Feb. 16, 2025

Sermon for February 16, 2025

Luke 6:17-26; Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSV)

Rev. Eliza C. Jaremko

Sermon Series:  More Than We Can Ask or Imagine Hymns and audio included with CCLI License #17951: "Listen to the Words That God Has Spoken"

Note: Our livestream computer updated during worship, thus cutting off the beginning of the sermon. 

Text of sermon missing from video:

"This morning’s scripture lesson sounds both familiar and unfamiliar, doesn’t it? It’s kind of like the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, but not quite… Luke’s Gospel features a different sermon from Jesus, which is called the Sermon on the Plain – or more precisely, the Sermon at the Level Place. This is not a text we come to often. Actually, in my 20 years of preaching, I have never preached on this text, because of something called the Revised Common Lectionary, which prescribes scriptures for each Sunday on a 3 year cycle. Ever wonder how I pick scriptures each week? I don’t pick them out of my head or play roulette with the Bible. Instead, I preach on the Lectionary passage for the day, alongside my colleagues in churches all over the world. 

The Sermon on the Plain is set in Year C at the tail end of Epiphany’s Ordinary Time. Which means, in most years, Lent begins before we get here. Luke 6 only pops up if Easter is very late like it is this year, AND its Year C. (Its kind of how Easter date is chosen anyway – the 1stSunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox) All that to say, we only see this scripture text when the calendar is just right, and all the stars align. 

Which means, Jesus’ words here are not just a matter of the calendar alignment, but God knowing the Word we need in this moment. God wants the followers of Jesus to hear these words, as our country wrestles with federal funding, program cuts, distribution of wealth, and foreign aid to the poor."