Rejoice In That Day
Message: Rejoice In That Day (Luke 6:17-26)
February 16, 2025 Deb Beutel
Most of us are fairly familiar with the Beatitudes, Matthew’s version of these sayings from Jesus. We aren’t as well versed in the Sermon on the Plain, which is our text from Luke for this week. There is some overlap between the two, of course, but there are also some significant differences. We tend to turn to these sayings for comfort, to find blessings in our everyday life. Certainly, we can still do that. But there is more in these words, and some of it is a little hard to take. “Rejoice in that day,” Jesus says, not about good things that happen, but about suffering, about being hated, about being rejected. This is not something we want to feel joy about. So, what is the invitation that Jesus issues here and how do we practice that as we worship?
This is a message about trusting in faith and living that faith in community. We don’t rejoice because someone has hurt us, but we rejoice because we have a community that can help us heal from the hurt. We have relationships that can insulate us from the suffering that any of us might encounter living in the world alone. We can and we should celebrate that community of support and encouragement. We should give thanks for one another and the way we have been enfolded into a loving environment that helps shape our identity as an antidote to the identity we sometimes encounter in the world. We can be in the World together as a body of believers, but choose to not be “of the World.” We have the blessings of a relationship with the God of Comfort and Mercy and with each other, we are never alone!
Have we ever stopped to ask ourselves, how can the rejoicing we do in our faith and in our supportive community reach beyond the walls of the church? Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the Mission Rivers District Annual Training Day in Williamsburg. One of the classes I took was called, “Love Your Neighbor Network.” In that training, led by Pastor Donovan Archie, an associate pastor at Ebenezer, UMC, we were challenged to think outside the box and to try to imagine how we might be able to leverage the rejoicing we do in our faith and in our supportive community to reach beyond the walls of the church. How can we share that rejoicing with neighbors in our community? Can you imagine what might happen if we intentionally chose to fervently pray for those that are in our community but, not yet part of our church? How can we build relationship with those that might need our advocacy or encouragement? We are a small rural church so perhaps if we want to make a difference in our community and if we truly want to be a more relational and responsive presence in our community, we may need to reassess our historic responses and ask ourselves some difficult questions. Who “traditionally” leads the work? How is the church supposed to work? How might the church change to better empower people for mission? Especially Mission right here in our community. And, finally what can we do about it?
Well, we can start by listening to the cries and being aware of the needs of our neighbors, and we can continue to develop and nurture that relationship by demonstrating love and friendship. We can organize events and gatherings that build community, and finally we can look for ideas and opportunities to introduce discipleship to new groups. Our prayers can include those who are not yet a part of the church but need advocates and encouragers. We can open our eyes to see that there is a world that is loved by God and in need of a clear witness of hope and transformation. And perhaps, to hear a call to mission a little louder than before.
We can also create space for those who are hurting today to find healing and hope among us. The joy that we seek is not in the hurt that has come from the world or from the church itself but in the faith that sustains and comforts and in the community that is the source of healing and hope.
We can chose to get back to basics and return to John Wesley’s model of prayer groups and become re-energized to be more like the early church where Laity was key to the growing and multiplying of the church as outlined in ACTS 2:42. We can redefine who we are becoming. And while, it might be true that right now, we are not yet an instrument of healing within our community; and perhaps, we have not been as supportive of marginalized people as we could be. But perhaps we can cast a vision of who we can be or who we are called to be. We cannot ignore who we have been, but we can claim a brighter future, a future filled with rejoicing and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the World.
Scholars tell us that both Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and Luke’s Sermon on the Plain are most likely compilations of Jesus’ sayings accumulated over a larger part of his teaching ministry rather than one sermon. It is possible that, at various times, Jesus stood or sat to teach and put together these various thoughts in one larger teaching moment. It was a technique the rabbis called “stringing pearls.”
The problem is that some of these pearls are hard to hear. “Blessed are you when people hate you.” Really? Is that something we should aspire to? Something we should work toward? “Rejoice in that day (that hating day) and leap for joy...” I don’t know if this is something I really want to claim in my faith. I know, I’ve been told on numerous occasions during the last two years of the Certified Lay Minister Program that if people aren’t upset by what we are doing, then maybe we aren’t doing enough! John Wesley even preached that we needed to be more vile, in our efforts to support the least and the lost. But I’m not sure that’s what Luke was getting at here. It isn’t that we set out to upset people, to do whatever it takes to get us hated. But that just doesn’t make sense.
Blessed are you who are poor; blessed are you who are hungry. Are we supposed to just let the poor and the hungry live in their blessedness because someday, there will be a change in their circumstances? Or are we called to be a partner in that change? Are we the promise that Christ gives to those in difficult circumstances?
And what does it mean to promise the kingdom of God? Is it, as so many believe, a “someday” kind of promise? You’ll get your reward one day when you die or when Jesus comes back, whichever comes first. Or is there something else going on here? If so, what would that be? Is it something beyond the facile “it will all work out in the end” kind of assurance?
I hope so. Perhaps we need to refocus on all of the times we are reminded throughout scripture that Jesus is the God of Comfort and Mercy. So that even when there is no simple or easy happy ending on the horizon, we’re comforted by a loving God.
So, what do these verses offer people in desperate situations? Hope? Well, yes, there is hope. And we see that message of hope throughout the bible. We see it in Romans 5:3-4 “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character: and character hope.” And in 2 Corinthian’s, we are reminded to rejoice in our suffering because it enables us to help others with their suffering and because it is a constant reminder to rely not on ourselves but on our God, the God of Comfort and Mercy!
There is a promise of reversal. There is resolution for even the most complex, the most broken of situations. And we who stand in faith must never lose our hold on that hope. It is what drives us to keep working, to keep giving, to keep loving, even when we don’t see a solution on the horizon.
More importantly, these verses tell us that this hope comes packaged in a relationship: “Yours is the kingdom of God.” Even the most desperate people are still worthy of love, welcome, and hospitality. There is room at our table, room in our inn, room in our circle, even for the hurting, even for the weeping.
The kingdom that is offered is a community, a relationship of healing and hope. That relationship is, of course, first and foremost with Jesus the Christ, the author of hope, the source of healing. But it is lived in the here and now, in the everyday, with the human community we call the church, a place of acceptance and inclusion. At least we hope so; at least we strive to be that community, that reflection of the kingdom.
We can’t fix all of the problems with a snap of a finger, but we can be a part of the solution—if we hang in there together - as a body of believers, a fellowship, like the early church and fellowship of believers.
Maybe the rejoicing is about recognizing an opportunity to grow closer, to deepen our relationships by entering into the brokenness and standing with those who have been hurt. We may not have the solutions or have them quickly or easily, but we can journey together. And in so doing, we know we celebrate the presence of Christ and the making of and being made into disciples. And we can be messengers of hope in a hurting World!