Looking Ahead to February 16, 2025 -- 6th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 1
• Luke 6:17-26

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The Sermon title is Blessed or Cursed?

Early Thoughts: Looking at the Luke passage, where do you find yourself? Which category describes you better -- the ones told the are blessed or the ones who are told to expect woes?

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Or looking at the Psalm...
Are you in the happy folk who meditate on and delight in the Law or are you in the second stanza? Are you a tree planted by the water, growing strong in the word of God or chaff to be blown away?

I think I know where we all want to be....

Living into God has called and formed us to be pushes us to ask those sorts of questions. It pushes us to be honest with ourselves even when it is uncomfortable.

Many of us in the United Church, most of us in Canada in general are not usually among the poor, the hungry, the hated and excluded -- the people promised blessings. In the big picture we are among the rich and comfortable. Often in our culture we end up taking advice from 'the wicked', from those who lead us into the primary sin of idolatry -- putting something other than God in the place of highest importance.

Does that mean we should be dreading the times of woe?

Nor necessarily. It does mean we need to take an honest look at where we fit in the ecosystem. Certainly where it comes to the categories in the Psalm we can make a choice. We can choose what we put in the place of highest importance. As for Luke's categories of blessing and woes, well we can choose how to use our wealth and privilege. In the end, I think those choices are the path that leads us away from woes and toward blessings.

Together let us lead each other to the path of blessing. Together let us plant ourselves in the streams of wisdom so we can grow strong and fruitful. Let us be ready to be different from the world around us, even pushed out to the margins, as long as we are being faithful to the God who made us in their image.

At the same time, maybe we should be ready for the possibility that there will be woes along the way...
--Gord