Sixth Sunday of Epiphany: Costly Gospel

Unedited Transcript Follows:

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit. Amen. So, I remember running into Blaise pascal's quote in high school. Um, and some of you guys may have heard of this as it's one of the things he's most famous for, he said.

A lot of things. Um, smarter than this. He was a really smart guy, and uh he was. He was a philosopher, Christian philosopher, also like a mathematician. I mean, just a smarter guy than I. Uh, this quote is probably one of the things he's most famous for, though, is, uh, what.

What we call the pascal's wager? And he said belief is a wise wager. Granted that Faith cannot be proved. What harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all if you lose you lose nothing. Wager than without hesitation that he exists.

So his argument was, hey, go ahead and make a bet. Make a bet on God because if you bet on God and you're wrong, you don't really lose anything. That was his argument. And when I was in high school, this was actually really convincing argument. I came to a place where it wasn't convincing, probably in college.

I said, hold on a second. The big issue for me was, what was his statement that if you lose, you lose nothing? Right. I think I struggle to recognize that and reconcile that with the teaching of Christ. When he demands things like, take up your cross and follow after me.

That sounds like losing something if you're wrong, right? If you, if you go walk to your death, it sounds like you've lost something if you're wrong. This week, we celebrated Valentine's Day. There are several conflicting accounts about Saint Valentine. About his life, and there may have been two Saints by the same name, and their stories may have converged in places sometimes hard to put together history.

But some of the stories? About Saint Valentine praying for and receiving a miracle where he had heals a judge's daughter from blindness. And um, and, and then converts the judge, and then when he's getting in trouble for it, he continues, preaching the gospel and evangelizing until he was put to death.

Another account as Emperor Claudius. Outlawing marriage because it took young men out of service for a season in the Army. And Valentine performed illegal Christian marriages until he is martyred. Right, which is probably why the the love stuff, right? So? Uh, what all the accounts agree on is that he was at odds with the power structures in Rome for something, and that he was martyred in about in.

Mid 3rd Century, right? So, Saint Valentine's Day? Is actually a feast day connected to the martyrdom of a faithful Christian minister. Who we know very little about. Other than that, he was martyred for his faithfulness to God. This juxtaposition led to the creation of some funny memes that many of you many of you may have seen.

Circulating the internet right means that say things like roses are red. Pilots are blue. I was beaten with clubs beheaded buried under the cover of Darkness and disinterred by my followers, and you commemorate my martyrdom by sending each other chocolates.

Now, that's, uh, that's silly, right? But you realize actually most of the feast days of the church are martyrdoms? Do you know that? The church actually teaches us to Feast and not to fast in response to a martyrdom. That's something right. The church, so we're silly about that. But the church actually teaches us feast when you talk about a martyrdom.

Don't fast modernoms are not someplace something simply to be mourned. Although we mourn the sinfulness of the world system, that makes them possible, right? But martyrdoms are like Badges of honor. I, I wonder. If, like, Jesus. There might be in our resurrected bodies. I think it's like, quite possible, that those who have been Martyrs will bear the tokens of their martyrdom.

Much like Jesus beared, the tokens of his dying on the cross. Um, I, I wouldn't be surprised at all and that this would be beautiful and and redeemed in in the resurrected life that we would be able to look at these martyrums and say and and see this as the testimony of faithfulness, right?

See, I want a faith more like that. I don't want a faith that doesn't cost me anything if I'm wrong. Right? I wonder what Saint Paul would have thought about Pascal's wager? You know, the guy who wrote? If in Christ, we have hope in this life only. We are of all people most to be pitied.

That's what he wrote in what we just read, right? All four of our readings today lay before us two ways. And what we'll see today is that although the way of Christ costs us everything? It's worth it. How can we join with Saint Paul and say that we are willing to live our lives in such a way that we would have to admit we were absolute fools who wasted our lives if the gospel weren't true.

How can our lives look like that? How would you, how do we live a life that's wasted? If this plan doesn't work out of good news of God, making the world right through his son, Jesus. That's what we'll be looking at today because the the two ways first we look at.

If we look at the first way it's the cursed way. Jeremiah tells us that the man who trusts in man. Or makes flesh his strength. Is cursed? Right? There are several ways man can make fles. His strength. Or trust in man. Many of them are dressed in the book of Jeremiah itself, right?

With the, uh, the book of Jeremiah is written to a people who are about to go into Exile, right, telling them you, in fact, are going into Exile that's not changing. And this. This is happening right, and there's all sorts of different ways. People might be tempted to trust in man and a lot of them are addressed.

Military might, so he talks about. Don't go making Allegiance with Egypt like they can save you right. So, don't trust in your military might or your strength. Right, um, it could be wealth. Don't trust some of you have great wealth now. You will be dragged into Exile, and your wealth won't come with you, right?

So Jeremiah addresses a lot of these things. The people of God were in great danger. Exile was coming, and they were seeking security. What do you seek for security? When you're feeling anxious? Yeah, what? What are the things that you? Uh, that calm your anxiety. Right? Oh, what? What are the things you run after it could be like, um, military strength?

Um. Could be? The the account balance on your retirement accounts? Could be, uh, there's lots of things we can chase after. When we're feeling anxious? In, Jeremiah tells us. That's the way that's cursed. The way, the way that trusts in man or trusts in flesh. Right? In The Sermon that's on the plane.

So this is, like, very similar to The Sermon on the Mount, but in Luke, he's on a plane, right? He, uh, right? Jesus Takes us even a step further, right? Woe to the rich woe to the full? It was kind of cool, I don't know. Uh, how many of you are reading the daily office with regularity?

I hope all of you, it's not. It's not too late to start. If you, if you keep saying, I'm going to get to that like, you can do it. But if you are reading the Daily Office regularly. We got to read The Sermon on the Mount yesterday. Um from Matthew, and now we're reading it today in Luke, um, in our Eucharistic lectionary.

Kind of fun, when those things line up like that, right? And we got to read that yesterday. And there's maybe two surprises that stood out to me. Kind of reading those so close together in the differences. Um. One is Luke doesn't give the same qualifications. We'll talk more about that in the moment.

But the one that we'll talk about now is that Luke includes the woes. Whoa to you, right? In Matthew doesn't include them in his account of the Beatitudes. There's no woes included at all. So, Luke intentionally lays out not only the Blessed way, but the cursed way. He, he, he, he.

He lays out both the way of the Blessed and the way of being cursed. Just like Jeremiah does. And being cursed seems to be the result of doing very normal things. Like eating until you're full? Laughing and having a good reputation. Like, pretty normal things right, so that which is kind of shocking, maybe, or interesting to us, or should make us uneasy.

It's actually it's very similar message people who put their their energy and might. And trust in the flesh. For security are going to be cursed. And the results of this cursed way is futility and death. So, Jeremiah talks about the cursed way, the cursed man being like a shrub in the desert.

Right? Think dry dead? Unfruitful. Psalm 15 talks about the ungodly, like chaff, which the wind scatters away, and it is gone. Right? Luke talks about those who are full being hungry. What's the picture here? A life of futility and ultimately death, right? These things. These are pictures of death.

And this isn't simply because God likes his people to suffer. Like, hey, if you do really normal things that would? Keep you from suffering in this life. Um, I'm gonna curse you like, it's not because he just likes his people to suffer. This is the inevitable result of living in a fallen world that is ultimately subject to Decay and death.

The Fallen World is ultimately subject to Decay in death. Some of you guys might remember. Or heard about probably after you were born. You know, the the Enron Scandal of the early 2000s? So, like the Enron Scandal? Um, some of what took place is actually kind of difficult for me to understand.

Um, I only got my undergraduate in like economics and business, so I'd like, I don't always understand what, what, when I'm reading what they're saying, I'm like, I don't. I don't really get what happened that well, but the short of it is. That some shady bookkeeping combined with uh financing of loans on stocks drove up the stock prices.

In a way that wasn't real, and that didn't last. And when it started to collapse, it all went down and the short of it is if you had a million dollars invested in Enron in October of 2000 by the end of 2001, it was worth less than three thousand dollars.

He didn't want to have. All your money invested in Enron? Right? Christians are saying that investing in the world system is like investing in that investing in Enron if we have our investment in the world system because it is subject to death and Decay. It's like investing in something that's going to fall apart.

It's not worth putting our hope in. It's all it's going to be worth nothing. Sometime soon, right? Now, we're not talking about the physical creation when we say the world system. That's good. That's the object of God's Redemption. God made the world and called it good. He's going to set it right, right?

That's the end of the story as God comes here, and he makes the world right. But the world system, the world, the system that's marked by Fallen about all the structures of the world system, the political structures, the Nations, all of it, and, and even like our very families, if we're putting all our investment at these all of these things Decay.

All of these relationships Decay and what remains? Is all that wasn't marred and touched by the world system. So if all our investment? And all the places that we run for security are in this world system. It's not because God wants us to suffer. It's because that system's following is is going to pass away if that's where your investment is.

You'll have nothing. Right. That's why it's the cursed way. But then, these readings all lead out, lead us to another way, the blessed way or the Blessed way. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Jeremiah says. This is in direct conflict with a man who trusts in man, the one who trusts in the Lord, right.

Psalm 1 speaks of the man who Delights in the law of the Lord. That's the one who's blessed. Right? Just think about that for a second delighting in the law of the Lord. That's that. That's something that we could all spend some time meditating on right to be able to approach the law of God with joy and Delight that we've that we that we've come to understand the law of God leading us into the way of life as a way that's a gift to us, so we Delight in it.

And then Luke tells us we are blessed if we hunger now more now and are poor. In addition to that one difference, I told you about that would, including the woes that Matthew leaves off. Another important difference is that Luke doesn't qualify these. These statements in any way Matthew does.

So, Matthew tells us that we're blessed if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Or if we are poor in spirit? Luke doesn't qualify these in any way. He just leaves the qualifiers off. Blessed are those who hunger. Blessed are those who are poor. Uh, um. That's a pretty significant contrast, right?

Now, this could have been two different sermons. You have them on a mountain one time in a plane and another time. Um, it's pretty likely that Jesus would have taught similar sermons in more than one occasion, right? That wouldn't have been surprising. So that was probably Jesus practice, but whatever the reason for what the difference is between Matthew and Luke, it's important to realize that Luke.

Is recording these words of Jesus? And he's inspired by the Holy. To give this emphasis. To to to raise to our attention, something that's important. The Blessed ones are the people most uncomfortable in the current world system. That's what Luke is pointing us toward. He's showing us the Blessed ones are the ones who are uncomfortable in the in the world system.

They don't have a high reputation. They're hungry, they're poor. Yeah, those are the ones that are blessed. In Luke's telling of the story. These words should make people like us who live in the wealthiest, most comfortable civilization in human history. A little bit uneasy, right? That should make us feel a little bit uneasy.

And I want to soften Jesus words. But it's in, but it is an important thing to know that Jesus had wealthy people funding his ministry, so people like were funding his ministry that had means to do so, right? So, it's not necessarily about being completely opposed to anyone having.

Wealth, right? But I think at the very least we need to realize it's hard to live the Blessed life of those who end up seeing God, which is the goal of human life to see God face to face right. If we're too at home in this world system? It's hard to do it.

It's hard to keep your wealth intact. Right, if you're too invested in Enron? If you have all your money in Enron, it's hard to keep a nice portfolio, right? If it all goes. Downhill really fast. And if you have all your money invested in this world system, all your energy, all your heart, all your trust for, uh, all your all your hopes for security.

Invested in this world system when it crashes. It's hard to keep a blessed life going. So, what we're invited to do is to go all in. You know, no limit! Texas Hold'em became all the rage when I was in college. People were weird, okay, like people would watch on ESPN.

People play poker against each other. I don't think people do that anymore. That's a weird way to spend an hour, but people would watch people play poker on ESPN when I was in college. So, like, this was like, really popular, and one of the things that one of the phrase like when we talk about going all in that actually comes from No Limit Texas hold them.

It's a poker term for when you're committing every chip you have in front of you. To this hand. To this pot. Right? If you take out the bluff as part of the game, which is dumb to do with poker because it's not a small part, but when you do that when we put all our chips in the pot, what we're communicating is.

This hand is good. It's so good, it's worth everything. Even if we're bluffing, we are communicating that we're just lying, but, uh, yeah, but, uh, so. But we're communicating this hand is worth every chip I have in front of me. This is so good, I'm it's worth putting all of it in there, right?

I think. What we're actually being called to by the gospel is to go all in on this. To say this one. Is worth betting my life on. Much opposed to Pascal's wager, which is saying, hey, had your bats? You might as well. What Jesus is calling us to is something much more go all in?

If this isn't right, if this isn't the right story, if this is the wrong thing to invest life in? Your life's over man, you lost it all. You lost it all on this one, right? It looks more like going all in than it looks like making a conservative business investment, right?

God requires too much. The Blessed life requires us to give up too much Comfort, too much, standing too much reputation, too much money too much. Everything to be able to work to toy with an idea like Pascal's wager and Saint Paul knew it, which is why he wrote, If in Christ, we have hope in this life only.

We are of all people most to be pitied. It might sound Pious to say, even if there was no afterlife, I would just love Jesus, but that. But Christians didn't play with that stuff. They didn't talk about that that way, they they said, look. We're giving our whole lives to this.

If this doesn't work out if this ship goes down. I'm going down with it. Like, I've put my everything I have.

I think we're invited to count the cost, and then if we want to follow Jesus, go all in. Be willing to lose it all. Our lives should be transformed to the degree that if we are wrong about this, we've lost everything. So, live your life with such Devotion to Jesus.

But if this thing isn't true, you lived like a complete and utter fool. So, only right response to the gospel. We're presented with two ways today. One way is to trust in men and comfort in this world system, and this way might lead to more worldly or short-term Comforts.

But it's bankrupt, and it's futile, and it leads to death. The current world order is going to pass away and will be left with nothing if that's where our investment is. The other way is to invest everything in the gospel. We give all of ourselves. We give our entire lives, our energy, our money, our heart into seeing God's kingdom come.

This is a way that leads to discomfort in the current world system that's Fallen and broken. But it leads to brand new life. When everything's turned right side up, the Kingdom of Heaven is the stock that's going to be rising. And those who have their lives invested. There are the ones who are getting the kingdom.

So, if it's true, our lives need to be lived with such devotion. That we could never entertain the idea that if the gospel isn't true, we've lost nothing. We know that if it isn't true, we've lost everything because we've intentionally structured our lives so that with Saint Paul, we can say.

If Christ is only to be hopeful in this life, we are above all men to be biddied. So, may we live our lives holy for God and for his kingdom. May we willingly give all that we have and are, for the sake of Jesus, and may our entire lives be poured out toward the end of saying, as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, thy kingdom, come.

Amen.