Listen carefully to Jesus’s strange teachings

Morning: Psalm 45; Wisdom 3:1-9; Colossians 1:15-23

Evening: Psalms 47, 48; Luke 6:12-26

Some describe faith as if it consisted of boring platitudes, but that is religion. Listen carefully, instead, to Jesus’s strange teachings: Poverty is a blessing, and hunger, or tears, or when people mistreat you for your faith. And it is woeful to be rich, or well-fed, or to laugh, or have people speak well of you. Why? Perhaps Jesus wants us to question our assumptions about all these states? Something else is going on here. The truly holy lies beyond either pain or pleasure. The poor are often the happiest of people and the rich are still subject to discontent.