Sermon for April 5th, 2015

Matthew 5:3-12

1When 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.

Luke 6:20-26

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Beautiful Attitudes: An Introduction

A Baptist preacher visited a poor man who said that he would like to come to church on Easter Sunday, but he just didn't have any decent Easter Sunday clothes. The preacher generously arranged for the man to be given a brand new navy blue suit, white cotton shirt, wing-tipped shoes, and a colorful silk tie. Easter Sunday arrived, and when the Baptist preacher looked out at his congregation, he was disappointed to see the poor man didn't show up. Later that week, he called the man to make sure he had received the new suit. "Oh yes," said the man. "It's the nicest suit I ever saw. In fact, when I put on that new suit on Easter Sunday, I decided that I looked so nice I could go to the Presbyterian Church!"

It is customary on Easter Sunday for the pastor to preach a sermon about the resurrection of Jesus. I've done that for the past two years, and will almost certainly do it again in future years. But this Easter, and for the next seven Sundays, I'd like to try something slightly different: I'd like to resurrect--to raise from the dead, if you will--one of the central teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Before the empty tomb, before the cross, before the last supper, before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and long before anyone ever called Jesus "Son of God" or "Messiah" his followers called him "Rabbi" which means "teacher." He gathered them together one day on a mountain (in Matthew's version) or on a plain (in Luke's version) and he preached a sermon. It began like this: Blessed are the poor...blessed are those who mourn...blessed are the meek...blessed are the merciful... We call this list of blessings "The Beatitudes" from the Latin word "beati," which we translate as "blessed."

Most of us who have grown up in the church are pretty familiar with this list. The beatitudes appear on everything from Hallmark greeting cards, to office posters and wall hangings to embroidered throw pillows. When given this treatment, the beatitudes are cute...quaint...and utterly devoid of the raw, revolutionary power they held when Jesus spoke them to a desperate crowd of 1st century Galilean peasants. It is my hope that through this sermon series, we can begin hear them in their original context once more, and reclaim some of that lost power and life-changing meaning.

PLaying around with the word somewhat, the Beatitudes have also been called "beautiful attitudes," and this is the title that I've chosen for our sermon series. The conventional wisdom that Jesus is describing beautiful attitudes that we should have in regard to each other, in order for us to be blessed in the way the Beatitudes describe (blessed are you who do this, or believe this, for you will receive this as your reward).

Here again, I'm going to argue something different: The Beatitudes are not beautiful attitudes we must take on in order to be blessed by God... rather they are the beautiful attitudes God already has toward all his children, especially the ones described by Jesus, those we tend to see as un-blessed, or un-blessable. The beatitudes are not a magic forumla that we can apply in order to somehow make our lives better by the standards of the world. Instead, they turn the world's standards upside down, and invite us to re-align our hearts and our priorities with God's heart and God's priorities, which are never quite what we expect or think we know.

In order for us to raise the beatitudes from their 21st century grave of hallmark cards, wall-posters and embroidered throw pillows, I'm going to try to take us 2,000 years back in time, to the world of first-century, Roman-occupied Palestine. It shouldn't be too difficult--there are some real similarities between that time and our own.

It is a time of transition and upheaval. New technologies, like the Roman road, the aquaduct, and Roman engineering are rendering entire industries and traditional ways of life obsolete.

The new Roman economy, through rapid acquisition and development of real estate, an intricate system of investments, loans and mortgages, high interest rates, and through heavy taxation to fund its military and building projects, are creating a small, privileged class with nearly unlimited wealth and resources. Meanwhile, the vast majority struggles to make ends meet in the face of decreasing wages, rising debt, and the potential sudden loss of health or livelihood.

New belief systems, like the Roman Imperial Cult "preach about opportunity, self-reliance, and personal achievement while simultaneously denying all three to the majority of men, women, and children." (Horsley, Message & Kingdom).

So now you find yourself among that first-century crowd, listening to this traveling preacher from Nazareth, a shanty-town that makes the colonias of Juarez seem luxurious by comparison. Chances are, if you are in this crowd, you are a skeptic. This Jesus of Nazareth, after all, is just the latest of dozens of wandering preachers peddling an ideology that tries to make sense of all that's gone wrong with the world.

And chances are, you already have your own ideology. There are several. If you are gainfully employed in some way by the Roman government or one of its puppet regional kings--as a solider, a bureaucrat, a construction worker--perhaps you've already bought into the Roman ideology: Pay your taxes, obey the laws, and work harder for longer hours, and eventually you'll be independently wealthy. Except you can't help noticing that your obedience, your taxes, your hard work and long hours seem to be making other people independently wealthy more than you.

Or, you might be a traditionalist--part of the first century "religious right." You resent all these new Roman innovations, and believe the solution is a return to traditional values. If we pray harder, if we obey the laws of holy scripture down to the last letter, if we refuse to tolerate any sin among us (or any sinful people), maybe God will finally intervene in our world, punishing the wicked and vindicating the righteous (that's you, of course!).

• Ship of Faith
• Train bound for Jordan

• Beatitudes are a reversal of the ten commandments: Commandments begin with requirements in order to earn God's blessing. Beatitudes begin with unconditional blessing...you already have god's unmerited favor.

Like the technological and economic revolutions of other times and places-the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, or even the present upheavals of the Information Age and deindustrialization-old-fashioned wisdom, skills, and work habits only gradually lost their value as a vast wave of institutional restructuring, labor migration, political instability, and market fluctuations ushered in a new order of relationships. History has almost always been written from the viewpoint of those who build cities and conquer empires, but in the New Testament and the early Christian tradition we may be able to catch a rare glimpse at the hopes, dreams, and utopian visions of those who suddenly find themselves at the bottom of a new civilization's social heap.

This train carries saints and sinners This train carries losers and winners This train carries whores and gamblers This train carries lost souls This train--Dreams will not be thwarted This train--Faith will be rewarded This train--Hear the steel wheels singing This train--Bells of freedom ringing (Bruce Springsteen - Land Of Hope & Dreams)