February 2, 2014
Sermon on the Mount: Part One
- Matthew 5:1-12
- Dr. Teri Thomas
If the outcome of today’s Super Bowl comes down to the game’s final play, and you find yourself inclined to ask Jesus to help your favorite team win, remember: It’s quite possible he doesn’t know squat about football. Now I have enjoyed watching my share of Super Bowl games and I know I am treading on thin ice if I say anything against this great American tradition. But I can’t help but notice when we read the opening sentences of his Sermon on the Mount it seems that Jesus’ values are light years away from the confident, hard hitting and powerful ethos that football teams rely on for success.
Today, Super Bowl Sunday we are led to believe-
Blessed are the richest fans for they can pay the average ticket price of 4,000
Blessed are the smartest quarterbacks for they can earn 96 million dollars
Blessed are the advertisers for they will spend 4 million dollars per 30 second commercial
Blessed are Robert Mathias and Richard Sherman for they shall be famous
Blessed are the popular people for they shall be invited to the best parties
Blessed are the puppies and they Clydesdales for they shall sell beer
Today we are led to believe that the happiest people in America, those who are blessed
are strong and healthy and athletic, they drink the right beer
drive the right car, eat the right junk food, and wear the right team uniform.
Today we are led to believe that blessed are the winners.
But don’t look for Jesus in one of those 900,000 level three suites of MetLife stadium.
We find him this morning sitting on a hillside teaching and preaching to his disciples
and to the crowds that had gathered.
They weren’t comparing him to the Super Bowl.
But they were listening from their own understanding of life as they knew it.
Those gathered that day might have said
Blessed are the Romans for they have power and control.
Blessed are the rich for they have big houses and lots of servants
Blessed are the smart for they have good jobs
Blessed are those with important jobs for they can boss people around
Blessed is the man whose wife bears many sons for he shall leave a legacy.
Blessed are the healthy for they have earned God’s favor.
Jesus sits there on the hill
and in nine short statements
he turns their understanding of the world upside down
he looks out at the poor and the down trodden
he looks out at the beggars and the lepers
he turns to the orphans and the widows
the abandoned and the ignored
and he says to them- YOU ARE BLESSED
Not you will be blessed
not you should be blessed
not you ought to be blessed
not one day you might be blessed - but YOU ARE BLESSED
right now, this moment in these present circumstances - YOU ARE BLESSED
It is an announcement of God’s favor.
He directs his attention toward the weak, powerless, and vulnerable elements of humanity.
The poor in spirit: those who are broken and have lost hope.
Those who mourn: those who suffer loss and the feeling of emptiness that follows.
The meek: those who are gentle and unobtrusive, who refuse to use power over others as a tool to make things happen.
The merciful: people who willingly surrender their privileges or otherwise go out of their way to improve others’ well-being.
Those who are persecuted: people whose refusal to give up their quest for truth results in their pain or suffering.
God’s favor is granted to those whom society regards as the ones left behind.
On these Jesus pronounces God’s congratulations,
it is with these that God identifies in Jesus,
to these comes the Good News of God’s interceding grace.
What a reversal of values and fortunes!
Victims in a very real and profound sense become victors,
set free to live by hearing Jesus extend to them the beatitude, the blessing of God.
Why these people? I mean, think about it, the people Jesus names as blessed most certainly are not the people society considers blessed. But I think that is his point.
He is demonstrating once again that God regularly and relentlessly shows up just where we least expect God to be in order to give to us freely what we can neither earn nor achieve: blessedness.
Part of what makes the Beatitudes so counter-intuitive
is that Jesus pronounces God’s blessing on those who expose our vulnerability!
He seems to say the secret to happiness—is to open yourself and accept life as it is
and then to live out of compassion and integrity.
Our typical approach to life is that success or wealth or power equals happiness. The problem with that is that the more you succeed, the more wealth and power you gain, the more you have to lose, and therefore the more you relate to life in fear and competition. This way of life leads us to think we can only be happy in life by winning, by beating someone else at the game.
My guess is that far too often we don’t want to be blessed as Jesus defines it.
I think we hesitate to embrace being blessed
because we’ve been around enough to see the merciful get trampled,
the mourners commit suicide,
the pure in heart walk away from God,
and people who hunger and thirst for righteousness sometimes die of hunger and thirst.
Yes, sometimes karma works and the merciful receive mercy, but that’s only sometimes.
But still, Jesus says- You are blessed
the broken and the vulnerable.
When you acknowledge your own brokenness and vulnerability
when you accept it in those around you
then we experience the power and presence of God as it comes to us through the Christian community.
I think that’s what true blessing is, drawing together as the family of God,
seeing each other as God’s beloved children,
meeting each other at the points of our brokenness,
sharing with each other God’s promises love and grace and acceptance.
So if Jesus were to look out over the big game tonight
I am pretty sure he would tell us all it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter who scores the most points
who has the most fumbles
who sells the most beer
who makes the most money.
Jesus would sit on the sidelines and yell to us all
YOU ARE BLESSED
You can’t beat that.
Thanks be to God.