Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Readings – Jeremiah 17: 5-10; Psalm 1; I Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 6: 17-26

What a sight!  Three hundred pound plus Eagle’s linemen weeping tears of joy following their Super Bowl Win.  Tears of joy flowing down the checks of the victorious, muscle-bound men.  They were living the joy.  And thousand of their fans joined them in Philadelphia along the parade route from City Hall to the Art Museum. 

We all seek that joy; we all seek that blessedness.  Today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke has Jesus speaking to the crowd on the plain, very similar to the more familiar Sermon on the Mount found in the Gospel according to St. Matthew.  Jesus proclaimed:

Blessed are you who are poor…                                                                                                 Blessed are you who are hungry…                                                                                            Blessed are you who weep…                                                                                                       Blessed are you when people hate you…

We all seek to be blessed, to be filled with great, deep joy. 

Fredrick Buechner, in his book Wishful Thinking, wrote–

The place God calls you is to the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

That is where the deep joy is to be found.  While the Eagles gladness and their fans hunger met was indeed joyful, yet next season begins in just a few weeks. 

For people of faith, the deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger is true for season after season after season.  And for many of us, as the prophet Jeremiah wrote, we are now in a time of drought, a time when there is much brittleness and dryness, when life for so many seems very fragile and threatened.  People are fearful; people are hungry; people are overwhelmed. 

So, where do we find our joy?  Where do we find our blessedness?  Where do we find “water” (Jeremiah); where do we find “streams of water “(Psalmist)?  Where do we find our “deep gladness” and the “world’s deep hunger” meeting?

To the infant church in Corinth, St. Paul wrote:

  … in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

This is the eternal stream of life that will never dry up.  And I declare that that is where the joy, the blessedness, is to be forever found, even in dry seasons.  The God who did not abandon the crucified Christ will not abandon the followers of the crucified Christ, even in parched times.  God raised the crucified Christ to show us that his life is the life for us.  His life leads us all to eternal joy, to eternal blessedness, to eternal life.  It is in drinking from the “water”, from those “streams of water”, that enable us to live, and to move, and to have our best being. 

As for me, I try to drink deeply, and I try to keep it simple.  The prophet Micah (6:8) keeps it simple. What does the Lord God require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

In times where the dryness is pervasive and can quickly discourage us, seek those places where we can drink deeply, and discover those avenues where we can do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

There is an abundance of opportunities readily available as we walk humbly with God each and every day. 

Those Eagles fans drove their cars, rode their bikes, took the trains and buses, some leaving very early, while it was still dark, to get to that joyful day of celebration.  The fishermen, Peter, James, and John left their boats on the sea shore to find their everlasting joy following Jesus.  It is there that their deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger met. 

Find your path to deep joy.  Find your path to drinking deeply in the water of eternal life. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

Amen