A Paraphrase of the Sermon on the Plain

English Bible Version Link

Luke 6:17-26

Short Version and Comment

Woe to you who feel the need to debate the humanity of others.

Woe to you who spend your time on people having sex as consensual, loving, caring, adults.
Blessed are you who have ever known exclusion or death. God sees your humanity. 

Blessed are you who know divine joy and pleasure in the body God gave you, mutual pleasure is a gift from God.
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Guess several denominations I know should heed some warnings from Jesus, and several people completely outside the church are being blessed by God.

Long Version and COmment

Jesus heals people. Then, he says something that today might sound like:

*Blessed are you who are poor and can't afford housing, food, or health care, for yours is the kingdom of God.

*Blessed are you who live without because of the greed of the economic system, for you will be filled. God is on your side and working to bless you, even if it is sometimes impossible to overcome the greed of others. 

*Blessed are you who weep now because your children are Black, and the police killed or imprisoned them for who God made them to be, for you will find laughter when others are punished for their mistake in denying the Image of God in your children. 

*Blessed are you when you show up and shout that you have a right to LIVE, that #AccessisLove, that the kyriarchy must die, and that Black Lives Matter, 

*Blessed are you when people hate you and exclude you for showing God's love to everyone.
 
*Throw a party on that day and dance, for surely your reward in great in God's kin-dom; for hating, reviling, imprisoning, and killing prophets is what the comfortable people do.

==> But woe to you who are given unearned privileges in this system, for the system blesses you, but your soul is hurt.

==> Woe to you who have more than enough food now, for you will someday know hunger. 

==> Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep when you are shown how your actions killed and harmed others.

==> Woe to you when the system and those privileged in it speak well of you and lift you up, for that is what the ancestors did to the false prophets.

So, like most of us, I'm blessed in some ways, and being warned to use my privledge now in ways that lead me to feeling empty, crying, and knowing the pain of others. This is not a "we can keep people poor because God blesses them" or a "slavery and the current PIC is fine because God will take care of those we harm in heaven". This is a "people we've harmed need good news, and we're being invited to know their pain, to give up some of our earthy wealth, to cry with them, and to make it better". We've been warned by Jesus. This is your invitation not to whitewash, spiritualize, or make comfortable these challenging words of Jesus. He spoke them to people who were actively being harmed by the greed of others and the economic system. These were radical words. Radial words that eventually led to the death of Jesus.