Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Welcome

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers

Hymn

175: Here I am to Worship

Prayers of Adoration and Confession

Karon

The Lord’s Prayer

Karon

Hymn

504: May the mind of Christ my Saviour

Readings

Jeremiah 17: 5-10 (Joan)

5 This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Luke 6: 17-26 (Anais)

Blessing and woes

17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon,

18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured,

19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

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.

Hymn

351 In Christ Alone

Sermon

VALENTINES DAY

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, an opportunity to tell others how much we love and appreciate them. Karon and I have booked a meal out like many others no doubt paying over the odds.

Card sales will soar. Read out the words in a few ‘cheesy’ valentine cards, and/or invite people to share ones they know or have sent/received.

Despite the commercialism and ‘cheese’, we are truly blessed to have other people in our lives whom we love and who love us.

I would like you to think of someone you love deeply maybe family member, friend, or someone else, think of some of the qualities that make the person a blessing in your life.

Can you think of one word to sum up your feeling? It’s also likely that, if we feel blessed by what someone gives to us, they will feel blessed by what we give to them – although it may or

may not be the same things! This week we will look at how we are blessed by God and other people, and how this can overflow into blessings for others.

JEREMIAH

Jeremiah reminds us that to be blessed – that is, to be living in God’s fullness and delight – is not a matter of appearances.

He tells us that those who trust in the wrong things can seem to have the appearance of health but are rootless and lacking depth.

A person who trusts in ‘mere mortals’ as it says in (v.5) is like a shrub in the desert: they may look good and healthy on the outside, but they will be parched and easily destroyed.

The challenge is to know how to work out the difference between trusting in God and trusting in things that will not satisfy.

Jeremiah tells us that receiving blessings may take a long time to be found, he suggests they will not necessarily come easily.

He recognises that the heart is devious, with a capacity to trick itself into believing all sorts of things to be good, which in fact are bad. Yet, God is reliable. When we centre our lives on God, he tests the mind and searches the heart. By our fruits shall we be known!

Psalm 1

The psalmist in Psalm 1 that I opened the service with suggests: that those who delight in the law are like trees planted by streams of water.

And for those who believe this the law is not a burden, but a blessing because it is a gift from God for our growth. It is an invitation to us to allow God to work through us this will take time. Any gardener with know, that trees ripen in due season, sometimes it may take years of patient, steady growth.

The real challenge for us is to have patience and openness, so that God can grow deep into our lives.

LUKE

The video is based on Mathew’s beatitudes.

One of the key differences between Luke and Mathew account is that Luke places this at the bottom of a hill so it is often called the ‘Sermon on the Plain’, in contrast to Matthew, which was on a hill, and in Luke it is addressed to the disciples rather than the crowd.

The crowd is there but, for now, Jesus’ attention falls on his disciples. Luke’s version has sets of four blessings and woes. Jesus was not spelling out four ways to be happy. Rather, he was describing the way things are inside and outside the kingdom.

There is a present such as the rich having had the rewards, and a future where blessing will be fulfilled.

Jesus’ shows how the good news of the kingdom of God turns the world upside down.

We are encouraged to live a blessed life. It is good to reflect on the blessings from God. We are blessed to be a blessing to others.

Jesus’ blessings in the ‘Sermon on the Plain’ remain important over two thousand years on from the time when he spoke, them.

But do they still remain understandable today? And, if so, how? Or is it the case that with the new challenges facing our world such as the climate crisis – are the blessings of Jesus still as relevant?

If this is the case, what might be more useful? Suppose someone asked you to write a series of blessings for today, what kind of list might you come up with? How would it compare to Jesus’ originals?

I have another short video where Nadia Bolz-Weber the American Lutheran minister has a contemporary take on the Beatitudes

You may not agree with her, but she brings out many things that effect people’s lives.

The phrase ‘Count your blessings’ typically means ‘Be grateful for what you have.’ Suppose someone challenged you to actually count up your blessings. What kind of list might you come up with? Is there anything that might surprise you? Given the list of people Jesus says are blessed, to what extent does your experience of blessing differ? What might this teach us about Jesus’ and God’s priorities?

Most of us can recall the famous old hymn, ‘Count your blessings’, name them one by one. We are a blessed people, yet so often life can cause us to lose focus of all that God has blessed us with. We can often fall into the trap of equating blessing to materialism. In other words, the more we possess, the more we are blessed. However, Jesus claims, ‘Blessed are the poor’ or ‘Blessed are those who mourn’ (Matthew 5.3,4). What does it mean to be blessed by God? And, just as importantly, what does it mean to be a blessing to others?

Jeremiah challenges us to trust in the Lord. For those of who have grown up in the faith, the phrase, ‘Trust in the Lord’ is part of our everyday lingo.

However, have we really taken the time to reflect what this means? Are we rooted in God and what does this look like in our everyday lives?

Today there is a lot of pressure on our young people to ‘get qualified’ to achieve the best career that life has to offer them. Success is equated with having a fulfilled life. There is nothing wrong with ambition, but Jesus invites us to think a bit deeper. So often we hear people say, ‘I am so blessed.’ This may very well be a great statement to all that is good in their lives, but the danger is that when we measure blessedness with what we possess.

In other words, the more we own means we are more blessed. However, as we heard Jesus’ kingdom teaching turns this thinking upside down.

This would indicate that this blessing has nothing to do with how much we own. In fact, Jesus said, ‘Woe to you who are…’ rich, full and laughing (Luke 6.24–25). Jesus was not against people being happy, wealthy, and even having treasures.

He was saying that he is to be our greatest treasure. God wants to be our greatest possession.

Jesus’ teaching of the woes indicates there are potential barriers to living a blessed life. So how do we live a blessed life? The prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist both point to being rooted in the Lord. To be rooted in the Lord is like ‘a tree by water’ (v.8). We are blessed when we are rooted in Christ. This stems from a deep desire to know him and to have him in every part of our lives. It means we surrender and submit to God. God is the one who keeps us settled and grounded.

Hymn

All to Jesus I surrender

Prayer of supplication

Alan

Hymn

15 The splendour of the king

Blessing