Luke 6:12-26

This past Thursday Night's Sermon was over the verses found in Luke's Gospel Chapter Six verses 12-26.  This passage covers the naming of the Twelve Apostles, the healings on the plain and the beginning of the 'Sermon on the Plain'.  It's interesting that Jesus starts off before naming the Twelve by spending time in prayer and listening to God. Something of this magnitude simply can't be tackled without discerning the guidance of God.

It's interesting to contemplate the diversity of those that Christ calls.  You have represented in the largest number those 'fishermen', those common men, next we have some for whom we really don't know anything about, then we have that 'Tax Collector' that contributor/conspirator to those Romans who are oppressing the Jewish people, then the doubter who some believe may well have been a brother of Christ, another James who some small number actually believe is Jesus brother 'James the Just', then a Zealot one of those violent men who would seek to kill a collaborator (must have made for an interesting relationship with that earlier 'Tax Collector'), another that we don't know much about, and finally the one that would betray Christ to the cross... there are those who believe (and I think they're correct) that Judas Iscariot was also a Zealot.  This rag-tagged, varied, and inhomogenous group of followers... what was Jesus thinking?

Today we often work with church members who have conflicts with one another and this can be extremely upsetting and disruptive to the organization... but... how many of us are working with people in leadership that have sworn to literally kill another member of our leadership?  We just don't know how easy we have it sometimes.  Why would Jesus purposefully set out to select individuals with such built-in bias and actual hatred for one another... kind of makes our trying to work with our church members/boards look easy doesn't it?

This extreme diversity of Christ's number should make those of us who strive for homogenous flocks and denominations to stop and take stock in what we're doing.  If everyone (or even most) of those around you walk in lock-step with you are you really surrounding yourself with the Disciples that Jesus would call?  I have to think not...  I see all around me those that only want to include those that are of the same mind as they.  This is a genuine problem and one that we will need to confront sooner or later.

I'm afraid that our ever more stratified and sorted bodies aren't the model of 'church' that Christ modeled for us in the calling of the Apostles, we need to do better...  

There are more of the topics covered in these verses mentioned in the sermon, it ended up being a rather long sermon for a Thursday night, none-the-less, I hope you'll take a listen.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Luke 6:12-26 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles
12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Jesus Teaches and Heals
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Blessings and Woes
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now,
    for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
    for you will mourn and weep.

26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.