Welcome to the fourth Sunday of Epiphany, and
over the next five Sundays, the electionary, Year
A, is going to take us through the
gospel reading, through two chapters in the Sermon
on the Mount, chapters five and six.
We're going to look through just various sections
of this amazing sermon, right?
The Sermon on the Mount?
How can you expound the Sermon on the
Mount, right?
I mean, it's it's probably one of the
most earthshaking, history changing sermons that he preached.
And so today we're going to contemplate the
beginning of that sermon called the Beatitudes, just
the first 12 verses.
May the Lord give us ears to hear
afresh these words, though amazing, sometimes overly familiar,
right?
May we hear afresh the transformative nature of
these 12 verses.
Amen.
Well, the sermon begins with two groups of
people.
It says, seeing the crowds, he, Jesus, went
up on the mountain.
And when he sat down, his disciples came
to him.
So you've got these two groups of people,
the crowds and the disciples.
And really what makes them disciples is that
they're coming to him.
The difference between those who admire Jesus and
those who would be his disciples, says Stanley
Hauerwas, is indicated by his disciples willingness to
come to him.
To come to him on the mountain.
Matthew tells us that Jesus has compassion on
the crowds and for the crowds.
He saw them like sheep without a shepherd.
Perhaps because they were unwilling as the crowd
to follow him as disciples.
Perhaps that's why they remained as sheep without
a shepherd.
Nevertheless, he felt compassion for them.
And so with this scene of the crowds
and disciples coming to Jesus, Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
suggests that Matthew is providing a contrast between
those who choose to be a part of
the crowd and those who respond to the
call of discipleship.
Matthew perhaps wants us to ask this morning
to which group we belong.
Do we admire Jesus or do we come
to Jesus in the fashion of a disciple?
There are key elements to reading this sermon.
And it's been read in so many different
ways.
Craig Keener has some 38 different interpretations of
the sermon on the mountain that he lists
in his commentary throughout history, how the sermon
has been read.
And first of all, I believe that the
sermon, far from being a code of ethics,
illustrates the nature and the life of the
instructor, the Lord Jesus himself.
We thus must read the sermon from the
inner life of Jesus as we abide in
him and he abides in us.
These are not a list of commands.
Secondly, we must read the sermon in the
context of community.
God's church, this is not a sermon to
be isolated as one's individual attainment.
I'm going to sit down and I'm going
to memorize the first 12 verses and I'm
going to become such a person.
I think we've all tried this because these
paradoxical values make up the nature of the
church in communion with Christ, who is divine
mercy.
God is love.
In communion with Christ, who is divine mercy
in the flesh, his church, the recipients of
his mercy are able to offer it to
others only first receiving and being a recipient
of this divine mercy and being in communion
with this love that surpasses knowledge and blows
our minds.
Are we even able to offer it to
others?
And so forgiveness, being a part inseparable of
what divine mercy is, being able to forgive
is at the core of this sermon.
The sermon is the reality of the new
age.
The age to come made possible in time.
Jesus tells us that the path to true
happiness is paradoxical.
For true happiness, true joy is part of
the age to come made possible in time.
Joy and happiness is a gift, my joy
I give to you, not as the world
gives.
So we are the recipients of this transcendent
joy.
That is not based on circumstance or situation.
In fact, in the face of circumstances and
situation, it defies definition and being influenced in
any other direction.
The word blessed throughout the Beatitudes and it's
where we get the word, it's the Greek
word mercarios, and it's most often translated happy.
Happy, he sat down and he began saying,
happy are the poor in spirit.
That's why I'm saying it's paradoxical, right?
What's so happy about being poor in spirit?
Well, there's a gift attached to this and
it's not one that comes immediately.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are those who mourn for they shall
be comforted.
Happy are the meek.
For they shall inherit the earth.
Happy, happy are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness.
The state of hunger, happy are those who
are in a state of hunger for righteousness.
For they will be satisfied.
Happy are the merciful.
Here's the core of the Beatitudes.
Happy are the merciful for they shall obtain
mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart or the.
Those who have a single heart is another
translation.
Happy are those with a single heart for
they shall see God.
Happy are the peacemakers.
For they shall be called sons of God.
Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness
sake.
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are you when men revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account.
And then the only two commands in these
12 verses are coming up now in verse
12.
Rejoice and be glad in the imperative mood
in the text.
In the midst of all of this.
Earth shaking kingdom upsetting, you know, upside down
kingdom stuff here.
Jesus is saying, Rejoice and be glad.
He's in fact, he's saying, I'm going to
command you now.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is
great in heaven.
For so men persecuted the prophets who were
before you.
This is what our New Testament reading today
is pointing out.
As it has been wisely paired with today's
gospel reading, the Beatitudes.
First Corinthians 118 begins, and this is our
message for the word of the cross is
folly to those who are perishing.
We've been given a message that's folly to
those who are perishing, but to those who
are being saved, there's such a different perspective.
It is the power of God for he
has written, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and the discernment of the discerning.
I will thwart.
Where is the one who is wise, Paul
asks, where is the scribe, where is the
debater of this age?
Here it is.
Jesus is talking about something that's crashing in
to this age, and it's the life and
presence of the kingdom of God coming on
earth as it is in heaven.
And it's a paradox.
Where is the debater of this age?
What has God done?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
the world?
Do we believe that this morning, you guys,
is the wisdom of the world foolish to
us or is it tempting to buy and
own because we're not going against the grain
of culture up against the grain of culture
and what the wisdom of the world is
propagating for 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, but
consider your calling, brothers, not many of you
were wise according to worldly standards.
Not many are were powerful people in this
world, not many were of noble birth.
You see, in the wisdom of the world,
it would be blessed are those who have
enough in their retirement to make it through
without stress and anxiety.
Blessed are those who look after themselves and
take care of themselves because one never knows
what tomorrow will bring.
Right.
But no, Jesus is saying something completely different.
Blessed are those happier, those who mourn, who
are poor in spirit, who are meek, for
there's more to this life than this present
age.
He's saying now I know we're in heaven
because I'm hearing harps.
I'm still alive, but I'm hearing harps.
Is it bells?
And so Paul is asking the question, where
is the debater of this age?
Because there's talk.
Jesus is is contrasting two ages here.
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
the world?
He asks.
This becomes a problem for those who can't
come to Jesus in this present age and
have chosen to be a part of the
crowd.
It's important for us to know that Jesus
has compassion on the crowd and that he
sends us out.
Amongst the crowd to show mercy and have
compassion, right?
And not to point and go, oh, you're
a part of the crowd and I'm a
disciple.
Coming to Jesus is coming to the age
to come and letting it out in the
present.
Let me say that again, coming to Jesus,
even in prayer, in worship and opening up
your heart this morning is coming into the
age to come.
Because he has risen, he has ascended.
To the right hand of the father and
he invites us there, coming to Jesus is
coming to the age to come and living
it out in this present evil age, as
Paul describes.
It is living in the presence of the
kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
The sermon, therefore, is not a list of
requirements, but rather a description of the life
of a people gathered by and around Jesus.
To be saved is to be so gathered.
And this is why the Beatitudes are the
interpretive key of the whole sermon, precisely because
they are not recommendations.
No one is asked to go out and
try to be poor in spirit or to
mourn or to be meek.
Rather, Jesus is indicating that given the reality
of the kingdom, we should not be surprised
to find among those who follow him those
who are poor in spirit.
Those who mourn and those who are meek.
Jesus does not suggest that everyone who follows
him will possess all eight Beatitudes.
You had a checklist yet.
How many do you live into right?
He's not it's not to be read that
way.
Jesus does not suggest that everyone who follows
him will possess all of the Beatitudes.
But we can be sure that some will
be poor in spirit, some will mourn and
some will be meek, says Stanley Arwas.
And so in looking at these beautiful descriptors
of the kingdom of God, we might say
that this is what is being illustrated as
salt and light becoming the visible people of
God in the midst of this present evil
age.
This is the nature of the city set
on a hill, his visible church.
Where true happiness is not attached to any
earthly circumstance, happy are those who live in
the tension of the already not yet kingdom.
And lastly, the only two commands that he
gives us today are to rejoice and be
glad.
Rejoice and be glad, whether this morning you
are poor in spirit, whether you're mourning or
whether you are among those who are meek.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is
great in heaven for so men persecuted the
prophets who are before you.
In the midst of opposition, rejection, ridicule, the
church rejoices in the Lord and is glad
in Christ Jesus himself.
In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let's stand together and recite the Nicene Creed.