Luke 6:17-26 & Lightnin' Hopkins

Luke 6:17-26:

17.  And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

18  came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.

19  Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

20  And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.

21 Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.

22  Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.

23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

24 But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

25 But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.

26 Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

* * *

Well, today's sermon was on Luke 6:17-26, and I thought that the pastor did a pretty good of speaking to the reading and I liked the violin solo that followed. As the pastor said, after that solo we all knew what it was like to be blessed.

Three thoughts came to me as the sermon was progressing. One, when the pastor was emphasizing how it's the poor that are blessed and that the rich have a more difficult time I started thinking that I wish that I had not been so blessed for so much of my life to be a (relatively) poor man. I could have done with just a little less blessing and a little more rent money quite a few times. Second, I figured out pretty quickly that part of his sermon was for people who are doing better than I used to be and I do so appreciate the effort to explain things to them. Last, I thought of Lightnn' Hopkins' great sermon on this reading. Here it is: