Third Sunday before Lent
1 Corinthians 15.12–20 Luke 6.17–26
Many will be familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. Here in Luke’s Gospel we have a similar passage called Sermon on the Plains. Again, Jesus is teaching, not just his disciples, but crowds who had gathered to hear him not only to be healed.
The final verse of this passage “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets,” serves as a warning about what we say.
In the days gone by prophets would proclaim the word of God in speeches to crowds. They would be held in awe. They would have been seen as great teachers. After they had finished speaking to the crowds, and after they had bathed in the responses and the adulation poured upon them then they would return to their home glowing with pride.
However, there were those who also claimed to proclaim the word of God, but with them things were different. They were false prophets. They would speak, not God’s words, but utterances of their own devising. When they had finished they too would return home glowing with the praises heaped upon them, but in this they were praises falsely earned. These were false prophets, charlatans, preying on the people and of the desire of the people to hear from God. God’s word was not an everyday occurrence. When someone stood up claiming to speak in his name the people would stop to listen.
They would hear what they wanted to hear. The false prophets would have known this. So, skilfully they framed their words into a speech, a speech which would claim the attention of the peoples and which would possibly have encouraged them to put generously into his ‘collecting hat or bowl’.
Jesus was warning against doing things or speaking in a way that people would be speaking well of you. Do you deserve the good things that are being said? If you are speaking in public are you speaking from the heart, from what you are being given or led to say by God? It is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of prophetic utterance is a gift to enlighten the hearers, to give them teaching coming direct from God. It will enrich them. It will bring them closer to God. Your words will bring reassurance for the word of God had not been heard for some while.
To speak as a false prophet may address the immediate needs of a crowd but they will not be the worlds of God. Cleverly contrived they may be but they will not be food for the soul. The people may be clamouring to hear what you say. Your words may go and feed their wants. It is easy for someone to stand up and speak delivering what the listeners want to hear. A politician can stand and promise all manner of things, laws and policies. But without the correct backing to the words, they are just that, empty words without any meaning or promise.
Speaking the word of God the prophet is being led by God. He is feeding the soul with God’s word. The listeners are hearing teaching which will enhance their lives.
Recently I wrote about how important it is to speak correctly, to pronounce words as they should be spoken. Here is the reason why. When you stand up to read what is in front of you, you are to recall how it is the word of God that you are proclaiming. If you read well, the hearts of your listeners will be fed, they will be fed with God’s word. It will sink in becoming a part of them. You, as God’s spokesperson will be responsible for building up your listener.
Collect for Third Sunday before Lent
Almighty God,
who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace
so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.