February
11, 2001
Luke 6:17-26
[A large crowd] had come both to hear [Jesus] and to be cured
of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed.
Everyone was trying to touch him -- so much energy surging from
him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:
"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 with the morning.
"Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down
or throws you out, every time someone spears 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.
"But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made.
What you have is all you'll ever get.
"And its trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself.
your self will not satisfy you for long.
"And its trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games.
There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.
There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others,
saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity
contests are not truth contests -- look how many scoundrel preachers
were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not
popular.
<The Message>
=======
1.
Blessing and trouble become the parentheses of our lives. Sometimes
it is one and sometimes it is the other. What begins one way turns
the other. An opening parenthesis of loss becomes a closing parenthesis
of blessing, of finding. An opening parenthesis of fun and games
becomes a closing parenthesis of suffering. So, where are you
in the parentheses of life?
2.
All of this takes place within the context of prayer which clarifies
our eyes that we can tell what is blessing as blessing and not
blessing leading to trouble and we can tell what is trouble as
trouble and not trouble bringing blessing.
Just before this Jesus is on the mountain praying. Just after
this those who are ready to hear the truth are instructed to not
let enemies bring out the worst in us (trouble as trouble) but
to love them (trouble to blessing) and to respond to enemies with
the "energies of prayer."
3.
A prayer: GOD of surging energies, we experience the bounce of
life, to and fro. In the midst of birth and death and all other
pendulums, help us skip like a lamb because we are well acquainted
with and comfortable with the truth. Thank you for being comfortable
in the midst of uncomfortableness....