One way to read the Bible,
a good way I suggest,
is to notice that it speaks of
an old world being replaced by a new world.
One reality is ending, a new reality is being birthed.
And what the prophets call us to —
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah and co. —
and what the apostles call us to — Paul, Peter, John and co. —
and what most importantly Jesus calls us to
is to live on the basis of the new
and not the old.
The turning point of that old to new,
of life out of death,
of hope out of despair,
of peace out of hostility,
is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
If you begin to read the Bible with this kind of lens,
this kind of frame,
the words of Jesus that were read to us this morning
make the right kind of sense.
The blessings that Jesus announces are part of the new world coming,
the woes that Jesus announces are part of the old world going.
This kind of passage is one destined to get me into trouble,
to which my response will always be,
‘don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger.’
If you’ve got a problem with it,
take it up with Jesus!
On my book shelf,
one book has this title:
The Word That Re-describes the World.
That is the mission of Jesus,
that is the whole Bible in a nutshell.
We gather around the Bible,
week in week out,
perhaps day by day,
to have the world re-described
according to the God who is revealed within it.
To read the Bible in this way
is to read it with the awareness that the words and way of Jesus,
the words and way of the gospel,
live in 'deep tension'* with the words and way of our world.
It is to know that when we open up Bible
we are more than likely going to find its words
jar with our experience and beliefs,
that the words of the Bible are not in harmony
with much of what is said, thought, done
in our twenty-first century world.
If we believe that the Bible is not just a series of very old words,
but is rather in the Holy Spirit’s power always a New and Living Word,
we will take them as words that speak to us today,
despite our distance from when they first put to page.
When we listen to this next sermon of Jesus
which builds upon the first sermon in Nazareth,
which had already been anticipated in Mary’s song,
we see that Jesus is re-describing the world —
re-naming who is blessed and who is not.
In the face of all the data, that says otherwise,
against all that jars our thinking and beliefs,
Jesus re-describes, re-names, re-imagines
the world according to God.
God had worked to upset the order of powerful Egypt
and free enslaved Israel,
making them into a people according to his word.
God had worked to upset the order of powerful Bablyon
and exiled Israel,
returning Israel home
and making them into a people again according to his word.
And now in Jesus,
God comes to work to upset the order of all Powers —
whether they political, economic, social, spiritual —
that inhibit and oppress not just Israel, but all people,
that all might become a people according to his word.
The gospel Jesus proclaims
is an announcement, a declaration, a proclamation,
that God has come to
re-describe, re-name and re-imagine the world
once and for all,
according to his word, his purposes, his life.
What Jesus declares, his resurrection turns into reality.
When Jesus is raised from the dead, a new history, a new world is born,
and everything he said is truth.
And so to those at the bottom,
the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated,
the gospel is always a good news word,
a word of hope and of promise.
And to those at the top,
the rich, the well fed, the laughing and well spoken of,
the gospel is always an abrasive word,
a word of woe and of warning.
The gospel brings both blessing and woe.
The woes sound a critical word,
that the world as it is, will not always be,
that those who have too much will find themselves left without.
The blessing sound a new hope filled word,
open a new possibility,
for those who have too little that they will find themselves satisfied.
Here’s my interpretation of what is being said by Jesus:
For those who are ignored, marginalised;
For those who are without power or privilege;
For those who are hungry or lack the means to eat well;
For those who are overcome with grief at their situation;
For those who lack hope that things will change;
For those who are ridiculed for trusting in God:
Jesus says
you are blessed, you are promised,
a great reversal is on its way.
I am here for you says Jesus.
For those who are have money, who experience comfort;
For those who have power and privilege;
For those who eat well and know they will continue to do so;
For those who can laugh because the world works for them,
for whom life is all fun and games;
For those who are praised and live for the approval of others:
Jesus says
your days are numbered, you are shamed,
the future does not belong to you,
a great reversal is coming.
The old order is passing a way,
a new order is coming.
The target of the woes are
those who live without reference to those who live without;
those who live without a commitment to generosity and hospitality
and neighbourliness;
those who live ensuring only that ‘me and mine’ are looked after;
those who live perpetuating systems that oppress and exclude and do damage.
Jesus says woe to you.
There can be no defence.
Later in the gospel, he tells the story of Lazarus a beggar,
and a rich man who lived in luxury,
and what happens when they both die.
Lazarus the beggar is taken to Father Abraham, to comfort and rest
and the rich man, who is given no name,
is taken to Hades and torment.
Jesus is still re-describing the world,
re-naming what the kingdom of God.
It's the same message now in story form.
It's a powerful story
and there is nothing to do with it but be 'haunted by it', **
to allow it to open our eyes to see.
The blessings and woes of Jesus are an invitation to see.
to see what God is like
to see what God’s kingdom is like
to see what we are like.
to see that Jesus comes to re-describe, to re-name,
to re-verse who is deemed blessed.
The old saying is
that Jesus comes to comfort the disturbed
and disturb the comfortable.
Some of us this morning are comforted.
Some of us this morning are disturbed.
I pray all of us have caught a glimpse
of the kingdom,
of the future coming,
of the good news,
of the Jesus who says follow me
and you will find life.
Amen.
* Walter Brueggemann, The Word That Redescribes the World (Fortress, 2006), 7
** Walter Brueggemann, On the Wrong Side of the Ditch ... for a Long Time' in The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann (WJK, 2011), 94
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