching.  I’m not sure I would have been as accommodating as Simon, after working all night!

But Simon is totally willing to help out, so when Jesus is done preaching he tells Simon to try fishing again, as a way of repaying Simon for his time.

But Simon is exhausted because they’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.

If you’ve got a pencil or something handy, underline verse 5 where it reads,

“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets.”

This verse made me think of you.  All of you, the faithful remnant of this church, who have worked so hard…

• all through COVID, 
• You worked hard to hold the church together through absent clergy, 
• in an aging building, 
• Working so hard to try to hold things together with broken systems and a shrinking budget
• Working so hard, even when you have been tired and worn out
• Working so hard while your beloved congregation shrinks

You have worked so hard and seen so little results for so long, and yet, when I came here two and a half years ago, you were willing to try again.

Not because of your faith in me, but because of your faith in God.

As it should be!  I’m not Jesus, I just work for him!
It is Jesus, not me, who has called us 

• to go farther than before
• To row out beyond our depth and trust God to do what we cannot do on our own
• To drop our nets into the community, even though we don’t expect to catch  anything

And I have felt just as out of my depths as you have!

I mean, does anybody know how to do Church in this post-COVID, post-Christian, post-modern world?

But, like Simon, you have listened deeply to Spirit and despite your doubts you have rowed out into deep water and cast your nets and here’s what you have caught.

Because you were willing to try:

• Two Pacific Islander Churches have a place to worship, fellowship and share their culture with the next generation.  
• Our Daily Bread Express has been able to feed a multitude of meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, because you were willing to do the deep work of sharing your kitchen.
• Imagine Theater – a children’s theater company who split off from an Evangelical organization in order to welcome lGBTA+ families, has a climate controlled space to store their costume collection, in our basement.
• Because of your willingness to dig deep and share your space – even give up the Library and offices, Rahab’s Sisters has been able to expand their work in our neighborhood to serve even more Fem, Trans, and Queer folks.  And they have been so helpful for some of our Haven Dinner folks who have needed more help than I have been able to provide!
• Haven Dinner, our Queer Young Adult group has doubled in size and even though you don’t often see them on Sunday morning, they claim you as their church!
• Family promise Metro East is growing and serving more families, many of whom are now sleeping in their own beds that you raised the money to pay for!
• A POD Village, transitional shelter is opening soon just 2 blocks away, and we were able to negotiate priority for people living on the streets in our neighborhood and currently being served by Rahab’s Sisters and PDX Saints Love, because you have supported your Pastor in doing community advocacy, have showed up for public meetings to say, Yes In My Back Yard, and have hosted public meetings here in our Sanctuary.
• Our church now has a voice in the Montavilla East Tabor Business Association, and because you supported me in doing this kind of “outside the church” work, I’m now on the Events Committee, which means I have a voice in how future community fundraisers are run!  So we can do charity that helps instead of charity that hurts.
• And none of those flashy things would be possible if not for the tireless labor that quietly happens behind the scenes Every. Dang. Week. by you.  The quiet labor of our Board Members, our Finance Team, our Mission Team.  Did you know that we don’t have a Facilities Manager anymore?  We have Jorja organizing a handful of volunteers, usually the same few people, who show up to meet the contractors that sometimes fix things and sometimes tell us things that we really don’t want to hear!  Alton vacuums and keeps the toilet paper stocked and takes out the trash and many other little things.  Tom and Larry fix things for no pay.  A few volunteers set up and bring things for coffee hour… and so much, so much more work that keeps our nets mended and our ship afloat!

Because of you!  Because of the hours and hours and hours of unseen labor we’re able to do life-changing things like, help a Haven member get his food handlers card so he can get a job.

So Thank You!  No matter how small, or invisible, insignificant you think your part in this congregation is, what you do matters so much, because our community needs us so much right now.

You are making a difference!  Thank you!

Take a look at verses 6 -10.  God filled their nets to overflowing. 
So many fish that their nets were splitting.
So many fish that their boat was sinking.
So many fish that they had to call for help!

They were so overwhelmed that Simon fell to his knees in his sinking, fish-filled boat, and cried at Jesus,  Leave me alone!  I’m just a sinner!

Haven’t we felt that too!

Haven’t we felt that our building was too full?
Haven’t we said, I know that this is selfish, but I’m tired of sharing all our space?
Haven’t we felt overwhelmed by our houseless neighbors, the building, the finances, the paperwork, the political situation we are in?
Haven’t we felt like our ship was sinking and there was only one little boat available to come help us?

And in the midst of it all, Jesus turns to us and says do not be afraid.

Do Not Be Afraid.

Do Not Be Afraid.

For I will make you fishers of people.

And it’s not going to look like how people joined the church in the before times.

But Haven Dinner has doubled in size, and they are inviting their friends to come see this Church who,  and I quote, “is very good at getting resources for people who need them.”

In the year 125AD, a Greek philosopher Aristides attempted to explain Christianity to the Roman Emperor Hadrian.  He wrote:

“They love one another.  They never fail to help widows. They save orphans from those who would hurt them.  If they have something, they give freely to the one who has nothing. If they see an immigrant, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a brother.”

There are those who say that very few people would say this about Churches today.  But according to the members of Haven Dinner, you are the church who “is very good at getting resources for people who need them.”

On page 38 of the hymnal, under Reception into the local Congregation, are your membership vows.

I’m supposed to ask you if you will faithfully participate in the ministries of the Church by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your witness (we added witness in the 2012 book of Discipline) and your service.

But I already know that your answer has been and continues to be yes.

Luke 4:14-21

We’re continuing our “kind of a Baptismal Vows Series” this week, so you can go ahead and bookmark page 36 in the hymnal now if you like!  36 not 34, it’s so exciting, we’ve turned the page! 

 The first week we read the story of the Baptism of Jesus alongside our Baptismal Vows and noticed how there was real risk, for John the Baptist, in accepting the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.  With freedom and power comes risk and responsibility.  Maybe we’re uncomfortable with risk, but we trust God enough to accept the risk.

Then, we visited the uncomfortable verses about evil doers from Psalm 36, revisited the English translation of the Apostle’s Creed, watched a little Star Wars, and pulled this all together to say that Resistance is about saying Yes to Love.

Last week we did our annual, Book of Discipline Mandated review of our Safe Sanctuary Policy, because our Congregational Vow to the Baptised includes our promise to provide a community where they may grow in their trust of God.

And I reviewed with you how to report a clergy person who does harm.  Look up the Oregon Idaho UMC webpage and use the staff page to find the Bishop and District Superintendent’s contact info. 

Today, we are turning the page in our hymnal to p36 in Baptismal Covenant 1, Thanksgiving Over The Water.  So go ahead and get out your hymnals and turn to page 36.

If you are a theology nerd like me, you might notice that the Thanksgiving Over The Water is very similar to The Great Thanksgiving in our Communion Liturgy,  if you’re curious, there is an example of a Great Thanksgiving on page 9 of the hymnal, if you would like to bookmark that as well.

You may have noticed that I seldom use a printed Communion Liturgy, or a printed Thanksgiving Over The Water, not because I don’t have respect for our liturgy, but because I have such deep respect for Christian liturgy that I have internalized its form.

You see, both of these Thanksgivings fall under the category of what us theology nerds call, a Salvation History.  That is, a summary of the story of God’s mercy towards humanity from creation through resurrection.  

Both of these Salvation Histories 

• begin with creation,
•  then mention how God continued to love us when humanity sinned
• Then mention the exodus story as an example of God delivering us
• Then the story shifts to the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.
• And finally into the birth of the Church.

Many clergy write their own Thanksgiving, following this format of a Salvation History.  I just don’t write mine down, because I was taught that it’s easier to listen to someone when they aren’t reading at you.

If you look at page 9, the bottom of page 9, you will find the part of today’s reading where Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1-2, has been used by the author of this particular Great Thanksgiving as a summary of the ministry of Jesus.

“Your Spirit anointed him
to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the captivesand recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
and to announce that the time had come
when you would save your people”????

Saving people is the intent of proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, but the Year of the Lord’s Favor, also known as the Jubilee Year, means more than a ticket to heaven.

So first of all, let me say clearly that I believe in an afterlife where as Paul wrote, *and we do think that this was the original Paul,* who wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, that “we will see God face-to-face and know and be known completely.” (paraphrased)

I believe that salvation includes an afterlife where we are with God.

I also know that the Greek word Sozo, that Jesus commonly used, means more than just admission to heaven.  Sozo also means, safety, deliverance, and just general well-being:  physically, emotionally, mentally, economically, socially, and spiritually, well.

The Salvation that Jesus talked about was for us to be safe and whole in this life and the next.

The Year of the Lord’s Favor – the Jubilee Year is described in Leviticus chapter 25, verses 8-55.  Every 50th year, all debts are canceled, all bound laborers set free,  and there will be a year of Sabbath for everyone, where we only do what is necessary to support life.

So between the deeper meaning of the word sozo and the full economic Sabbath of the year of Jubilee,  you can see that Jesus’ call to ministry is a *challenge* to the way the world currently is.  

Because, if you open your bulletin to look at Luke 4:18-19 you will see Jesus proclaiming:

• Good news to the poor, which may not feel like good news to the rich
• Release of prisoners, which can be controversial
• Recovery of sight to the blind that can be interpreted 2 ways
  • Physical healing, which is challenging for those who profit off of illness… not challenging for healthcare professionals who want to help people heal, but the for-profit healthcare industry and the peddlers of useless “wellness” products
  • Or recovery of sight can mean, opening our eyes to the truth – waking up to see the injustice around us — what is commonly called “being Woke.”  Wokeness is a challenge to evildoers.
• Liberation of the oppressed, which will deprive the oppressors of their profits, because, remember, evil is rarely done for evil’s sake, oppressing people with low wages, denial of health care, lack of civil rights,  unsafe conditions and so on, is profitable!
• And The Year of the Lord’s Favor – the Jubilee year…. Honestly, Jubilee is so different from what we have now that I can’t even imagine how that would work!?  But it is definitely a challenge to our current economic system!

It’s time to read the second half of our scripture.

(Luke 4:22-30)

Here in this second part of the reading is where Jesus does what Bishop Mariann Budde did.  

At first they’re fine with Jesus reading scripture and proclaiming good news FOR THEM.

They’re expecting their hometown boy to make life better for them in Nazareth, and Jesus calls them out!

Starting in verse 23, let’s take this apart. Scripture is in your bulletin!

When Jesus says, 

“Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” 

Jesus is saying what they’re thinking.  They want their hometown boy to take care of his own people.  Jesus has healed people in the Roman city of Capernaum, and they are a little offended that a prophet of God (because they thought Jesus was a prophet), a Prophet of Israel has healed non-Jews!  They felt that Jesus should take care of his fellow Jews, not go around healing non-Jewish people.  We still hear this kind of thinking today, don’t we?  I hear people saying things like, “we need to take care of Americans first.”  But Jesus disagrees.

Look at verses 25 – 27.  

You see, the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon, is the modern city of As-Sarafand in southern Lebanon, which in the time of Elijah was a Phoenician city.  The Phoenicians were a loose confederation of city states who developed out of the old Canaanite civilization – one of the historic enemies of Israel.

Naaman the Syrian was a general in the army of the king of Syria who suffered from leprosy.  While Naaman was leading the attack against Israel, the prophet Elisha healed him.

Jesus, by citing the stories of Elisha and Naaman and Elijah and the widow of Sidon, is telling them that God does not agree with their Israel-first point of view.  God sent two of the greatest prophets EVER to heal non-Jewish people, so God must be OK with Jesus healing people in Capernaum.

Jesus was telling them that God is the God of All Peoples, All Nations, All of us.

The God of Elijah and Elisha.
The God who is Creator, Christ and Spirit has mercy for all people and calls us to have mercy for all people.

This is the gospel truth.

I think Bishop Budde said it well,

All of us, including, and perhaps especially, our leaders, are called to have mercy.

Here’s what she said, that made our President so mad.

Play video Starting at 12:15 to the end. 1.21.25 Sermon by The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwaEuDeqM8 

28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. 

“I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown.”

When I have the great privilege to baptize someone, I lay my hand upon their head I speak this baptismal blessing from the top of page 37:

The Holy Spirit is at work within you, 

And yes, I edit that, because our Wesleyan understanding of Prevenient Grace proclaims that God is at work in us before we come to know God!

The Holy Spirit is at work within you,
that being born through water and Spirit,
you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

Friends, the Spirit of God is at work within you, whether you are baptized or not.

The Spirit of God is upon you.
Calling you to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

Sending us all to

preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Will you accept the Spirit’s call?

I invite you to say, the Spirit is upon me, 3 times and let the truth of these words sink in.