Bless Me Less!

Sermon-4 Epiphany Year A-Jan. 30, 2011
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
5When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11“Blessed are you when people 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 in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Ok, I like to start this way so that long after you have forgotten the sermon, you’ll remember your Bible. The name for the verses from Matthew today is _____________ (the Beatitudes). It is the most famous part of Jesus’ most famous sermon, the Sermon on the _________ (Mount). You’re going to be hearing from the Sermon on the Mount the next 4 weeks. This is the longest of the 5 sermons that Jesus has in the gospel of Matthew. Scholars believe that Matthew has grouped Jesus’ words into 5 sermons because it reminds the Jewish people of the 5 books of _________(Moses). In other words, Jesus is supposed to be the new Moses. That’s how Matthew portrays Jesus.
So this is the first words of Jesus’ first sermon. Ok, why are they called “the beatitudes”? (and despite Robert Schuller they are not the “Be” attitudes). Because Beatitude is the Latin word for blessing. How many Beatitudes does Matthew have in his gospel? Nine. Ok, The Beatitudes are the first part of the first sermon in the gospel of Matthew. The Sermon on the Mount is chapters 5-7. It is the first of 5 sermons by Jesus in Matthew. The word Beatitude comes from the Latin word for blessed, and there are 9 of them.
There’s a big argument as to whether they are in two sets of four or 3 sets of 3 but that’s enough facts for today. Let me tell you what I think the Beatitudes are about: they are about turning the world upside down. The Sermon on the Mount is a sermon of challenge. It’s not Jesus changing Moses’ Law, but interpreting it in a new and exciting way.
Think about it, when do you say that you are blessed? When something happens to you that is good, wonderful, propitious-right? How often do you say, “I was mugged last night-what a blessing!” or “someone just stole my identity and all my credit card numbers-I am sooooo blessed!”. We don’t say that. Sometimes we might say that someone died, and that it was a blessing-because they were suffering so much. But in the beatitudes Jesus is trying to teach his disciples (and the crowds who were eavesdropping) that to follow him was to live a different kind of life-to have different values, different goals, different dreams. Remember what season we’re in? Epiphany. “a sudden realization: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.”
People listening to Jesus’ teaching expected him to praise those who were well, rich, and comfortable. He didn’t. They expected him to pronounce a blessing on the happy, contented, and strong. He wouldn’t. Jesus chose the poorest, the emptiest, the saddest, the people hurting the most-and said, these are the people most open to God-these are the ones who will be filled. Does that make sense? Of course not. Does it strike you as odd who Jesus doesn’t choose as “Blessed” (from Alyce MacKenzie): “Blessed are the self-reliant (not the poor in spirit), the cheerful (not those who mourn), the bold (not the meek), the proactive and the ambitious (not those who hunger and thirst for righteousness), those who demand to be treated fairly (not the merciful), those with a single, driving ambition (not the pure in heart), those who stand up for themselves (not the peacemakers), those who have a high quality of life (not the persecuted), and those who have a good reputation (not those who are reviled and slandered).”
Jesus told his disciples when we have lost what was most important to us, that’s when God steps in-that’s when we feel God’s touch, that’s when we hear God’s voice. Until then, we are spending so much time thinking that we are in control of our lives, that we have very little room for God. Jesus wants people to see blessing as their inner life being filled by God, not when their outer life is going the way they want.
In 1976 I was visiting Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp ever built, a few miles outside Munich. A German Lutheran pastor showed us around. He had been a political prisoner there in World War II, and in those days former inmates were stoill being asked to be guides. As he showed our group around he said, “in here we were stripped of every possible form of human self-respect. All we had left was divine dignity.” That’s the beatitudes. When there is nothing left, that’s when God’s blessing is most powerful.
The first four blessings, 1)poor in spirit, 2) those who mourn, 3) the powerless (the meek) 4) and those who are desperate for justice –those are who Jesus is blessing here. Those are the ones most open to Christ, most available to the voice, the touch.
As Alyce MacKenzie, a Methodist preaching professor (noted above-who I seem to quote every week) writes: “This blessedness is not a state of passive resignation to present hardships. It is a positive gift he gives to those who follow him with faith despite present adversities (New Century Bible Commentary: Gospel of Matthew, 110)….
When the things that bring us strength and hope are taken away, Jesus says, that’s when we are most open to the power and blessing of God.
Look at the next 4 beatitudes. Here is Jesus teaching what his followers -those who are poor in spirit, grieving, powerless, desperate for justice are like - are like: 7“Blessed are the merciful, …. 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, …. 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, …. 10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
First Jesus talks about those who have lost so much, then he describes as blessed those who respond out of that emptiness-AND seem to do all the wrong things-the merciful, those devoted to God, the peacemakers, the persecuted. I don’t want to be in the first group-nor in the second. It’s just too hard. What happens to the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted? They get run over. They are forgotten. People make fun of them. They are ridiculed. Look at the 9th beatitude: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Who are people reviling? Who are the persecuted? Those who minister out of their blessing.
That is what happens to the blessed. First you lose those few things that keep us going, then when we try to act decently and kindly, we are reviled. Sound appealing? How many really want to be blessed like this?
This is the opening words of the most popular sermon Jesus ever gave. They are very hard, very demanding-and very revolutionary. This is not the feel good Jesus. This is the Jesus who is opening up the 5 books of Moses and reinterpreting them in new ways. His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is going to be about how God’s kingdom is so very different that the human kingdom. This is his opening shot-it’s going to continue for 4 more weeks.
A woman was walking along the street one night and came upon a man walking around under the streetlight , staring intently at the ground. She asked him what he was doing, and he replied that he was looking for his car keys. She offered her help and started looking. After about 15 minutes of intense searching she asked, “Are you sure you dropped them here?” “Oh No,” he answered, “I dropped them near my car”, he replied, and pointed to the other side of the street. “Well, why are we looking over here”? she responded, barely able to hide her exasperation. “Well, because there’s no light over there!” he answered.
Jesus brought the light to where the lost were. Matthew wrote down these words to his generation of Christians who were scared, empty, and discouraged. They felt helpless and powerless in the face of persecution, they often felt that God had left them-and Jesus’ words of blessing gave strength to weak knees and drooping arms. It didn’t lift them all the way up-but it did let them know that when they were most alone, most empty, most powerless, most discouraged, that God was coming in to their lives. Regardless of what was happening in the circumstances of their lives, Jesus was teaching them, God would be filling them with a divine dignity. It is not easy hearing who is blessed-or WHEN we are blessed-unless you are feeling poor in spirit, powerless, broken hearted, and persecuted. Then, more than anything else in the would, you will want to hear that God is coming into your life.