How God Changes Us: He Tells Us How to Be

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 30, 2011

Text: Matthew 5: 1-12

Sin covered; changed into freedom, new life.
Work to do that matters: saved from the same old same old.

BEAUTIFUL BEATITUDES

The Beatitudes are beautiful, enchanting, romantic. They are the subjects for stitching mementos for hanging on the wall. They are haunting because they seem to touch something in us which we knew but have forgotten.

But they are confusing when we think about it.

Poor in spirit, etc: Lack, risk, sadness, meekness?

Our mind-set is usually:
“Blessed are the rich in spirit…”
“Blessed are those who rejoice…”
“Blessed are the self-assured….”
“Blessed are those who have a meaningful life….”

How often have we said to our children, “I just want you to be happy.” This usually means, I hope you have everything you ever wanted; no tragedies, hardships; good health, etc. These are natural and good things to desire for our children

It is tempting to believe  that we should strive to be (or pretend to be) poor in spirit, mourning, etc, in order to receive God’s blessing. The problem is that this leads us into a new legalism. We cut a deal with God. “I am more humble than you are.” A kind of inverted pridefulness..

Did you notice: Jesus does not say that the rich, the  fulfilled, etc, cannot be blessed. But good circumstance is not the source of blessedness in the Kingdom of God. Hard to enter KG but not impossible!

Another approach to the Beatitudes: Since we can’t be like this (and can’t do what the Sermon on the Mount requires),  the message from Jesus is to make it so that so we are driven to seek God’s grace to save us. “Nothing in my hands I bring, solely to the cross I cling,”  as the old gospel hymn says. But the problem is that Jesus does not say this, does he? Jesus does not say this, does he? Following his teachings means building our lives on rock instead of sand.

 Some say that the Beatitudes were for that time, not for ours. When Jesus was here it was possible, but not now: only when the kingdom comes in its fullness on the earth can we be like this. But is God is our contempoarary and Jesus is risen, and the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us, why wouldn’t we be able to be this way?

A NEW WAY OF HEARING

The answer may lie in this reality: The Kingdom, the reign, the influence of God has dawned. This is a world historical force, an inspirsation for churches, a refuge, guide and encourager of the faithful.

Dallas Willard suggests a new approach:

“No one is being told that they are better off for being poor, for mourning, for being persecuted, and so on, or that these conditions are recommended ways to well-being before God or other humans.

Maybe the clue to the meaning is in what happens just before the sermon as Matthew has placed it. Desperate people, sick in body, mind and spirit---- Jesus went among them and healed and shared good news with them. This is how far love would go.

Maybe they were the audience (as well as the disciples).

We know people like this today, don’t we? People who do not measure up. We would never  call on them when spiritual work is to be done; They do not shine with religious accomplishments. They “don’t know their bible.” They can’t really make heads nor tails of religion. No one calls on them to lead prayer. Maybe they are angry at God and what they have been told are God’s representatives; removing church members;
Those who are peddlers of drugs,
Who cheat others out of money?

God came in Jesus for those who have it altogether (or think they do) and for those who have nothing together. And we can look like one and feel like the other.

And for those who are trying to follow Jesus (like the disciples), Maybe this is what Jesus was trying to tell them; not to “know stuff,” but to change their minds and hearts.

The  free availability of God’s gracious rule is offered to all of humanity. Through reliance upon God through Jesus himself. “The Beatitudes do this by taking those who, from a human point of view, are regarded as the most hopeless, most beyond any possibility of God’s blessing or interest, and pointing to them as those who enjoy God’s touch and abundant provision from heaven.” (Willard)

“No human condition excludes blessedness….Anyone could come as well as any other. They still can. That is the gospel of the Beatitudes.” (Willard)

God comes to us before we can come to God----into the Galilees of our lives.

CAN WE RELATE?

Can we relate? Can we be honest about how we are like the ones described in the Beatitudes. We do not have to try to be like them: we also are needy, meek, mournful, vilified.

William Sloane Coffin said many years so, in relpy to the assertion that “religion is a crutch:”  “And what makes you think you don’t limp?”

We do show mercy and are laughed at for it, considered weak; We are poor in spirit: spiritually bankrupt or deprived, spiritual zeros, with a bit of religion.

We mourn. Mates have departed them; there is gut wrenching grief over death of loved one; lost careers; tears to laughter. Good news:  the kingdom is for you, too.

We hunger and thirst for righteousness. We are earnest in our disciplines; and we may get flak from this.

We may be idealists, and are treated as hopeless Pollyannas.

We are often peacemakers in a world which celebrates revenge---- friend makers, mediators, who get it on both sides. (I am a middle child: I know what it is to be in the middle negotiating peace!)

We may experience our own frustrations at the neglect and injustices done to the poorest;

We may even be reviled. People may say, she has “gone off their rocker and taken up with Jesus.” We may even be  killed by those who think they are doing God a favor by doing so.

These apply to us, maybe not all the time; but some of the times; and almost always in the broader Christian community in the world.

For all: “the Lord is their shepherd and they shall not want.” God will come to any of us, no matter what we are going through. And to those we never thought were deserving or qualified. “Precisely in  the midst of our ever so deplorable lives, the kingdom of God has moved redemptively upon us and within us by the grace of Christ.” (Willard)

TO BE?

So, how does Jesus tell us what to be? Surely not to be those who try to engineer their way into God’s good graces.  Or, “just be humble minded.”

Rather, I believe God calls us to be  always in a state of astonishment .   To know the height and breadth and depth of God’s grace and mercy and inclusion in the Reign of God, to live the “kingdom soaked” life now.

We all are prone to mess things up…ourselves, others, the world around us….to fail at being the person we know we could be----but God welcomes us into the kingdom life anyway.

Kingdom of God is:
Upon you
In your midst
And within you: heart and mind and soul and strength---a spiritual reality---not because we have earned this gift but because of God’s great love for us, and God’s desire to have us as companions.

This is the Good shepherd God: with love and strength and wisdom; the Good Samaritan God: rescuing us from the ditches when life has waylaid us.

There are many “musts” in the Sermon for which we strive. But first the showers of blessings. “Now the silence, now the peace, now the empty hands uplifted; Now the kneeling now the plea, Now the Father’s arms in welcome….” (See Hymn 619!)

There will be time to learn the particulars that we can and must strive for. For the time being, just be a recipients of God’s pure, unbounded love, in company with all the others who are unworthy---and experience the fellowship, solidarity with those Jesus named as blest.

In the midst of our lives, as messed up and misdirected as they often are, we are “recovering sinners.” In genuine humility, “we are like one beggar telling another where bread is to be found.” (D.T. Niles, Source lost)

(I have relied on the insights gained by reading The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard, Harper, 1998. Many of the sections in quotations are adapted for this sermon from this book. I highly recommend it.)