Preached at St. Martin’s in-the-Field, Severna Park
I was slow to work on a sermon this week because I’ve been a little under the weather. I told my husband on Friday that I hadn’t put one word down on paper yet, and he asked: “What’s the text?” I told him it was “the sermon on the plain” from Luke’s Gospel. Ever the jokester, he replied: “I didn’t know Jesus preached on planes—what airline?”
And then we laughed at the idea of Jesus getting on the intercom of a Delta flight, right as the plane reached cruising altitude.
The next day, sitting at my desk in sermon mode, I started playing with this idea of Jesus preaching midflight. I tried to imagine how we might respond if a Palestinian Jew were to ask the flight attendant if he could have a word with the passengers.
Imagine Jesus gently taking the mic and saying:
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
I wonder what the response would be. I wonder if people would see the presence of God before their eyes or roll their eyes at the crazy man proselytizing.
I wonder if people would listen and receive the gift of Jesus preaching the truth in love, or if he’d be cut off after just a few words.
I wonder if someone would capture the whole thing on their phone and post this viral video that would transform hearts and change the world, or if it would just be white noise on another day of constant chaos.
Our Psalm today ends with the word “Doomed.” Our reading from Jeremiah begins with the word “Cursed.” And this sermon on the plain finishes up with a list of “Woe’s.”
How do we hear these words today?
Once upon a time in my faith journey, I would have read these as warnings or even fear tactics. Delight in the God’s law, or you’re doomed. Trust in the Lord, or be cursed. And be careful about how much money, food or fun you have, or your life will be full of woe and mourning.
I can remember a time in life when doing good had less to do with trusting God, and more to do with avoiding the doom, curses and woes. It was a backwards kind of motivation—to be running away from what’s bad rather than turning to what’s good.
I don’t think that’s a helpful reading of today’s scripture. I don’t think this is a vengeful God trying to scare us into right action and faith.
Instead, I hear these words as an outpouring of love. I hear God pointing to the truth that meditating on God’s law really does sustain us, and turning our hearts to God does keep us upright and OK when the storms come.
God invites us to trust in God’s love and provision.
Now, think about the people in your life you trust the most—the people you know have your best interest at heart because they love you when you are at your best and when you are at your worst. Think of the people who can tell you when you’re out of line, or working too late, or neglecting yourself, or neglecting your friendship. That doesn’t just happen overnight. That kind of trust is built up over time in loving relationship. It’s not blind faith. It’s a faith that knows something about you and loves you.
Well that’s what God is inviting us into. A loving relationship that builds over time so that we come to trust in God’s love and provision and law and goodness and mercy. And this loving relationship doesn’t protect us from hardships. But it does protect us in the storms that will come—the heartaches and the disappointments and the loss—the trust gained in that loving relationship over the years allows us to be rooted and grounded in the love of God so that we can stand upright in the full knowledge of who we are and whose we are.
When we don’t have that, then yeah, it can feel like we’re in parched places of the wilderness… even when things seem to be going great on the outside, we can feel hollow and untethered on the inside, longing for love to ground us.
So friends, hear these words of doom, curse and woe. But hear them as a recognition of what you’ve been through or perhaps where you are right now.
And then hear this invitation to let love wash over you—to let love seep up through your toes—to taste and see that the Lord is good—that God’s love is for you… especially for you. And having felt that love, reach out for more, until you are rooted and grounded in God’s abiding love for you.
I want to ask you to pull out your hymnal and turn to hymn 379—this hymn HyeSung so wisely selected for our worship today.
During Covid, the church I served took up the practice of speaking hymn texts until we were permitted to sing. And we found that the words hit differently when we speak them. So I want to ask you to read the second and third verses of this hymn with me—and then take these same words out with you into the world this week:
God is Love; and love enfolds us,
All the world in one embrace:
With unfailing grasp God hold us,
Ev’ry child of ev’ry race.
And when human hearts are breaking
Under sorrow’s iron rod,
Then we find that selfsame aching
Deep within the heart of God.
God is Love; and though with blindness
Sin afflicts all human life,
God’s eternal loving kindness
Guides us through our earthly strife.
Sin and death and hell shall never
O’er us final triumph gain;
God is Love, so Love for ever
O’er the universe must reign.1
Amen.
lauren laughs 