Sermon on the Plain

by Pat Lee

(Based on Luke 6:39-49)

Today Jesus continues his teaching in the Sermon on the Plain, telling us about judging others and using parables as examples of the kinds of things that we need to avoid.
Matthew Henry, theologian, calls these parables “Sentences like Solomon’s proverbs”. Other commentaries on these verses endorse this, calling them ‘wise sayings’.
In the commentary A Plain Account1, the writer says, “There are four short sayings here and each is a kind of ‘wisdom saying’. The analogies themselves are straightforward and easy to understand. V40 – good and bad teachers (be careful who you follow); v41-42 – good and bad judgement (be careful to recognize your own faults first); v43-45 – on good and bad hearts  (be careful to develop your inward character); v48-49 – on good and bad foundations (be careful to protect yourself from trial by acting on Jesus’ words).

“Notice that v46-47 are not an analogy. … These two verses reveal the theme for Luke’s conclusion to the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus asks the question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.” If these words bring to mind the judgment scene of Matthew 25:31-46, it’s because the concern of Matthew and Luke in the Sermon on the Plain are closely related.”

The two verses that precede today’s reading help set the scene. Jesus gives us a stern warning. It comes in the last part of v37, followed by v38: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” Then comes the crunch. “… for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” These words could be a little daunting, but, if the following guidelines are observed, then we should have no problems.

Back to the four analogies. First, v40, on good and bad teachers. As a teacher, I know the  importance  for children to have a good teacher. On more than one occasion I had to pick up the pieces for the children who had had bad experiences. Some of these kids had gone backwards rather than forwards.
In every walk of life people need to be given good guidance. Have you ever given advice to someone without knowing all their circumstances? I must confess that I have, and I’ve been on the receiving end of bad advice as well. So, we need to be careful about the advice we give, but also about who is giving us advice. We all need advice from time to time, but is the person who giving it actually the right one? How often have you heard someone say, “My advice to you is….”, and it has turned out to be the wrong advice?

Second, v41-42, on good and bad judgement. Isn’t it easy to see the speck in another’s eye, but not see the plank in our own? When I first became a Christian, things were not good in my marriage at the time, but changed dramatically when Michael gave his heart to the Lord, some months later. Till then, my life had changed but Michael’s hadn’t, and he kept finding fault with everything I did. A Christian friend who was staying with us at the time said something I have never forgotten. He told me that Michael could see problems that he thought I had because they were actually the problems that he had, and, this friend, as an outsider, could see both of us. I think that is a very important truth. It is our own problems that we tend to see in another person, but can’t see them in ourselves.
So, be careful to recognize your own faults first.

Third, v43-45, on good and bad hearts. Be careful to develop your inward character. If we read St Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we will find a list of the ‘bad’ fruit. Things like jealousy, drunkenness, dissensions, and strife, but there are others not mentioned in the list like lying, cheating, stealing, pride, overwhelming desire for power, murder, and so on. We  need only to look around and see what is happening in our world today. Our news on TV at night is full of examples of people who exhibit bad fruit, and our prisons are overflowing because of it.
But, in Galatians 5:22, we read this: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” These are the ‘good’ fruit we need in our lives. As Luke 6 v45 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” These are the inward characteristics we need to develop. So, we need to guard our mouths lest they betray  what is really in our hearts.

Fourth, v48-49, on good and bad foundations. (Be careful to protect yourself from trial by acting on Jesus words). As a child, I remember singing the song, The wise man built his house upon the rock, with actions, but I didn’t have the foggiest idea what it meant. However, I have come to understand that the foundation we need to build on is Jesus. He is ‘the Rock’;  he is also the corner stone, and for some, he is a stumbling block. When we build on ‘the  rock’ foundation, we can be assured that we are on solid ground and no matter what happens – and the floods will definitely happen – we will stand firm. Our faith will hold.
Some of us have been, and are going through some pretty awful trials in our lives. Our faith may be shaken for a time but it will bring us through because Jesus, ‘the Rock’, is what we found ourselves on.

In Resources for Preaching on the Parables of Jesus, William Powell Tuck says, “Jesus himself is the foundation on which life is built. Jesus had just delivered the Sermon on the Mount [referring to Matthew’s Gospel – today’s reading comes from Luke’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’]. He had presented his chief teachings, and then he declared that the foundation that undergirded life was his teachings and his way of life. Jesus was declaring, ‘I am the foundation upon which life is built.'”

Further on in Luke (11:27, 28), Jesus addresses a crowd and it says, “A woman called out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.’ He replied, ‘Blessed  rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.'” This echoes v46-47, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.”
The writer of the commentary in A Plain Account suggests that, “These two verses should precede all four of our comparison analogies.” So, I stress, Jesus urges, whoever “hears my words, and acts on them …” Some versions use the word ‘obey’ instead of ‘acts’. Some people don’t like the word obey, because it seems to take away our free wills, our ability to choose for ourselves. Does it really? Or does it instead give us the security we need in our lives?  Look what happened to Adam and Eve when they disobeyed in the Garden of Eden. They lost their freedom and became enslaved to the power of sin.

When we obey (act on) Jesus’s words, we are on the way to living a Christ-like life. The word ‘obey’ and its extensions are used over seventy times in the Bible, so we need to take heed.

Are we willing to act on Jesus’s words?   

1 https://www.aplainaccount.org/luke-6-39-49/

Get off the Grass

The hundreds of people churning up the Parliamentary lawn are unlikely to read this blog.  If they did, I’d want them to know that they are blinkered and selfish and, in some cases, misled and entitled.  They’d want to punch my lights out for saying so, which possibly makes the point, but I’ll amplify.
The baseline of their cause would seem to be that in the name of their freedom and rights they would blithely stifle the freedoms and rights of others.  Apparently their right to be unvaccinated trumps the rights of others to function in a safe society.  Apparently their right to be free of mandates trumps the rights of others to socialise in a low risk setting.  Apparently the right of a school teacher or nurse or policeman to keep working unvaccinated trumps the rights of the kids in the class, of the sick people in the ward, or of the fellow cops or emergency services he or she has to work with in close quarters (not to mention the injured or terrorised public they’re supposedly helping).

Apparently the entitled on the lawn have never factored in the impact of their demands on the disabled, the diabetic and the chemo-compromised, most of whom are permanently self-locked down for fear of exposure to the virus and possible death.  Apparently the freedom champions have no compunction about exposing and compromising them (the immunocompromised) by their insistent appeal to the so-called Bill of Rights.
Rights can be rescinded for a time, for special reasons, especially where the rights of others are being spurned.  Being vaccine-free and mandate-free are tenuous rights … valid, as long as they don’t infringe the rights of the more vulnerable.  Any decent human being will surrender those rights for the benefit of others.  We’re proud of the Kiwi help-our-neighbour mindset that has us mopping out his flooded basement, but it doesn’t seem to carry over, in the mindset of some, to helping out his neighbour who could get extremely ill if he catches Covid.

The resistors say the science is wrong; the government has ulterior motives; the facts are fake; there is some grand design to dupe us all into tamely accepting tyranny and micro-chips; and someone must speak up.  No, they are the duped themselves.  And given the oxygen granted them, the misinformed, by the sensation-seeking media, we’re left with the sense that the whole world has gone mad!

Let sanity return, you on the lawn, even if it means compromising on your sense of entitlement.  You have to drive on the left hand side of the road, and stop at red lights.  You accept those infringements on your freedom.  So accept the mild loss of freedom currently imposed by a deadly virus (not by a government).  Yes, deadly.  You can’t honestly disbelieve the real numbers.  John Hopkins University is not part of any conspiracy – believe its numbers.  Don’t say there is no virus, no danger.  There clearly is – to many, at least, if not to you.  Accept it for them, the vulnerable and the compromised, and realise that it will only be for a limited time.  It’s not the big deal you’re making it.

Get off the grass and go home and try to bring a positive contribution to the crisis.

Ken F

The Sermon on the Plain

by Auriol Farquhar

(Based on Luke 6:17-26)

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is very different from Matthew’s. In fact it is a much harsher and demanding set of statements, and is not just about blessings, but also about woes. The poor are blessed, the hungry are blessed, the people who weep are blessed and anyone who is excluded, reviled or defamed because of their belief in Jesus is also blessed; BUT if you are rich, your stomach is full and you are laughing and having a good time, or people speak well of you – well – woe to you.

If we take this literally, that’s not much comfort for us in this Church today. I don’t think that any of us are what I would call poor. Most of us own our own home, some own more than one house; many of us own at least one car, go on holiday when we want to, eat and dress reasonably well; I doubt if any of us go hungry and I have seen most of you laughing and enjoying life!
We may not be considered ‘rich’ by today’s standards, but most of us are comfortably off, or at least managing a lifestyle that is comfortable; many of us have people who speak well of us and pay us compliments for what we do – so does all of this mean that we are not blessed?

I must admit that I have trouble with the idea of being like the disciples and giving up everything I own to follow Jesus; how many of you would do that?  How many of you would be prepared to give up what you have probably worked hard to achieve in your life; and maybe gone without in the process so that you can provide for your later life?
Surely there’s another way of looking at this that would make sense in the modern context; certainly in most first and second world countries.

 Mmmm where to start?

Let’s start with the context of the time. Luke places the Sermon on the Plain, not the Mount, later in Jesus’s ministry than Matthew does. Before this sermon Jesus has been rejected in his home town synagogue, performed miracles such as healing a leper and the man with the withered hand; he has taught about fasting and the Sabbath and he has also chosen the twelve apostles. Luke’s sermon takes place on the plain, the level surface, where no-one is elevated above anyone else.

Luke‘s concern is emphasis rather than exact chronology. Most of the above stories are conflict stories — stories where Jesus offends the religious authorities. In Luke’s version, these conflict stories provide the background for Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain. In these stories, scribes and Pharisees take offence at Jesus for violating religious taboos. They try to defend a traditional understanding of God’s people (godly Jews versus ungodly Gentiles) and traditional morality, such as observing the Sabbath and not even healing on it. Jesus counters, in each instance, by showing them a new way. But they refuse to see it.

Jesus then gives his Sermon on the Plain in which he further turns their legalistic world on its head. In this sermon, Jesus gives them a glimpse into the kingdom of God — an upside-down world by their standards:
Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, sad, and expendable.  Woe to you who are rich, full, happy, and popular. Yup, that’s the fabulous Good News of the Kingdom of God.  A world turned upside down. What is tempting is to edit Jesus’s words, a bit like Matthew does – by writing “poor in spirit,” instead of “poor,” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” instead of plain old “hungry”. But Luke gives no comfort here. We might like to think that Jesus was exaggerating or speaking figuratively. There must be some way we can wiggle out of the “woes” column and into the “blessed” column instead, right? Right? 

I found an interpretation that resonates with me. What do all the ‘blessings’ have in common: the kind of poverty that makes people completely dependent on God. What do all the ‘woes’ have in common? People concerned with seeking their own satisfaction. We can look at this message as saying that when we are God-centred, regardless of our material circumstances, then we are blessed, but when we are self-centred – then we will find nothing but woes.

When Jesus blesses the poor and hungry, the sorrowful and the ridiculed, he isn’t saying that we should all aspire to poverty, hunger, sorrow, or being verbally abused. He is saying that God is present with us, even when the world has abandoned us, that God loves us, even when everyone else hates us. We find blessing in seeking God, being hungry for God, and loving the people God loves.
When Jesus announces woe to those who are rich, eat well, and enjoy fame and admiration from people, he isn’t saying that wealth, good food, and popularity are bad things. He is saying that when we are focused on satisfying our own appetites for these things, like many people today, we have turned our attention away from God, and our self-centredness will cut us off from God’s spiritual kingdom.

When we seek God, we feel the pain and sorrow God feels for people who are hurting. We stand up to injustice. We affirm that every human being is worthy of love in God’s sight. When we are hungry for God, we want the things God wants. God wants every person on earth to know him and love him.

Jesus isn’t commanding you to work at becoming poor so you can receive blessing!  In this day and age we would probably just become a burden on the state for taxpayers to support anyway! Jesus is stating how things are and how things will be in the Kingdom of God. The things that appear to be valued in this world have no value in God’s economy. In God’s economy, the only thing that has value is grace. God’s economy levels the playing field for everyone, and quite often that is not comfortable for us. Because, whether or not we want to admit it, we often prefer the way the world elevates some and values others less; it can make us pleased if we think that we are more well-off than someone else, or are more popular or more successful in careers, etc.

Jesus isn’t encouraging us to get rich or become poor. Jesus is inviting us to put everything at his disposal and follow him – to use what we have in his cause. He sees us. He knows us. Not the good face we put on so others will think well of us.  When life is hard, when things are going badly, when you are experiencing the kind of suffering and hardship that happens on the level places of life, Jesus is standing there with you, sending healing power your way. But he will also be there when things are going well, as long as we acknowledge that they are going well because of his grace.

What we need to realise is that what we have, comes to us by the grace of God. Our God is the God of those who have nothing but God. We need to appreciate that and become more God-centred – using what we have to help others and not making acquiring material goods and ‘stuff’ the be all and end all of our existence. We need to share, to be concerned for others and to love others; it won’t make us rich, but will make us happy and help us to live a life full with the richness of God.
I bet that most of the time, it just plain doesn’t occur to us that we would be lost — utterly and wholly lost, physically and spiritually — without the grace that sustains us.
God sees us, and wants to bless us. There isn’t anything we can do to change that. Nothing we do can make God love us less, and nothing we do can make God love us more.

Yep – Jesus was turning the world on its head for his listeners. If we listen today he is doing the same thing – turning our values system on its head.

As one American theologian writes: “The world says, ‘Mind your own business,’ and Jesus says, ‘There is no such thing as your own business.’ The world says, ‘Follow the wisest course and be a success,’ and Jesus says, ‘Follow me and lay down your life for others.’ The world says, ‘Law and order,’ and Jesus says, ‘Love.’ The world says, ‘Get’ and Jesus says, ‘Give.’”

Jesus does not offer an easy path – but for us, as Christians, it is the only one.

Luke, Fishing and Waitangi

by Joan Fanshawe

(Based on Luke 5:1-11)

You have just heard a great little story – one many will remember from Sunday School times and may still have images in your mind from that time.

I love the idea of Jesus, desperate for a little space from which to speak to the crowds pressing upon him, just commandeering Simon’s boat. (Luke is still naming him Simon, but we’d better relate to this disciple as Peter – Simon Peter.)

And I love that Peter just lets him. I mean, he’d been fishing all night and probably wanted to finish cleaning up and get home to bed. But he takes Jesus out anyway. Possibly – no – probably, he already knew Jesus, and was used to this kind of thing.
In a previous chapter of Luke we hear that Jesus had healed many people and stayed at Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law of a fever but the Gospels aren’t necessarily chronological on some of these story details. So maybe Peter was grateful and there’s not much he wouldn’t do for Jesus.
Or maybe he was just that kind of a guy, the kind of guy who would push out from shore even though he was dead tired, just because you asked. We don’t know. He just does it. You’ve got to love that.

When Jesus has finished teaching the crowd on the shore – note there’s no detail about the message, but I’m sure it would’ve been about the Kingdom of God, justice, liberty for the oppressed, good news for the poor – you know – love in action …
Jesus isn’t actually all done for the day. He tells Peter to push the boat out further into deeper water and with his partners put the nets down again.

After a slight demur, Peter again does something that doesn’t make sense … letting down his nets. After he’d been fishing all night and caught nothing.
Can’t you imagine the expression on the fishermen’s faces as they struggle to haul in this catch, call their friends to help, and barely get their nets to shore?

Artist Raphael’s imagining of the scene (1515)

I even love the idea that however much Peter thinks he knows Jesus, he only now realises that he really doesn’t know him, that he’s only just beginning to realise who and what Jesus is, and that it scares him enough to make that confession:
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

And I love that Jesus says to him: “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid!

This is the hallmark of Luke’s Gospel; maybe the hallmark of the Gospel. Jesus comes so that we don’t have to be afraid any more. I love that.

And then Jesus gives Peter something to do, something bigger and larger than anything he’d ever imagined.
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

I don’t want to rush on past the importance of the message in this story, of finding abundance if you push out into deeper waters, if you are prepared to go to that deeper place with Jesus and discover that in the gospel of hope and love there is so much more.  The story shows this very clearly. And I’m pleased to have moved on from earlier held ideas that this was the hook line and sinker – haul ‘em in-type fishing image that urged the recruitment of ‘unbelievers’ on to church pews.

And I loved waking yesterday to find Pastor Steve’s* contribution in my mailbox just the words to express what I was feeling:
To be fishers of people
is to let the great net of your love
down into their lives,
trusting that there you will discover
miracles and blessings,
and draw them out.

Now: somehow I wanted to segue this story into some pertinent words about our Waitangi Day; and the Treaty of Waitangi.
I haven’t found a segue, except to urge us all to go deeper, to put away previously held assumptions, to read more stories, history of our New Zealand beginnings, to acknowledge past injustice and support efforts to honour the Treaty.
Christian missionaries were very influential, with worthy aspirations at the preparation of the treaty. As followers of Jesus if we can renew within ourselves the faith and the courage of our forebears who first signed the Treaty, we may well rise to fulfil our true potential as one people.

A starting point might be to read John Bluck’s story recently published on the Radio NZ website**, which looks at pakeha identity today through the example a long forgotten missionary who came to New Zealand in the period shortly after the Treaty was signed. (This is the same John Bluck who authored the booklet circulating currently on Anglicanism.)

In going deeper myself I know I will have to confront some personal attitude challenges of impatience with the place we are at here in Aotearoa NZ. We have a lot of work to do before we can say we are one people.
From the beginning of trying to put all this together, Peter’s confession has been real for me.
Jesus’s response, “Be not afraid”, doesn’t mean – don’t worry. It means there is another way – and invites me to follow more deeply.

Sadly the promotion of being kind is being battered down in many quarters right now but doesn’t it underlie all this? We need to keep kindness alive.

I share this from a former Waitangi Day service:
If our sense of servanthood can overpower our sense of entitlement;
If our hunger for justice can overpower our selfish greed;
If our hope can be more relentless than our grievance;
And if our love can be more powerful than our litigation;
We will fulfil the greater promise of the Treaty of Waitangi:
One people, united.
Until then, we need to pray for peace, and to strive to deal with injustice and oppression.

Nā tōu rourou, nā tāku rourou, ka mākona te iwi.
We are all in this together.

 *Steve Garnaas-Holmes at  www.unfoldinglight.net
** Radio NZ: John Bluck interview