Sermon for the Sixth Sunday After Epiphany

Feburary 11, 2007


Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1
I Corinthians 15: 12-20
Luke 6: 17-26
Year C

I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)


In the home of my childhood, there was only one choice. As I got a bit older, I may have wondered or guessed at some of the options, but I never saw or experienced them in that kitchen of the brick house at 4112 Sunnyside Road. Everyone in the house who participated knew that there was only one option.

Coffee was - and still is - in my parent's house - always, only . . .
hot, and black!

Today I am amazed at the options available for my favorite beverage. A trip to the local Starbucks - just down Broad Street a mile or so - can be a terrible, anxiety-producing experience as one attempts to navigate the menu and then decide between hot and cold, espresso, latte, ½ and ½ or non-fat, sugar or other sweetener, flavors, blends, syrups, whipped cream ??

And then there's that other choice - decaf!! That's one coffee word that I NEVER, even once, heard on my recent trip to the major coffee-producing country of Nicaragua.
What one chooses to drink is based on personal preference, the needs of the day, or maybe other considerations. At Starbucks, my choice is almost always: grande, non-fat latte - please!

Choices and decisions are at the heart of our lectionary readings for today. Psalm 1, found at the very outset of this large collection of 150 songs and prayers, sets the stage for the entire psalter in offering a choice between two fundamentally different ways of life.

Here is what we see - - - - on the one hand
- The image of a tree - lush and green - amply supplied with fresh water - constantly sucking up through its roots the nourishment that it needs to flourish, bear abundant fruit, and grow stronger. This tree could offer life, not just for itself, but as a home of shelter for others, possibly an oasis - a cool, shady resting spot under its outstretched branches - the picture of health, stability, peace, and safety.

And, in the next verse - - - - the other hand:
- Chaff. (What is that??) My picture of chaff comes from my trip last month to Nicaragua. I think of chaff as being similar to this thin covering that is found on coffee beans. After the coffee cherries are picked, the two beans in the center of the cherry are separated from the juicy pulp that surrounds them. Then the beans are transported to a drying plant where they are spread out on these large flat patios to dry in the hot sun. As the heat pulls the moisture out of the bean, this thin covering separates and can be easily brushed or blown away. This is the chaff - like paper, dry waste - unwanted, unneeded, useless, and dead.

In our gospel reading today, in the section known as Luke's Beatitudes, or the sermon on the plain, another set of options are presented.

First, four blessings -
- "blessed are you who are poor - - - - blessed are you who are hungry - - - - - blessed are you who weep - - - - blessed are you when people hate you!"
- This is the "good news to the poor and the oppressed" - the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth as he was beginning his public ministry in Galilee

And then, four woes -
- "woe to you who are rich - - -woe to you who are full - - - who to you who are laughing - - - - woe to you when all speak well of you!"
- almost word for word balanced with those blessing and which, by saying the opposite, really emphasize all the more those ways of being that Jesus says are the choices - what is desirable in the kingdom of God.

No doubt about it - these are surprising and startling statements that rocked the world of his listeners, both there on that flat plain, AND maybe here in this place also?

I've been rocked and confused by the use of word, poor, in the beatitudes, and have been struggling this week to find a way to interpret the meaning. What I've found is this:
- the poor, for Luke in particular, are, most often, the truly economically poor. We certainly cannot ignore Luke's attention to those who are without - without food, without shelter, without hope of anything better tomorrow. Just this past week, the ELCA in conjunction with the Episcopal Church in America, released a study guide on global poverty. In the news release, Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA said this - "(this study guide) invites participants to moral deliberation on the realities of global poverty and offers practical ways . . . that we might respond to our baptismal call to love our neighbor by raising our voices on behalf of those living in deadly poverty." Our church is choosing to give attention and effort to those who are poor.

- the poor may also be those who are disadvantaged in a variety of ways, not only economically. Luke's entire gospel is deeply concerned with those that society marginalizes - the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. The sinners and tax collectors in Luke's gospel often play this role as the outcasts of first century society. In our twenty-first century society, Lutheran Social Services, as an outreach ministry on our behalf, works every day to help to carry out their purpose, "to serve and care for people in need" - those that are often forgotten and overlooked - the refugee, the elderly, the disabled, the orphan. Our church is choosing to give attention and effort to those who are poor.

- Probably the cool-est interpretation of these beatitudes was the one I found in this book, Eugene Peterson's The Message

Let me share some of it with you . . .

"You're blessed when you've lost it all.
          God's kingdom is there for the finding.
You're blessed when you're ravenously hungry,
          Then you're ready for the Messianic meal.
You're blessed when the tears flow freely,
          Joy comes in the morning.
Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens - skip like a lamb, if you like! - for even though they don't like it, I do . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this."

Great stuff, huh?


Did you hear the words of the prayer of the day which was read just a few minutes ago? - "Living God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives make known your glory."

That word, poverty, so closely connected with poor, is a word which became very prominent to me and the rest of the group that I traveled with in Nicaragua. I have been particularly struck by the words of Gustavo Gutierrez, the prominent Liberation theologian whose writings helped to frame my experience in Central America. He says this:

There is a type of poverty - a spiritual poverty - that is more than just an attitude of "interior detachment from the material goods of this world." Spiritual poverty is a choice of "total availability" to God.

Our readings today offer and beg a response to these choices of happiness or wickedness, blessedness or woe - and their eventual outcomes of life or death. And the difference is in whether or not we choose to be connected to the source of life. God's rich grace is available to us in our ability to be attentive, open, and awaiting that renewal in our lives. Just as the tree planted by the stream is sustained by water, our lives are sustained, nourished, and abundantly provided for when we are closely connected to and participating in the love and reality of God - when we choose life.



We make choices about many things each day. Some choices are based on personal preference, the needs of the day, or maybe other considerations.

This church, like many others, has chosen to purchase fairly traded coffee through Equal Exchange. It seems to be a fairly simple choice - the coffee is good and easily available. But this choice is so much more than that!

When we - consumers - decide to buy Equal Exchange coffee, we support those small farmers in Nicaragua that I met and in other countries around the world. A stable price for quality coffee beans through fair trade means that those farmers are able to educate their children, have access to medical care, farm their land in ways which better protect the environment, and much more. Beyond that, Equal Exchange returns a portion of their profits to Lutheran World Relief for their work to combat the causes of poverty and restore the dignity it robs from people's lives.

In short, our choice to buy coffee this way brings life.

And I believe that Jesus would choose to bless that!

So, join me, won't you, in lifting our glasses (uh, . . . mugs) in a blessing
          OF LIFE!

I.N.I.


Judy Converse, Feild Education Worker
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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