When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
Matthew 5:1-12
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 the sake of righteousness, 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.
My sermon from the 4th Sunday after Epiphany (February 1, 2026) on Matthew 5:1-12.
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One of the things I like to do when I visit other churches is to check out their libraries. These libraries are usually located in rooms filled with the kind of furniture you’re not supposed to sit in or in conference rooms with a long table and mismatching chair. I’ve perused many libraries created by pastors who left their books behind when they changed jobs and I’m grateful for those who have organized them by topic and genre. The books can sometimes be very old with worn pages falling out or they can be brand new with a spine that has never cracked. Most of these libraries are no longer used since we consume videos rather than words on a page. Yet I’m always amazed to see what lingers on the shelves since they serve as a kind of initial bookend pointing to the future the community imagined for itself. If we could, in our own way, categorize our own life as a library of its own, our shelves would be filled with all kinds of bookends marking all the moments that mattered. And this idea of bookends, libraries, and what our future could be shows up in today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew since chapter 5 is the start of a sermon meant to be the initial bookend showing what happens when God’s kingdom comes near.
Now prior to this point in Matthew’s version of Jesus’ life, we’ve had Christmas, the visit by the magi, Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Jesus’ public ministry, though, hadn’t begun. The arrest of his friend John the Baptist, though, caused Jesus to announce God’s kingdom was here. Yet before Matthew let us know details about what exactly Jesus was up to, he separated himself from the crowds to share a message to his disciples whose lives were now transitioning into something new. This sermon on the mount from chapter 5 through 7 is the initial bookend for everything that comes next. And what we hear first is what we call the “beatitudes” – those verses focused on “blessed are.” Being blessed is, I think, much easier to feel than to describe since it requires a sense of wholeness, comfort, peace, and joy. Yet when we try to show others what a blessing might be, we often default to the experiences and opportunities that require having money in our bank account. A dream vacation; a new home; an amazing gift; a new job; a new relationship; having access to medical care; and living far away from the chaos we see on the news everyday – that often requires material riches. But when we reduce blessings to cash we get defensive since that kind of blessing feels too capitalistic and cheap. I wonder, though, if the knot in our stomach that comes when we try to show blessings to ourselves and others can help us hear what Jesus had to say. Mark Allan Powell in a commentary about this passage, proposed that maybe we should recognize how weird the first four of these “blessed ares” actually are. It really is bizarre to say the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are not strong, and those who live in a world without righteousness are blessed. When we’ve grown despondent, angry, and indifferent because faith makes no difference in our lives and in our world – that’s what it looks like for our spirit to be poor. When our dreams, relationships, and the life we lived has caused our heart to break with grief, that isn’t something we’d wish on anyone. The meek Jesus has in mind were not the spiritually strong who are humble and unpretentious. The meek are those deprived of their share of the world’s resources and left to survive on their own. And those who thirst for righteousness aren’t, necessarily, trying to be righteous themselves. Rather, they wish to be part of a world where righteousness, fairness, care, and support is a part of everyone’s lives. Jesus wasn’t trying to act as if suffering and sadness are holy things God really wants to be a part of our lives. Jesus promises those who are hurting, who are suffering, and who feel as if tomorrow will never come – Jesus promises our worst days won’t be the only days that define us.
What this blessing is, though, isn’t meant to be some spiritual thing with no bearing on our life today. Jesus says they are blessed – and begins to sketch out how this blessing can be lived out in the world. The “blessed ares” that follow, I think, are meant to bring hope to the poor in spirit, the mournful, the meek, and those hungry for a righteous reality. And those who have lost trust God really is here are to be met by those who embody God’s mercy. Mercy throughout Matthew is all about refraining from judgment, showing compassion, offering forgiveness, healing the sick, wiping away debt, and giving alms to the poor. It’s about removing “everything that prevents life from being as God intends.” And while we can’t remove everything life brings, we can use what we have to show others God’s love in tangible ways. Now those who mourn have to live through futures they never wanted and planned for. Mercy, while helpful, isn’t everything they need which is why Jesus mentions the pure in heart. In the Bible, the heart isn’t a metaphor only for emotions. The heart represents everything that makes us who we are. The pure in heart are not those who get everything right; they are those whose sense of self clings to God’s way rather than all the other ways we use to give us worth. The pure in heart, through their actions, time, kindness, and care authentically reveal how even those who mourn have a present and a future with their God.
This practice of building up, in Jesus’ words, even extends into peacemaking. Peace is more than simply removing conflict from our lives which we rarely do well since we often ignore how our points of view, beliefs, and practices grow conflict rather than defeat it. Peace isn’t, as the Roman Empire practiced, all about getting others to do what we want. Peace is, for Jesus, immediately connected to the Hebrew word “shalom” which is also connected to justice. The peace the meek and oppressed need isn’t the opposite of conflict but a reality where our fights over power, status, resources, and control come to an end. It’s the trust that life can – and could be – different if we shared life rather than hoard it only for ourselves. Yet holding onto this vision God gives us for our lives and for our world often leads to challenges from the world and even those who claim to believe. When we take seriously who God blesses and trust Jesus knows what Jesus is doing when he claims they really are blessed, even those who claim to follow Christ will call God’s embrace of humility, vulnerability, care, love, empathy, and welcome as some kind of sin. Yet if Jesus was willing to embrace the fullness of what life is like not for his sake but for the sake of others – then how can we do anything less?
The beatitudes are not the start of Jesus’ story but they are the initial bookend to, in Matthew, what the kingdom of heaven looks like in our lives and in our world. God refuses to ignore the hardships of our lives or assume our individual choices are the only things causing us suffering and pain. God knows life involves a lot we can control and a lot we can’t. But instead of making us be the limit of what our story will be, God intervenes to say there really is a different way. And while these interventions from God that serve as countless initial bookends showing how we can be the authentically merciful, caring, peacemaking, and loving person God has made us to be shows up in a multitude of ways, we can trust God’s reaching out to us in baptism and through faith is the bookend pushing us into the future God is bringing about. It’s a bookend that for some of us was started years ago – or, like Sam, is about to show up in our lives today. Yet the promise at the heart of it remains the same. The One who loves you, who cares for you, and who is with you regardless of what life throws your way blesses you – and knows, just as you are and with God’s help, you can bless the world too. Amen.