Luke 6:20-31

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 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.

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 what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

²⁷ "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Text: Luke 6:20-31

Theme: Risky Business

Date: November 4, 2007

Assembly: Zion Lutheran; Affirmation of Baptism

You know your Confirmations were all risky business

You’re risking following a God who makes radical statements

Like in this passage

And supposes that you’ll not only still follow Jesus

But also be part of the radical change

(to the Confirmands) So, watch out, for you are the ones,

on this All Saints day

—with a text such as this…

So, I shall be waiting with eager longing to see what each of you is called to

by our Lord Jesus Christ

I am telling you, this is Risky Business

Your lives will not be untouched by the power of God

You will be stirred up by the Spirit whose transforming power

intends to make a huge difference in your lives

This text indicates what a dramatic reversal to which God could call you

This is the text that says

blessed are the poor,

the hungry,

those who weep,

those who are hated for Jesus’ sake…

And as if that weren’t enough to wrap our minds around, Luke goes on to make sure we really got the extremity of his point by continuing with the opposites:

Woe to the rich

and the full,

the laughing ones

and the POPULAR!

Now Luke, didn’t Matthew have a much nicer way of saying it…

”blessed are the poor in Spirit”

—most of us can find ourselves acceptably within that

whereas “poor” period

—leaves most of us scrambling to shoe-horn ourselves in somewhere

before we end up seeing ourselves in the list of woes…

It’s a risky thing –this being associated with Jesus’ teachings

which are scandalous

because they overturn every conventional expectation.

Jesus associates with outcasts

and then goes on to pronounce God’s blessing on them

Jesus defines who is blessed in quite a different way from the world

And it’s so scandalous that in the 5-10 years between Luke having been written

and the writing of Matthew

even St. Matthew had to make it easier for us to hear

he spiritualized it from “poor” to “poor in Spirit”

transition

It’s this kind of outrageous word… that…

if you’re gonna be part of the church

If God’s Word is to reign in your life

Then you’ll be about the risky business

of reading such a Word and taking it personally

of asking God for guidance

and letting God’s voice sound different than yours

What made you part of this risky business?

Your baptism into Christ

Your baptism linked you to the death and resurrection of Christ

That in itself was a radical change

That in itself overturned conventional expectation

And the Catechism’s 4^th question about baptism gets at how this impacts us each day

(please get ready to read with me the answer to this question (p2 piccolo)

What then is the significance of such a baptism with water?

(all read together)

It signifies that the old person in us

with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die

through daily sorrow for sin and through repentance,

and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up

to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Daily dying—it is risky—not because it leaves you inert

Quite the opposite –because it leaves you daily reformed

Daily reformed in the image of Christ

What Christ might do with your life

If you were intentional about daily being at the font

Where you die and rise with Christ

And ponder what that means for your today and tomorrow?

/for the community’s today and tomorrow?

The Risky Business of your faith

Means you are called to follow after Jesus’ ways of seeing and interacting in the world

How can you see the poor as blessed?

The hungry, weeping, hated…as blessed?

So whichever path each of you chooses—whatever you’re called to,

you live out this risky faith each and every day

In the hallways of your school

On the practice field with your sports team

On the risers in the choir

This pioneering of your path in life

This is not about knowing something—it’s much harder than that

This is about living something

That’s what you’re saying to us today

-that you’re planning on living this faith

Guiding us in faith, while yet being guided

Knowing Jesus, while always being fully known by Jesus

Now if Jesus is central in your life, your life will be continually changed

Which means you won’t just get to make all of your decisions by conventional wisdom

And you may be quite surprised by where you find yourself

What if, like some of our members, you are called to be a missionary

You may move to Senegal and learn to speak Pular

What if, like some Zion members, you are called to be a lawyer

And you have to give voice to those who are under-heard

What if, like some Zion members, you are called to serve those at Shelter House

And your lives will quite clearly be transformed

by seeing the need and the blessedness of the poor

What if, like some of our members, you are called to be a doctor

You may be called to see how a medical system can best serve the poor

None of these are easy callings; but in your baptism you’ve similarly been called

how will you choose to live this gospel?

How will you live that the poor are blessed?

How will you give your shirt to the one who already took your coat?

How will you do good to those who hate you?

It seems that we’re better at this together than we are apart

And so it is together that we go about this risky business of being real and really being.

We will do this a s a whole body of Christ

For you’ve said you are ready to be a accountable member of this body of Christ

And today the Church says to you…we see you as faithful members living with us

to discern God’s word in our lives

And, yet, it is not only us who welcome you today, but All the Saints

—those who have gone before and those yet to come

Let this great cloud of witnesses surround all of us

as we live into the risky business of our holy callings.