Luke 6:17, 20-26
Lead in: Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” presents Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God. The Beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel contrast how life can take two different paths. There’s the path that leads to “blessings” and then there’s the path that leads to “woes”. The choice is ours.
Prompt: Reflect on a choice that has led to a “blessing” in your life.
Prompt: Reflect on a choice that has led to a “woe” in your life.
Lead in: The world looks to status and success as the way to fulfillment. By contrast, in the “Sermon on the Plain” Jesus teaches that those who live humbly do not depend on status or worldly success to find fulfillment in life. It’s a fulfillment that status and worldly success can’t buy. The four “blessings” mentioned in Luke’s Beatitudes speak to that. The four “woes” mentioned in Luke’s Beatitudes speak to how easy it is to lose sight of what matters in life.
Prompt: Where in your life are you being invited to live the spirit of humility that the Beatitudes call us to?
Prompt: Where in your life do status and success still have a grip on you?
Lead in: Eugene Peterson interprets Luke’s version of the Beatitudes in “The Message” this way, “Blessed are you when you lose it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding.” Yet, if you lose it all, we might ask, “Where is the blessing in that?”
Prompt: Can you think of a time when it looked like you lost it all, but in the end by God’s grace you came out a winner?
Lead in: Peterson’s translation also words it this way in Luke 6, “It’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long.”
Prompt: Can you think of a time when something that once brought you great satisfaction suddenly lost the luster? What did you learn from that?
Lead in: In the years before the crushing defeat of Jerusalem and the exile of its citizens to Babylon, Jeremiah watched the people destroying themselves with excessive concern for materialism. In the process, they became lukewarm in their efforts at living faithful to God and to the less fortunate among them. In the affluent culture that we live in, as first world citizens there are many distractions.Unless we live focused lives, we can easily become enamored by these distractions. That’s how, like the people of Jeremiah’s time, we can find ourselves losing our way, seduced by a culture that has its materialistic grip on us.
Prompt: If this is the culture that we live in, how do you keep your balance not losing sight of the values the Gospel calls us to live?
Prompt: What do you find most challenging in your effort to live a focused life, faithful to the Gospel and the values it calls us to live?
