This is part of my message from Sunday January 29th,
2017. Please excuse any typo’s or grammar problems you find.
The Sermon on the Mount is a
description of what the Christian life should look like, but rarely does. In this sermon Jesus reveals to us the values of the
kingdom of heaven and invites us to live in the kingdom way here and now.
Among the people who listen to the Sermon
on the Mount and try to understand its message for today are Hindus in India. They
study this scripture because it was important to Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, studied the Christian faith and was
thinking of becoming a Christian, but was turned off by the failure of those
who name themselves as Christian’s to live out the teachings of Jesus. He did not become a Christian, but he did
fall in love and stay in love with the person of Jesus Christ. Gandhi pointed
to the words of Jesus that we read this morning (Matthew 5: 1-12) as one of
things that inspired him to develop the non-violent resistance movement that
helped India gain independence from Britain. Gandhi said, “I found one whom I
could follow. I just couldn’t stand his followers.”
Yet there is a sense in which Gandhi
became a very good example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus even
though he remained a Hindu until the day he died. What is it about the Sermon
on the Mount that so influenced Gandhi that he put these words on his wall that
he might see them always?
The German
philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, had a different impression. He read the
Sermon on the Mount and thought it was the stupidest fraud that had ever been
perpetuated on human beings. Neitzsche said you will become a human sheep
if you follow this. I am told that Alfred Rosenberg, who was influenced by
Nietzsche, was asked by Adolf Hitler how he might keep all the German
Christians and still do what he wanted to do. Rosenberg cut about 80
percent of the Sermon on the Mount out of the Bible and handed it back to the
German church and said they could preach the rest. For the most part they
did. Some of those who dissented were rounded up and put in prison. What was it
in the Sermon on the Mount that the Nazi’s found so very threatening?
What is it about this passage that makes it so dangerous to the
status quo? What is it about this
passage that makes it so subversive, so capable of inspiring action that
changes the world? These words seem at first glance contradictory. We do not
normally think of the poor, the sad, the meek and the thirsty as the ones who are
blessed.
Macrina
Wiederkehr says these teachings of Jesus are for people who have their hearts
set on the Reign of God. They are a way of life designed for those who want
their lives to be a blessing. Beatitude
people are kingdom people. They have a kingdom on their minds that won’t let
them rest until all the world is striving to be just, compassionate and
single-hearted. They call us forth from the cosy ruts of daily living and call
us to be Christ in the world. They tell us that the Reign of God is already in
our midst if we bless the world with beatitude-living.
Let us look briefly at each of the beatitudes. The
first is blessed are the poor in spirit.
Macrina
Weiderkehr writes these words:
I
turned to the empty ones
What
does it mean to be poor in spirit? I asked
Is
there anything good about being that poor?
The
poor in spirit replied:
Can
God fill anyone who is full?
Being poor in spirit has something to do with
being open to God, when we are too full of ourselves and our own opinions we cannot
hear what God would say to us. The poor in spirit are blessed because they know
heir need for a wisdom and power beyond their own – they know their need of
God. They are open to hear the word that God would speak to them.
The next beatitude says blessed are those who
mourn, for they shall be comforted. The word for mourn here is that kind of grief
that one feels from having lost the most beloved person in your life. It is
that sorrow so deep that it shakes your whole life, making you wonder if ever
you will get over it.
How can we say someone who mourns is blessed? Well
firstly, mourning is related to love. People who have never mourned, have never
loved. For love always involves loss.
Macrina
Wiederkehr says this
What
does it mean to mourn?
I
asked those who were sorrowing
An
old man stepped forward,
To
mourn, he said, is to be given
A
second heart
It is
to care so deeply
That
you show your ache in person.
To
mourn is to be unashamed of tears
It is
to be healed and broken all in the same moment.
Blessed
are you if you are so full of compassion
You
see the need before it’s spoken.
Blessed
are you if you can offer to others
A
heart that feels their sorrow
A
Heart that can wait quietly beside them
A heart
that doesn’t try to hurry the healing.
To
mourn is to forget yourself for a moment
and get lost in someone’s else’s pain
and
then, finally to find yourself
in
the very act of getting lost.
The next beatitude says blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. In our experience this is anything but true. The
meek are not the ones who inherit, or win or gain a promotion or get elected
president or prime minister, except maybe for Jimmy Carter. The meek are
usually the ones who are left out, while the assertive and the aggressive get
what they want. We see meekness as a
weakness, a character flaw. But this is not the kind of meekness that Jesus is
referring to. The kind of meekness Jesus is referring to is strong. It is not
thinking too highly or lowly of one’s self, but it is found in keeping a good
balance, on seeing yourself as God sees you. The meek of whom Jesus is talking
about here are persons not driven to step on everyone else to get what they
want. They are humble before God, appreciative of the countless blessings they
already have. They feel no need to be anything more than they already are, but
they are also open to change, when change is required. What they inherit is a
state of well being, of peace, of love, of being loved by others.
Macrina
Weiderkehr says
And
to the meek, I said:
Tell
me about this beatitude
It
doesn’t sound like a blessing
To
me, it looks like the face of weakness.
A
face from the crowd of lowly ones
Shone
forth with strength
Her
smile reached the door of my heart
Then
this lowly one spoke.
To be
meek is to be so full of truth
That
everyone is comfortable
In
your presence.
It is
to have a spirit young as the dawn
A
heart as old as the evening.
It is
to know yourself so well
And
live yourself so fully
that your very presence
calls
forth gifts in others.
It is
to be comfortable
With
your anger
And
with your compassion.
The
meek one grew silent for a moment
Then
lifting her eyes, she said:
When
you are meek
You
don’t need a lot of followers
You
just need a lot of truth.
The
lowly ones are able
To
stand out in the open
And
speak the truth
Sometimes
quietly
Sometimes
loudly.
The
truth will be spoken
Even
if no one listens
Even
if no one hears.
For
the meek person doesn’t need followers
The
meek need to be true to themselves.
