Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany - Curse or Blessing?
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
1 Corinthians 15: (1-11) 12-20
Luke 6:17-26
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
One of the great gifts that is laid before those who live in a prosperous and free nation like ours is that we have choices. Many, many choices. We have choices in the grocery store. What variety of Apple do you like? What kind of milk? Whole, 2%, skim, Almond, Soy, or Oat? Do you need a car? What kind, color, and features do you seek? Don’t like your medical provider? You have choices. If the religious community you are affiliated with is not working out for you, you have choices. In just about every aspect of our life, we have choices to choose from. But, as far as God is concerned, we only have two choices.
The prophet Jeremiah lays out the true choices in his typical candid manner, just as the Lord instructs him to do: Live with complete faith in the Lord God or place your faith in something else. In this brief reading, the wrong choice is trusting in yourself for your own survival, flourishing, and salvation. There is no mincing of words here. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.” This is the original choice of Adam. Instead of falling back onto God’s clear Word, Adam chose to trust in his own judgment and believe the sales pitch of the serpent and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. As a result, he was cursed. He was cursed to lose his innocence and be forever at odds with God. As a consequence, we too, are cursed. For we are all living outside of paradise now. We are by our nature, perpetually at odds with God. We cannot find our own way back into Eden.
Right before these verses in chapter 17, the Lord instructs Jeremiah to address the other expressions of idolatry so common at the time. The people are adding to their worship of God by worshiping Canaanite gods, most common amongst them is Asherah. She is the most important of the Canaanite gods. Asherah is the sister-wife to Baal and she is the goddess of fertility. People worship God in the temple in Jerusalem but then journey on to worship Asherah. One of the signs of Asherah worship is a distinctive wooden pole that is placed in the ground. Asherah poles were found all over Judah during this period.
The Lord was not amused. People who should know better are choosing to NOT fall back onto God’s clear Word and command, “You shall have no other gods.” They are choosing to trust in their own mind and wisdom and strength and seek other gods. They trust in their flesh and say to themselves that “it feels so right, it can’t be wrong.” They are choosing to believe the sales pitch of the local niche religious leaders and friends when they say that there is a better way. Worship thaat God and our god too. What can it hurt? You will eventually get what you want. Our god provides you with choices.
According to the one true God who speaks the universe into existence and raises Jesus from the dead, such deluded thinking and erroneous choices bring not help and assurances, but condemnation. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” This can be taken literally, but it may also be understood spiritually. To worship and place your trust in that which is false leads to emptiness, barrenness, selfish thinking and acting that goes nowhere good or productive.
Because the majority of the people do not repent, because they choose to trust in their own flesh, they find themselves slaves in Babylon. A place and situation where there are no choices for them. Going home is out of the question. Joy and freedom are lost.
As Jeremiah points out, there is another way. We are not destined to live lives that are cursed and pointless and full of self-inflicted pain. Jeremiah proclaims, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The Word of God is proclaimed by Jeremiah and the Holy Spirit creates faith through the preaching of the Word. When a person or a people respond to that faith, we are blessed by God’s promises. Faith that trusts in the Lord and His promises and lives by God’s instructions is well nourished. When adversity comes, we remain grounded in the Lord. When faith is tested, we remain steadfast. When we discern that our human nature allows us to sin in thought, word, or deed; our faith points us to God’s grace. Because our faith in in the Lord, we are not afraid to say, “I have sinned, I was wrong, I messed up, I want to do better, please forgive me.” We trust God’s promise that He does. His forgiveness gives us the strength to amend the offense we have caused with others and to seek their forgiveness. Where repentance and forgiveness are practiced, there is love. There is no desert or parched wilderness. There is only life, abundant life.
Jeremiah speaks God’s promise. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” To live with trust in the Lord is to know His forgiveness and love. His grace and benevolence toward us is blessedness.
Centuries after the prophet Jeremiah and the Babylonian Captivity, in the fullness of God’s time, the Son of God is incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. The one man who is born without sin and is by His very nature, blessed, walks among a broken people. Spiritually broken and confused. Physically broken too. Many have come and gone and will come again that proclaim that they are the Messiah. Jesus shows them that He is the one for whom they hope. He gets the people’s attention with miraculous signs. He turns water into wine. He is responsible for bringing up a catch of fish that was unprecedented. He has authority over the spiritual realm and casts out demons. He heals the sick. He makes the lame walk and the lepers clean. He reveals that the Messiah is for all people, not for a specific nation or ethnicity, but for all the world.
For the sake of the world, He enters the fullness of humanity, and He dies on a cross, so that all people may know the blessing of God’s grace. Jesus speaks the Father’s desire that all people come to Him and know the blessing of His forgiveness, love, and strength. Through faith in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, we have the promise of everlasting life.
There are still only two choices before us. Curse or blessing. Please enter into His blessing. Upon the cross Jesus becomes cursed with the Father’s wrath for our sin so that through faith you may be blessed with his promises: You have Christ’s righteousness; You are forgiven; You are loved; You are His. He is your strength and your hope. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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