It is a lesson of contrasts. The blessings and the woes that we hear/read about in the Gospel of Luke notably mirror images of one another.  Often writers set up this contrast to make a point more distinct or to make the reader pay attention to what is being said. The writer of Luke does just that. “Pay attention,” he tells us. The things that you name for yourself as blessings may cause you to miss something more important. And those things that you may think of as woes, hold within them blessings greater than we can measure.

Pastor Todd noted for us in his sermon that “the opposite of being blessed is woe - not in the sense of being cursed, but being indifferent…or complacent.

It is interesting to me to think about this. We think about blessings as “happiness” and woes as “sadness”. It is an easy distinction to make and puts the lesson into place. But when is it ever an easy distinction when interpreting what Jesus has for us? Instead we are called to dig a little deeper, to search a little more earnestly.  

So let’s look at this again.... The list of woes according to Luke are stated in the direction of the rich, full, laughing, well thought of…. It is not that we should not have or enjoy these things, but that these are not the essence of life that we have been created for. So when we use the sacred time and energy we have been given chasing around to have more, we are, in fact, wasting time.

Instead, we are called as people of God to seek God, and we can do that in learning and following the life of Jesus, who is the way and the truth and the life.  

Let us find ways that we might embark on this journey together.