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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today
This week we will be consumed with giving and receiving
With tokens, symbols, expressions of our affection
For our circle of family and friends
Large or small
According to our means
All of this to celebrate your coming,
Emmanuel, God with us
Our hope
Our salvation
And anticipating your coming again, to set things right

And we and our gifts are like echoes of the Magi
The wise men
Bringing gifts to you, when first born.
Deepen our impulse to bring gifts in your honor
And round them out with more kindness
More gentleness
More patience
For those we hold in our affections
And for those we are called to love
Who we hold no natural ties or bonds
Deepen our love with courage
Humility
Reverence
And steadfastness

And help us to live in this moment
Fully giving ourselves to you
In your presence
Just now
Full of joy
Taking another step forward into
The mystery of your coming
Becoming, each of us, in the flesh, peace in this world
Becoming the embodiment of goodwill for all
In our loving becoming Shalom
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp to put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven Matthew 5:13-16

Intro: Back in the days, when I was the pastor of a sizeable church,

We would celebrate Christmas with big productions. One year, when the stage was crowded with props and children, the music still ringing in our ears, I went to the microphone with my Bible in hand. As I began to speak, a girl six or seven years old, who had been sitting on a step right in front of me, stood up. She turned around, and with hands on her hips looked up at me and said, “Boring!”

– Christmas is a challenge – we run through the same story every year
• but here’s a twist:
◦ we’ve heard (plenty of times ) that Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to world
◦ but coming to Christmas through the Sermon, we hear something new
• Jesus announces that he is not God’s only Christmas gift
◦ we are also God’s gift to the world–we’re not the big one;
◦ we’re more like stocking stuffers – but still, we’re salt and light

The Big Idea
Jesus’ positive influence in your life
makes you a positive influence in the world

Jesus has shown us a portrait of his “Beatitude people”

The Beatitudes describe character traits, alien to human nature
– they won’t help you achieve success in any human culture
• they appear as weaknesses, not strengths; deficits, not assets
◦ so there must be some secret behind them that makes sense
◦ and there is! Later in Matthew, Jesus explains it to his disciples,
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Mt. 13:11); “secrets” translates the Greek musterion – mystery
• everyone in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time knew about the kingdom
◦ it was in the prophecies of Isaiah, especially – the coming Messiah and restoration of the Davidic dynasty
◦ they were waiting for the kingdom to come, praying for it, longing for it
◦ but the mystery was that the kingdom had arrived
George Ladd, “The most distinctive fact in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom was its present inbreaking in history in his own person and mission. . . . There are several texts that speak of entering the Kingdom as a present reality.”
– in the next chapter, Jesus will teach his disciples to pray,
“Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10)
• God’s kingdom is where everything runs according to his will
◦ that’s heaven – everything perfect, good, beautiful; everything done in, through, and around love
• so Jesus’ “Beatitude people” live in two realms:
◦ the present, natural world and also a present, yet heavenly, realm
◦ in his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13)

We need this insight regarding God’s realm to understand Jesus
– to appreciate where he is taking us and we need to be willing to embrace it
• but most of all, we need to experience the mystery
• the more we move our lives toward Jesus,
◦ the more real the presentness of God’s realm becomes

In these verses of the Sermon, Jesus uses two metaphors

They are obviously connected, because they have same pattern
– both begin with “You are”; both locate us on earth/in world;
• and both emphasize the importance that we be what we are
– when Jesus says, “You,” it’s the same you as in the last Beatitude
• “You who are poor in spirit, who are meek, who mourn,” and so on
• the point of the metaphors is, Jesus’ “Beatitude people” have an influence in the world

“You are the salt of the earth”

What can this mean?
– salt is a necessity for both physical and mental health
– salt is used to purify water
– salt is a preservative
– salt adds flavor to foods
– salt was added to Israel’s sacrifices, to sanctify them

Jesus doesn’t designate a specific interpretation of “salt”
– biblical examples of the above possibilities include families and cultures that were:
• “preserved” by the presence of God’s people
• “cleansed or purified” because a servant of God was present
• “made healthier” by habits they shared with God’s people
– but I also like to think, that when Christians are at their very best,
• they add flavor to the life of a community
• I wish we were all as lively and confident as Paul, who wrote:
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14)

Jesus raises the possibility that salt might not do its job
– he doesn’t describe what is lost in the environment–e.g., without salt meat stored at room temperature would go bad–
• but he tells us what happens to the useless salt–it’s “tossed out”
• technically, salt can’t lose its taste (any more than light can lose its visibility)
◦ but “lose its taste” translates the Greek word is moraino; it’s root is moron and is translated “foolishness” elsewhere
◦ through foolishness, disciples can forfeit their influence in the world
– useless salt is tossed out and trampled
• trampled, perhaps, because they don’t stand out and so no one sees them
• or maybe they’re so beneath others that no one bothers to look out for them
– the value of salt is in what it IS
• not what it has to try to be or must be trained to do
◦ salt is its essence, its nature
• I think it’s beautiful to think of our new nature in Jesus in this way
◦ we don’t have to try to be anything we are not
◦ we only need to be our true selves (e.g., Ep. 4:20-24)

“You are the light of the world”

Like salt, there are different meanings that light can have
– obviously, to illuminate a dark environment
• but also as a beacon – like a lighthouse, where we look at the light
• for centuries, we’ve known the healing properties of sunlight
◦ some internal lesions are now treated with light’s energy by way of fiber optics
• also recently, crime scenes can turn up evidence through the help of forensic light
– again, Jesus does not identify a specific quality of light, other than it is useful in dark environments

Jesus says something so obvious, that we may pass right over it
– you don’t light a lamp or flip a switch just to cover the light that is emitted
• why would Jesus even bother to make this point?
◦ I would say it’s because he knows us so well
◦ sometimes we do want to hide our spiritual life
• we’re with people whose reaction to us being disciples would embarrass us
◦ or we want to cross a line, without being held accountable to Christian beliefs
◦ or we don’t want to be identified with all the nonsense and ugliness
– whenever someone asks my wife Barb if she’s a Christian, she asks them, “Tell me what that word means to you?”
• their answer may not match hers or the life she wants to life

“let your light shine before others . . .”

Jesus does not say, “Get out there be my sales force”
– or “Be my police in the world, passing and enforcing religious laws”
• what he says is, “Just live truth in you define who you are, and let that be your witness to the world”

“so that they may see your good works . . .”

There are Christians who have a totally wrong idea regarding “good works”
(one Bible commentator wrote, “Good works are good for nothing”)
• Paul’s criticism of “works righteousness” is related specifically to works of the law with the intention of earning salvation
• but when it comes to good deeds, or “random acts of kindness,” Paul is all over that
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ep. 2:10)
◦ and he makes similar comments in at least eight other places in his letters

“and give glory to your Father in heaven”

Christians doing good in the world reflects well on God
– here is the first time in the Sermon that Jesus refers to God as Father
• and when he does, he says God is your Father in heaven
◦ which is also how he taught us to pray: “Our Father”

Eddie Piorek began teaching and demonstrating “The Father’s Love” after he discovered it for himself in a profound encounter, that was both healing and enlightening. Since his initial experience, he has been asked to share what receiving the Father’s love can release, heal, and empower in God’s children here and around the world.
• “The Father’s love” is a new vision of a true Father–our heavenly Father

Conclusion: I want to stress on last thought

There are “good works” that come naturally for you
Ways that you assist others, meet needs, provide care, and so on
Those good works are not like chores for you–you may not even think of them as a big deal
It doesn’t feel like you are going out of your way,
nor do you groan when the opportunity comes for you to share what you have to give
You don’t have to mimic others.
You have your own brand of good works
And . . .
Christmas is the perfect opportunity to go wild with good works

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here this morning.
Every breath is a gift.
And so is everyday.
The moment by moment
Connection with you
The life abiding
Our lives abundant
With you
In you
Have us crying out in joy

Yes, there are challenges
And sometimes we feel our joy being taken from us
By circumstance
By the grind of financial pressure
By the pain of physical or mental illness
By the challenge of relationships
By a world gone wrong
And they pull us away and we lose focus
And our joy fizzles
And we turn aside
As if, somehow, we know better.
Let our focus be you
Your coming
And your coming again
Your presence just now
Your long considered care
Your tender affection
Your good great love
Knowing every raindrop is a gift
Every morning sun
Every gentle breeze
Every shining star.

Knowing nothing can separate us from your love
That you are with us always
Redeeming us
Healing us
Making us whole
And it is enough
More than enough
to fill our hearts
With joy
Amen

Morning Talk: Eddie Pioreck

THE MIRACLE OF THE INCARNATION
The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God
became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.
C. S. Lewis, “. . . In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the
heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity . . . down to the very
roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.” (C S Lewis)

Incarnation literally means “embodied in flesh…or taking on flesh”
The union of the Divine Nature with human nature…as the Son of God assumed our
flesh, body and soul.

Anticipation of the Incarnation

The fortress will be abandoned,
the noisy city deserted;
citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest. Isaiah 32:15

The words, “to come upon” is an idiom used in the Septuagint (a translation of the Old Testament into the Greek language). This same idiom recurs in the famous prophecy of Joel:
And it shall come to pass afterword,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh . . . . (Joel 2:28-29)
You might remember that Peter quoted this verse on the Day of Pentecost to explain what was happening to Jesus’ disciples in the temple (Acts 2:14-18)
Word Bible Commentary, “This is the eschatological coming of the Spirit that will cause the wilderness to become a fruitful field.” (WBC)
This prophesied coming of the Spirit looks forward to the transformation of all
things through the Incarnation of the Son of God. All of Creation eagerly awaits
His Coming.

Announcement of the Incarnation

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her Luke 1:26-38

Prior to Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, Israel lived in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise that he gave through the prophets. This is now the unfolding of his promise. So this is a big moment when Gabriel delivers the message.
The angelic announcement to Mary, that she had been chosen to conceive the Son of God while
still a virgin, is understandably a bit overwhelming, eliciting her question of “How?”

The answer, in the same language as Isaiah 32:15, is that, the Spirit will come upon you
and the Glorious Power of God will bring about the Great Incarnation that will change
everything.
Word Biblical Commentary, “By the sheer power of God a child will be born whose origin is not that of normal human generation.

The moment of the miraculous conception is hidden in the silence of Scripture while John
makes clear the result:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14)
The Greek New Testament has two words for “flesh”; soma refers the physical body, but sarx, though it is related to the body with is needs, drives, and desires, is used (especially by Paul) in reference to the human condition, which by nature resists God (Romans 8:3-8).
That the “Word became flesh” tells us that Jesus entered fully into the depths of what it means to be human.
Paul comments on the Mystery of it all:
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Tim. 3:16)

Apprehension of Incarnational Presence
(My Franciscan tendencies will become obvious in this next section)

What has happened, is that God has come to us, entered into the heart of our humanness, and what is left for us it to become aware of this miracle. We apprehend the Incarnation on three levels.

Personal Level

Jesus promised his disciple that the Holy Spirit would “come upon them” and they would “receive power”
(Acts 1:8)
Jesus was using the same “come upon” idiom we found in Luke 1:35. On Pentecost they are filled to the
depths of their personal being. Paul’s description of the result of God’s Spirit dwelling in us and coming upon us is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27)
Richard Rohr suggests that the Spirit fills us to a “cellular level.”

When I began to experience the Spirit of God in this way, it opened my eyes to a whole new reality. A whole new way of being in the world. The Spirit works in the depths of our being, bringing to life the peace, mercy, love, goodness, and all the other spiritual virtues and fruits.

Panoramic Level

In Colossians, Paul speaks of Christ as being “before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Jesus does not exist outside of our lived experience of reality.
The way I imagine this, is that Jesus is sort of the “Cosmic Glue” that, to a subatomic state, holds the material universe together.

A few of the Psalms express the wonder, the goodness, the faithfulness, even the joy of God in the natural world. Paul picked up this revelation, and though less poetic, but every bit as profound, he wrote:
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). When we know this to be true, the world around us opens in new ways.

During a period of uncertainty, I walked the beach near our home to clear my mind. I know that asking for a sign from God can seem silly, but I did it anyway. Suddenly this osprey, with wings spread wide, was gliding over my head. Right then I understood that God not only speaks to me through the Scriptures and quietly within my heart and mind, but through the natural world around me. He assures me of his presence, his faithfulness, and his love. Since then, there have been other times when, not a dove but an osprey has brought the goodness of God to me. I am now trying to make as many of those connections as possible.

The Presence of Christ in creation is a mystery, but his Presence can manifest itself in wondrous ways to the contemplatively aware.
Bishop Kallistos Ware, “The creation in its entirety is God’s handiwork; in their inner essence all created
things are ‘exceedingly good.’”

People Level

Humankind bears the “imago Dei,” the image of God, and as such each person has intrinsic value
and a spiritual inscape. (Gen 1:27) When we see persons at that divine depth it is
possible for the miraculous to happen! It could be “blurred,” but it’s there.

When we see others in this way, we are seeing them through the eyes of Jesus–family as well as strangers, enemies as well as friends. Everyone unique, everyone valuable, everyone reflecting something of the God who created each one of them.

Thomas Merton describes such a moment:
“In Louisville…in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed
with the realization that I loved all these people…There is no way of telling these
people that they are all shining like the sun.
“It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in
everybody, and if we could see these billions of points of light coming together in
the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life
vanish. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given.”

Benediction

Blessed be your name, our Lord and Christ,
May your Glorious Presence within us, warm our hearts,
and open our eyes to see the wonders of your love
permeating the beauty of Creation,
and mankind created in your image.
Amen

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us today
You have come to bring us peace
And yet we are consumed with turmoil.
Needs unmet
Desires left dangling
Expectations real and imagined
Spoken and unspoken
fair or unfair
unfulfilled.
Relationships stressed and strained
Tattered, broken
And instead of peace we have anxiety and worry
Instead of peace we carry resentments
Instead of peace we hold judgements, harshness, bitterness
Save us from this path Lord
Help us reset
Help us realign
Help us start fresh

With every twinkling light help us
With every worn out Christmas song.
With every Santa clause
With every glint of tinsel
With every gift we buy or receive
Help us remember that you came to bring peace to the whole world.
For each of us
For all of us

And then remembering
For every bad driver
Let us pray for peace
For their peace and ours
For every annoying interaction
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and for ours.
For every resentment,
for every wrong remembered
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For every enemy we confront
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For you are our peace
And the peace of the world
And we are overjoyed that we
Can live into our life
abiding with the Prince of Peace
And in turn
become peace embodied for our neighbor
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others 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 so they persecuted the prophets who were before you Matthew 5:10-12

Intro: These last two Beatitudes on Jesus’ list are not easy to digest

Jesus envisions a grim future for us – and if so,
– we’re expected not only to survive it, but to rejoice and be glad
• John Chapman was the Abbot of a monastery in Britain
• he was also a spiritual director to others, especially through letter writing
◦ one man who wrote to him, wanted his insight as to
◦ how he could extricate himself from a painful situation
Chapman, “I cannot possibly show you a way out . . . . [what you have is] the simple experience that suffering is really suffering and that the chief feeling it causes is rebellion against it, and even against Providence for allowing it. ¶ It is all a nasty medicine, but works wonders.”
– we agree it’s a nasty medicine, but doubt it works wonders
• we’re more of the opinion expressed by Helmut Thielicke,
Thielicke, “What a ghastly prospect! It makes one ask in all seriousness how Jesus could ever have gained disciples with an appeal like that.”
• so I think what we need to do first, is back away from these verses
◦ and get an aerial view of the entire Sermon

The backdrop for the Sermon’s central theme is in chapter 4
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17)

This tells us what Jesus is doing with his Sermon:
– he is preparing us to enter and live in God’s heavenly realm (“kingdom”)
• our experience of his realm begins in this life, though does not come to its fullness here
◦ that is the main thrust of Jesus’ message: our spiritual formation to live as residents of the realm here and now
• there is a second theme that is just important: “Repent”
Jonathan Pennington, “. . . the whole of the Sermon relates to the call to repentance in [Matthew] 4:17.”
– I grew up thinking repentance was a dramatic ordeal
• we learned how evil the smallest misdeeds were in God’s eyes
◦ by seven years old, we had already earned the punishment of eternal hell

Growing up, my parents were so sensitive and opposed to profanity that they would discipline us if we said words that sounded anything like a “dirty word”; for instance, we could not say dang, heck, shoot, crude, or fudge.
I did not carry on that tradition with my children. So one year when Christmas came around, we were to meet up with my parents with along with Aunts and Uncles in the home of one of my cousins. On the way there, I warned my kids not to say any of the substitute cussing words we permitted them to use. At one time in the evening all the guys were in the garage, and my cousin Bob was demonstrating his skill with darts. He nicely grouped three darts near the bullseye, and my son Will, who was seven years old, blurted out, “Oh my gosh!” Then he looked over at me and I was giving him the stink eye. He quickly corrected himself and said, “I mean, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.”

• anyway, to repent we had to feel immense guilt, regret, and remorse
◦ then confess our sins and beg God for forgiveness — adding tears with our confession was a nice touch
◦ but that is not the biblical meaning of repentance
– a few years ago we spent several weeks studying this word
• metanoia, translated literally, is a change of mind or thought
• and I believe this is what literally happens in our brains when we repent
◦ old habits are hard-wired between neurons, and those habits must be ended to break the neural connections
◦ repentance is a process of re-wiring the brain with new connections
– changing our “minds” in this way, changes our thoughts, words, and actions

In the Sermon, Jesus is redefining reality–and it is different from the world’s view of reality
(which, while growing up, was programmed into us through family, school, and culture)
– Jesus is reshaping our beliefs, values, and behavior through the lens of God’s realm
• the previous Beatitudes reveal this upside-down worldview of our Lord
• those who are poor in spirit, mourn, and hunger . . . are blessed
– this is the way of repentance — a transformed worldview and a transformed life
• the Sermon is meant to adjust our perception to the realm of heaven
◦ and in the process, reshape our lives accordingly
• I realize this can sound rather mystical,
◦ but the goal of Christianity is to live in world as Jesus lived in the world
◦ our total transformation is yet to come, but this is preparation for it
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Php. 3:20-21)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

The first line of each Beatitude has been a challenge, but this one is the topper
– historically, persecutors have been very creative
• they have devised the most ingenious ways to inflict pain and death
• persecution has been ongoing throughout church history
◦ down to the present day–i.e., in China, Iran, and Sudan and forty-seven other nations,
◦ Christians are suffering and dying for their faith
– I don’t want to minimize the experience of Christians in the US,
• some, because of their faith in Jesus have been passed over for promotion, lost a career or clients,
◦ or were perhaps verbally or physically abused by a parent or other family member
• but for most of us, what the writer of Hebrews told his readers applies to us
“. . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
◦ all things considered, we have it pretty easy
Abbot John Chapman, “I think it an excellent thing to laugh at one’s self a little whenever one feels [like] a martyr.”

I think it’s critical to focus attention on Jesus’ qualifier in this verse, which is,
“for righteousness sake”
– if you’re being annoying, starting arguments, constantly raising your voice,
• or if you’re behaving like an aggressive salesperson for Jesus,
• it’s not persecution when people shut you down

The previous Beatitudes describe a person’s character;
– poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and pure in heart
– or point out what they are feeling or doing; mourning, hungering, making peace
• but in this instance, Jesus is telling us what others are doing to them – they’re persecuted
◦ and it is not rare at all for a peacemaker to die by assassination
◦ Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin

“Blessed are you when others 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 so they persecuted the prophets who were before you”

The final Beatitude is an obvious reiteration of what Jesus just said
– so we want to pay attention to the alterations from verse 10 to verses 11-12
• first we notice that with a slight shift, Jesus personalizes the Beatitude
◦ from “Blessed are those” to “Blessed are you” – for the first time addressing his disciples directly
• like Jesus, St. Paul took for granted, persecution would be a normal Christian experience
◦ writing to Timothy, he recounted his ministry, emphasizing his “persecutions and sufferings”
◦ and then:
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted . . .” (2 Tim. 3:12)
– with a second shift: Jesus identifies the underlying reason for persecution from “righteousness sake” to “on my account”
• for me, this produces a dynamic change in my attitude; that is, if there is a good reason or purpose for my suffering
◦ of course, if there is a good reason, it is often hidden from us

As a prisoner and doctor in Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl noticed some people died who were in better health than others who in poorer health survived. This piqued his curiosity, so he began an informal study comparing the survivors to those who did not survive. Eventually he concluded that the men and women whose death had no apparent cause had lost hope and gave up. But the ones who survived believed that in spite of all the hardship, their lives still had meaning. For “righteousness sake” and for Christ’s sake, gives our live a meaning worth living for through suffering and persecution.

• suffering for Jesus is also a suffering with Jesus
“Remember the word I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20)
– there’s a third difference: where, in verses 11-12, Jesus adds a list of abuses as examples of persecution
– in a fourth difference, he tells (us) to rejoice and be glad when persecuted (!)
– a fifth difference is his promise of a reward (more on rewards when we get to chapter 6)
– a sixth difference, is that here Jesus connects our experience with the fate of the prophets

Perhaps persecution has a unique function we have yet to discover

Anyway, Jesus knew what persecution could do to half-Christians
– that is, people who go to church, enjoy the preaching, and love the music,
• but never gave God’s word enough space in their hearts and minds to sink deep roots
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” (Mt. 13:20-21)
• Jesus wants our faith to survive every sort of challenge and suffering
– so Jesus gives us this warning:
• persecution is not a sign of a breakdown in the system
◦ it isn’t an anomaly, as if it weren’t supposed to happen
• this Beatitude reveals the heresy of the “health and wealth,” “Prosperity Gospel,” and “Name It and Claim It” doctrines
– Jesus experienced the sharp edge of persecution
• he confessed that his soul was troubled over what lay ahead of him (Jn. 12:27)
• he begged the Father to spare him the bitter cup
◦ so he understands our hesitation to embrace this Beatitude
Abbot John Chapman, “It is not an imperfection to find it painful to submit to God’s will. Our Lord showed us that, by His Agony in the garden.”

Conclusion: Personally, I want my life to count for something

And if my death can count for something too, that’s even better

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today.

Help us lord when things go well
Our plans fulfilled
Our expectations met
Our dreams made real
Our appetites satisfied
And our hearts begin to whisper to us that
We did it ourselves
In our power
On our own with no need of others
And no need of you

Help us lord when everything falls apart
Our disappoints solidify
Our histories repeat
Our dread becomes our companion
Our fears multiply
And our hearts begin to whisper to us that
All is lost
Nothing will help
No one will stand with us
And You no longer care

We come to you today bare-faced
Empty handed,
Naked in spirit before you knowing
Certain
That our hope is not us

Lead us Lord
Teach us
Persuade us
Gently please
Gently
Because we are listening
Willing
That our hope is you
That is our expectation is in you
That our healing and the healing of the world is in you
That our transformation and the transformation of the world is in you
That our joy and the joy of the world is in you
And for this we are filled with gratitude
Witnesses of all you do

Thank you Lord
Thank you
Thank you
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God Matthew 5:8-9

Intro: Jesus is sitting on a mountain overlooking Sea of Galilee

He is teaching a course on “Christian Spirituality”
– we are now five weeks into his introduction: The Beatitudes
• prior to teaching this course, Jesus had been announcing, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”
◦ the course he teaches is meant to prepare us for that kingdom
◦ the Beatitudes reveal characteristics of the abundant life–the truly “good life”
• Jesus is not giving us a new list of rules
◦ he isn’t telling us what we should be doing, but describing what his followers are becoming
• all through this course, Jesus is working from the inside-out
◦ this is obvious in the next Beatitude we’re going to probe

“Blessed are the pure in heart”

If you ever look at all the ways the word “heart” appears in the Scriptures,
– you discover it is a complex and comprehensive word
• heart sometimes represents the entire inner life of a person, but it is also:
◦ a physical organ: the center of biological life
◦ a category of psychological phenomena: knowledge and wisdom, thought and reflection
◦ a center of emotional experiences: joy and sorrow; the heart becomes troubled and suffers anguish
◦ a capacity for spiritual potential: it can be desperately wicked, but God can also write his covenant law on it
• so the book of Proverbs counsels us to:
Keep you heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life (Pr. 4:23)
Jonathan Pennington, “Matthew puts great emphasis on the heart as the true inner person.”
– your heart has a significant influence in making you who you are
• in it are the internal roots of your external behavior

I think everyone here knows what the word “pure” means
– the Scriptures translate the same Hebrew word “pure” and “clean” — the same for the Greek words
• in one of Matthew’s stories, Pharisees came from Jerusalem
◦ you can tell they were on a mission to find fault with Jesus
◦ while observing him and his disciples, they identified a specific violation
“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat” (Mt. 15:1-2)
• Jesus answered their accusation, then used it to clarify something to the others gathered around him
“Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person” (Mt. 15:10-11)
◦ when Peter asked Jesus to explain that, Jesus said,
“Are you also still without understanding? . . . what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person (Mt. 15:15-20)
◦ so a pure heart is a clean heart
– but that is looking at purity from just one angle — another way to look at it is its “perfection”
• in pure gold, there is no other alloy; pure water is free of pollutants
◦ there is a wholeness, a completeness to purity
(see Mt. 6:22, where the “single,” undivided, whole and healthy eye fills the whole body with light)
◦ Jesus emphasizes this in the Sermon and other places — for instance:
to the Rich young man he said, “If you would be complete, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Mark has, “You lack one thing” which suggests his purity was incomplete Mt. 19:21; Mk. 10:21)
to Martha he said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:41-42)
• a pure heart has one devotion, because,
No one can serve two masters . . . (Mt. 6:24)
◦ this is why David prayed,
“Teach me your way, O LORD,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name (Ps. 86:11)
◦ and why James wrote,
“a double-minded man [is] unstable in all his ways” (Jas. 1:8)

Compare what Abraham Maslow said regarding separating our spiritual activities from our normal daily routines. It is basically the same as James statement about double-minded instability: “As always, dichotomizing pathologizes (and pathology dichotomizes). Isolating two interrelated parts from each other, parts that need each other, parts that are truly ‘parts’ and now wholes, distorts them both, sickens and contaminates them.”

Jesus will tell his disciples not to be like the hypocrites
– he doesn’t mean people who say one thing and do something else,
• but people who are two things at once
◦ on the outside they’re pious, but on inside they’re devious (cf. Mt. 23:25-28)
• in the Sermon, Jesus is going after our hearts
◦ he wants our hearts all for himself and the Father

“for they shall see God”

Can you imagine anything more wonderful than this?
– it is with our hearts that we see God now, by faith
• but something far more wonderful is coming
• it will be worth whatever sacrifices we must make now
– the remainder of this chapter will continue to enlighten our hearts

“Blessed are the peacemakers”

I think it is very odd that most churches tend to build barriers
– people visit them or look up their website,
• and the first thing they encounter is a doctrinal statement
◦ that tells the visitor,
“Here’s who we are and what we’re about. So you can join us if you believe what we believe, think like us, look like us, and agree with us.”
◦ that can be a barrier even to an open-minded unbeliever
• the sermons of many preachers are filled with us/them jargon
– peacemakers don’t build barriers, they build bridges
• one of the peacemaker’s role is that of a mediator
◦ mediators bring people together, and help them work out their differences
◦ or, if they cannot work out their differences, they will still be able to enjoy a relationship with each other
• another role is that of a reconciler
◦ someone who sees another person as their enemy and refuses to even speak to them
◦ the peacemaker works to reconcile the breach between them

The first time I read all the way through New Testament, it was in The Good News Bible
– I still love the way the word reconcile is interpreted there:
“When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ [here is where the word reconcile is not used, but its meaning is clear] who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends. Our message is that God was making all mankind his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!” (2 Cor. 5:17-20)
– so, “Blessed are the peacemakers“

“for they shall be called sons of God”

“Sons and daughters” would be as true a translation as “sons”
– Matthew tells the story of Jesus’ baptism in chapter 3
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Mt. 3:16-17)
• Jesus shares his relationship to the Father with his peacemakers
– after two years of the pandemic, someone told me,
“I lost lots of friends to COVID–and not because they died”
• I don’t remember another election being as contentious as this year’s
• there’s a lot of bridge-building to be done
◦ a lot of mediation and reconciliation
◦ will we be able to make peace with others or between others if we do not know peace within ourselves?

Two great privileges: to see God and to be his children along with his Son Jesus
– this is the abundant life, the truly “good life”
• anyone with a pure heart and who is a peacemaker, already has this blessed status
• like the kingdom of heaven, it is “at hand”
(for an idea of what sort of time marker “at hand” is, see Matthew 26:46-47!)

Conclusion: Through the rest of this chapter, Jesus is going to open our eyes to purity of heart and to peacemaking

But if in the mean time, you don’t have a plan to start working on purity and peace,
I’ll share with you what I have found to be helpful
It can take awhile doing this until it becomes automatic, but it’s worth it

I try to build a habit of running my thoughts through a filter
First, I have to bring awareness to what I am thinking
The filter is this:
I ask, “Is this thought purity of heart?”
If I ask the question with a strong awareness of God’s presence here and now,
the answer usually comes immediately (and often, it’s a NO)
We can also ask, “Will this make for peace?”
Most the time, simply asking the question, it answers itself
Try it

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here this morning

We have no way to tell of our gratitude
Our words are little even as our hearts are full
Still we try
To speak our heart
In our affection for all you do

In our vulnerability
In our blindness
We trust you for your care and consideration
Your great goodness surrounds us
Envelopes us
Holds us together

Your steady hand guides us
Pushing us forward
Pulling is back
Just as needed and
Just when needed

We offer our thanks for the times
We feel you near
Sparrows are gathered
Mountains move

And we offer our thanks for the days we felt alone
The universe echoing, rattling
Our world crumbling
Only to find you were at hand All along

You have set us free
To rejoice in our lives as given
Not sugar-coated
Not turning our backs on injustice
And human suffering
But to rejoice and praise you
Full of gratitude
For who you are
And who you are making us
And for our work together
With you
To repair this world
With kindness
And patience
And joy
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy Matthew 5:6-7

Intro: When I began preparing today’s talk, there was a sudden moment when I felt very small

The spiritual wisdom of Jesus rivals every other enlightened text
– even gurus, like Gandhi, who rejected Christianity have admired the Sermon
• reading the words of Jesus, and trying to explain them to you,
◦ leaves me feeling inadequate and foolish
◦ like a four-year old who is told, “Explain quantum physics
– what I know about these two Beatitudes, I learned on the job,
• not from other Bible teachers or commentaries,
◦ but in my own ministry of applying the words of God to the lived experience of people on this journey
• what we’ll go over today may be challenging, but it will be practical and liveable,
◦ and what I believe Jesus wants us to learn
– we will discover that the message of these two Beatitudes, is richer and healthier than what we’ve ever known

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Righteous is a key theme in the Sermon, and perhaps even the central theme
– if it’s that important to Jesus, it must be important to us
• for years, I thought “righteous” meant: pious, religious, ultra-strict
◦ someone who kept all the rules, obeyed all the commandments
• then twenty years ago a spiritual mentor explained to me,
Fr. Romuald, “We have made the Law [of Moses] moral; it’s not, it’s relational.”
– for the Pharisees, the Law was moral – all about right and wrong
• their task was to learn it and obey it, and they found they could do that in a way:
◦ that made them feel superior to others
◦ that cut them off from others rather than connect with others
◦ that empowered them to judge and condemn others
◦ that made them believe they were more righteous than others
• they reduced religion to the bare minimum
◦ this was Jesus’ criticism of Pharisee piety
For you tithe mind and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness (Mt. 23:23)
– living by the rules is like “painting by numbers”
• it is not authentic art – and it has no life of its own
• this is what Christianity has become to many people
◦ but it is not what God had in mind or what Jesus taught

I immediately felt the truth and power of Romuald’s words
“God’s Law is not moral it is relational”
– I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I’ve emphasized this point enough
– the purpose of the Law was to seal a covenant relationship
• the Ten Commandments begin with Israel’s exclusive relationship with Yahweh
◦ then they reveal how we show love to God and to others
• I will take you to two passages that clearly illustrate the relational nature of the Law
1. Jesus was asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He answered,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul ad with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:36-40)
2. Paul wrote, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does not wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro. 13:8-10)

Jesus says that those who hunger for righteousness are blessed

Hunger is a state of deprivation – we know it by how it feels
– it is an unpleasant feeling, a discomfort, a void that demands attention
• when Jesus applies this need, this craving, to righteousness, he gives it a new application
◦ in this instance, it is not the body that hungers, but the soul
• I can think of three ways this hunger for righteousness works in us:
◦ we long to be in a right relationship with God
◦ we long to be in right relationships with others
◦ we long to see the entire world in right relationships (nationally, socially, and personally)
– when we look at nations, cities, and human society in general, and our hearts break over hatred and war, crime and cruelty, suffering and starvation, we are hungering for righteousness
• sometimes so deeply, that it feels like we’re starving for righteousness
• we even hunger to be better people than what we are
◦ but with our best plans and efforts, we still screw up
◦ we hunger for a completeness, a wholeness, that we lack

Jesus sees this hunger as a “blessed” state
– it means we desire the right things:
• people who love – show kindness – give assistance – and support others
• we long to see humankind motivated by goodness
◦ not all of the self-centered, worldly-centered values, that have us at odds with each other, scrambling over each other to get there first, or get the most, or get the best, leaving the crumbs for the poor
– Jesus see our hungering souls as blessed, because we shall be satisfied
• a new age will bring a new world that will be just like the one we dream of and wish for
◦ in the meantime, Jesus will teach us to pray:
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
– it should now be easy to see how this hunger leads to the next Beatitude

Blessed are the merciful

Two times, quoting the same verse, Jesus will criticize the Pharisees for their failure to show mercy
Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt. 9:13)
If you had known what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the guiltless (Mt. 12:7)
– I’m not sure what woke me up to mercy, but one day I was overwhelmed with the realization, of how unmerciful I was, and what a terrible thing that is
• to get to the heart of mercy, we can jump ahead in the Sermon
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you (Mt. 7:1-2)
– here’s the question:
How much mercy do you want God to show you?
• I would have to be crazy to say, “I want God to be hyper-critical of my every thought and action”
• however, that is precisely how I would be judged, if I use a very fine criteria in the way I judge others

Our nation has become overwhelmingly judgmental and hyper-critical
– and it will be 100 times worse if Project 2025 has any role in the new administration
• it’s very easy to judge others for sins that are not our own
• easy for me to judge the woman contemplating abortion, or the gay person, or the trans-gender person
◦ at the very least, we need to try to understand those we want to condemn
◦ I do not live inside their heads, nor can I see them through the eyes of Jesus

Almost everyone is familiar with John 3:16, but fewer know that verse’s less famous twin, John 3:17,
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Jesus would not be much of a Savior if he came to condemn every sinner.

– but even still, it’s almost impossible not to judge others
• God designed our nervous system to detect danger, and we do it and make judgments based on it unconsciously
• so I think the point of mercy, is to catch ourselves when we judge someone else
◦ I feel God’s blessing when I do catch myself
◦ when I catch myself, or God alerts me to a snap judgment I’ve made on another person,
I say, “Thank You, God! I don’t know anything about that person, I am in no position to make a judgment, much less a condemnation. Bring them to Yourself and bless their day.”
– one side of mercy is suspending judgment
• the other side is suspending forgiving
• Paul argued, that no one knows what’s in another person’s heart,
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5)

For they shall receive mercy

If ever you were pulled over for a traffic infraction, and you were able to drive away with only a warning, then you know the blessed state of receiving mercy
– we can only know this blessedness–abundant life–blessing if we are merciful

When I first began attending John Wimber’s Vineyard church in its early (when it was still a Calvary Chapel), I discovered that worship could create a perfect environment in which to become aware of the presence of God. There was another discovery I made. When John spoke, I felt God’s mercy for me–that he knew my struggles, my intentions, my hopes–that he knew me and received me to himself. He received me, not because I was good enough, but because he was merciful enough. I remember leaving one of John’s services thinking, “If I had spent the last hour in conversation with Jesus, this is how I would feel. I would know the mercy I experienced from him.” This realization alerted me to the importance of receiving and showing mercy.

I want to show you now how righteousness and mercy are intertwined (from Matthew 25:36-44)
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you . . . .” Then the righteous will answer him saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink . . . .?” “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt. 25:31-40)

Conclusion: Christian spirituality isn’t about working miracles

It isn’t about transcendence, ecstatic moments, seeing angels
(though I would never say no to any of those experiences)
Christian spirituality is about the changes that take place within us
Those that we make, and those we must allow God to make, because we cannot do it all ourselves
And as those changes occur in our lives,
they have us hungering and thirsting for righteousness and showing mercy

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us today.
Our lives are are sometimes volatile
Fluctuating between our joys and sorrows
Our celebrations and our heartbreaks
Between victory and defeat
This week’s election has brought as much fear to some as elation to others
And that in itself can give each of us pause
Knowing that many, who are our neighbors,
Understand the world in ways distant from our own thinking
And believing their needs will be best met by attitudes, policy and actions we hold as destructive.
Help those who celebrate to do so with grace and generosity
And help those who are heartbroken find hope again in you
And for all of us fill us with your spirit to do as you call us
To love our neighbor
Even our neighbor who is our enemy
And to put flesh on the bone of that prayer teaching us,
leading us,
directing us to better love
And to remember this day and each day to love the least among us:
Our neighbors who are ill
Our neighbors who are hungry
Our neighbors who are alone
Our neighbors from other cultures
and who speak other languages
Our neighbors in jail
Come Lord and join us
And lead us into another day
Eager to do good
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth Matthew 5:4-5

Intro: Welcome back to Jesus’ Sermon On the Mount

He begins with the Beatitudes – not to be confused with “benedictions”
– they are more like a series of riddles
• he describes conditions in which people are already blessed
◦ already acceptable to God and discovering the abundant life
◦ but what he says sounds like the opposite of abundant life
• we would never tell a friend who is grieving, “You’re so blessed”
◦ and even in Jesus’ time and culture meekness was a deficit
– for this reason, we must pat attention to both lines of each Beatitude
• the first line is an incomplete picture
◦ something else comes after the situation Jesus identifies
◦ his “Blessed are” lines are explained in the “for they shall be” lines
• Jesus surprises us in order to enlighten us
◦ he reveals the contrast between worldly values and heavenly
◦ I admit, the most difficult place to practice the Beatitudes is in real life

“Blessed are those who mourn”

I’m going to combine grieving and mourning because both involve sorrow but they are not same
– grieving is a response to suffering a specific loss
• usually, the death of someone close to us – or even a dog or cat
• when we experience grief, we mourn our loss
– mourning, however, doesn’t require a death or loss
• many things can break the human heart
◦ like the way Hannah mourned her inability to have children (1 Sam. 1:5-7)
• we can mourn human suffering, here or anywhere,
◦ or the corruption of industry and politics,
◦ or the damage we’ve done to our planet,
◦ or the lives of friends or loved ones ruined by addiction or alcoholism

Whatever the cause, mourning can last a lifetime
– that doesn’t mean it’s always as intense as the first shock wave
• in many instances, the pain never goes away,
◦ but slips into the background,
◦ like all the other pains and noises we learn to live with it
• but in quiet moments, it can sneak up on us
◦ a sudden, unexpected memory brings a deep sigh or tears
◦ and we say, “I sure miss my old friend,” or a parent, or mentor
– we witness such moments in the Scriptures
Then Jacob tore his garments . . . and mourned for many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to [the grave] to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him (Gen. 37:34-35–in LXX, has same Greek word for mourning that Jesus used here)
Many years after the love of his life died, Jacob told his son Joseph, “As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan . . . .” (Gen. 48:7)

I’ve officiated a lot of funerals (we don’t like that word, so we host “memorials” or “celebrations of life”
– I want to share with you something from my experience
• we have to stop putting emotional band aids on grief
◦ we need to avoid empty clichés: “I know how you feel,” “It must be God’s will,” “They’re in a better place”
Amy-Jill Levine says that phrase “does not comfort the mourner who may be thinking, The better place is here, with me. . . . If I hear again at a funeral that ‘heaven needed another angel,’ I may actually throw something. Let’s not dismiss mourning, which is what such platitudes try to do. The New Testament takes death seriously . . . Death is real. Death is painful.”
– to me, nothing sounds less sincere than, “I’m sorry for your loss”
◦ I assure you that silence is often the better response to another person’s mourning,
◦ perhaps with a gentle touch on the shoulder or hand
• it’s not our place to try to cheer up a broken heart
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart,
is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day,
and like vinegar on soda (Pr. 25:20).
◦ instead of that, Paul says,
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Ro. 12:15)

There’s no way to suppress the physical agony of mourning
– it is not pure emotion — mourning is physical, neurological, and visceral
• our bodies can release into bloodstream an excess of specific peptides that prevent the nervous system from self-regulating
◦ we feel that agony in our stomach, and heart, and lungs (grief can be suffocating),
• there’s no way to control the deep pain of grief
– I have a theory–it’s mine, and I have no science to back it up, but here goes–
• until I experienced my most significant loss,
◦ I didn’t know how deeply it was possible to feel emotional pain, or how bad it could get
◦ my insides felt like a bottomless well, and I was in free fall
◦ with every degree I descended it felt like death was closing in on me
• but from that pain, I discovered, how deep my soul went
◦ if our souls can feel pain to that depth
◦ they can also feel love to that depth; and comfort to that depth

Which brings us to second line: “for they shall be comforted”

Jesus did not intend for this to be a consolation
– he is telling us that God won’t let our sorrow go to waste
• for me, every loss increases my longing for heaven
• one of the richest lines in the book of Revelation is,
He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore . . . (Rev. 21:4)
– when Isaiah prophesied the time when God’s takes over world
Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended (Isa. 60:20)
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of prison to those who are bound,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant those who mourn in Zion–
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of [the spirit of heaviness] (Isa. 61:1-3)

Isaiah also described Jesus as
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3)
– he knows grief, and he gives us a new perspective on our sorrows
• they are just one type of life’s experiences that prepare us for realm of God
• that is not a consolation, it is a benefit, because we can begin to experience that realm now
Amy-Jill Levine, “In part those who mourn are blessed because not everyone can mourn. . . . a heart that knows how to grieve is a heart that knows how to love.”

The next Beatitude is “Blessed are the meek”

If you’ve read commentaries or heard teaching on the Beatitudes, you’ll see how many of those who write and preach try to avoid the word “meek”
• it’s perceived as a weakness, so they opt for humble, gentle, or mild
◦ meek can be a weakness when you refuse to defend yourself or fight back
◦ if you let others go first and if you give up trying to control everything and everyone
• Jesus used this word to describe himself
Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am [meek] and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Mt. 11:28-29)
◦ he is saying that he is approachable and not overbearing
◦ he is inviting us to be with him and to be like him
– we must be humble to be a true disciple of Jesus
• we must admit that we don’t know all we need to know
• we cannot come to Jesus self-assertive and aggressive, and smug in what we think we know,
◦ and expect him to take us on as disciples
◦ we must come as children

Jesus isn’t advocating low self-esteem
– I don’t think his concern here has anything to do with psychology
• meekness isn’t a fault or disorder that needs fixing or correcting
• it’s a way of being in the world, without being like the world
◦ it is kindness rather than rudeness, empathy rather than indifference, humility rather than egoism

The outcome here is, “for they shall inherit the earth”

Jesus is quoting Psalm 37, where we read, “The meek shall inherit the land” (v. 11)
– in the Old Testament, the land represents more than the territory within Israel’s borders
• it is attached to God’s covenant relationship with Israel
◦ it fulfills God’s promise to his people
• enter my rest is synonymous with entering the land (Ps. 95:11)
◦ enjoying being with God in a space that he occupies
– it is the fullness of all that God has prepared for his people

Conclusion: We’re beginning to pick up the rhythm of the Beatitudes

A disturbing or difficult challenge in first line, becomes a benefit in the second line
Again, the second line is not “compensation” but the reward of something better
Every tear we shed becomes a seed of a harvest that is yet to come
Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy! (Ps. 126:5)
Like everything else worthwhile, we live now for the best possible future

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today.
In truth, Lord, most of us are worried over something
We are afraid and it has us all tied up
And it is so common a thing
We act like this is our lot in life
Like this is just how life goes
We are concerned about the election
All of its vitriol
All of its deception
All of it ugly meanness and the aftermath and the fights to come
and the impact of the next administration
We are concerned about money and bills
About children and grandchildren
About demands we might not be able to meet
About expectations we may not be able to fulfill
About choices we make
And choices others make and how they will work out
Or not work out
We are concerned for our health
And the health of others in our lives
And treatments and procedures
And pain
And life and death
And how will we ever make it through
And how will we possibly manage after
We are concerned that we will be found out
That our secrets will be divulged
Our inner lives revealed
That our reputations will be ruined
That our hearts will be laid bare
That we will lose our friends
That we will be abandoned and alone
In our worry In our fear
We look to ourselves
We become our own focus
We get a little lost
So this morning we turn again to you
Anxious and expectant
That we can keep calm
Because all things are in your hands
Because all things will refine us
Because all things are perfectly perfect
Just as they are in this moment
And we turn to you
Anxious and expectant
Ready to carry on
Because you call us to you
Because we are partnered with you
Because you have given us others to love
Because you lead the way
We turn to you Wanting to ease our worries,
Our concerns
Our fears
Knowing all along
The path to peace is loving
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Matthew 5:3

Intro: Recently, I came across an interesting ad:

The caption said, “Free AI Sermon Generator”
“Free AI sermon outlines help you preach a confident, creative message. AI sermon starter ideas make your sermon fresh and relevant.”
– I realized, from now on my life could be easy; for example,
• last week I mentioned my frustration with “kingdom” (bringing to mind the idea of a nation with borders)
• more than one person recommended that we talk about the “realm of God”
– when I searched for a definition of realm online,
• an AI response automatically popped up, with a list, included:
A realm is a domain or area of activity, interest, or influence.
It can refer to a kingdom or territory ruled by a monarch.
Philosophically, it can be a specific sphere of existence or reality.
Realm can also imply a level of consciousness or a state of being.
• so, for now, Jesus is going to walk us into the “realm of heaven”

Of the four gospels, only Matthew uses “kingdom of heaven” rather than “kingdom of God“
– there’s no difference, except where the emphasis is placed
Amy-Jill Levine, “. . . Matthew is setting up a contrast between heaven and earth: heaven is where God’s will is done; heaven is where God rules rather than where the ‘kings of the earth’ . . . hold sway. Heaven is a different place, a better place, a real place, a place where God rules and life is as God wants rather than as humanity has constructed.”
• Jesus’ Sermon illuminates the realm of heaven and its here, now reality
• we enter the Sermon through the Beatitudes
– my Mom once explained, “They are not the ‘Do’-attitudes, but the ‘Be’-attitudes
• despite Mom’s wisdom, Jesus isn’t teaching attitudes here
◦ he’s not laying out rules, and he’s not handing out blessings
• so what is Jesus doing in the Beatitudes?

Matthew’s synopsis of Jesus message when he first began preaching was:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17)
– “repent” means “change” and especially a change of mind
• this includes our perspective, perceptions, thoughts, motives–and all the rest of it
◦ as we change, we become “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) our new self (Ep. 4:24)
• that’s what Jesus is doing in us with the Beatitudes and his entire Sermon
◦ he is preparing us to receive our full citizenship in the realm of God
– Jesus is changing us, and he is doing this from the inside out

If the Beatitudes are not Do-attitudes, what are they?

To learn the answer, there’s a mess that must be cleaned up first
– in the Hebrew Scriptures, two words are translated “blessed”
• these words have two different meanings
1. one of the words refers to blessings given by God and others
• for instance, fathers to sons, priests to people, one person to another (cf. Ruth 2:4)
◦ to pronounce a blessing is to give a gift from one’s soul
◦ when in the Psalms, people bless God, they give him praise (Ps. 103:1)

(One of the most common ways that Hebrew prayers begin is,
“Baruch hashem Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam“
“Praise to the Lord God, the Ruler of the universe”)

• God blesses people by showing them his favor, doing good
◦ Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 contain lists of this type of blessing,
which generally consist of fertility, health, prosperity, success in war, and shalom
Jonathan Pennington points out that the opposite of “to bless” (baruch) is “to curse”
• we tend to associate these blessings with emotional responses
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD (Ps. 144:15)
◦ when we hear someone say, “I was so blessed,” they are usually referring to the joy they felt
2. the other Hebrew word refers to a state of being: esher
Blessed [esher] is the one
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked (Ps. 1:1)
• the esher blessing is not a gift and it doesn’t involve a transaction
Pennington says it is “a certain way of being in the world”
◦ a way that pleases God
Pennington: the opposite of “be blessed” (esher) is “woe” (Lk. 6:20-26; Mt. 23)
• the New Testament continues to make same distinction as the two Hebrew words
◦ and, unfortunately, translates both words as “blessed”
• the word Jesus uses here in the Beatitudes is makarios, and it describes a state of being in God’s will
◦ so in the Beatitudes, Jesus was not pronouncing blessings on people
◦ he was saying these are already in a blessed state
– we do not have an English word that matches the meaning of makarios
• we could say something like, “a fortunate situation is theirs . . . .”
• Jesus isn’t pronouncing blessings on people who have these traits
◦ he’s saying they’re fortunate because they’re already on the right path

A philosophical quest began hundreds of years before Jesus

Socrates asked, “What was the best life that a human could live?”
– a century after Jesus, the quest was taken up by Cicero, who asked, what is the summum bonum
(“the greatest good” that people could reach in their lives)
• his answer included a life of virtue, wisdom, moderation, and courage
◦ the Beatitudes are Jesus’ answer to that question
• only, unlike the virtues of Greek and Roman philosophers,
◦ the Beatitudes are not accomplishments
– Jesus is not saying the poor in spirit pursued poverty of spirit, and so were blessed
• instead, he was saying, if for God’s sake you find yourself in this unpleasant condition,
◦ you’ve stumbled onto the right path
• let’s take a closer look at this

There are two parts to each Beatitude

I know that observation is obvious, but it’s important to keep it in mind
– in the first line of each Beatitude, Jesus declares a person to be in a fortunate state
• because they exhibit a certain trait, or they’re in a certain situation,
◦ or practice a specific behavior toward others or God,
◦ or they are persecuted for righteousness sake
• but each first line comes like a slap in the face
◦ it doesn’t make sense – it’s a contradiction (how are those who mourn, blessed?)
◦ in that culture, humility was a liability, a disgrace
• so the first line contradicts the values of the corrupt world and turns secular virtues on their head
◦ it doesn’t seem like Jesus is describing a blessing, but a hardship, a need, a disadvantage
◦ these are things that people of the world seek to avoid
– the second line of each Beatitude reveals why the first line is a qualifier for blessed state
• and it is linked to the summum bonum, or what Jesus called the “abundant life”
– notice that the list of the Beatitudes begins and ends with the kingdom (or realm) of heaven
• in between the first and last Beatitude, the blessed state includes comfort, an inheritance, mercy, and so on
◦ each of these verses look to the future, “shall be”
◦ but the two verses that end with the kingdom of heaven are present tense, “theirs is”
• Jesus wants to make us aware of God’s realm,
◦ then to value it, and then to seek it
◦ when we’re cut-off from the world and its vision of “good life,” we’re closer to the heavenly realm

I think we’re ready now to cross the threshold

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
– poor in spirit can be anything that breaks a person, that puts them at a disadvantage
• it could be material (Luke gives the bare version of the first Beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor” )
◦ or it could physical, or psychological – I can imagine something like a mood disorder
◦ anxiety, depression, or bi-polar disorders
Pennington, “‘Poor in spirit’ may seem like a positive Christian virtue, but in an ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman setting of honor and shame, the poor in spirit are in low places in society . . . .”
– there was only one other kind of person of whom Jesus said something like,
“theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
• those were the children parents brought to him for his blessing
“to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:14)
◦ the poor in spirit are often reduced to the status of a child
• I think we hear echoes of the prophet Isaiah
“For the says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa. 57:15)

To suffer hardships and setbacks and unhappiness in the world,
– does not deprive us of the experience and enjoyment of God’s realm
John Calvin, “The disciples of Christ must learn the philosophy of placing their happiness beyond the world, and above the afflictions of the flesh.”

Conclusion: I can imagine people in the crowd, listening to Jesus

When they hear him say, “poor in spirit,” they look down
– they try to make themselves small, so no one notices them
• they don’t want to be exposed for what they are; that is poor in spirit
• but then they hear Jesus say, the realm of heaven is theirs
◦ not only in some distant future across the galaxies,
◦ but here – now – with Jesus on the Mountain

Jesus shows us ourselves through his eyes –
A perspective that is hopeful and positive
He opens our eyes to the realm of God – and invites us in
We find that even though we do not experience its fullness
it is here already, transforming our liabilities into assets

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here this morning
Remind us of the times you have called us to you.
Out of the blue
Or just in the midst of our everyday lives
Or In tragedy or desperation
In heart break or sorrow
Help us to rehearse these times in our minds and our hearts.
Allow us to feel the depth and purity and strength of your love.
Let us bask in it.
Let us swim in it.
Let it settle in us again and refresh us.
Lord, all the voices
All the anger
All the fear
All the lies
All the propaganda
All the manipulations
All the resentments
Are pulling on us
Demanding from us
Calling us away
From your good great love
To a far darker path
Refresh our days with you.
Grant us a task of love to which we can give ourselves
To honor and emulate your love for us
Allow us the full hope of your care and concern for us and for all we encounter
No matter the circumstance
No matter the outcome
No matter the chatter all around
Allow us the confidence that all shall be well
Since we are in this together with you.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying . . . . Matthew 5:1-2

Intro: Last week I gave my introduction to the Sermon On the Mount

This week we’re going to look at Matthew’s introduction
– but first, I have a question – and it’s for me as much as anyone:

Are we ready for this?

– the Lord has made many changes in our exterior lives,
• but the big challenge of the Sermon is what it does on the interior
◦ we’ve cleaned up our speech; what about our thoughts?
◦ we’ve given up bad habits; what about desires and resentments?
• I rationalize my inner life:
“My thoughts don’t hurt anyone” and “I’ve a right to my private thoughts”
◦ the Sermon tells me, “Not any more”

Going through the’ Sermon, we realize Jesus is serious
– that he wants to see radical changes in us
• he also wants other, less radical adjustments, but those are also non-negotiable
◦ Jesus meant for his Sermon to be life-changing
• we may hear Jesus calling us to follow him like the twelve
◦ perhaps to go off on some mission
(It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be meaningful and helpful)
◦ or to give up some of our comforts for the benefit of others
– are we ready for this?
• the Sermon is from Jesus, and it’s wonderful
◦ but it’s no walk in the park
• so let’s be honest with ourselves – will we take it seriously?

Verse 1 is Matthew’s prelude to the sermon

The curtain is raised; we’re near Jesus’ base camp in Capernaum,
– a fishing village situated on the shore of the Sea of Galilee
• imagine a landscape that is mostly green,
◦ bordered by a mountain range, and from its base,
◦ the ground gradually slopes down to the water’s edge
• we see crowds that have been drawn to this place
◦ and, of course, we see Jesus at the center of it all
– the scene is set, and now the action begins:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain . . .

Matthew does not tell us how seeing the crowds affected Jesus
– why would he tell us?
• is it important to know how Jesus felt or what he thought?
◦ but I’m curious, because on other occasions he does tell us what Jesus felt, and how it motivated him
◦ traveling through cities and villages in Galilee,
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt. 9:36)
Trying to take a break with his disciples, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Mt. 14:14)
On another occasion, Jesus told his disciples, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat” (Mt. 15:32)
• so I wonder why it was about seeing the crowds sent Jesus up the mountain
– some Bible scholars are convinced Jesus mirrored Moses
• Moses on Mount Sinai received the revelation of the Law
◦ Jesus on this unnamed mountain delivered the revelation of God’s will
• but we must stress the fact, Jesus is not replacing the law
Jonathan Pennington, Jesus gave the Sermon, “. . . not as a mere substitute [for the law], but as its eschatological fulfillment.” (So that the law does what it was designed to do)

I’m not convinced that Jesus was reenacting a Mount Sinai event
– but at the same time, I don’t know the connection between,
• Jesus seeing the crowds and then going up the mountain
◦ he wasn’t trying to get away from them, I’m sure
◦ maybe he was sifting the serious from the superficial
◦ maybe he was looking for space to accommodate them
• anyway, when he reached a suitable spot, he sat down,
◦ and that was his signal he was going to do some teaching
– the next thing Matthew tells us, is his disciples came to him
• the word disciple refers to all of Jesus’ followers–not just the twelve
◦ eventually, hundreds of disciples are drawn to him
◦ in this instance, maybe fewer hiked up the hill than the crowds who stayed below
• however, by the end of Sermon, there were crowds present
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Mt 7:28-29)
– the possibility of Jesus sifting the crowd is why I asked my first question:
“How serious are we?”
• will we make the hike up the mountain?
• will we be “disciples”? – people who are drawn to Jesus to learn from him
Amy-Jill Levine, “Making the climb is the first step, and it is already a commitment. Staying on the summit and realizing we could do even more requires more courage, and letting that experience transform us, transfigure us, is scarier still. But the effort is worthwhile. The vista is gorgeous. And we become cities set on a hill—but we’re not there yet.”

What is it that Jesus wants to pass on to his disciples?

Well, that is what we are here to find out
– and it’s what we’ll learn in the coming weeks
• to summarize the Sermon, Jesus is going to share heaven with us
◦ heaven is not at all like this world or any nation in it
◦ everything on earth will be transformed when God’s name is revered and his kingdom has come and his will is done
• Jesus is going to teach us about the reality of God’s kingdom
◦ the nature of God’s kingdom
◦ the presence of God’s kingdom
◦ life in God’s kingdom
◦ and the priority of God’s kingdom (Mt. 6:33)

Verse 2 is not particularly interesting

But there is something about it that calls attention to itself
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying . . . .
– well, of course he opened his mouth if he was going to say something
• let’s notice first of all, that the extra wording in this verse is unnecessary
• secondly, if Matthew chose this way to introduce Sermon, he may have had good reason
– it’s possible Matthew was influenced by a psalm he enjoyed
• Psalm 78 is a history lesson of God’s continued goodness and Israel’s continued failure
◦ it begins:
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old (Ps. 78:1-2)
◦ repetitions like this characterize the poetry of the Psalms
• perhaps Matthew was struck by how well these verses fit Jesus’ ministry
◦ of course, it could just be a coincidence
◦ there’s one reason to suspect that it is not
• in chapter 13, Matthew explains why Jesus used parables
◦ one thing he says, is that his parables fulfills what a prophet had said,
◦ then he quotes Psalm 78:2, “I will open my mouth in a parable”

There’s another reason Matthew used extra words
– scholars who study literary elements in the Bible have a term for this: a two-step progression
• there are two parts to a single statement or action
◦ this occurs frequently in gospels, but especially in Mark
• the first step makes a statement and the second step clarifies or specifies the first step
◦ it is also the second part that gets the emphasis of the sentence
◦ here, the second step calls attention to the fact that Jesus began speaking in order to teach

Conclusion: What if Jesus never “opened his mouth”?

What if he took one look at the crowds of humankind and walked away?
What would we have missed?
The secrets of a meaningful life that survives all of its hazards
That’s what Jesus himself tells us at the end of his sermon (Mt. 7:24-27)
Frederick Buechner: “. . . we must be careful with our lives, for Christ’s sake, because it would seem they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. . . . . we do always need to be told, because there is always the temptation to believer that we have all the time in the world, whereas the truth is that we do not. We have only one life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice not one that we let the world make for us. . . . for each of us there comes a point of no return, a point beyond which we no longer have enough life left to go back and start all over again.”

So, we pay attention, to Jesus,
because this isn’t another boring sermon;
this is our life

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today
Meet us In our fragility and our need
Add to our hope
That in you everything is perfectly perfect
Just as it is
Even the astonishingly imperfect things we encounter all day, every day
Even our own imperfect selves we wrestle with all day, every day
Nurture in us the ways of mercy Lord
And show us how to pass your mercy along to others
Settle in us the ways of forgiveness
Releasing ourselves from condemnation as you have
And then granting the same to those who have hurt us
Learning to be at peace with all so far as it depends upon us.
It takes so much to live in this imperfect world with our imperfect selves, Lord.
Grace us with your presence in every little snippet of birdsong,
every friendly smile,
every hearty laugh.
Fill us with hope for this day
To carry us along.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:1-2

Intro: A couple weeks ago someone told me,

“Your next series of talks should be about The Sermon On the Mount”
– that title has a pleasant ring to it, doesn’t it?
• isn’t that where Jesus talks about birds and lilies? Love your enemies? Do not judge?
• it’s like a friend has invited us on an outing:
“Hey, go with us to the park for a picnic. We’re going to sing our favorite worship choruses, then share our favorite Bible verses.”
– but the reality is, the Sermon isn’t butterflies and rainbows
• it doesn’t read like a collection of Hallmark greeting cards
• it contains the most intense demands in all of scripture
◦ some Christians have given up on it:

In L’Abri Switzerland I heard a speak say the Sermon: “was meant for an elite class of believers, not average Christians”

Some Dispensational preachers have taught that the Sermon “was prior to cross, so it was meant for Israel and not for the Church”

Others have said, “Because the moral demands of the Sermon are impossible, its purpose is to shows us how desperately we need God’s grace”

Jesus had a different purpose for this teaching
Amy-Jill Levine (professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies) tells us this is “not a sermon. It’s a series of discrete teachings, each of which could be the basis of a sermon, a lecture, a community study, or a personal mediation. . . . There’s too much in these chapters to absorb in a single lesson.”
– I’ll suggest that the Sermon is Jesus’ curriculum for life in the kingdom of God
(when I refer to Jesus’ “Sermon,” think “messages” or “talks)
• Jesus was serious that his followers experience God
◦ he was concerned with the way people were interpreting the law
• they weren’t becoming more aware of God or sensitive to God
◦ it was time for a breakthrough – and that’s why he had come to Israel
– Jesus was conditioning his followers for what he was bringing into the world

Many years ago, there was a song I would listen to over and over again
I can still hear Eric Clapton’s voice, rich with emotion, singing,
“I have finally found a way to live
in the presence of the Lord”
That’s what we learn from Jesus in his Sermon On the Mount
– how to live in the presence of the Lord

The Sermon comes early in Matthew’s gospel
– first Jesus’ birth, then a brief survey of events involving:
John the Baptist
Jesus’ temptations
The beginning of Jesus’ ministry
The call of the first four disciples
• although Matthew jumps into the Sermon right away,
◦ what comes before it was well chosen and important
• he introduces and illustrates key themes we will come to in the Sermon
– so we’ll respect Matthew’s outline, and make his introduction to the sermon our introduction
• let’s see how Matthew presents these key themes

Matthew makes clear something the angel told Zechariah regarding his son, John the Baptist
“he will go before go before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17)
– Elijah is one of the few people in the Bible whose appearance is described
“He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist” (2 Ki. 2:8)
• here is Matthew’s description of John the Baptist:
“Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist”
• only Matthew adds something about John’s diet
“and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Mt. 3:4)
From one of my morning meditations a few years ago: “John’s rugged clothing and severe diet were not gimmicks meant to draw crowds. His asceticism and minimalist lifestyle was effect rather than cause. His complete devotion to his work required a focused attention away from the distractions of village life. He was a rare species of humankind.”
– something that is not explained regarding John
• when Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism, he blasted them
◦ their practice of religion was not satisfactory
◦ but Matthew gives no hint of why John did this
(there is the possibility that John knew and agreed with the Essenes who considered the Pharisees and Sadducees to be spiritually compromised and were critical of both of those religious groups)
• Perhaps Jesus provides an answer to the problem of the Pharisees in his Sermon
Don’t display your charity “as the hypocrites do . . . when you pray, you must be like the hypocrites . . . when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites” (Mt. 6:1-18; see also Mt. chapter 23)
◦ these hypocritical displays were characteristic of the Pharisees and scribes

When Jesus came to be baptized, John was uneasy and hesitated
He told Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
– Jesus answer, “Let it be so for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt. 3:14-15)
• righteousness is one of the key themes in the Sermon
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees
Beware of practicing your righteousness before others to be seen by them
–and perhaps the strongest statement:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
– Amy-Jill Levine points out that Tamar is first woman mentioned in Matthew (Mt. 1:3)
• after being impregnated by her father-in-law, Judah, he made this statement about her:
“She is more righteous than I” (Gen. 38:26) — (this confusing statement will be clarified later on)
• it was in the story of Tamar, I learned meaning of righteousness
◦ we’ll see what righteousness looks like when put into actions in the Sermon

After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God led him into the desert
– Matthew says he was taken there to be tempted by the devil
1. the first temptation was to satisfy his hunger by miracle
◦ Jesus did not argue with devil or explain how his suggestion was wrong
◦ he simply quoted scripture, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone . . . .”
• please note that Jesus resisted the devil by quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures, and specifically the law
2. in the second temptation, it was the devil who first quoted scripture
◦ I get the impression he’s saying,
“Oh, You want to play that game. Well, I can play it too. How much do You trust what the Scriptures say? Let’s find out if they really work”
Then he encouraged Jesus to leap from the highest point of the temple and see if God’s angels would prevent him from being injured
◦ Jesus didn’t argue the devil’s misuse of scripture, but again said,
“It is written, you shall not tempt (test) the Lord your God”
3. the third temptation was rather blatant
◦ the devil offered to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, provided Jesus would bow and worship him
◦ again Jesus answered him with a quotation from the law
“Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only you shall serve”
• in his Sermon, Jesus will quote from the law and then go on and reinterpret it – “But I say to you . . .”
◦ but notice that the three quotes he used to resist the devil were from the Law (specifically, Deuteronomy)
◦ Jesus never set the law aside, in fact he honored it and will insist on maintaining it

Temptation is a second key theme in the Sermon
– Jesus will go deep into the nature of temptation–down into it’s roots
• he will also teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation”
• but we will also learn the double-meaning of temptation:
◦ it is not only our usual idea of seduction,
◦ but it also means to “test” – as we learned last week, “Everything is a test!”

The third key theme is embedded in Jesus’ rejection of the third temptation
– that is, when he rejected the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world
• there is a simple reason for this – but today it has largely been lost
◦ after his baptism and the ordeal of his temptations we read:
“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Mt. 4:17)
▫ repentance is certainly a goal of Jesus’ Sermon, and it is implied all the way through
▫ but I’m not including it as one of the key themes
◦ after Jesus called his first four disciples,
“. . . he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction among the people” (Mt. 4:23)
• Jesus rejected worldly kingdoms, because he came to announce the arrival of God’s kingdom
• the third key theme in the Sermon is the kingdom of God

I’m reluctant to accuse anyone of being a false teacher or a false prophet
– there are several different schools of theology,
• each one valid, and well supported, but none absolute
◦ if I disagree with the theology of others, it doesn’t mean I think they’re lost or deceived
• however, there are some doctrines that are false, and harmful!
◦ like the devil, they abuse the Scriptures by quoting out their biblical context
◦ most often they will use a single verse as a “proof text”

– Luke tells us, when the crowds asked John what they should do, he told them,
“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and who ever has food is to do likewise” (Lk. 3:11-14)
• the same with the tax collectors and soldiers:
◦ he stressed the importance of showing integrity regarding social obligations
◦ he told the crowds to give away the excess of what they owned,
not to impoverish themselves in order to clothe and feed others
• someone might argue, “That’s the ‘Social Gospel’!”
◦ an close reading of Matthew, Mark, Luke (especially), and John,
◦ we learn that the gospel is social! It is the new “society” of God’s kingdom

Yesterday morning I read in Mark’s gospel (ch. 3) where Jesus was angered and grieved
– what set him off was the unwillingness of those gathered in the synagogue to admit it is permissible to do good on the Sabbath
• the problem was, a man was there whose hand was crippled
◦ but Jesus knew if he healed someone on the Sabbath, he would be condemned by those whose interpretation of Sabbath law was that no healing could be done on the Sabbath
◦ he was angered and grieved by “their hardness of heart”
• what kind of religion bans empathy?
◦ that tells us not to help those who are in need?

There is a false teaching that claims the Church will eventually produce God’s kingdom on earth
– that eventually, the Church will advance to the point where it rules the world
• but that is the doctrine of Islam and not Christianity
◦ Jesus was very clear on this score:
“My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18:36)
◦ many Evangelicals have been deceived about Christians imposing God’s will on nations
– if Jesus had wanted a worldly kingdom he would have had to bow to Satan to get it
• historically, when religion joins government, both become more intrusive and oppressive
(think of Iran, of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and even of Orthodox Christianity in Constantinople or Russia today, where Patriarch Krill supports Putin in his war on Ukraine)
• oddly, the Church has always been its healthiest when persecuted and its sickest when in power

Conclusion: When Jesus called the fishermen from their nets to follow him,

He told them, “I will make you fishers of men”
His Sermon On the Mount is about Jesus bringing to us the kingdom of God
and “making” us its true citizens
I hope we can let Jesus bring his message to us, in our time and place
If so, through it he will lead us into the lived experience of God’s kingdom here and now

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Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Now when the LORD
was about to take Elijah up to heaven
by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha
were on their way from Gilgal 2 Kings 2:1

The prophetic ministry of Elijah provides one of the most entertaining stories in all the Bible. When it comes to phenomenal miracles, Elijah’s only rival would be Moses. His spiritual stature as a man of God is equal to the greatest heroes in scripture, and yet St. James wrote, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (Jas. 5:17). Like us, Elijah could be frightened, discouraged, and ready to give up.

Elijah would have been a fun person to know– if you like surprises. For instance, this final episode begins with a surprise. It seems we were supposed to already know he was going to be swept up to heaven by a whirlwind. He certainly knew that his work was done and something significant was about to happen, but it’s not likely he was aware he would take a ride unlike any other in the entire history of humankind. As we walk the last leg of his journey with him, it’s as if he already has one foot out the door.

As spectacular as his final moments on earth turn out to be, the other character in this scene has the greater challenge. Elijah’s servant and star pupil, Elisha, who will follow his mentor on their final road trip together. However, his motive for tagging along with Elijah is not merely see him off.

Gilgal was located in the desert and not far from the Jordan River, still within Israel’s border. As Elijah was getting read to leave, he turned to Elisha and said, “You don’t need to go with me. Please, stay here in Gilgal. As for me, Yehovah has sent me on to Bethel.” Elisha’s reaction was instant and adamant, “As Yehovah lives,” he swore (coincidentally quoting the first recorded words of Elijah), “As Yehovah lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave your side!” Elijah simply gave him a slight nod, and off they went, taking the road that led to Bethel.

Bethel had long been recognized as a sacred site–perhaps since the days of Jacob, when he fled from his brother who was threatening to kill him. Jacob stumbled onto a place where he would spend the night. God appeared to him in a dream, and extended to him the covenant he had made with his grandfather, Abraham. Overwhelmed by God’s presence there, Jacob named it Bethel, “the house of God.” In more recent years, Israel had established their own homegrown cult in Bethel. But there was a separate community of prophets faithful to Yehovah who lived in or near Bethel.

For many years, at least as early as the days of Samuel, there had been people who longed to experience the inspiration of God’s Spirit. We do not know all of the ways they opened themselves to God’s immediate presence, but we do know that music sometimes played a role. By the time of Elijah’s arrived, these communities were known as “the sons of the prophets.” That there was some real activity of God going on in their community is evident in the few times they appear in scripture. For instance, on more than one occasion, King Saul came into contact with one of these groups, and both times he was overwhelmed by the Spirit of God.

As Elijah and Elisha neared the gates of Bethel, members of the sons of the prophets approached Elisha and took him aside. They told him, “You know, don’t you, that Yehovah is about to take your master from over your head?” Elisha’s voice was low, but stern, “Yes, of course I know! Don’t say another word.”

They had been in Bethel only a short while, when Elijah was on his feet again. Immediately, Elisha was at his side. Turning to him, Elijah gave him the same instructions as he did in Gilgal, only this time he spoke his name. “Elisha,” he began, “you can stay here with these men in Bethel, but I have to keep moving. Yehovah has now sent me on my way again; this time to Jericho.” Elisha would not back down, “As Yehovah lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave your side!” So once again they were on the road.

Jericho was in the same general region as Gilgal and Bethel. It seems that the sons of the prophets were drawn to those isolated desert locations to seek God. Away from the larger villages and all their distractions, they focused their attention on intense spiritual development. Hundreds of years later, another similar spiritual community would settle a little further south, near the Dead Sea. Ruins of that community and the Scriptures they stored in caves there, still exist today.

The sons of the prophets in Jericho circled Elisha, and said to him, “You know, don’t you, that Yehovah is about to take your master from over your head?” Elisha answered them with the same harsh tone as before, “Yes, I know. Say nothing about it!”

If by this time you don’t recognize the pattern, then you haven’t been paying attention. In the previous chapter, three captains accompanied by fifty soldiers, came to apprehend Elijah. Each of them approached him, addressing him,“O man of God.” It did not go well with the first two captains, so the third captain changed his tone.

The pattern of threes is repeated here in the travelogue, in which the sons of the prophets replace the soldiers. The first two groups deliver the same message to Elisha word-for-word, as the first two captains had with Elijah. The third group doesn’t approach Elisha, but observes him and Elijah from a distance. Setting these two stories side-by-side, and repeating the same pattern of threes, secures the close identity of the two prophets. We cannot help but notice their names are almost the same. Now we are discovering there’s a reason for that. Elijah is about to be removed from the ongoing story of Israel, but Elisha is going to carry forward his work and ministry.

Leaving Jericho, Elijah’s destination was not another city, but this time it was the Jordan River. Again, he told Elisha that he did not have to go with him, and again Elisha said, “As Yehovah lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave your side!” As they reached the water’s edge, fifty of the sons of the prophets, were watching them from a nearby hillside. Standing on the riverbank, Elijah removed the mantle from his shoulders–the same mantle he had draped over Elisha when he ordained him to be a prophet. Elijah wrapped it around his arm, and then slapped it on the surface of the water. Immediately, the water upstream was separated from the water down stream, creating a path of dry ground that the two of them took to reach the other side.

For anyone familiar with Israel’s history, this calls to mind Israel’s crossing through the Red Sea with Moses, and then crossing through the Jordan River with Joshua. Moses’ staff was the symbolic instrument God used in parting the waters of the Red Sea. The ark of the covenant was the symbolic instrument he used when Joshua led Israel through the Jordan River. Now, this time, it is Elijah’s cloak (or mantle) that symbolizes God’s means of working the miracle.

Why the miracle? Why is it so important for people to get from one shore to the other, that God would provide a supernatural passage? The answer may have to do with inevitable stages of human life, and moving from one into the next. Whether the process of moving from one stage to the next occurs over time or happens in an instant, we pass through necessary transitions as we journey through time. What we may not do well, is mark those transitions. Or worse yet, we may not even realize we have made the transition. We may be pouring all our attention and energy into clinging to a past we will never again possess or experience.

The tragedy of not marking transitions is not that we remain stuck in the same rut that brought us to this point in our lives, but that refusing to recognize life is different now, our mental, emotional, and spiritual growth is stunted. We cannot stop our bodies from aging, but we can stop learning, maturing, developing, and drawing ever closer to God. To refuse to step across the next threshold, to stubbornly hang onto a past that no longer serves the demands of today, prevents us from appreciating the fullness of where we are now or doing our best work in this stage of our lives.

Elijah had to make the transition from active service to retirement. Elisha had to make the transition from neophyte to full-fledged prophet. Both of them had to transition into the next thing God had for them. The beauty of their stories, is that they both were ready for this. I would say that Elisha, at least, was eager to reach the next pinnacle. It was time.

On the other side of the river, Elijah stopped and turned to Elisha. He was no longer playing games, as if he wanted to lose Elisha and go on by himself. He had never been more serious than in this final moment with his disciple. Looking into his eyes, he said, “Elisha, what can I give you, what can I do for you before I’m carried away from you?” Without skipping a beat, Elisha answered, “Please, let there rest upon me a double portion of your spirit.”

Elijah took that request seriously. He explained to Elisha, “You have asked for something that does not come easily, is difficult, and could be painful. But, if you’re there to see me the moment I’m taken from you, that double portion will be yours. If you aren’t there, then you won’t get it.”

If we’re not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, it could sound like Elisha is asking for twice as much of God’s Spirit than had rested on Elijah. The double portion referred to something extra. The closest parallel to what Elisha wanted to receive from Elijah, was the guaranteed inheritance an eldest son received from his father (Deut. 21:17). We don’t know precisely what that would entail. There’s no doubt it referred to material possessions, but it may have had to do with other immaterial roles of authority, responsibility, and influence as well. At any rate, it was the normal inheritance given to the oldest son, and not a surplus of what the father had owned. Elisha wanted to serve God’s people with the same dynamic gifts and abilities that typified Elijah’s ministry.

After that dramatic moment, they continued walking together, carrying on a conversation that would have been reported to us if it included something we needed to learn. Still, one can’t help but wonder whether this was an ethereal conversation regarding mysteries normally hidden from human minds.

The force that threw them apart was sudden. Chariots of fire, drawn by horses of fire flew between them. Elijah was swept up off the ground by a whirlwind that carried him into the sky. Elisha cried out, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” What else could he say?

Then it was over. Elijah was gone.

Whether in grief or the passion of a new spirit, Elisha literally ripped off the cloak he was wearing. Elijah’s mantle having fallen from him when swept away, was lying on the ground. Elisha picked it up and returned to the bank of the river. He rolled the mantle around his arm as he had seen Elijah do, and slapping it on the surface of the water, he shouted, “Where is Yehovah, the God of Elijah?” With that, the water parted as it had before, and he returned through it to Israel’s side of the river.

Having witnessed the entire spectacle, the sons of the prophets realized what had happened.“The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha,” they exclaimed. Hurrying off to meet Elisha, they bowed before him as a sign of respect.

Now, at last, we have come to the end of the story of Elijah.

No, I was wrong. Instead, I should have asked, “Have we now come to the end of Elijah’s story?” He did not die, so this was not the end of his life. Have we heard the last of him? Apparently not.

The Hebrew Scriptures end with Malachi, and Malachi’s prophecies end with this prediction:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a [curse].” (Mal. 4:6)

Then later, the angel who announced to Zechariah the birth of his son, predicted that John the Baptist would minister “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Lk. 1:17)

So we are not ready just yet to write the words: “The End.”

As I said at the beginning of this episode, Elisha’s challenge through this ordeal was greater than Elijah’s. Why did I draw this conclusion? The answer is simple. As we move through the story, what questions naturally come to mind? For instance, I would want to know why Elijah kept telling Elisha he did not need to go with him from place to place. I think the answer to that question comes when Elijah explained what Elisha had to do to receive the double portion he requested. He had to be there to see Elijah go. That means that every step of the way had been a challenge for Elisha. Would he continue on to the reward, or would he hang back?

Another question I would like answered, it why did Elisha insist on staying with Elijah in his final journey? Was it simply out of loyalty to his mentor? Or did Elisha inherently know that if he was going to receive the double portion from Elijah, he had to stick with him? Well, Elisha was a prophet, after all. It is possible he knew that if he did not stay close by Elijah’s side, he would not get the gift he desired and needed.

Later on, when Elisha was nearing the end of his life, the king of Israel came to visit him. Elisha gave King Joash a couple of tasks to complete. Both tasks had prophetic significance. In the second challenge, Elisha told the king to take a handful of arrows and then said, “Strike the ground with them.” So the king took the arrows and hit them on the ground three times. Of course, he had no idea why the old prophet told him to do this, and he may have felt silly hitting the ground with the arrows. But when he stopped, it angered Elisha, who asked, “Why did you stop? You should have struck five times, or even six times; then you would have defeated the army of Syria until you wiped them out completely. But now you will have only three victories, and that will not be enough to prevent Syria from returning and conquering Israel.”

I have always felt sympathy for the king. How could he have known he was enacting a ritual that would have serious consequences later on? Of course, he would have struck the ground more times–if he had known. Perhaps the moral of the story, is if God tells you to do something, you should keep doing it until he tells you to stop. However, I think there’s another lesson to be learned here.

It turns out, that each time Elisha was told he could stay behind, it was a test. Elijah knew that if Elisha was not there to see him taken away, there was nothing else he do for him. Elisha had to pass the test in order to get what he desired. Maybe the three tests were meant to reveal whether Elisha was really suited for the work that lay ahead. How committed was he? Would he give himself the luxury of taking time to relax if he had not finished a project? Would he continue through the hardships and setbacks of God’s work, even when it seemed like he wasn’t accomplishing anything significant?

My concern today is for myself and for you. I feel like I’m old enough that God has to know by now I belong to him. I don’t need any more tests. But I have heard the stories of other people who gave out before they reached the finish line, and I don’t want to be included in those statistics. That means I’m going to be tested.

You are going to be tested. In a moment I will elaborate on that statement. How can we know when we are being tested? Well, if we’re prophets, we’ll just know. Sadly, we aren’t prophets–or, at least I don’t think we are. And that means we cannot know when we’re being tested. So if we don’t know we’re being tested, how can we keep from failing the test?

Here’s my elaboration: Everything is a test!

You are being tested today. I have no idea what that test is, or what it’s going to prove, or how you’re going to rate on it, but you are being tested.

I have been tested this week. The tests are always more intense when we’re sick or not up to par; and that’s how it’s been for me. I’ve been hit with the realization that I am unprepared for the increasing demands coming my way. I thought that when we got old, everything would be easier, that we would be less responsible for anything other than surviving another day. Instead, I’ve been tempted to entertain a host of worries, to fixate on my inadequacies and sink into despair. Only, now I realize that I am being tested.

And what is it God is testing? That’s simple. My trust in him. If I allow myself to drown in the fear of failure, of uncertainty and insecurity, then I have failed the test, regardless of what happens next, whether good or bad. If good, well then I will give thanks and rejoice. If bad, well then, I will trust God, rejoice and give thanks. The only way to pass this test is to let go of anxiety and despair.

If you pay attention, you will be able to discern in what way you are being tested today and what it is in your relationship with God that he is testing. And if you determine to stay close to him, like Elisha did with Elijah, you will pass the test and get your double portion. And then this excursion into Elijah’s story over the last three months will have done us some good.