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:
Matthew 5:1-12
“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.
My sermon from All Saints Sunday (November 2, 2014) on Matthew 5:1-12.
Well, we all time traveled this morning – maybe you got an hour of extra sleep if you didn’t have toddlers or infants – and that’s something we’re going to continue with today. We’re interrupting the readings we’ve been hearing in Matthew – the readings when Jesus is in the Temple, right before he’s arrested – and we’re traveling back to the beginning of his ministry. In fact, we’re hearing the same gospel reading we heard in February this year. Jesus is now starting to teach, wandering around Galilee, gathering followers, and he’s getting a name for himself. He’s encountering people who are ill, sick, who are suffering from terrible diseases and demons – and he’s curing them. Crowds from all over Israel, Syria, and Jordan are coming to see Jesus – to hear him speak. And so Matthew has Jesus climb up a mountain – bringing to mind Moses on the mountain of Sinai – but instead of 10 commandments – instead of hearing from the man who met God face-to-face – the crowds are now gathered to hear this new man, this Jesus. And this Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gives is Jesus’ great sermon. Jesus is bearing public witness to what he is about to do, where he’s about to go, and what he’s about to face. And Jesus begins this sermon not with a joke, or with a funny story, or a pop culture reference – not even with a line about not getting an extra hour of sleep because of some toddlers. No, Jesus instead begins with just two words: “blessed are…”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit….blessed are those who mourn…blessed are the meek…blessed are those who hunger and thirst…”
These are just some of the 9 “Blessed ares” that we hear today. Now, Jesus’ sermon goes on for another two full chapters – and we’re only getting a taste of his words today – but this is how Jesus starts. He starts by being descriptive about today, about reality. He starts by saying that the poor, those who grieve, those who are peacemakers – those who are experiencing all of that right now – that they are blessed; they are holy; that they matter. Jesus isn’t telling the crowds or even us that we should change ourselves to be poor, meek, or pure in heart so we can be blessed – no, Jesus is saying those who are poor, meek, pure in heart right now – they are the ones that are blessed. They are the ones who are known to God. They are the ones who will be granted a special place in the kingdom of heaven. Now, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount will get around to telling people what to do and how to change – but Jesus isn’t doing that right now. Instead, he’s taking a moment at the start of the sermon to describe the world – to describe reality – to name how things are – but in a very odd way.
The world Jesus describes – that isn’t the world that the crowds gathered around him knew. That isn’t our world either. Any kid in middle school or high school knows the pecking order, they know where they stand in the social hierarchy, and the meek never end up with anything. A person watching their savings dry up when new bills, expenses, maybe unexpected medical costs show up – they’re watching the kingdom take everything away from them. And those who are oppressed for their gender, sexual orientation, or racial, ethnic, or national background – justice is pushed aside in the struggle just to survive one more day. Turning on the tv or opening a news app shows us all the stories of the world devouring people. The reality we experience doesn’t match the reality that Jesus names. We don’t see the peacemakers blessed. We don’t see the pure in heart seeing God. We don’t see the merciful receiving mercy. Instead, we live and experience a very different kind of world. Jesus doesn’t seem to be describing the real world. He seems to be describing a made up world – a world that is just as fantastic as Middle Earth or the Marvel Comic Book Universe. Jesus’ reality doesn’t match our reality. Jesus’ words are foreign to what we see, feel, hear, and embody everyday.
But the funny thing is that Jesus never backs down in describing the world this way. In his ministry, he never stops seeing the poor as blessed, he never stops seeing the meek as worthy of everything, he never stops seeing the peacemakers and calling them children of God. Jesus never stops naming the world around him in ways that the world cannot accept. He never stops healing the sick. He never stops teaching. He never stops saying that this world isn’t the way it should be – that God sees things very differently – that God names the world in a very different way. And that naming – that declaring – that willingness to stand up and say that the powerless are powerful, that the weak are loved, that those who are picked on are worth more than what their bullies call them – that naming says that the actions of those who do not love are not what defines us. Our worth is defined by the one who is not restricted by our lifestyle, by our understanding of power, by our own sinful nature. The one who names, the one who gives worth is the one who is standing right there, staring at us – face to face.
Now, if we’re honest at this point, and we hear that our worth is defined by Jesus on the Mountain – that’s actually a little scary. I mean, we’re not perfect. We know our failures. We know our sins. We know that we fail to live the way God calls us to live everyday. We know that we fail to name the world in the way that God’s names it. We know that we fail to embody these twelve verses from Jesus’ sermon. We might feel that we are part of the problem – that we aren’t worth being named. Maybe, in the future, when we’re a little older, or less busy, or maybe a little more secure – we’ll take the time to be the better person we want Jesus to see – but right now, we’re not there yet.
But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that we’ve already been named by Jesus. We’ve already been claimed by Jesus. We’re already part of Jesus’ re-naming of the world because, in our baptism, in our coming to the Lord’s table – Jesus has said that we don’t belong to our understanding of reality but that we belong to his. We are now part of how God sees and experiences the world. We’re not here because we’re awesome or because we’re pure in heart or because we’re the perfect peacemakers. We’re here because Jesus has named us and claimed us and made us part of God’s reality.
We’ve been brought into God’s reality – a reality that doesn’t match our own – but a reality that we’re called to make our own. As we have been brought into God’s re-naming of the world, we’re called to rename the world as well. We’re here to say that the poor are blessed; that those who mourn are blessed; we’re here to say that the meek, the oppressed, the persecuted, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who hunger for righteousness – that all of these are blessed not because we say so but because God says so. We will see them, we will name them, we will raise them up because God sees them, names them, and calls them blessed. We’re part of God’s re-naming of the world, part of God’s work in seeing the world differently, we’re part of God’s living differently in this world because God took that chance to meet us face-to-face. Jesus keeps on coming to us, in our baptism, in our sharing of bread and drink, and in the Spirit to say that our experiences of the world, the definitions that the world gives us – that doesn’t define us. That doesn’t give us our worth. That doesn’t tell us if we’re blessed or not. We’re called to live in the world as God names it – as God blesses it – we’re called to change the world so that God’s love rather than our devisiness defines it. We are called to see the world as Jesus sees it – as Jesus experience it – we’re called live as ones who know Jesus face-to-face.
Now, on this All Saints’ Sunday, when we remember those who have died, when we remember our pain and our sorrow, when we shed our tears for those who died recently and those who died long ago – when we recall the saints in our lives – let us also recall that their journey is our journey. That their call is the same as our call – to see the world differently, to live in it differently, to see what God has blessed and to act like they are blessed. And we do this not because we are perfect or because we are those who are not poor or those who do not mourn. We do this because, like our saints, we have seen God face-to-face. We have met Jesus in our baptism and at the table. We have seen the Spirit move in our friends, neighbors, and this community. We can say that God is present. That God is here. That God sees us face-to-face and that Jesus, when he talked from that mountain, when he talks to us in our words of love, our experiences of reconcilitation, in our engagement with the community to live as a people defined by hope and love rather than fear and death – we can, like him, say “Blessed are…” not because we bless them but because we can see the world as Jesus sees it – face-to-face.
Amen.