Sunday Stretch: Vol. 113

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

We’re in the midst of a February freeze here in Minnesota, part of the last gasps of the coldest days of winter. In the midst of ongoing climate change threats, I find myself yearning for the rhythms of the seasons (even as I get tired of being cold). I notice how the coldest days here are often the brightest: the sky a piercing blue, the sun reflecting brilliantly against the white snow.

May you find some brightness this week, especially as we read Jesus’ promises and challenges from the Beatitudes of Luke.

Let’s get to the texts!

A photo I took in 2010 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This is the site of the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Matthew parallel of the Luke passage we read today. I didn’t imagine it would be so lush. What a lovely surprise and a meaningful moment. I am praying today for all who live, worship, and work for peace and justice in the Holy Land today.

Bible Stories

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Jer. 17:5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the LORD.

⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.

Jer. 17:7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,

whose trust is the LORD.

⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Jer. 17:9 The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse—

who can understand it?

¹⁰ I the LORD test the mind

and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Reading through this passage makes me think of the despair of loneliness, which I think is at the heart of Jeremiah’s message here. Disconnection from God, from our own spiritual practices and life, can be incredibly lonely. Rooting our faith and “strength” in what the world values, transitory things, often does prove fleeting. Jeremiah describes this state as a desert-like, parched one, where nothing can grow.

Questions to Ponder

What do you think Jeremiah is referring to when he says “mere mortals” and “mere flesh?”

How does this coexist with Paul’s theology - and creation theology teaching - about the holiness of the body?

Why is a tree an apt image for God here?

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

1Cor. 15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died^a in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1Cor. 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.^a

This passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians continues on from last week’s fairly straightforward retelling of the Gospel story of Jesus. But we remember the context into which Paul speaks, a Greek philosophical context which did not support resurrection of the dead, and a conflicted Jewish tradition that did not have a uniform teaching about resurrection. Thus Paul’s words are actually not merely straightforward or obvious, though they may appear so here. Instead he is reminding the early Christians that in order for the Gospel story to be meaningful, it must have direct meaning in their own lives and bodies.

What would it mean for proclamation and faith to be in vain?

Have you ever felt that your own faith was in vain? When, where, and why?

How did you get through feeling that way? What do you do when those feelings return?

Bonus question: Why does Paul warn that limited faith means the Christians are of all people most to be pitied?

Luke 6:17-26

Luke 6:17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Blessings and Woes

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you^a on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,