Sermon Jan 30

Micah 6:1-8 p 757
6Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3“O my people, what have I done to you? In what 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 now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving 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 mortal, 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? This is the word…..
Matthew 5:1-12 p 785
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. This is the word….


In 1985, Robert Schuller authored a book based on today’s text. Dr Schuller titled it “The Be-Happy Attitudes”. And that is a reasonable translation—and a catchy title. For the word we read as “blessed” can also mean happy, or fortunate. And Schuller was indeed fortunate. He grew a church in Garden Grove, California, into the first of its kind- a mega-church- which we know as the Crystal Cathedral. He influenced and comforted thousands of people with his church, his preaching and his television ministry.
When Jesus went up on the mountain, it was after a time of teaching and preaching and healing. Although I don’t believe his preaching was on tv.
A few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say: “Come and See”. Apparently, the people liked what they saw—and told their families—and their friends—and their friends—to the point that crowds from all over- from Israel and Samaria and Syria--are following Jesus.
Jesus is up on the mountain top. Like Moses. But this time, no thunder, no lightning, no clouds.
No, Jesus is sitting down on the mountain top, talking with the disciples and the crowds- but what he says is easily as earth shattering as any storm of thunder and lightning.
Because what Jesus is doing is setting the whole world upside down.
Jesus sees the crowds, and goes up to the mountain top to teach. And he begins teaching them in a way that is familiar to them. Traditional Middle Eastern instruction uses proverbs to teach an idea. In the Middle East, and in our own Bible, the Wisdom tradition is represented in proverbs—we have in our bible the book of Proverbs.
And this tradition teaches that if you behave in a certain way, then you will receive certain things. We teach our own children this way. It makes sense to us. Modern proverbs might be “blessed is the one who checks the air in his tires, for his journey will be a pleasant one,” or, “Blessed is the one who does not text while driving, for his insurance shall remain low.”
Wisdom tradition, as shown in those traditional proverbs, has it that you can deduce a lot about a person by his or her condition in the world. If you are rich, have a lot of healthy children, have a spouse who loves you, then God must be smiling on you—and God is smiling on you because you have lived a righteous life. And if you are poor, or ill, or alone, then God is not smiling on you, and it is because you have done wrong. You have sinned. You have not been righteous, and things will not get better until you repent, stop your sinning, and change your ways. And the way that we can tell that you are a sinner is because we can see your condition.
Jesus turns all this upside down. Jesus says to the people who are following him, and to us: You are blessed. You already are blessed, God already loves you. Even when your life doesn’t show it, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Jesus takes apart that cause and effect logic that we like so well. We like that logic because it makes sense—run with scissors, somebody’s going to get hurt. Jump on the couch, you’re gonna fall down. That’s the way the world is.
In our world, Jesus’ wisdom words don’t make sense. The meek don’t inherit much of anything- they just get stepped on. Those who long for justice & righteousness keep on being hungry and thirsty. In this world, the merciful most often get kicked in the teeth. How can you be glad when people revile you, and testify falsely against you? That’s a libel lawsuit, not something to be happy about.
But as Christians, we are used to having the world turned upside down—or at least I hope we are. Because we are a people who stand at a funeral and sing “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” We are a people who hold a little baby in church, and 2,000 years after the event, we say “Christ has died for you, little one, yes, you who have no knowledge of it yet”. We don’t believe six impossible things before breakfast, as the Queen says in Alice in Wonderland. But we do believe that an impoverished, unemployed preacher, a crucified savior, an absolute failure in the eyes of the world, is the One who lives and rules and makes all things new.
And what Jesus tells the crowd, is that even when you do walk in God’s ways, your life will not be a walk in the park. His blessing, Jesus’ be-happy attitude, is not always happy. This sermon serves as both blessing and warning. When Jesus said “Come and see”, when he said “Come and follow me and I will make you fish for people”—well, this is the fine print at the end of the contract. This is the disclaimer: warning: life in the kingdom of heaven will not always be happy. This is not the Kingdom of Disney. It is the kingdom of God.
The people who are coming to see Jesus that day are have traveled a long way to hear him and are suffering for it. The disciples have left their nets, and their families, and are here on a hillside. The people in the gospel writer Matthew’s community are being punished for their following of Jesus. They are getting thrown out of their synagogues, their families. People are saying things about them, refusing to do business with them. They are suffering—being persecuted, being rejected. All for following Christ.
This is something we have a hard time understanding. We live in America. We do not have to hide, it is not against the law, we do not have to register at the courthouse. Christians in Iraq are persecuted. It is illegal to be a Christian in Egypt. In India, the growing edge of Christianity is among the dalits- the untouchables—they were persecuted and oppressed, so a religion based on a suffering Savior makes sense to them.
Jesus words on the mount that day are a warning: you will mourn, you will be reviled and rejected. But they also are a promise: you are blessed, right now—and you will be fed, you will be filled, you will be comforted, you will inherit.
When I worked as a chaplain in a hospital in Atlanta, I served not only the patients and their families, but also the staff as well. If I was on-call on Sunday, I led a worship service for whatever staff could come. Most often, it was the techs, the nurse’s aides, the cleaning ladies. They would give up their lunch time to be able to come to chapel. And when I would see them in the hall, I would ask them “How are you doing?” and I would hear this: “I’m too blessed to be a mess.” And there were times I would be shocked- because in chapel that morning, I had heard their stories- a son in jail, a car being repossessed, loss of custody of a child, a bad diagnosis. And yet these people, on the lowest end of the hospital totem pole, would be the ones testifying, witnessing to the blessings they were receiving. Because they knew the truth- the truth of the Beatitudes—which is that you are not solely what your life looks like, one cannot determine how righteous you are, how right with God you are, just by looking at your bank account, or your life situation. That is good news.
The Beatitudes are an assurance and a promise. And they are also something else. They are about behavior, but this is not a list of nine things to be or do in order to fit into God’s world. Instead Jesus is showing us how life is different in God’s world. Remember, Jesus has said “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” And in this near kingdom, how we live matters. Because we matter --to God. And this is good news.
Just like we heard in Micah- do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God—this is what life in the kingdom looks like, behaves like. The coming of the kingdom of heaven and the doing of the heavenly will are inseparable. As ones who are blessed, not for what we do, but for who we are, beloved children, we are to act out of that blessedness.
Because what is here, the Beatitudes, is not all that Jesus has to say, up on that mountain. The Sermon goes on. In the coming weeks, we will hear them. There are some hard sayings: love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Those are hard words. But they are to give the people gathered on that mountain—and us—comfort and assurance and hope. The blessing enables us to go forward to live as we are called to live.