SERMON 2.23.2025
Luke 6:17-38
Nothing can trouble, nothing can frighten.
Those that seek God shall never go wanting.
Nothing can trouble, nothing can frighten.
God alone fills us.1
These words are the English translation of words from 16th century Christian Mystic Teresa of Avila. The Taize Community in Taize France set these words to music for use in their prayerful services. This verse describes the reality out of which Jesus speaks in our scripture reading for today.
The scripture for last week and today, Luke 6:17-38 is known as the Sermon on the Plain and is the heart and soul of Jesus’ life, message and ministry. This message follows Jesus’ descent from a mountain onto a plain where he is amongst not only his disciples but a gathered crowd from the surrounding region. Jesus’ location is as significant as his words. Our culture, as did the culture of those gathered on the plain that day, sees ascending as a symbol of achievement, progress, or blessings. Descending, which Jesus does here, is seen as regression or defeat. But Jesus’ actions are at the heart of the incarnation. God took on human flesh, as a baby no less, and came to be among the people. God with us. Not God up there, out there somewhere, but right here with us. So close, we can reach out and touch him, which people did with Jesus all the time.
The part of the scripture from last week has Jesus talking about blessings and woes, the blessings that come when we place our trust in God and warnings or woes about trusting in the status quo of human creation. Jesus spoke to those excluded, reviled, and defamed on his account. He offered them blessings and encouraged them toward joy. And he encourages all who hear him to live out of that same joy, regardless of what others are directing toward them. When they do, they will be resisting hate, curses, abuse, theft, and judgment by responding to those things with love, mercy, nonviolence, generosity, and forgiveness.
In all of this section of Luke 6, Jesus is talking about values that are very different from the norms of society. “If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them.” (Luke 6:32, Common English Bible)Jesus is saying that anyone can love those who love them. Anyone can lend to someone from whom they expect repayment. That kind of love and lending is a transaction. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.
But if we look closer, we see the problem with transaction based behavior. What you do dictates what I do. If you hate, then I hate back, and hate has won. The transaction is what inspires and directs our actions and reactions.
Jesus is showing us a different way. In God’s realm, what we do is not directed by what others do. Our actions are a response to the God who alone fills us, the God who “is kind to ungrateful and wicked people.” (Luke 6:35, CEB) Responding to someone’s action in a way not directed by their actions can be disarming. It can turn their negative action into something positive.
I did my seminary internship at a large church in downtown Columbus, OH. The church has an ornate sanctuary with marble flooring and intricate carvings throughout the chancel area. The space seems in opposition to the church’s strong commitment to social justice and mission with the less fortunate and displaced. The church often gets people wandering in off the street for worship. One Sunday, a disheveled, angry man came in. After the service he got loudly vocal about the hypocrisy of the church being so lavish while the people on the street had nothing. The person he was yelling at, motioned for me to come over and help. The church happened to be having its annual church picnic that day. I led the man, listening to his issues as we walked, to the Fellowship Hall where the potluck picnic was. Tables and tables of food. I got the man a plate and told him to go through the line and get whatever he wanted while I went to find him a place to sit. When I returned to him, he had his plate piled higher with food than I have ever seen. I don’t know how it was all staying there. He looked at me and said “this is a feast!” I led him to the seat I had found where he would be eating with a table of church members and left to get him something to drink.
After our guest finished eating, his tablemates invited him outside to join in the volleyball game going on in the church yard. He was fitting right in, having a good time. As things were winding down, the folks who had been cleaning up from lunch came out with bags of carryout containers for our guest to take with him and share with others. So many bags that he couldn’t carry them all. A church member drove him to his encampment then reported back that our guest was so grateful for the day he had experienced. He told his ride that he had been all wrong about the church, that they really did care about the people out on the streets. All the man wanted was to be seen and heard, which he was by many that day. Showing him respect and compassion changed his anger into peace. This is what Jesus is talking about.
Where in our own lives can we respond in the way Jesus is showing us here?