The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany_Year C

The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany-Year C February 13, 2022 When is the last time you thought about delight? To charm, to enchant, to captivate, delight is a subtle emotion that steals over us and because of its soft nature, it requires attention from us to even be acknowledged. If you’re anything like me, you probably haven’t had too many occasions to think about delight lately. This week, I stumbled upon The Book of Delights—a book of essays by poet Ross Gay. In his preface, Gay writes, “One day last July, feeling delighted and compelled to both wonder about and share that delight, I decided that it might feel nice, even useful, to write a daily essay about something delightful. I remember laughing to myself for how obvious it was. I could call it something like The Book of Delights.” He continues, “ I came up with a handful of rules: write a delight every day for a year; begin and end on my birthday, August 1; draft them quickly; and write them by hand. The rules made it a discipline for me. A practice. Spend time thinking and writing about delight every day.” He concludes, “…It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study. A month or two into this project delights were calling to me: Write about me! Write about me! Because it is rude not to acknowledge your delights, I’d tell them that though they might not become essayettes, they were still important, and I was grateful to them. Which is to say, I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight. I also learned this year that my delight grows-much like love and joy-when I share it.” i This has all helped me this week, as I’ve contemplated Luke’s version of the Beatitudes for today. Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, probably the more familiar version that is ensconced in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, is all about the blessings: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth….” It goes on like that, all blessings. But Luke’s version of the Beatitudes which we have for today, happens in Jesus’s sermon on the plain. Rather than preaching these teachings from a mountain, like in Matthew, Jesus is on a level, flat place. In Luke, Jesus includes a list of woes that are the counterpoint to his blessings: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” But “"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.” But “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.” “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” But “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 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." But “"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets." And while this version in Luke has a nice symmetry to it, if we are really listening and paying attention, it probably makes us a little uncomfortable. I’m an Episcopalian. I don’t like to think of Jesus casting woe on anyone, especially his disciples, who Luke tells he is looking up at as he is preaching, and coupled with the passage from Jeremiah where God is easily throwing around curses on people, the whole thing makes me squirm. What has helped me was going back to Luke, and looking at the words that are translated as “blessed are you” and “woe to you.” The phrase or word for “blessed are you” is better translated for us as “good for you if…” or even the Australian saying, “Good on you!” Good for you if you are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Good for you if you are hungry now, for you will be filled.” “Good on you, mate,” says Australian Jesus, “if you weep now, for you will laugh.” And the woe part can better be translated, “Watch out!” or “Pay attention if…” or even “Trouble ahead!” but it also has the connotations of grief surrounding it. So maybe like when you give someone a warning but you know they aren’t really listening or aren’t going to follow it? “Pay attention if you are rich, for you have received your consolation.” “Look out if you are full now, for you will be hungry.” “Trouble ahead: I’m going to warn you and you probably aren’t going to listen so it’s going to be bad--if you are laughing now, at your own good fortune and others’ distress, then eventually you, too, will mourn and weep because ultimately that makes you a miserable human being.”ii And what Ross’s Book of Delights helped me recognize in the Beatitudes this week is that most of the time, we are not in an either/or state. We are in a both and state. Delight, being captivated or paying attention, shows us the beauty and wonder in our lives and the world around us, and sometimes, it even springs up from suffering and woe, in those times when we should have been paying better attention to our own humanity and the humanity of every person around us. Your invitation this week is to look for delight in your life and in the world around you. Pay special attention to it during times of suffering or woe, and look for it in your humanity and the shared humanity of those around you. i. Gay, Ross. The Book of Delights. Algonquin: 2019, pp xi-xii. ii. Levine Amy-Jill and Ben Witherington III. The Gospel of Luke: New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambrige UP: 2018, pp 177, 178, 179.