What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, January 30, 2011

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Micah 6:1-8 • Psalm 15 • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 • Matthew 5:1-12

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.

Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Beatitudes are some of the most familiar of all of Jesus’ sayings. In fact they are so familiar to us we may have just heard them in a way that has given us nine more things to do to our to-do lists for this week. Let’s see…I need to write these down so I don’t forget them myself: Number One: be poor in spirit. Number Two: mourn. Number Three: don’t forget to be meek. Number Four: hunger and thirst for righteousness. Number Five…but wait a minute. This is a long list to accomplish in just one week! I don’t know if I can do all these things. Is that what Jesus is giving us here, a to-do list for righteous living? It must be, because I’m not sure if my heart is really pure enough…if I am really committed to peace enough…if I really am poor in spirit enough, broken hearted enough to really be called blessed, am I?

One commentator perceptively points out that we can so easily read this passage and believe that Jesus is setting up conditions for us to find his blessing. (“God Bless You”, David Lose, www.workingpreacher.org) And how easy it is, my brothers and sisters, to let this kind of thinking get into our minds! This “If-I-do-this, then-I’ll-have-done-enough” voice can trap us into thinking things like, “If I can just get my life right, then I’ll be blessed…then I’ll be happy.” “If I can just get my life together, then I’ll be okay.” Or, “If I don’t do this, there’s going to be trouble.” But is the blessing of Jesus something we can ever earn?

Jesus exposes these voices for the lie that they are. He knows the answer for us to this question of “Have I done enough?” will always be “No.” But…there is someone who has done enough... Jesus has done enough, and done it for us with his life on the cross. The gospel does not come to us through our keeping of the law, but through Jesus’ own establishment of righteousness between God and us. Jesus’ blesses us regardless of how much we have done or not done, regardless of what we deserve, regardless of how holy we may try to be, and yes, even regardless of whether the law declares that we have been a legal resident in our homes for this past year and are legally eligible to run for the mayor of Chicago! Jesus’ chooses to begin his first public sermon in Matthew with indicative words that in his very speaking of them make us what they describe: “Blessed are we…” Jesus erases our faith as a manageable objective and instead reaches out to hold on to us with the promise of his Word: “I bless you!”

Jesus’ Beatitudes are but one more example of the freely given grace to us, poured out on the cross…but there is a even deeper dimension to Jesus’ blessing that seems especially important for us—especially on this day when major decisions about the financial and structural future of our church lie before us at today’s congregational meeting following worship. These two very visible and tangible signs of our church are just one dimension of God’s gift to us. The other dimension in which we find Jesus speaking blessing after blessing…the dimension that we cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot sense, is the invisible dimension of our spirit, and our hearts. Jesus chooses to bless those who have no externally visible sign by the standards of the world that they are blessed. All the people he names as blessed in the Beatitudes are those the world chooses to look away from—those who have lost something material or physical, or who strive for something that has no visible, material reward promised at the end.

In all this, Jesus’ blessings seem like a waste. All these he names as blessed…have been given nothing visible! But that is why the promise of Jesus’ blessing is given in what Augustine calls, “the spiritual firmament.” And it is there at that deep level that we will find Jesus pouring out blessing in his Word, spoken to us: “I bless you with the food that you hunger and thirst for. I bless you with the spiritual food of my redeeming honor and favor for you. This is the food that will feed your deepest needs.”

We live in a world that treasures signs of visible “blessing”. More than we can imagine, we are conditioned to compare ourselves, and to size up ourselves as better or worse than others. But Jesus’ blessing comes at a deeper dimension in our lives set us free from seeing others as blessed because of what we can see. Jesus’ blessing sets us free from judging each other in terms of money, celebrity, talent, what family we come from, how virtuous we are, how healthy we are, how smart we are, how cool we are… Jesus sets us free to look upon one another instead according to how much treasure he has given all of us on the inside. And inside, in our spirits, hearts and souls, Jesus wastes his foolishly lavish treasure upon us…the invisibly rich treasure of his own blessing.

Recently I’ve heard many of us talking about a film called The King’s Speech which was just nominated for Best Picture in the Oscars. If you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend it. The film is based on the true story of King George VI of England, a young, accidental king who has stammered since childhood, and who must find a way to unwaveringly inspire his people in the face of the perils and sacrifices of World War II. By all visible appearances, this King was blessed: he was royalty! Riches, wealth, fame…you name it, he had it—except that he never felt blessed. He never felt worthy of his crown because of his stutter. But through the invisible blessing that someone else gave him, he was given the honor and favor he had not seen in himself. The king’s speech therapist, Lionel, did not look at what could be seen about this king. Lionel looked upon the King as simply “Bertie”, addressing him by the name no other subject to the crown outside of his family had dared call him. Lionel saw beyond the King’s royal status to Bertie’s inner poverty of heart, a heart that he tends to and believes in ultimately declares honorably blessed. And it is because someone blesses him not for what could be seen about him, but for what could not be seen, that Bertie’s heart opens up, and the King finds his voice.

That voice is a voice that Jesus gives to all of us, and in claiming our blessing from him, we find within us our own deep desire to foolishly voice his blessing for others. Jesus empowers us as the church to proclaim to the world Jesus’ blessing—to look upon the world not by what’s visible but by what’s not…to see with faith the treasure of Jesus’ freely given favor.

So during the passing of the Peace today, I invite you to look into the eyes of those we extend a hand to, and to remember that in sharing Christ’s peace, we are saying to one another, “I honor you with the blessing of Jesus. Jesus places the treasure of his redeeming love within you, a promise that will live in you forever.” We can share such a blessing with the world as freely as Jesus shares it with us. Jesus blessing gives us vision to see beyond what’s visible…to see the vision of the world that the Beatitudes envision…a vision of the kingdom of heaven on Earth. Amen.