“Our Cup of Woe”

A Sermon by Rev. Patrice Ficken

Luke 6:17-26

Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC
February 11, 2007

(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author) 

 We live in a time of contrasts and the contrasts seem to be growing wider and deeper:

 The gap between the rich and poor is growing larger.  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

 Strains of certain viruses like hepatitis and the flu are becoming more resistant to treatment - making the sick, ever sicker.

 Climate change is exacerbating contrasts between hot and cold; wet and dry.  Storms are more severe and intense causing greater damage and suffering.

 You could say these dynamics of contrast are the woes of our time.  What happens in times of woe?

 In times of sickness, our desire for health is never stronger.

When we face a mountain of bills to pay and have no money to pay them, our desire for wealth is never stronger.

When our world becomes embroiled in war and conflict, our desire for peace is never stronger.

And so it is with the people who gather on the plain to hear the words of Jesus.  Those who gather are the hungry, the poor, the sick.  They have drunk deeply from their cup of woe.  Their desire to get a glimpse of Jesus, to touch him – is palatable.  For their desire to be well again, to feel whole again is strong, almost desperate.  Jesus meets each one with compassion and love saying:

‘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 6:20-21)

Jesus blesses them!  He takes their cup of woe from which they had so deeply drunk and blesses it. 

And then Jesus turns toward the wealthy, the healthy, the strong – as if to the wind - for you will not find them anywhere near this gathering.  He turns toward them just the same and says:

²⁴‘But woe to you who are rich,
   for you have received your consolation.
²⁵‘Woe to you who are full now,
   for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
   for you will mourn and weep.

26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. (Luke 6:24-26)

Jesus’ words reach forward and back – pointing to the cycle of life, the seasons of life, the great reversals of life.  For when we are well, happy, able to fill our bellies and pay our bills – it is easy to forget the lean times, the hungry times, the difficult times.  We can come to believe that we are immune from such setbacks.

Eugene Peterson’s translation reads:

“But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.

What you have is all you’ll ever get.

And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.

Your self will not satisfy you for long.

And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.

There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.”  (Eugene Peterson, The Message, p. 1864)

It’s different when times of trouble have reached our doorstep.

In Friday’s Op-Ed section of the NY Times, Kristin Hendersen, wife of a Navy Chaplain who served in Iraq writes:

“Every morning that my husband was in a war zone, whether it was Afghanistan or Iraq, I woke up knowing that today could be the day my world might end.   He’s a Navy chaplain, but when he’s convoying with the Marines, hunkering down with them under fire, he is as exposed as they are.  Even those tucked away on bases over there face mortar attacks.  This takes a toll on the families left behind.  “Everyone up here is on Prozac,” a wife from Fort Drum, NH told me.  We field phone calls from our loved ones on the frontlines.  We deal with money shortfalls and anxious children.  And then our combat veterans come home.  In the last few years, divorces among enlisted soldiers shot up 28 percent and the suicide rate among Iraq veterans doubled.”  (Kristin Henderson, “Your Money at War,”  New York Times,  2/9/07)

Henderson goes on to argue for a war tax as a way for Americans to share the sacrifice that military families face every day.   For here in America, unless we have a loved one or friend in the military – we could just as easily forget there is a war on.  If we manage to turn off the television, we can easily forget that every day people are dying in Iraq. 

The ones who live in Iraq have become so desperate for peace that they are leaving their country, their home, everything they have known and loved – to find peace again, to feel secure again, to feel safe again. 

Taghreed Ewas is a chemical engineer who fled Baghdad last year to Sweden after receiving several death threats and narrowly escaping a kidnapped.  She said, “Iraq is finished.”  Thousands of others apparently agree with her.  The United Nations estimates that 500,000 to 1 million Iraqis are displaced in Syria; up to 700,000 in Jordan; 20,000 – 80,000 in Egypt; and up to 40,000 in Lebanon.  (Ivar Ekman, “The Reach of War; Iraqi Refugees Find Sanctuary in Sweden, New York Times, January 16, 2007)

What will it take for our leaders to say no more to this war?  When will their desire for peace match the desire of those who have suffered so much? 

The hungry, the sick, the poor who gathered to seek Jesus that day were blessed because they realized their need for him.    They understood they had reached a point where they did not have the answers to what had happened to them.  In their reaching out, they were touched, healed, transformed. 

Meanwhile, the rich and the full ones – stayed home.  They missed receiving their blessing – though their need was just as great, maybe even greater.  Material wealth and comfort had insulated them from their spiritual hunger.  (Just as our insulation from the war zone and the hardships of war, mutes our desire for peace and willingness to demand it from our leaders. )

Our cup of woe is our spiritual need and emptiness.  We don’t realize we’re empty until hardship exposes the holes in our foundation. 

Yet Jesus knows the hunger in fullness; the emptiness of wealth and his heart pours out in compassion too.  Jesus says to us all – don’t wait for the reversals of life to reach for God.  Don’t wait until we’re down to the last dime or the last loaf of bread.  Receive the blessing of Jesus now.  Allow his gaze, his touch, his word to challenge and change and transform us now.  Let us pray,

Lead us from death to life

from falsehood to truth.

Lead us from despair to hope,

from fear to trust.

Lead us from hate to love,

from war to peace.

Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.  Amen.

(The Universal Prayer for Peace)