Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
Epiphany 4, 01/29/2017
Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12, by Ryan Mills
1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then 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. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (NRSV)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
One December day a couple years ago, my wife Kathleen and I decided to take the train down to New York City for the day. And at one point in our wandering around we came across the famous Rockefeller Center, with all its ice-skaters, holiday lights, and famous Christmas tree. The buildings in that area have all sorts of impressive art-deco style carvings and statues decorating them—strong men, beautiful women, men using tools and making things, carvings of strength, of power, of beauty, of success, of wealth, of everything that we might hope for and dream of in this life. And so it was a little strange to see in a corner of a lobby there a mosaic depicting a different set of people. There, on a hill, a man sits teaching a great gathered crowd. Except these are children, old people, and poor people dressed in shabby clothes and rags. People who are disabled, and limping on crutches. Grieving people, crying, and sick people laying on their beds. People doing small acts of kindness: sharing food and comforting each other. It’s a mural of our Gospel lesson today, the Sermon on the Mount—and the one teaching the crowds is our Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s clear from the mosaic that it’s not just some religious lecture up on a hill, but you can tell that something is happening, something is changing, the people are being changed as you watch! And it reminded me of a moment in one of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books where after all their heartaches and disasters a character named Sam asks, “I thought you were dead, and I thought I was dead!” “Is everything sad going to come untrue?”i Is everything sad going to come untrue? And I think that’s at the heart of the difference between these two pictures—between the celebration of human strength and power and success on one side and Jesus blessing the poor, the mourning, the little ones, and the merciful on the other side. We’re challenged today by the idea that Jesus is beginning to make everything sad untrue! And his blessing of the suffering and forsaken today makes us ask: where does God really show up in this world? Where does God meet you and me in our lives? Who is truly blessed in this world, and what sadness is he undoing even for you and me this morning?
Jesus sat down on the mountain today--sitting was the posture the ancient rabbis took when they were going to teach something important. And he began to speak saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Who are the poor in spirit? Those who have lost it all, those who have empty hands and hearts, who have no security or strength of their own. All the poor in spirit know is that they have nothing of real value except for God, and so God calls them blessed! With nothing to count on for themselves, the peace, the comfort, and the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven are theirs!
And “blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus says—blessed are those who are full of sorrow, full of grief, those whom this world cannot comfort. When we see the grieving we say “I’m sorry,” or we say, “too bad,” but when God sees the grieving he calls them blessed, for God’s heart also knows grief, also knows loss, but when we look at the Cross that Christ underwent, we see that God can take death and turn it into life, God can take an end and make of it a beginning. His Cross shows us that death does not have the last word for us, that death does not get the last laugh. But because Christ lives we shall live also, because he rose we too shall rise. “Blessed are you that mourn,” Jesus says, “I have mourned too, but I have risen, and in me you too shall rise.”
And “blessed are the meek,” Jesus says. Those who do not defend their rights, those who do not belong to this world, those whose lives don’t focus on what they can get for themselves, blessed are those who trust their future to God alone. They will inherit the earth! All the meek have now is this little ground here, this little community of the church, but when their meek Lord who was slaughtered like a lamb returns as a lion, they shall inherit the earth!
And “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus says. Who hunger and thirst for it because they do not have it themselves. We who have no righteousness of our own, we who know our sins and our pasts all too well and so hunger every day for forgiveness, for renewal, for the gift of grace and forgiveness which from his Cross God gives so freely—to you and me today, God calls us blessed!
And “blessed are the merciful,” Jesus says. Those who love and show mercy to the sick, to sinners, to those in shame, to those in any kind of difficulty. On the Cross we see that the merciful will have a merciful, forgiving Lord and Judge.
And “blessed are the pure of heart,” Jesus says. Not a clean or a good heart, but just pure, which means it belongs to Christ. A heart, a life, focused on Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, that lives for him! There on the Cross we see that his heart, God’s heart, is nothing but overflowing with love for you and me.
And “blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says. Those who endure suffering. Those who overcome evil with good. Those who love their enemies. They will be children, partners with the One who made peace with us by the blood of his cross.
And “blessed are those who are persecuted,” Jesus says. This old world is always offended by Christians who don’t fall in line, who don’t keep quiet, who suffer for what is right, who are willing to resist the world when it is wrong. When we are rejected, then we are one with the One who was despised and rejected, but as we share in his sorrow, so too we will share in his joy.
“Blessed are you,” Jesus says, over and over again into all those places where we know in this world you’re not blessed. It’s not blessed to mourn or be persecuted, but God speaks, and it is so. The poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers the persecuted, God blesses them, they are blessed. As Walter Cronkite used to say, “And that’s the way it is”—God blesses those that the world thinks are cursed. God comes to those the world thinks have been abandoned. God gives hope to those that the world thinks are just hopeless. These beatitudes are not God’s law book, or a to-do list for you, but just assurance that when you are there, there God also is.
Because it’s into your life, into your darkest places, into those places of the most shame, the most grief, the most struggle--that’s where God comes, that’s where God is already at work to bring a blessing. Not when you are powerful and rich and strong and successful, like a muscular art-deco carving. But when you are poor in spirit, grieving, hungry for righteousness, merciful, persecuted—that’s where God comes. We would never sign up to go through the dark times, but that’s when we go through them we can feel and experience his presence, his power, his blessing more than ever. For that’s exactly where God assures us that he is for us, all in for us.
St. Paul tells us today that this message, the message of the beatitudes and the about the Cross, is all foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Doesn’t it seem foolish! It seems foolish that God takes the poor in spirit and the pure in heart and the mourning and the merciful and calls them blessed. It seems foolish that God takes people like you and me who are not powerful, not noble blue-bloods, not overflowing with wisdom, and makes out of us his precious royal people! It seems foolish that God takes his own Son, dying and naked on a tree, on the Cross, and makes out of that the salvation of the world! But he does! For “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
There is one final blessing Jesus has in his Sermon on the Mount today. A blessing for those who are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, one last blessing for the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. One last and pure blessing for you and me, coming to you and me in our darkest hours, in our most foolish, weakest, neediest places, God showing up where we least expect him and taking our death and turning it into life: “Rejoice! Rejoice and be glad—for your reward is great in heaven.” Heaven—where faith becomes sight; where tears become laughter; where every hope, every dream, every yearning we could barely hope for is come true.
Blessed are you…you may have thought you were dead, but everything sad is coming untrue. Everything sad is coming untrue. Blessed are you! Rejoice and be glad, your reward is great in Heaven.
And the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
i J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Chapter 4, Book 6.