Good morning, Friends! I see you all got through the last week all right! It doesn’t usually get this cold here in North Carolina.
What I’m going to say this morning isn’t what I planned to say. Sometimes in a preacher’s life, you realize what you planned to say isn’t quite right.
I re-wrote the whole thing on Friday. And it still wasn’t quite right. It bothered me all day Saturday. Still wasn’t right. And it woke me up, early this morning. Wasn’t quite on the mark.
So, this may have a few rough edges. This is the third time I’m trying. It’s not what I planned. But I hope you’ll listen.
Whenever I ask people what’s their favorite part of the gospel people often say it’s the Sermon on the Mount. That’s where you find the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer, “seek and you will find”, and many other beloved sayings we love.
It’s called the Sermon on the Mount because in Matthew, Jesus is preaching out on a hillside. When Luke tells the story, Jesus is preaching down on a flat place, so Luke’s version is called the Sermon on the Plain. (That’s P-L-A-I-N, not P-L-A-N-E.)
The Sermon on the Plain has a different feeling to it. Luke doesn’t include some of the sayings we love, but Luke says some things we need to hear.
Anyway, that’s our scripture this morning, so let’s read together.
Jesus went down with them and he stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from down along the coast, who had come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases.
Those who were troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch Jesus, because power was coming from him and he was healing them all.
Looking at his disciples, Jesus said:“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:17-31
“Do not judge” is something we hear pretty often. “Don’t be so judgmental!” That’s what people say.
We do judge, of course. We do it all the time. We judge other people, and we judge ourselves, almost every waking moment.
We take one look at other people, and we decide whether they’re good, or not. We judge people by their clothing, by their speech, by the way they walk or the car they drive.
We judge people by the food they buy, or how they cut their hair. We judge people by the color of their skin, or if they wear tattoos or piercings.
Jesus says, “Do not judge” – but we do it all the time. We can tell if a person gets their clothing at yard sales, or whether they shop at fancy stores at the mall,.
But It’s not just about appearances and manners, though. What Jesus says comes from understanding that we all need to be forgiven.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
The measure you give will be the measure you get back.
Do not judge, Jesus says, because we will be judged in exactly the same way. Whatever measuring stick we use, is going to be the measuring stick God uses on us.
If God has accepted us, with all our faults, with all our failures, our sins and our shortcomings – wouldn’t it be great, if we could be more accepting, more open, more willing to give other people the benefit of the doubt?
We always want church to be a safe place. Church can be where the same kind of people, the same color, from the same background, all speak the same language. It’s like we’ve all passed an entrance exam. If we’re all the same, then we’re all OK.
Another vision of the church is that it’s a place where very different people meet and come together. People come with different spiritual journeys. Some people arrive by the same path we took. Other people got here by a different road. Maybe they took the long way round.
People all have different experiences. We have different stories. Maybe we even have some very different ideas and understandings, because of what we’ve seen and lived through.
This other vision of what it means to be a church says that we are all sinners. When I say that, I don’t mean that we’re all bad people. It means that we’ve all been hurt in different ways.
We are all broken on some level. We are all beggars. We are all a little crazy. We are all untouchable. Paul says, “We all fall short of the glory of God. . .” (Romans 3:23)
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. . .”
If we judge each other, God will judge us. If we decide someone is too ugly to be here, maybe God will say that we’re too ugly, too.
Jesus once said, there are going to be lots of surprises when we all get to heaven. There will be people we never expected to see. And God is the one who decides who gets in – not us.
I want to lighten this up for just a minute.
A few years ago, I came across a welcome that was printed in the bulletin of a church down in Daytona, Florida. It’s hilarious, but it’s also serious. I wish that our church, and every church, could print this as well. Their welcome statement says:
“We welcome people who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, y no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to crying babies, to people who are skinny as a rail or people who could afford to lose a few pounds.
We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or if you can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up or just got out of jail.
We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast.
We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians and junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted.
We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion,” we’ve been there too.
If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to people who think the earth is flat, who work too hard, who don’t work, can’t spell, or came today because grandma is in town and she wanted to go to church.
We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!”
I’m not sure if Jesus would have said it exactly like that, but I think that church is heading in the right direction.
When I first came here to Springfield, at my first interview, you all told me that you wanted three things. Does anybody remember what those were?
You said that you wanted to grow. That’s good!
You said that you were willing to change. That’s a big challenge.
And you said, “We don’t judge anyone.”
That’s difficult. Because judging is so automatic. It’s almost unconscious. The thing is, we give off signals. We may not know we’re doing it, but other people can read us, all the time.
Our job isn’t to close the door. Our door is to push the door, wide open, and keep it open, every day. Our job is to say, “You know, God was merciful, and welcomed us. We want everyone to have the same welcome here!”
It’s not about how good we are. It’s about how good God is.
The gospel says that God gave his only son, so that everyone who trusts in him won’t die, but have the life that never ends.
The gospel says that God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.
If we welcome people – if we welcome people the way God welcomes people – we will change. And we will grow. We won’t be able to keep people away.
I want to share something else with you. This is a section from one of Paul’s letters. It’s fairly long, but I think it’s important. Paul is often seen as being super judgmental, but this is one of place where Paul’s Christian character shines out for us.
Paul was writing to a badly divided church. This is what he says:
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.
Some believe in eating anything,” Paul says, “while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.
Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another,” Paul says, “while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.
Those who observe a day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then, each of us will be accountable to God.Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.
Do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who serves Christ this way is acceptable to God and will be respected by other people. . .”
Romans 14:1-8, 10-18
Paul isn’t saying there are no differences. He’s saying, “Don’t let those differences make other people crash and burn. Don’t let differences destroy your faith. Don’t let differences keep people out. This is a place where we all need to be together.”
What Paul says very clearly here is, “Judging each other isn’t our job. It is before God that each of us has to stand or fall.”
God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. God sends rain to the just and the unjust. God does good things for people who don’t deserve them. And God challenges us to live and act the same way.
It’s all about welcome. For us, this place has been a sanctuary of acceptance and mercy, love and grace.
If God has showed those things to us, it’s our job to share that same welcome with everyone who shows up here.