Jeremiah 17:5,7
Luke 6:20-21, 24-25

Our scripture readings for today talk about blessings and curses. I have to admit that there’s a part of me that wants to run away from the idea of blessings and curses, the idea that the good things that happen to us are blessings and the bad things are curses, and God controls them both. Then there’s the added challenge of human responsibility, the idea that we bring blessings or curses upon ourselves by what we do. We reap what we sow. Or, as Cal put it in my favorite movie, Titanic: “A real man makes his own luck”.

But the scripture readings we heard today show that the matter of blessings and curses are a lot more complex than this.

First, there’s the words of the prophet Jeremiah. In this book, the curses and blessings are claims about the future. They present a choice between two paths, two actions, two ways of being. The people can choose to trust in God, or they can depend on their own human-made institutions and beliefs. According to Jeremiah, the latter will result in a curse.

Jeremiah’s telling the people: You better watch out. The people had been worshipping other gods, creating idols made of stone and wood, and abandoning the covenant their ancestors made with God. As a result, there was rampant corruption in the community. The poor were mistreated and even the religious leaders turned them away. Jeremiah was calling the people away from these evil ways to return to the Lord and trust in God, and in doing so, be restored to the blessings of a life in communion with God.

In Luke’s gospel, we have what is referred to as the sermon on the plain. The words recorded here are similar to the sermon on the mount in Matthew’s gospel.  As we know, Jesus often spoke to large crowds of people. He had a ministry of teaching as well as healing. And right before Jesus speaks about blessings and woes, Luke says that the crowds were coming to Jesus, because there was power coming out from Jesus, power to heal. And so people with all sorts of needs, people who were sick, people who were dying, people who experienced spiritual and psychological distress, were healed. The crowds recognized that the power was coming from Jesus.

So then Jesus speaks to the crowd. Here, Luke records that Jesus goes to a level place. He’s on the same footing as the rest of the crowd when he speaks to them. And he begins to talk about blessings and curses. The  gospel doesn’t use the word curses here, but instead it says “Woe to you”. The word “woe” is a little bit lost in translation, but what it communicates is– “You better watch out”. The same thing we hear in Jeremiah.

Now whereas Jeremiah makes a distinction between those who trust in the LORD and those who do not trust in the LORD, Jesus here makes a distinction between the many life circumstances people encounter.

And the blessed people are not the ones that we would expect. Jesus addresses his disciples directly, and he says “Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you for, for you will be filled when you are hungry, you will inherit the kingdom of God even though you are lowly, even though you are powerless, even though you don’t have anything”. It seems to be that precisely when they lose everything they gain the kingdom. They blessing of God is the presence of Jesus, descending from the mount to come to the level place.

And it’s the same Jesus, who stands on a level place with the crowd, from whom power goes out to heal all of the world. There’s a mystery in Christ. A hiddenness. Christ isn’t found with the powers and victories of this world, but the cross. Christ’s victory looks like defeat. It flips our expectations upside down. There’s something about Jesus that doesn’t allow us to stay exactly where we are.

Because the words that Jesus speaks to those who are in the stable places, those who have good names, those who have enough food to eat, those who are already set and ready to go, are just as destabilizing. Jesus says, “Woe to you– you better watch out!”

When we think we have everything figured out, when we think we have built strong lives for ourselves, when we least expect it, we get knocked off our feet. Woe to us. We lose our job. Or our home. Or a loved one. We get a troubling diagnosis. We realize the hard truth about someone we care for.

In the midst of all of this, what does it mean to trust in God? Not to trust in our own human works, but to trust in God? Sometimes it feels like God is far away, like God is hiding.

We may be tempted to read the words of Jeremiah and Luke like the internet meme which always asserts there are two types of people: “Cat people and dog people,” “people who put their both socks on before both shoes and people who put on the left sock and shoe before the right one”. Good and evil, rich and poor, right and wrong, blessed and cursed. We seem to be addicted to binaries. But as someone once said, “As soon as we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is on the other side of it”.

The scriptures for us today are not about two types of people, but an invitation to turn from sin and toward God, turn from corruption toward fair living, turn from abuse toward peace. There are times when each of us here will be hungry, and other times when we will be full. Let none of us question that God’s care is for the poor ones. The Beatitudes are God’s love letter to the poor. You who are poor today, in mind, body, or spirit, hear the good news that God’s love is for you, no matter what the world says.

As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied”. Yes, God’s promise is for this life, but it is also an eternal promise. We give thanks for the blessings God reveals in this life. And we look to the eternal glory when all pain, all hunger, and all sorrow would be wiped away, and death will be swallowed up forever.

In the midst of every trial and challenge that we face, may we also encounter the living God, who lifts us up to be people of God. May the people go to Jesus, again and again, to receive the gift of grace, the gift of healing, and the gift of faith.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.