4 Epiphany Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling
I often hear from parishioners a
variety of reasons for why they come to Church. Perhaps this is a community in
which you grew up or one similar to it, and now you want your own children to
learn about our Christian faith. Maybe you like the people here, and can relate
to them on a variety of issues. Some of you may find a common passion in
feeding the hungry, serving in our worship, or offering Christian formation to
young and old people alike. Maybe you’re someone who is just looking for
comfort, or hope, or just how to be a better person and a faithful Christian in
a “culture grounded in competition and fear.”
When I first began exploring the
Bible as a lay person, I liked the gospel of Matthew more than the other three,
Mark, Luke, and John, because Matthew gave me so many examples of what Jesus
had taught his disciples. His language was specific and prescriptive. This is
what you say, this is what you do, and this is how you act if you want to be a
faithful member of our Jewish community.
Today’s gospel passage from
Matthew, Chapter 5 verses 1-12, is called the Beatitudes, that is the
Blessings, and these verses are the beginning of what is called the Sermon on
the Mount which comprises chapters 5-7 of the gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ sermon
was three chapters long, unlike mine today, for Jesus said, “blessed are the
merciful; for they shall receive mercy.”
Now imagine that Jesus had just
finished being baptized by John in the River Jordan. According to Matthew he
was then driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, where he fasted for 40 days
and 40 nights, was tempted by the devil, and placed on a very high mountain, where
he was offered all the kingdoms of the world. Cultures filled with competition
and fear. And what does Jesus say? Nope, no thank you, not today.
Then according to Matthew, Jesus
left the Jordan River and withdrew to Galilee after his cousin John was arrested.
There, rather than being part of a duck-boat parade as the favorite Son of
Nazareth, Jesus was rejected by his hometown crowd who tried to throw him off a
cliff because of his teaching. So Jesus decided to make his home in Capernaum
where he set up camp near the Sea of Galilee. There he called his first
disciples.
Jesus’ fame for teaching,
preaching, and healing spread like wildfire and soon enough crowds from Syria,
Galilee, Jerusalem, Decapolis, Judea and from beyond the Jordan River began to
follow him. And so, Matthew spends chapter after chapter telling us about
Jesus’ five teaching discourses that covered as many as 20 chapters in this
gospel. His first teaching discourse was the three chapters called the Sermon
on the Mount.
If this were the rabbi’s syllabus,
the second part of class is called the missionary teachings of Jesus, when he
tells his disciples how to go out into the world and behave like him. The third
group of lessons includes parables about the kingdom of heaven and after that,
the fourth group of chapters tells us how to live together in community. Jesus’
fifth teaching discourse, before his final exam in Jerusalem, was
eschatological in nature, that is, Jesus describes what the end times will look
like.
Now if you are one of those people
who wants instructions on how to be a better person or a more faithful disciple
of Jesus, I suggest you skip ahead and read the gospel of Matthew at home. He
offers plenty of descriptions on what things look like and prescriptions on how
to behave, which can be as simple as the prophet Micah suggests: do justice,
love kindness, and walk humbly with God. But, if you’re anything like me, you
want more specificity.
In chapters 5 through 25, Jesus
does just that. Matthew portrays Jesus as a rabbi, who is teaching the crowds
on what to do and how to speak as a person of faith. Do this Jesus said: love
your enemies; give alms; pray, fast, and follow the golden rule. Don’t do this,
Jesus warned. Don’t murder, commit adultery, retaliate, serve two masters, judge
others, or profane the holy. So how about that for impracticality in our world?
How do the Ukrainian people feel about being peaceful, merciful, and meek,
loving their enemy and not retaliating when their country is being destroyed in
front of their very eyes?
As much as we may like these
specific instructions about how to live faithfully, it’s easy to become
overwhelmed by the do’s and don’ts and their perceived impracticality for the
world in which we live. It’s hard to behave faithfully as Christians in a
culture grounded in competition and fear. We swim in these waters; we breathe
this kind of air. We know the reality of human sin and evil.
So Jesus, who was sitting atop his
own little mountain, surveying the kingdom before him, was teaching the crowd
about a different kind of kingdom. Indeed, he was being counter-cultural. In
stark comparison to a “culture that is grounded in competition and fear” the
kingdom of God is different, he told them. It’s not like the Roman government,
your own religious and political institutions, or maybe even your own hometown.
It’s spiritual in nature. And it’s beyond our reach but not beyond our vision.
In these Beatitudes, Jesus isn’t
being prescriptive. He’s not giving us advice about how to behave like today’s
psalmist.“There is nothing about them that remotely suggests Jesus was telling
anyone what he thought they should do,” Barbara Brown Taylor wrote. “When Jesus
is giving advice, it is hard to miss. (It is) one imperative after the other,
with no distinction between rich or poor, hungry or well-fed. It is the same
list for all of them, whether they happen to be weeping or bent over with
laughter.”
Jesus’ words today are descriptive
of our humanity, of you and me, of all of us. And they are intended to provide
comfort, encouragement, and hope. I know that some of you may be feeling like
this, Jesus told them; and yet you are blessed by God. If you are poor in
spirit, the kingdom of heaven is yours. If you are hungry and thirsty for
righteousness, you will be filled. If you are grieving, you will be comforted,
and when you are pure in heart, you will see God. These are God’s promises and
blessings given to us by Jesus.
The Beatitudes speak to us not
only as individuals, however, but also as people living in various cultures
that are grounded in competition and fear. We may be hungering for changes in
the ways in which our communities currently operate. Perhaps you are mourning
the loss of ethical behavior in our country and throughout our world. Maybe you
have concerns about our climate, violence, mental illnesses, and the value of
human life.
Barbara Brown Taylor describes our
roller coaster of life like being on God’s Ferris Wheel. “The Ferris Wheel will
go around, so that those who are swaying at the top, with the wind in their
hair and all the world’s lights at their feet, will have their turn at the
bottom, while those who are down there right now, where all they can see are
candy wrappers in the sawdust, will have their chance to touch the stars.”
As Jesus stood behind his own
little pulpit, and was preaching his Sermon on the Mount, he began by telling
us about God and God’s kingdom, a culture that is not grounded in competition
and fear. It is a culture in which all God’s beloved children are blessed. It
is a culture grounded in justice, kindness, and humility. In God’s kingdom the
lamb and the lion lay down together. No one is oppressed or persecuted; and
violence is no more.
“Just because things are bad right
now, doesn’t mean it will always be that way,” Taylor reminds us. For in the
end, Jesus taught us that the ferris wheel and the roller coaster of life all
belong to God. And in the end God reigns, Love wins, and there is a great
reward in heaven. Eternal life is forever.
Today, Jesus gave us these blessings,
because we are God’s blessed people. We don’t live into the spirit of the
Beatitudes. We are the beatitudes. And so, go, be a blessing and then bless the
Lord.
Class dismissed.
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