Lectionary Trails - Sixth Sunday After Epiphany Year C

What a difference a week makes.  This time last week we were having snow and all hunkering down because the roads were iced over.  Today our high was 70 degrees and the tulips in my yard are poking their green stems out from under the mulch.  Feels like spring!

I've decided to work with the UMC Discipleship worship resources for the remaining Sundays before Lent.  They are framing the scriptures around a #SeeAllThePeople lens.  Each week the scriptures have some reference to "crowds" so it seems really workable.

Luke 6:17-26 is the gospel reading and the theme heading is "the expectant crowds".  This is clear to see in the opening verses: Jesus comes down onto the plain (a level place) and a great multitude of people come to hear his teaching and be healed of their various ailments.  A "great crowd" of disciples is also present.  I guess in today's slang we'd say Jesus is trending.  I am struck that whereas today we can be very focused on getting people INTO the church building, people are drawn to this charismatic teacher and healer wherever he is, which is not always in a synagogue.  Jesus does not single out anyone to be left out of the teaching/healing.  He does not interrogate them regarding their faith or even if they are part of Israel.  He offers, extravagantly, without qualifications.

Then he teaches the disciples, and is the only person who speaks in the lectionary passage.  This is Luke's version of the beatitudes.  I notice that the part of the teaching that is recorded in the gospel is directed to the disciples, not to those seeking healing.  There is an echo here of the Isaiah passage that Jesus read in the Nazareth synagogue - blessed are you who are poor - because he was to proclaim good news to the poor.  This serves as a reinforcement of the understanding of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Isaiah vision for God's shalom. 

This scripture reads like Mary's song, a series of illustrations of reversals.  The way the world is will not always be so.  This feels like very good news to me, because the daily news feels as though those who have power will always win.  The constant revelations of greed, racism, violence, oppression, and the resistance to making the world a more equitable and just place to live feel overwhelming.  The pianist at one of my churches told me that he avoids the news because it is depressing.  He'd rather focus on his teaching, his performances and our worship services.  I don't blame him.  Perhaps this scripture will be an opportunity to explore the ways in which we are an Expectant Crowd, waiting for Jesus to come and overturn the Powers That Be and bring in God's shalom. 

I like best the way that Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes God's shalom:  "The picture we have is of a creation at peace, abounding in harmony, unity and fellowship.  This was God's intention for the entire universe because unity means peace, prosperity, fellowship, justice, wholeness, compassion, love and joy et al. conveyed in the virtually untranslatable Hebrew word Shalom."