Sermon Title: Do You Live As If You Are Blessed?

Sermon Text: Luke 6:17-26

Sermon Date: February 11, 2007

Scripture

17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

20Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  22Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”

Message

Yesterday the diaconate met for their annual retreat, this year led by chair Marcia Sledd. Marcia is a big believer in personal mission statements and asked each of the deacons to bring theirs to share with the others.

All of them were about service, in one form or another, which is not surprising of those who have been called to be deacons. But Mary Wilkinson reminded us of the words of another servant – Mother Theresa -- “Let no one ever come to me with leaving better or happier.” Or in other words “Let no one leave my presence without feeling somehow blessed.”

Those are powerful words but words that require more on our part than the part of the one receiving. What is it about us that offers this to others? What is it about us that offers a blessing to those who come to us? If we live as Jesus would have us live, we live then as if we really and truly believe that we are blessed.

Our scripture today bears a striking resemblance to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, yet there are significant differences.

Luke locates the sermons on the plain or a plateau within a range of hills, for he has described Jesus coming down from the mountainside.

Luke uses only four beatitudes while Matthew uses eight but Luke adds four woes to stand as what is called antithetical parallelism. For Luke balances the arrival of God’s salvation and kingdom against that time when God sets an upside-down world right side up.

I suspect we can all admit that this is a complicated passage. After all, who are the poor? Who are the hungry? Who are weeping? Who are the rejected and despised? For that matter, who are the rich?

Another time we could spend hours discussing this, but we must not make the mistake of assuming that Jesus is telling us that God is going to do the work and we are just to sit on the curb and applaud as the parade goes by.

Jesus was talking then to the disciples but there is a message for us today. The poor and hungry are with us and the only way for poverty to end is for us to do something. God can’t do this alone…..or maybe it should be said that God won’t end poverty alone.

John has already shared that his passion for ministry is feeding the hungry this year. You have heard about the Heifer Project and his desire for us to purchase animals to send them to help fight hunger. There is another group out there on the same wave length with him.

The Episcopalians are working too. And we can help them too. On February 18 at 7 p.m. at the North Ballroom of the Purdue Memorial Union, a worship service will be held with the whole purpose of fighting poverty. The Episcopalians are the motivators but others, like Shawn Zambrows at the Baptist Student Foundation, are part of the group sponsoring this particular worship service.

The phrase “U2charist” is a combination of two words. U2 is a rock band committed to fighting poverty. Eucharist is the Lord’s Supper.

Blog: “A U2charist is an Episcopal Eucharist service that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals.

The U2charist movement was largely conceived by a priest from Maine who said in a press release, “This is the first time in human history when we have the opportunity, and therefore the obligation, to make extreme poverty history. 30,000 die every day due to extreme poverty, and 8,000 people die of HIV/AIDS…We as people of faith are called by our Creator to embrace this call to do what we can to make poverty history.”

The U2charist is a great opportunity to reach out to the people in your congregation and larger community, especially young people. This service the music and message of U2 about global reconciliation, justice for the poor and oppressed, and the importance of caring for your neighbor. Led by the global MDG ambassador, Bono, U2 is calling people worldwide to a deeper faith and engagement with God's mission. The U2charist seeks to be an extension of this ministry.”

Perhaps you have heard of the Millennium Development Goals established by leaders from 191 nations, including the United States who agreed on a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. They joined together to create the eight Millennium Development Goals:

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Did you know that every 3.5 seconds someone dies from hunger? The aim of Goal One is to cut in half the number of people who are hungry.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education for Children

More than 100 million children are not in school today.  70% of those without access to an education are girls.  The target of Goal Two is to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Empowered and educated women raise healthier children, become leaders in their communities, and are less likely to die during childbirth.  Women have an enormous impact on the well-being of their families and societies – yet many are never able to reach their potential.  In many places, women do not have the same opportunities as men to get a formal education or a job.

The target of Goal Three is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Every three seconds a child under the age of five dies.  A disproportionate number of them live in the third world, without access to clean water or basic medical care.  A child in sub-Saharan Africa is 500 times more likely to die from diarrhea than an American child.  The majority of these tragic deaths are easily preventable -- through a combination of clean water, sanitation, improved nutrition, and medical treatment. The target of Goal Four is to reduce the mortality rate by two thirds among children under five.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Every year more than 500,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.  In some parts of the world, expectant mothers are almost as likely to die in childbirth as they are to live.

The target of Goal Five is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases: Diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis claim lives and destroy families every day.  Yet, each of these diseases is preventable and treatable.  We can save millions of lives by ensuring that everyone has access to health education, proper sanitation, clean water, mosquito nets, and affordable medication.

The target of Goal Six is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability: God made us stewards of creation.  Clean water, sanitation, and development can work together to save lives and create productive, thriving societies.

The targets of Goal Seven are to cut in half the number of people without safe drinking water, and to reverse environmental damage by practicing sustainable development.

Goal 8: Create a Global Partnership for Development: The success of the MDGs depends on all of us: rich and poor alike, our churches, our corporate institutions, and our governments. A fair trading system, increased international aid, and debt relief for developing countries will help us realize the goals.

Some of the targets of Goal Eight are to uphold a fair international trading and financial system, to develop decent and productive work for young people, and to make new technologies and affordable drugs available in all countries.

If you take these goals seriously in the days ahead, I can assure you that there would be people who would despise you too, people who might reject you and perhaps even make fun of you. These are outrageous goals; they almost seem unrealistic. Think about it. Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters? Reduce the number of children who die under the age of five by two-thirds? Cut in half the number of people who are hungry, really hungry?

Get real! But that is exactly what Jesus wants us to do. Get real.

I’ve been wondering – what would happen if we quit worrying about how to attract people to church on Sunday morning and instead put our whole hearts into eliminating poverty in Lafayette?

What would happen if we put our hearts and heads into doing everything we can as individuals and as a community of faith to do what we can to end the vicious cycle of poverty in families? Let’s help end the problems that poverty brings into their lives – substandard housing, domestic violence, physical problems from eating poorly, inadequate health care, the rising number of high school drop-outs, un and underemployment, lack of insurance ….the list goes on.

How about ending poverty in other countries too. Perhaps your heart worries about a child in Costa Rica. Compassion International can help you make a difference in a child’s life.

If we open our hearts to really and truly caring about the poor and the hungry as Jesus does, we will be changed…as individuals and as a church….and we will grow. I don’t know about numbers but I am absolutely convinced we will grow spiritually.

Bono says: “Christ’s example is being demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy, which is AIDS [or malaria, or TB, or all other scourges of extreme poverty]. The church is the sleeping giant here. If it wakes up to what’s really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn’t, it will be irrelevant.”

Let’s not be afraid to live as if we are really and truly blessed so that others will feel blessed too.