The Sermon on the Mount – Beattitudes compared to Meattitudes

Summary

Quite often in my life I have heard people use the word ‘blessing’ when talking about earthly wealth, property, nice things, job promotions and other markers of what humans think of as success. They speak using phrases such as, “Wow! This house is huge, what a blessing!” or, “She’s so rich…God must have really blessed her!”

Sometimes it can be as if we are creating our own worldly beatitudes, but perhaps rather they end up being me-attitudes. Why? Well, to succeed in the world, it most often has to be about, “me”, doesn’t it. Oddly enough, to make this point, I want to quote from a book written in the 1950’s that tells the story of the Danish Sledge Patrol that guarded Greenland’s Northeast coast from incursions by the German Navy. The author, David Howarth compares the harsh arctic and selfless brotherly nature that that environment creates, with the morality of modern civilization. Listen to what he wrote for it helps us to see our predicament as Christians living in the world.
David Howarth writes, “Standards of morality are partly matters of custom and convention. In commerce, for example, one man expects another to bargain to his own advantage; in urban life, there are social ladders to be climbed; in employment, there is competition for promotion. All these aspects of civilization are competitive and selfish; circumstances and conventions tempt every man to try to go one better than his neighbor of whatever advancement both of them are seeking. Usually, this universal struggle and competition is silent and polite, and it is so wholly accepted that one forgets that it is selfish; but it has the seeds in it of jealousy and covetousness and greed, and thence of crime.”
You see, we must all be honest that much success in the world has to come about via selfish methods, doesn’t it? That is simply the way of the world.

So you see, that we must be a bit more careful when we talk about how God has blessed us, and with what. Now, don’t get me wrong, God can bless us in many ways, of course God can, for God can do anything, but…but we cannot assume that earthly possessions, titles, wealth, property, or success are simply marks of God’s blessings.

In fact, what we need to do is look more deeply into what it means to be blessed by God, and what that might actually look like in a person’s life. So, we need to actually look at how blessings work in the Bible and who is named blessed. Today we have listened to the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. We have heard and read Jesus’ own words as he taught his disciples about whom is blessed.

I want you to compare Jesus’ own list of the blessed, in todays Gospel reading, with those whom the world usually speaks of as blessed, and see if Jesus’ blessed ones, fit the world’s ideals

Now, I want you to note something. Jesus is not telling us how to be blessed, nor is Jesus telling us who to bless, but rather he is showing us whom are the blessed.
David Lose, writes concerning Jesus’s teaching on the beattitudes, “Jesus urges his disciples – then and now – to look at those around us differently than the culture does. Rather than measure persons by their possessions, we are invited – nay, commanded – to see their character. Rather than merely taking pity on their losses, we are invited to enter into them. Rather than judge their failings, we are invited to forgive and remind them that they are blessed by God and born for more than they’ve settled for. And rather than despise weakness, we are invited to see in it the truest point of meeting between God’s children. For God reveals God’s self to us most clearly and consistently at our places of deepest need.
What would it be like if our congregations became places where we recognized that God always comes where we least expect God to be – amid our brokenness – in order to bless that which the world refuses to bless, to love what the world calls unlovable, and to redeem that which the world does not believe merits saving? And what would it be like if our people left church with new eyes, able to perceive in the needs of their neighbor not a nuisance or even something to be pitied but rather the marks of blessedness to which we are privileged to attend?”
He’s a wise man.
Think of it, in the beatitudes Jesus is calling us to look away from ourselves to the care of our neighbors. And, Jesus is calling your neighbors to look away from themselves to the care of you. Really, what Jesus is doing is teaching us, his disciples to live in Jesus’ way of living. Jesus is calling us to try and live loving selfless lives, rather than conceited, selfish lives.
There is a reason that the passage from Micah that we read earlier this morning is paired with Jesus’ teachings on the beatitudes. That last verse gives us a concise and clear set of instructions on how to live our lives, in this civilized, selfish world of today.

God has told us, what is good, and what the Lord requires. To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. Of course the last requirement is the most important, walking with God, humbly.
Jesus is our teacher and Lord, we are but his disciples. When our Lord Jesus washes feet, so must we. When the Savior of the world sits and eats with tax collectors and sinners, so must we. When the promised Christ crosses to a foreign shore to free a man from his chains, both literally and spiritually, we must be willing to follow.
Jesus has given us everything, because Jesus has given us new life, when we didn’t deserve it…so, we are blessed. We are blessed beyond our imagining in this gift of grace that we receive, and so, we must try to live, not for ourselves, not for the things of this world, no, we are called to something different, we are called to live for, and so, walk with Jesus. We are called to love in kindness the people of this world, and so, we are called to do justice.
To share the good news of Jesus’ gift of salvation with those who are poor in spirit. To comfort those who mourn. To give God’s power to the meek. To fight for righteousness for those who are desperate for it. To be merciful to those who give mercy. To point out God to those seeking him. To seek peace as God’s children. To even endure persecution in fighting for righteousness, because we are Christians. To rejoice and be glad even as we are persecuted, and reviled because we are living as Jesus’ people, in a world that sees foolishness in his teachings and ways.
You see we are blessed in the salvation that Jesus gives, and we are blessed in being his disciples.
In trying to do justice as the people of Christ, we are blessed, and will be blessed forever. Blessed are those who follow Jesus as his disciples, for they will know joy in their lives, and love in their souls, today…and forever.
Amen.

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