Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
I Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26

This week’s gospel reading proclaims a blessed interdependence that radiates through each of the lectionary readings. The context of Luke’s Beatitudes is a time of healing and preaching. “The power of God came out from Jesus and healed all of them. ” Divine power flowed in and through Jesus to bring healing and wholeness to a great multitude. Jesus’ power to heal is not grounded in his own abilities or personhood, but arises from his constant openness to God’s life-transforming energy. Open to God, Jesus’ touch and words changed lives and restored hope to the hopeless. Open to God in our time, we too can perform “miracles” of transformation, naturalistic yet life changing in our time.

Surely Luke’s Beatitudes have a political as well as spiritual context and orientation – the poor, hungry, and weeping are blessed, while the wealthy, satisfied, and happy will experience pain and sorrow. In an interdependent universe, wealth and poverty, and happiness and sorrow, are not accidental but flow from the decisions of the powerful, whose well-being is built injustice, waste, and consumption. As the earth’s resources are depleted and dramatic global climate changes are likely within the next 25 years, wealthy and poor alike will suffer. Neglecting the essential interdependence of life will eventually lead to the destruction of everything the wealthy have prized for themselves and their children. If our planet is to flourish, we must turn from independence to interdependence. Poverty comes from independence and alienation, while healing is the gift of relationship and interdependence. Our alienation from the cries of the poor may, as the prophetic tradition warns, lead to “famine” in hearing the word of God.

This same theme of blessed interdependence lies beneath the surface in the reading from Jeremiah. “Cursed are those who trust in mortals,” but “blessed are those who trust in God. ” In trusting God and placing God at the center of our lives, we find the resources to respond creatively to our brothers and sisters. Those who trust in finite things – whether wealth, power, medicine, health, or achievement – will eventually be disappointed, for none of these finite goods, and they are good, can ultimately deliver us from death, aging, and grief. In contrast, a healthy relationship to God brings peace of mind and joy of spirit even in the most challenging circumstances.

Relationship with God is intended to nurture and inspire creativity and action, rather than passive acceptance of the status quo. God needs partners not puppets in healing the world. This blessed interdependence inspires grace toward our fellow creatures as a response to the grace we have received.

Trust and hope in God, counsels the prophet. Only trust can deliver us from the “devious heart. ” Will we be wayward, trusting the finite gods of each moment, or will we see God in all things, and all things in God? This is both a matter of choice and a matter of practice – we awaken ourselves to a trusting relationship with God through constancy in prayer and contemplation, and a commitment to live by gratitude and the affirmation of the interdependence of life. Gratitude connects us to wellsprings of life and expands our awareness and commitments to include realities much larger than ourselves – our community and congregation, our country and planet, the non-human world, and the ever-present and life-transforming passions of God.

Psalm 1continues the reflection on the polarity of blessing and curse, trust and infidelity, and faith and idolatry. An antidote to “practical polytheism,” Psalm 1 challenges us to “delight in the law of God and meditate on it day and night. ” What we think about and where we give our attention shapes our experience of the world. We become like the objects of our love. While process thinkers are seldom legalistic in their theology or ethics, Psalm 1 invites us to listen for God’s presence in all things and ask for God’s guidance in every situation. The pastor may choose to challenge the congregation to live by healthy spiritual affirmations. According to certain cognitive psychologists, living with spiritual affirmations can change our life orientation, both conscious and unconscious. What affirmations can members repeat as a way to transform their minds from waywardness to God centeredness? Some examples include:

• I follow God’s guidance in every situation.
• God speaks in my life and I listen to God’s wisdom.
• I am attentive to God’s movements in my life.
• I see God in all things and all things in God.
• I seek beauty and love in every situation. *

I Corinthians 15 presents a vision of hope for individuals and for the cosmos. Jesus’ revelation is not an exception to God’s work in the world, but the fullest manifestation of what God is always doing in our lives. God’s resurrection power in Christ is alive in us. “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised…and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ” Resurrection is universal, new life triumphs over death, and healing occurs even when there cannot be a physical cure. God’s resurrection movements are intimate as well as universal. The ubiquity of resurrection testifies again to blessed interdependence. We cannot be transformed on our own, but need a community of resurrection through which divine energy heals and transforms. We need a resurrecting God! In giving us lively possibilities and the energy to achieve them in every moment of experience, God’s resurrection powers give life to dying spirits and hope for adventure beyond the grave. The congregation is called to be a resurrection community where resurrection is both expected and accepted. Resurrection is grounded in facing the concreteness of life, and discovering that “reality” is larger than our human hopes and dreams. We become resurrection people by trusting God’s presence in life’s boundary situations, by reaching out to the marginal and vulnerable in love and healing.

While resurrection is always a mystery, its reality transforms even the most hard-hearted individuals, such as the Apostle Paul. Still caught up in Enlightenment thinking, contemporary scholars such as John Dominic Crossan and John Shelby Spong give us too small a world in their denials of the resurrection. Naturalistic causation is multidimensional and must include “paranormal” and “energetic” possibilities, including Jesus’ resurrection, if we are to hope for radical and saving change in our values and lifestyle. Quantum leaps of spiritual experience, grounded in God’s initiative and human openness, defy those who imagine the world to be a closed linear cause and effect system.

We are called to members of a resurrection conspiracy. Remembering that “conspiracy” means to “breathe together,” our calling is to breathe new life into every situation – to inhale Jesus new life as we let Jesus breathe through us. (John 20:22)  The mainstream and progressive church is in dire need of both the hope and the energy that comes from imagining resurrection. In the lively interdependence of life, we are called as communities and persons not only to expect God’s resurrections in the world, but accept, God’s resurrection power in our lives and our congregations.

Bruce Epperly is Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminary and co-pastor of DisciplesUnitedCommunityChurch. Ordained in the UnitedChurch of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Bruce is the author of 12 books. He can be reached at bepperly@lancasterseminary.edu and www.ducc.us.

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