Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 16, 2025 (Epiphany 6C)

The Evangelist Luke (15th century), as imagined by a Greek Orthodox icon writer. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

The cursed and the blessed, the wicked and the righteous, the doubters and the believers, and the woeful and the blessed: Sunday’s readings seem to portray a world forever divided. Listen closely, though, and hear a more hopeful narrative in which trust in God is amply rewarded. In our first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah separates the cursed – those who turn away from God toward trust in mortals and must wither and die – from the blessed: those who trust in God and so will be deeply rooted and nourished like plants near water.

Psalm: Psalm 1

Does the first of the 150 Psalms set a theme for the entire book of Psalms? Psalm 1 echoes the covenant that God gave to Moses, singing praise for righteousness and its rewards while warning about the dangers of following the ways of the wicked. Using metaphors that echo Jeremiah’s division of humankind in the first reading, the Psalmist promises delight for the righteous, who will thrive and bear fruit like trees planted near water. But there’s no joy for the wicked, the prophet declares: They will be doomed like chaff that the wind blows away from the good wheat.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Paul continues working out his theology of salvation through Christ’s resurrection in the closing chapters of First Corinthians. Written at least a generation before Mark, the first of the Gospels, Paul’s words offer a glimpse of the infant Christian community’s ideas largely through an oral tradition about the adult ministry of Jesus that had occurred only about 20 years before. In this passage, Paul challenges those who doubt that Christ’s resurrection means that we, too, are freed from the fear of death. If Christ was not raised, Paul tells his Corinthian congregation, then our faith has been in vain and our sins have not been forgiven. But Christ truly was raised from the dead, Paul assures them: He is the first fruit of all who die and will now live again.

Gospel: Luke 6:17-26

It is interesting to compare Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Plain with Matthew’s perhaps more familiar Sermon on the Mount. In Luke’s telling, Jesus comes down from a mountain where he has spent the night to a level place where he teaches his just-chosen disciples and a huge crowd of followers. The series of beatitudes or blessings that he offers them sound a more edgy tone than Matthew’s version: Each blessing is followed by a contrasting woe. The actual poor are blessed, in contrast with Matthew’s “poor in spirit.” The hungry are blessed, and those who weep and those who are reviled. Then we hear Jesus declaring woe on the rich, those who are full of food and wealth, those who laugh as they receive constant praise. This liberating preference for the poor and downtrodden is a constant subtext through Luke. We’ve already heard it in his stories of the Song of Mary and Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown, and we will continue hearing it all the way to the Cross.