First Reading Micah 6:1-8
1Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3“O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” 6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm Psalm 15
1Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? who may abide upon your holy hill? 2Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, who speaks the truth from his heart. 3There is no guile upon his tongue; he does no evil to his friend; he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor. 4In his sight the wicked is rejected, but he honors those who fear the Lord. 5He has sworn to do no wrong and does not take back his word. 6He does not give his money in hope of gain, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. 7Whoever does these things shall never be overthrown.
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Gospel Matthew 5:1-12
1Seeing the crowds, {Jesus} went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
BLESSED
We hear it all the time. We hear it in church, in interviews with sports and movie stars, and we hear it a whole lot around the holidays. “I’ve been blessed.” “We’ve been so blessed.” And as I like to say, I’m so blessed, I have no reason to gripe. But what do these statements mean? What does it mean to be blessed? Normally, we associate being blessed with plentitude. It means that we have a lot of something: money, benefits, property, talent. And in that sense, things haven’t changed much over the past 2,000 plus years. Ask any first-century Jew who the blessed people were in their community, and they would have shared with you the conventional wisdom of the day.
Blessed are the ruthless, for they are wealthy. And blessed are the wealthy, for they have lots of stuff. Blessed are the Romans, for they have power. And blessed are the powerful, for they get what they want. Today, we might add some blessings that are peculiar to our own time and place in history: Blessed are the college educated, for they get the best jobs. Blessed are the attractive, for they get fawned over. Blessed are the arrogant and the ignorant, the mean and the petty, the shallow and self-absorbed, for they get their own TV reality shows. Every age and every culture have their own understanding of what it means to be blessed, and they are all, surprisingly, similar. Almost all of them involve fame or power or wealth — sometimes, all three. However, Jesus, in our gospel reading for this morning, takes all of this and stands it on its head.
Jesus re-defines what it means to be blessed. The Beatitudes make up the introduction to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount,” what some have called “Jesus’ opening salvo.” What’s even more interesting about Jesus’ “blessed are those” statements, is that they’re not simple advice for practical, Christian living. Jesus’ declarations are prophetic pronouncements based on the idea that God’s kingdom is both coming, and already present. And within these declarations, there is an unspoken, yet implied, “Thus saith the Lord” that we should be reading into each of them.
Now it would be good for us to note that most of Jesus’ statements here contain a description of the present, the present tense verb: “are” coupled with a proscription for the future, the future tense verb: “shall”. Each beatitude marks that which already is, and that which is presently unfolding, or about to be. The beatitudes don’t describe subjective feelings, but objective realities that are being made possible by our living God. The Beatitudes don’t make ethical demands upon the reader or listener so much as they describe the “true Christian.” The reader or listener is then left to make an appropriate response.
There’s one other thought I need to share before we turn to the beatitudes, themselves: To be blessed (Greek: ma-kar-ios) means to be fortunate, to be happy, in a privileged situation, to be well off. Jesus tells us, that being a good Christian who is in a privileged posture, has nothing to do with what we own or how much power we have, rather, it has everything to do with our relationship with God and others. With these opening lines, Jesus begins to fill in the content of what the “kingdom” is and what “discipleship” looks like — both of which run counter to what this world anticipates. Jesus begins His sermon with, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
John Newton was a ship’s captain and a slave trader. By his own account, a more cruel and vile a person never walked the face of the earth. One day, he happened upon an outdoor worship service where the young Methodist preacher, George Whitfield, was preaching. Listening to that sermon, he felt his heart break at the depth of his own sinful life. He converted and, over time, repented of his career and became an Anglican priest. He served as a priest for more than twenty years and also wrote hymns, the most famous of which are “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” A good many stories are told of him, some more true than others, but this one, from his old age, survives.
When John Newton could no longer see to read, he heard someone read this verse from 1 Corinthians: “By the grace of God — I am what I am.” He remained silent a short time, and then said: “I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient. “I am not what I might be, considering my privileges and opportunities. “I am not what I wish to be. God, who knows my heart — knows I wish to be like him. “I am not what I hope to be. Before long, I will drop this clay tabernacle, to be like Him and see Him as He is! Yet, I am not what I once was — a child of sin, and slave of the devil! Though not all these — not what I ought to be, not what I might be, not what I wish or hope to be, and not what I once was — I think I can truly say with the apostle, ‘By the grace of God — I am what I am!’”
At the age of 82, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner — and that Christ is a great Savior!” His tombstone inscription reads: “John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy!” “By the grace of God I am what I am!” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
The first beatitude and the last beatitude form bookends for the others and speak to the same issue in the lives of faithful Christians — a humble and repentant heart. The “poor in spirit” are those who know that they are dependent upon God for their salvation. They understand that their own acts, their own knowledge, and their own talents will never suffice. It’s in knowing that we need God’s mercy, that we can then authentically receive it. Jesus’ statement of being poor in spirit has nothing to do with poverty in the material sense. It’s about all of us.
However, the materially poor may be more in touch with their vulnerability than the rest of us. We who are wealthy and successful, comfortable in the midst of our possessions, tend to dismiss our need for God’s grace. This first beatitude reminds us that for all our Biblical learning and understanding, the entire truth of the gospel can be reduced to two lines from the children’s song: “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.”
The next pronouncement of Jesus is, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This beatitude isn’t about the mourning that comes in the midst of life. We all mourn at the death of a loved one or a good friend. What we need to bear in mind is, these are not descriptions of feelings, the Beatitudes are prophetic pronouncements about the present and coming kingdom of God. Here, “those who mourn” refers to those who can see and understand the fallen state of the world — not just their personal enemies or the enemies of their country.
Those who mourn see that separation and estrangement are rampant in families, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, regions, countries. They see that sin abounds and they lament that God’s kingdom has not yet fully come. Those who mourn acknowledge the tragic chasms that divide races and nations, genders and ethnicities. The comfort that is promised to them is that they will be part of that kingdom when it does come. They will see it, experience it, and be part of it. Whether the kingdom comes in small events scattered through our everyday life, or all at once at the end of time, they will see it, know it, and celebrate it. Jesus’ third bombshell is, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
The meek are not, necessarily the timid or shy. In this case, the Greek word that is translated as “meek” can also mean humble or low. These are the faithful who recognize their position in the grand scheme of things, and they’re the ones who are the oppressed minority. They have renounced the arrogant violence of their oppressors and, because of that, they are, at best, neglected, and, at worst, abused. This beatitude isn’t so much about adopting an attitude of meekness as it is about accepting the fact that we are not in control of all that happens around us. Like the “poor in spirit,” the meek are those who put their hope and trust in God. Number 4: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Righteousness gets a bad rap in the modern-day Christian church. We tend to associate it with self-righteousness, which is moral arrogance, the notion that I am better than, more moral than, closer to God than, others who are theologically inferior to me because they believe the wrong propositions or practice the wrong rituals. Self-righteousness or moral arrogance is, of course, something to be avoided. It’s the exact opposite of the meekness and humility of spirit that are blessed in the beatitudes above. There is, however, a good kind of righteousness that Jesus calls us to pursue, and that’s relational righteousness.
To be righteous, in this sense, is to be in an appropriate relationship with God. It’s the recognition that God is the creator and we are His creatures, that God is the One we’re to worship and the One toward whom we’re called by Jesus to direct our lives. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to diligently seek God’s will and to strive to do it. The promise is, if we do these two things, we will get that for which we seek. We will, in fact, come to know and understand God’s will so that we can do it. Number 5: Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
Mercy is not, necessarily, pity. We must be careful here, we cannot paraphrase this beatitude to read, “Blessed are the pitiful for they shall be pitied.” Nothing could be further from the point. The mercy mentioned here isn’t a feeling if pity; rather, it’s an action taken. What Jesus is referring to, are concrete acts of mercy. This kind of action is much more dangerous than mere feelings of pity. Being merciful, especially to those who have not earned mercy, is usually seen as a sign of weakness or stupidity. Worldly wisdom forwards that only the foolish are merciful to those who don’t deserve it. But isn’t that the whole point of mercy?
If the person deserves to be treated kindly, then there is no mercy in the kindness offered. If the person deserves to be treated gently, then there is no mercy at work in the gentleness offered. Mercy is the kindness and gentleness that’s offered to others regardless of whether they deserve it or not. The promise, here, is obviously not about life in the world. In the world, mercy is more likely to be treated gruffly, with impatience and intolerance. Those who practice it are more likely to be called a fool than a saint.
No, the mercy promised here, is that which the merciful receive, not in this life but the next. Those who give mercy to their neighbor will, more than likely, not receive mercy from other neighbors. But they will receive it from God. This Beatitude naturally flows into Jesus’ 6th pronouncement: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
As we’ve come to understand, in the Bible, the “heart” is a symbolic thing. What we’re talking about, here, is the brain. Usually we think of people who have a pure heart as people whose brains are free of bad or impure thoughts. They don’t struggle with inappropriate sexual thoughts. They don’t ponder things like revenge. They don’t fantasize about getting even or doing unto others as has been done unto them. That’s not the pure heart that’s spoken of, here. Here, the pure heart is simply the undivided heart.
The pure heart is a mind that is focused on God and God’s will for our lives. The world asks us to divide our loyalties and our devotions — God on Sunday; other things the rest of the time. This Beatitude, however, announces that the only way to see God is to focus our total attention upon Him. Simply showing up to church for one hour a week expecting to be spiritually fed, mentally entertained, and emotionally inspired won’t work. Those who experience the presence of God in their lives are the ones who focus on God and do the work that comes with dedicating their lives to the pursuit of God’s will.
The promise of this Beatitude is that if we’re willing to do that work, we will, in fact see God. We will walk the streets of God’s kingdom now, from time to time, and, when it’s finally made fully manifest. Next comes, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Please note that this is not referring to pacifism.
Pacifism is, generally, passive. “I refuse to do violence.” Peacemaking on the other hand is active. Being a peacemaker says, not only do I refuse to do violence, but that I will place myself between those who would do violence and the ones they would do violence to, between the perpetrators and their victims. Peacemakers are the ones who are doing the things that make for peace. The early Christian church found themselves confronted by Jewish Christians who refused to fight in the 66-70 AD war against Rome; they were hated, persecuted, and even killed by both sides — Romans and other Jews.
The peacemaker Jesus talks about stands in the gap and says, “I will not fight you, but neither will I allow you to harm another through violence.” Peacemakers strive to use passive resistance and non-violent interference in the pursuit of peace and the peaceful resolution to differences. So, this beatitude not only applies to peacemaking in the larger sense of nations and warfare, it also applies to our life together — within our family, communities as well as our community of faith.
Matthew not only records Jesus’ description of the perfect Christian, he also records the promise that those who fit this description will be called “children of God.” It’s doubtful we’ll be called children of God by other people. Others are more likely to call us fools, or worse. No, we’re called “children of God” by God Himself. God claims us as His own, both now and at the end of time. This brings us to the final Beatitude: blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This eighth beatitude is actually a paraphrase of the first beatitude and helps to place brackets around the set of eight. Jesus closes the Beatitudes with this re-phrasing of the first and then transitions into the next section by using an imperative: “Rejoice!” Not in spite of persecution but because of it. The fact that we’re being persecuted proves that we are the authentic Christians. Being persecuted means that we’re following in the same tradition as Jesus and the prophets that went before Him. Indeed, these eight Beatitudes are, to a large degree, just paraphrases or rephrases of Isaiah 61. This transitional ending reminds us that our greatest witness, our greatest testimony, is to be found in our ability and our willingness to suffer for our faith in Jesus Christ.
I recently read about a Quaker who was lamenting the direction that Quakerism has gone in the past few years. There was a time, she said, when Quakers were willing to go out and protest and even get arrested as part of their witness for peace and justice. Now, she bemoaned, “We Quakers will bake a casserole for anything, but we will get arrested for nothing.” To that, someone else responded, that the description wasn’t a universal one. “In my church,” she said. “They expect the pastor to get arrested. In fact, they feel like you’re not really doing your job unless you get arrested once a year.”
Henry David Thoreau went to jail for refusing to pay his taxes in support of the Civil War. When Ralph Waldo Emerson arrived to bail him out, he reportedly crossed his arms and looked down his nose at his friend and said, “Thoreau, what are you doing in there?” To which Thoreau answered without looking up, “Emerson, what are you doing out there?” Our gospel reading for this morning reminds us that Christians are known not just by the friends we keep, but by the enemies we make. And we should be just as careful in choosing our enemies as we are in choosing our friends.
The beatitudes are not historic. They care little for the past. Each begins in the present (are) and ends in the present or the future (shall). The kingdom that has been promised to us is God’s doing and even though we experience it in glimpses, snapshots, and existential moments of bliss, we cannot fully live within it, until God as completed the new creation which is promised in scripture. However, in the words of biblical scholar, M. Eugene Boring: “The future tense of the beatitudes resists all notions that Christianity is a “philosophy of life” designed to make people successful and calm today, in the present moment. Christianity isn’t a scheme to reduce stress, lose weight, advance in one’s career, or preserve one from illness. [The] Christian faith, instead, is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will prevail, that God’s future will be a time to do mercy and not cruelty. Blessed are those who lived this life now, even when such a life seems foolish, for they will, in the end, be vindicated by God.”
Amen.
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