“Revelations of Divine Reality"                                                                                                   

Matthew 5: 1 – 12a                                                                                  

Makemie Presbyterian Church                                                              

September 26, 2010

Tin Bucket Sunday

5.  When 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. Be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.                                 

This ends the reading.

Two Fridays ago the Chi Rho Youth Group Clergy were asked to help with the funeral service for Coach Allen Miller at Steven Decatur High School. Three of us were assigned scripture readings; Father Ken Thom from All Hallows Episcopal read from Revelation, Sherwood McGrath from Whatcoat Methodist read from Psalms. The passage I was assigned was from Matthew, it was the Sermon on the Mount. And it has been playing in the movie theater in my head ever since. It is dangerous to focus some brains on certain topics; they obsess & wonder, & sometimes become sermons.

It is a passage I love but as I was reading it to the more than 1000 people gathered I wondered how many really heard this familiar scripture that Karen just read. Why is it when you have heard something over & over you no longer really hear it, sort of like spouses who have been married for many years.  And when your loved one is talking somehow the words just don’t register.

“Honey, did you hear what I said?”                                                                   

“Oh, sure, dear.”                                                                                              

“So we’re going to Hawaii next vacation?”                                                  

“Huh?”

 

          The Beatitudes are like this, I think. So I will reinterpret them for us.

Jesus took his disciples up the mountain & taught them saying,

Blessed are those with low self worth. Blessed are the sad.

Blessed are the timid.

Blessed are those who forget to eat or drink because all they can think about is doing right.

Blessed are the lenient.

Blessed are the single minded.

Blessed are the pacifists.

Blessed are those who stay in trouble because they choose to rub people wrong. And the wrong people right.

Blessed are you when you suffer all kinds of miserableness on my account.

Rejoice. Be Glad. For your reward is great in heaven.

          Then Simon Peter said, “Should we be writing this down?”

          And Andrew said, “Will this be on the quiz?”

          And James said, “Are we supposed to know this already?”

          And John said, “You didn’t make the other disciples learn this!”

          And Philip said, “I don’t have a pen.”

          And Bartholomew said, “How many points is this worth?”

          And Thaddeus said, “Would you say the third one again?”

          And Matthew said, “I have to go to the bathroom.”

          And Judas said, “What does this have to do with real life.”

          And Jesus wept.

At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus singles-out people with certain

 qualities; virtues such as mournfulness, mercy-

mindedness, willingness to fight & willingness to get beat-up.

And he pronounces those who possess such qualities as blessed.

I guess you could romanticize those qualities. I mean plenty of people do; embroidering the Beatitudes on tea towels for heaven’s sake. But one problem about romanticizing the Beatitudes is that you can forget how weird they really are.

          When I was in Florida this summer, I had a friend who is a copy editor look over a eulogy I had written, who was not a big church go-er which turned out to be helpful because & she reminded me of how “churchy” some of my language has become. (Like the title of this sermon!)  Beside the word “deacon” she wrote, “please define.” Beside the word “sacrament” she wrote, “Can you explain?”  When I quoted Luke 14, “Whoever comes to me & does not hate father & mother, wife & children, brothers & sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (v26),     she wrote – “check source, this can’t  be right. “

          And when I said I didn’t know anyone but Jesus who blessed spiritual poverty, she wrote, “If this is true is there another way to phrase it? This sounds so negative.”

          If you ask me, she heard the gospel better than a lot of people who hear it more often. As you know Jesus didn’t invent this literary form. The beatitudes are short two part affirmations that sum up common knowledge about the good life. You can find them all over the place; Psalms & Proverbs are both good places to look.

“Blessed are those who find wisdom for her income is better than silver.”

The basic idea was to say something true that everybody knows is true in hopes of keeping the truisms in place. But Biblical truisms always have cultural competitors. Some of those rivals are benign; “Blessed are those who go for regular dental check-ups because they shall keep their teeth.” Some are not so benign; “Blessed are those with sharp tongues for they shall defeat their foes.”  And some are downright lies; “Blessed are those with plenty of money for they shall never know sorrow.”

          I invented those but you all can do it too – just listen to what you hear from politicians, from advertisers, self-help gurus & basketball stars; and you can usually hear a Beatitude in there somewhere.

Blessed if you will just accept the beauty of the reality being offered; but that’s what I think makes Jesus’ beatitudes so odd is his truth claims don’t conform to common wisdom, they actually go against it.

          In this life most of us peddle pretty hard to avoid going in the direction of Jesus’ beatitudes. Plenty of us own stacks of books that promise to enrich our spirits not impoverish them. Others of us take medicine to get some distance from our aliments.

          I don’t know anyone, personally, who wants to be meek. Although I do know some people who take modest delight in the second half of Jesus’ blessing; “for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek wouldn’t know what to do with the earth if they had it. But the ones I know think it was a very nice thing for Jesus to say all the same.

With the exception of my friend in Florida I think most of us are so used to hearing the beatitudes by now it’s hard to get a sense of their original shock value. Maybe if I said

Blessed are you who suffer from cancer for you shall be made whole.

Or maybe if I said “Blessed are you whose prayers are never answered for you shall see God face to face.”

Like everyone else I want the second half of the sentence but not the first. I want the comfort, the fullness, the intimacy of God. I want to be an inheritor of the earth; the divine kingdom as well -- but if the only way to get to the second half of the sentence is to go through the first well then – I’m not sure I want to go.

Fortunately the Beatitudes are not moral instructions – they are instead revelations of divine reality.

In the case of Jesus’ beatitudes they pronounce blessings on certain people, just the way they are. Offering them previews of what’s in store. Rejoice. Be glad for your reward is great in heaven. Jesus promises these people things they never-ever thought they could afford. His blessings are so unexpected, so extravagant, so counter-intuitive & so misplaced according to the beatitudes of the world that there’s every reason to question their content. OR better yet their relevance.

It’s been 2000 years & the meek still haven’t inherited the earth. Those who hunger & thirst for righteousness are still not satisfied. The mournful are still blowing their noses into handkerchiefs with only one little dry spot left

And the merciful are still waiting to receive mercy.

Beatitudes may work for people who can wait until they die for their rewards; meanwhile there are other people who become impatient, or cynical – or who have just gone away.

And Judas said, “Just what does this have to do with real life?”

One thing that I really never noticed before is that the book of Revelation is full of beatitudes. Did you know that?

Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, & blessed are over & over again, blessed, blessed, blessed, on the least likely.

          Martin Luther said if you weren’t crazy before you read the book of Revelation that you’d be crazy after you read it. But what strikes me about these beatitudes is I’ve never seen even one of them on a tea towel. Maybe that’s because Jesus didn’t say them; or maybe it’s because they are prophecies offered to sustain those who were given raw deals every day of their lives as they waited for God. “Hello, is there anybody out there to bring heaven to earth?” These revelatory beatitudes sustain the faithful by telling them what to look for; of how things will look when God’s real life breaks into their real lives, not only later but also right now.

          Do you think there’s a chance Jesus’ beatitudes work the same way?

          When people who are convinced that they’re spiritual losers hear Jesus pronounce them blessed right in the middle of their lostness then the desert sands under their feet turns into green grass. They only thought they were lost. Plenty of other people tried to convince them they were lost but now they know that this feeling inside of them isn’t lostness but blessedness. They can see this now because Jesus gave them a sign.

          When people who were dying inside finally decide to quit pretending that everything was all right – that they’re getting along all right thank you --  when people decide to open their mouths & wail out loud for everything they’ve lost – then they’ll be comforted. Someone even if it’s just a nice policeman is going to come take them by the arm & get them some help; bystanders may call it a breakdown if they want to but Jesus called it a break through. He gave them a sign.

          People know they shouldn’t talk about religion, or politics, or sex in polite company because everyone knows there is no faster way to get in a fight with people you otherwise love even though it means then there are vast areas of our lives we never talk about with each other. When we finally stop laughing at the smug jokes or stop telling them & decide to say something risky that we think is worth getting in trouble for, then a little flower of satisfaction is going to open up inside of us, not because we’re right necessarily, but because we’re willing to speak from our heart instead of from our need to be liked or our fear of being fired or from any of the 100 other pesticides that make so many of our buds dry up & die before ever opening up.

When we speak from our hunger & thirst for rightness we shall be satisfied, Jesus said. This time you get to be the sign, this time you get to be the prophecy, the revelation, if you trust Jesus version of reality anyway.

When we speak the truth in love others get to see what it looks like. If a whole bunch of us decide to speak the truth at the same time all together all the better. Even if it is just for a moment even if we have to lie down afterwards & put a cool cloth on our foreheads. Then we get to see what it looks like when one of Jesus prophecies comes true.

So what did the beatitudes have to do with real life? The only way to find out is to trust them, or not. It comes down to trusting the one who spoke them, or not. There is no threat of oblivion for those who do not, just the promise of heaven for all who do. Blessed are you. Amen.