EPIPHANY 6C
February 11, 2007
SCRIPTURE
Jeremiah 17:5-10: The prophet reframes a familiar song (Psalm 1)
to speak of those who do not trust in the Lord and then of those who do.
- Roots and Wings song by
Bonamy James
- Give my
roots wings.
Psalm Response — Psalm 1 : "Like a tree that's planted
by the water, we shall not be moved." If singing the psalm, use Response 1
with Tone 2 in D minor or Response 2 with Tone 3 in F major. In light of
Black History Month, response 2 is recommended.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20: Paul confronts believers in Corinth who
deny the resurrection of the dead, claiming that to deny that is to deny
that Christ himself could have been raised. The passage concludes with a
quotation from what may have been an early Christian hymn known to the
church at Corinth (verse 20).
Luke 6:17-26: The beginning of "the sermon on the plain," told in the context of a massive public ministry of healing and exorcism, and adding "Woes" to the "Beatitudes."
-Find the poverty in your riches
-The Greek word for "blessed" here is makarios, which means something like, "Oh, how fortunate." Some translate it as, "How happy,", some, "Good for you!
-In those days people tended to see illness, poverty, suffering as signs of God's displeasure, of sin. Likewise, having wealth and prosperity were signs of God's favor. But Jesus, as usual, turns it all around. Poverty is no barrier to God and God's. Indeed, often the poor are the very ones most open to trusting in God. And prosperity is no sign of divine favor, either, but a very strong temptation to place trust in it rather than God. Bass Mitchel
- This is a good text to talk about the difference between happiness and joy. Lindy
-Jesus’ sermon on the plain is his enlistment speech for that great crowd of disciples who want to follow him. It is a wonderful combination of promise fulfilled and promise still to come, and of marching orders.-
-In our preaching, Jesus is worked over into one who always blesses and never condemns. ...Before Jesus brings us blessing, he brings us a curses. Willimon
- Jesus' sermon is a repeat of Mary's song (Lk 1: 45-57) Willimon
-Talk about blessings. Its when you sneeze "God bless you ..." Someone said once that people said that because they feared when you sneezed that your soul left your body for a second and the blessing was help so that you did not lose it. A strange idea ... for certain we don't talk much about blessings.
-Matthew’s collection is know as the "Sermon on the Mount" (Mt. 5:1-7:27), while Luke’s is know as the "Sermon on the Plain" (Lk. 6:17-49).
-It's easy to develop "I deserve this" attitude rather than lean on God
-William K. McElvaney is his book, Good news is bad news is good news. . . writes “As I get in
touch with my own years, I realize that it took me a long time to come to one of the major
discoveries of my life: namely, that God loves me enough to disturb me. . . for me the gospel has
been like a Roto-Rooter, churning through my resistances and turning my presuppositions and
priorities upside down.” He describes this as “blessed disturbance” and compares it to the words
of the song “Blessed Assurance.”
-Mrs. Harbuck replied, "Well, I guess it is because I read the Bible every day and only talk to you once a week!" She was a woman of good character!
-Let the meek inherit the earth, they have it coming to them. Thurber.
-Be-attitudes or attitudes for being.
-Everything we can be, we already are.
-Micah 6:8 is often called the "Hebrew Beatitudes.":"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
-our attitude more than our aptitude determines our altitude. Steven R.Covey
-The Beatitudes tell us the shape of our character when we are ruled by the purposes of God..The world says, Be rich, be happy, be self-confident, and be satisfied. Jesus says, Be poor, be grieving, be submissive, and be hungry
-The Latin word for blessed is beatus, from which we get the word beatitude
-A danger for me is that I may become poor in the wrong way (spiritually), hunger after wrong food (power, prestige), mourn for wrong things (insecurity, temporal things), and are not accepted for wrong reasons (personality, etc) and I may mistake this for meriting a blessing.
-I think we have a good example here of what Fred Craddock called "Overhearing the Gospel". Although Jesus was speaking to the disciples, the crowd overheard.
-Rather than being a storehouse of blessing God calls us (and churches!) to be channels of blessing -- and a channel must constantly be emptied out. In a sense, even though great wealth might pass through, the channel is "poor." If I really trust God, I won't mind kenosis. If I have a problem in that area, I will want to hold on and store up for my own benefit -- "just in case."
-“How do you spell relief?” Answer: Trust
-I can remember being asked to memorize the beatitudes but no one ever asked me to memorize the woes.
-We have nothing we can give you that will make you rich.
-We are little epiphanies or lights of the world
-Wonder reminds us of values the world makes us forget.
-Are we like Jesus saying: there's what I have! or are we like the masses saying: there's what I want.
-The greatest use of life is to spend it on something that out lasts it. value
-Avarice hoards itself poor; charity gives itself rich.
-Song, Simple Gifts
-Things that matter most are beyond our control
-Nowadays we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-..." Someone said once that people said that because they feared when you sneezed that your soul left your body for a second and the blessing was help so that you did not lose it Edward Markquart
QUOTES
-Wide is the road that leads to destruction, but narrow the way to
-comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
HUMOR
-What if we had to pay taxes on our value as we perceive it?
- Your teeth are o.k. but your gums will have to come out. false values
-Minister gave very poor man in congregation a new suit. poor man stopped coming to church. Minister went to see him and asked why? Poor man said, I feel so prosperous, I go to the Episcopal church now.
-While traveling through New England, the tourist asked the cashier in the gas station: "How far is it to Boston?" The cashier replied, "Well, if you keep going the way your headed it's about twenty five thousand miles. But if you'll just turn around and go the other way, you'll find Boston forty-six miles down this very road."
CHILDREN
1.
I heard a story about a little puppy that noticed that whenever he was
happy, his tail wagged, so he thought he had discovered the secret to
happiness. One day he shared the secret of happiness with an older dog.
He said, "I have learned that the best thing for a dog is to be happy, and
that happiness is in my tail. So I am going to chase my tail; and when Icatch it, I shall have happiness.
The old dog replied, "I too believe that happiness is a marvelous thing
for a dog, and that happiness is in my tail. But I have noticed that
whenever I chase my tail, it keeps running away from me; but when I go
about my business, it follows me wherever I go.
Many of us are like the little puppy chasing his tail - trying to find
true
happiness that is always just out of our reach. What we need to do is
learn that if we will just go about our business and trust in the Lord,
happiness will follow us where- ever we go.Charles
Kirkpatrick, www.Sermons4Kids, 2002
2. Use soap bubbles to show what happiness is like. When we get it, it disappears. Joy and happiness are two different things. Joy comes from within
and doesn't depend on what we possess. Happiness comes from without and is not bad or wrong but will never give us lasting
good feelings.
ILLUSTRATION
-Mark Hopkins, the educator used to challenge his university classes into this important comparison: "You would like to have the world, as much of it as you want," he would state, and then ask the questions: "would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want, and be deaf? Perhaps you would. Would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want and be deaf and mute? Perhaps you would. Would you be willing to have the world, all of it that you want, and be deaf and mute and blind? Perhaps you would, but I doubt it: for the time comes in such reckoning when you must face the issue of "being" and "having." (From a sermon by Peter Eldersveld, Christian Reformed Church radio pastor).
-" Someone said once that people said that (God bless you) because they feared when you sneezed that your soul left your body for a second and the blessing was help so that you did not lose it
PRAYER PHRASES:
-...You bless us with your living presence...you bless us with your healing...you bless us with your sustaining strength...you bless us in order that we might be a blessing to others. You also challenge us with your truth; you judge us. Give us the courage to listen to You...to hear You and to follow You. Willimon
-Gracious God, thank you blessing our lives. Continue to disturb us when we become complacent