Couples

Good Morning everyone. I am glad that we can be here together. Friday was valentines day so I hope for all you special couples out there you feel extra loved out there.

For those of you who may have come to hate Valentines day. Ummm...Sorry.

IN all seriousness many people have seen through the veneer of what valentine’s day really is. A holiday in February to get people spending money again. In fact, we can see this in a new way with the rise of

Galentine’s Day

It is celebrated on February 13th. It serves as a reminder that Women can and need to support each other and can empower each other.

This day was born a little over 10 years ago because of the show Parks and Rec.

It took a little bit but it has taken off and ladies are celebrating their friendships with each other.

Is that a bad thing no not really but it is amazing how it can show us something important about who we are and what we value.

We face the challenges each day of pursuing things that we value and dates like Valentine’s day or Galentine’s day remind us of some of the things that are highly valued in our culture.

Values of our Culture

There are many things that our culture values. An example of this would be Freedom.

Americans value freedom. But we also value safety. The problem is that these two can often be at odds with each other, but they are coupled together.

Another American value that we have is Hard Work. Much of our society is viewed and judged by the work that you put in. How hard of a worker you are. Yet, we also value informality and Leisure. We Work hard and play hard. We want people to put in a good days work but we don’t always mind if they are comfortable while they do it.

We value Privacy but we also value intimacy.

We want people to find love and relationship with others but if you show people too much of your life you are frowned upon.

There are other things that can be a part of this list if we took the time to think on it but it is amazing to me how these things are coupled together and we have to find the balance and tension between them.

This mornings passage does something similar. It couples together two ideas. Blessings and woes. Turn with me to Luke 6:17 and Let me set up the opening of this passage.

Verse 17 sets us up that Jesus was doing his usual thing and he was preaching and teaching to people in the area. He was healing people and he was casting out evil spirits and the crowds grew larger. Jesus would of course preach and teach to these crowds.

These crowds were often looking for something from Jesus but they often recieved something that they didn’t expect in the message he was going to share with them. Let’s look at this message that he shared.

Luke 6:20–26 NIV

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Blessings and Woes

Blessed are you who are poor but woe to you who are rich.

Blessed are you who are hungry but woe to you who are well fed

Blessed are you who weep but woe to you who laugh

Blessed are you when people hate you but woe to you when people speak well of you.

Two ideas coupled together. They are connected but separate.

Let’s first talk about the blessings though.

The Blessings

I remember the first time that I read this passage I thought.

Are these really blessings?

It’s a good thing when I am poor.

It’s a good thing when I am hungry.

It’s a good thing when I am sad and I cry.

It’s a good thing when people hate me.

That doesn’t sound very blessed.

I don’t know about you but i don’t feel very blessed when I am hungry or I can’t Pay for something. I do feel very blessed when I am the opposite of those things.

Now you might already be saying to yourself Pastor Andy you aren’t reading the second part.

Now your right there is more to this story than just being poor, hungry, sad, and hate.

The blessing isn’t the first part it is the second. That despite the challenges you may be facing the blessing that comes is one that is based on the idea that God will restore those who have gone through these hardships.

Think about it for a moment. If you are poor you will depend on God for what you have and you will be blessed because you trust in God.

Such it is for the hungry who will find true satisfaction in who God is. and those who are mourning or weeping will find comfort and when we are persecuted we know that God will make the situation right one day.

Those sound like blessings. The trust and faith and hope that God will provide.

Then we get to the Woes

The Woes

Oh man. We better get worried. I love one of the definitions that are used to describe what Woe means.

The Woes

Ruinous Trouble

This changes our view or understanding of what a Woe is. A woe for many people we can think of as regret or even a threat that this might happen.

It is a guarantee that if I am rich that I am in trouble because I have already gotten everything.

What is the afterlife going to be like for me?

God has already given me everything? Oh man this is not good.

Now clearly I am well fed and to be honest many of us in this room are very well fed. Even if we don’t want to admit it. Guess what we are probably all going to be hungry right.

Hey better not laugh no humor allowed.

If people speak well or highly of you oh man you are in trouble.

The Woe is not that these things can’t be a part of our lives but when they are we need to be careful because they can cause us Ruinous trouble.

When someone is wealthy ruinous trouble can come because we no longer rely on God for all that we have. We can just take care of our needs and wants ourselves. Why would I depend on God to give me all that I need when I can go to the store and buy what I want.

This doesn’t mean the wealthy can’t belong to or see God as their provider they just need to be Woeful or cautious to humble themselves to their need for God.

Similar to the wealthy the well fed face the same thing. We don’t realize how much of a blessing we have in our ability to be satisfied. What if I told you this isn’t about physical hunger but more about the hunger we have for guidance, and dependence of our God.

I Think we can see this in the church sometimes if I am honest. We have an ease of access to study and engage God’s word. We can read our Bible anywhere and it is very convenient. We can study and go deeper with a tremendous amount of ease. We have churches and communities that we build and structure so we can feel fed.

What happens though. IT becomes convenient and we loose our passion and our need for it. Church and our faith has become something we do not something we live.

I want to specifically address the laugh one now because I think it is important for us to establish that this is not Jesus saying we can’t have a sense of humor.

Jesus isn’t creating a ministry that is a Killjoy attitude. It is the shallow merriment that will give way to mourning and weeping. It is the flippant attitude. The shallow perspective excess and gluttony can lead to an eternal state of mourning and weeping.

Even in our happiness we have to remember that we have been blessed and these blessings come from God.

Blessing and Woes

We have both blessings and woes. What then do we do with them. They are clearly coupled together and we have a hard time separating them.

It was in the blessings and woes that I think we can see there is a realization that they both are pointing us to the truth that there is one consistent in them.

Did you catch it?

We must never forget to rely on God in all things.

We must never forget that we are dependent on him for all things. That if we are in good times or in rough times we are to rely on him. It is easy to forget how much we need him when everything is going right. When life is good. It is not uncommon for people to come to God when they are at their lowest but when things get good they walk away.

God is all of who we must depend on. This has to be the center of our thinking.

Let’s Pray