The Church of the Good Shepherd, Richmond, VA
The Third Sunday after Epiphany, January 23, 2005, Year A
Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 37:1-6; 1 Corinthians 1: (18-25) 26-31; Matthew 5:1-12
The Sermon on the Mount: Prescription or Description?
Next week is Super Bowl Sunday. Millions upon millions of people will watch the game and in the end either the Patriots or the Eagles will be crowned "World Champions" - and the other team will be—well - they will be labeled, "the Losers."
After the game, one team will be celebrating, the other will be dejected. Life has its share of winners and losers in all kinds of competitions, including those for jobs, prestige, the right spouse, grades and so on. In all of these, we either win or lose - as the world counts winning and losing.
Do we see the winners as the ones who were blessed?
and the losers as those who missed a blessing? The blessings of the beatitudes, the blessings pronounced by Jesus do not come to those we expect. They don't come to the winners of the world.
Jesus turns our understanding of blessing upside down, for his blessings do not come to those who are trying to get a blessing, but to those who understand that the kingdom of God is different from what we experience now.
A lot different.
I think most of us nod assent to Woody Allen when he says,
"I've been poor and I've been rich, and, believe me, rich is better."
But Jesus says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Think about the rules as we know them in this world. Don't they go something like this:
-- Blessed are the rich, because they can buy what they want.
-- Blessed are the strong, because they can take what they want.
-- Blessed are winners, because they get the prize.
-- Blessed are the talented, because they will be admired and loved by all.
-- Blessed are the educated, because they will be able to do whatever
they want to do.
--Blessed are the self confident, for they will be able to achieve
what self-doubters cannot.
Yet Jesus says today: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. and Blessed are
you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of
evil against you because of me. and Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.
There is something weird going on here....
I mean it is all very nice to say that those who mourn are blessed because they will be comforted. And it is a thing full of hope to consider that if you are persecuted because of your righteousness that you will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
But who wants to mourn? Who wants to be meek?
And who wants to be shot to death in a church
or blown up in the street because you are a Christian?
or even nailed to a cross because of one's faith?
Who wants the blessing of God if it must come at such a price?
Folks - the beatitudes - those wonderful statements concerning who is
blessed or who will be blessed that begin the Sermon on the Mount - are not
prescriptions, they are descriptions.
Think about it. What does God ask of you? The God who tells us: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
What does God ask of us?
What does God require of us?
Micah tells us what God wants...
"Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."
That's it. Nice and simple.
The problems we have in life is not so much with what it is God wants, but with what it is that we want.
See if you can finish this sentence: "I will be happy when...." There must be a million possible endings for that sentence...
-- I will be happy when I grow up and move away from home.
-- I will be happy when summer comes and I don't have to go to school.
-- I will be happy when I fall in love and get married.
-- I will be happy when I can buy a new car.
-- I will be happy when I get promoted.
-- I will be happy when I retire.
--I will be happy when my aches and pains go away
When will you be happy? What will it take? What are the chances that it's going to happen? How long will it be? One year? Five years? Fifty years?
We all want blessedness - happiness - comfort - and God promises these
things, some in this world, some in the world to come.
But what God wants is not for us to seek blessedness and happiness and comfort; but rather, as Jesus says later in the Sermon on The Mount,
God wants us to seek His Kingdom and his Righteousness;
or as it is written in the book of the Prophet Micah: to do justice
and to love mercy and to walk humbly with him.
Let me repeat something I said earlier so you will sure to remember it--
The beatitudes are not a prescription, they are a description,
a description of those who God favors
a description of what God does and will yet do for those who turn to him.
The beatitudes speak to us of a strength or joy which sees us through our
pain. It is a joy which sorrow and loss, pain and grief are powerless to touch.
--It is a joy that gives us the courage and strength to attempt to be merciful, to be peacemakers, and to be pure in heart.
--It is a joy which shines through tears and which nothing in life or death
can ever take away.
There will be winners and losers when the Super Bowl is played.
The world will acclaim the team that wins - it will shower them with even more wealth and prestige than they have "earned" already.
And the losers all those teams who did not even make it the playoffs--
they will be scorned - if not ignored - and among them you may be sure
contracts will be allowed to expire and coaches will be fired, and
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth as ticket sales dry up and
advertising revenues take a nose dive.
But today - in the kingdom of God - for those who follow the prescription
of God, the prescription to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with
Him there will only be winners.
They are not going to win the admiration of the media.
They are not going to win a big raise in pay or a trip to the Bahamas--
But they will come to see God face to face.
And they will come to feel the power of God upholding them, upholding them to that time when only peace is known,
--that time when death is no more,
--that time when those who do not do justice or love mercy or walk humbly with God will have perished in the fire of God's judgment.
Some of the winners in the kingdom of God will look like losers to the world.
--They will be pitied rather than loved.
--They will be ignored rather than listened to.
--They will be criticized rather than rewarded.
But what Paul reminds the Corinthians of in our reading this morning, and what Jesus tells his disciples in the beatitudes, is that the world's opinion and the world's priorities in these matters are irrelevant - - and indeed they are wrong.
The blessed are not the ones who are motivated by blessings and who win blessings by the strength of their hands or by the wisdom of their minds or by the luck of their birth or by the chance of the lottery. The blessed ones are the ones who seek God and who have God seek them.
There is a small cathedral outside Bethlehem that is said to mark the birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can't go in standing up.
The same is true of our life with Christ.
We can see the world standing straight up. But to witness the Savior we have to be humble enough to get on our knees, humble enough to call out to him for help and to do what he asks of us to do.
Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
-- Amen