Based on Matthew 5: 1-12:
The Beatitudes
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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Our gospel reading today is very familiar to many of us. It is collectively referred to as ‘The Beatitudes’, the blessings. It marks the start of the collection of moral teachings by Jesus that is known as ‘The Sermon on the mount’. You will hear more, in the coming weeks, of ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ as it covers chapters 5 up to 7 of the gospel according to St Mathew.
It begins with the image of Jesus taking his disciples up the mountain for teaching, hence the description ‘the sermon on the mount’. However it is a collection of moral teachings, so we are pretty sure that it was not all done in one sitting.
The beatitudes, these blessings that we have just heard, are divided into 3 sections – blessings consisting of promises to the suffering; blessings promising rewards to the virtuous; and blessings of promises to Jesus’ followers.
The first time I ever preached on The Beatitudes was when I had just started my training as a local preacher and I was sharing the sermon with Chris Robinson. Between us we took it in turns to read out and reflect on each blessing. One by one we went through each of them. Now that’s ok with two voices, for a bit of variety, but if I did that now I am sure your minds will be drifting off to thoughts of lunch by the time we got to the third blessing!
So instead, I would like us all to focus on what is at the heart of the message of the Beatitudes. What is the message to us today and, so importantly, what is the message we need to take out of this building about the Beatitudes?
These verses are so familiar, to many, that we can be quite complacent about them. We think we know them, perhaps we can even recite them word by word, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’
But it is unlikely we will recite them word for word to people we know and perhaps, because they are so well known and we look at each of them individually, we don’t take time to assess what we think is at the heart of this message. Why did Jesus single out these people? What have they got in common? What have the blessings, the gifts, got in common?
So that is what we will look today.
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Can any of you tell me what this is?
It is the Twitter logo. Twitter is social media service where people post messages to their followers. For example, a post may be used to tell all their friends, all in one go, what they have been doing today. These messages are called Tweets.
What is unique about Twitter is that you only have space to write a very short message. You can only type 140 characters, not 140 words, 140 characters. Each letter or number, or punctuation mark is a character. So it is a very concise message.
What has this got to do with The Beatitudes? Well just before Christmas the Circuit ran a course called ‘Talking of God’. It was a free course, open to all, to help encourage and enable conversations about faith. It was designed to help us talk of God in our everyday lives, to give us confidence to talk about our faith. It is still available on the Methodist’s website if you are interested in finding out more.
The homework for the first of the sessions was to write, in less than 140 characters, as if it was a tweet, What difference does Jesus make in your life? It was very tough. We had lots to say but we were only allowed to use 140 characters to say what difference Jesus makes in our lives.
What was the purpose of the task? The purpose of writing such a concise message was twofold:
- To get to the heart of the message
- To make it memorable.
Why? Because if it is short we can hopefully remember it, and if we can remember it, then hopefully we can share that message.
So that technique is what I would like us all to use today.
I would like us all to spend a few minutes writing down in 140 characters or less, what we think is at the heart of the message of The Beatitudes. There is no right or wrong answer.
Have a think, may be for the first time, Why did Jesus single out these people? What have they got in common? What have the blessings, the gifts, got in common? What is at the heart of Jesus’ message for us? What is the message for us to take out there, outside of these walls?
Let’s spend just a few minutes thinking about what is at the heart of the message and try to write that message down in less than 140 characters.
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When I was preparing for today I decided to come up with the shortest tweet that I could, to describe what I think is at the heart of the message of the Beatitudes. I got it down to one 4 letter word.
Hope. To me the Beatitudes teach us about hope.
For in these blessings Jesus makes a point of singling out the kinds of people that seem to have no reason for hope in this world (the poor, the bereaved) and those who’s hope may be fading (those who are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake).
Christ is offering them hope. He offers them the Kingdom of heaven, comfort, righteousness, mercy and the promise that they will see God.
But the offer is not just to them. If you look closely at that list we recognise those as promises to everyone who follows Christ – the Kingdom of heaven, comfort, righteousness, mercy and the promise that they will see God.
So the offer of these blessings is not just to those who mourn or to those who are poor, he is offering these things to us all, but perhaps we do not recognise them.
Often it isn’t until we have ‘darker’ times in our lives that we realise how much we need the offer of hope through faith in Christ. If things are going swimmingly well, we don’t feel that we need comforting. If we are wrapped up in enjoying earthly pleasures, we forget how much we want the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. We can lose sight of what is best for us.
But for people who have lost hope, they are searching and they are certainly not distracted by earthly pleasures. What a blessing! What a blessing that they have the foresight to notice Christ’s offer that many of us do not see because we are too preoccupied.
Christ is offering us, through faith in him, the Kingdom of heaven, comfort, righteousness, mercy and the promise that we will see God.
But how? How do we receive these blessings? Well, if you look at the Beatitudes notice there is no long list of instructions on what we need to do. The beatitudes are not so much about ‘doing’ something. They are about letting go.
Being ‘poor in spirit’ invites us to let go of the need to be ‘somebody’. ‘Those who mourn’ are invited to lay down the burden of their pain. In turn, we are invited to let go of the need to be right, of obsessing over our own comfort and wellbeing, of a need for revenge, of our need to look good and of our need to win.
Instead we are to accept Christ’s offer of new hope through faith in him. We are called to rely on the grace of God to provide us with all we need. Grace that will enable us to turn our focus away from ourselves and towards the needs and concerns of others; to live as if the ‘new heaven and the new earth’ has already arrived.
Last year, with all the political changes, the word ‘Fear’ was constantly being used. That people were acting out of fear, making decisions out of fear. If Fear was the word for 2016 then I pray that Hope is the word for 2017. I feel it is starting, people are reaching out in hope.
But what are they placing their hopes on? That is our call to action. We need to demonstrate that our hope is in Christ and that these blessings are also theirs for the taking.
Hope is not wishful thinking, as in ‘I hope something will happen’. This is not what the Bible means by hope, it means ‘confident expectation’.
So we can confidently expect the blessings that Christ has promised us through faith in him. We just need to humbly and faithfully look for him and seek out his help, just like the mourner.
Then we will experience the many blessings – the Kingdom of heaven; comfort; righteousness; mercy and the promise that we will see God. Amen
Debbie Story 