Hilltop Homilies, And Plain Speaking (Spiritual Zeros to Spiritual Heroes)

 

It’s possibly a sign that the congregation is starting to show serious interest in following Jesus, when the pastor/priest/vicar announces a series of sermons/studies on the “Sermon on The Mount,” aka The Beatitudes; or a sign of desperation in the shambles-of-a-state the sheep are in. Having spent a short season on Healing, and encouraging people to earnestly seek that gift, the focus now turns to being followers of Jesus. Hence: The ‘Be-Attitudes,’ so to speak.

The first session of a relaxed and expectant group Bible study began with a read through of the text as presented in Matthew 5: 1-16. (NRSV) So:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

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

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Many bright and positive ideas came out of the initial feedback, the most significant being that the “blessings” are not goals or even aspirations, but consequences of living Jesus. One participant summed it up as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Quite!

Some were still of the feeling that they were not, somehow, “up to the mark”. But there is no mark. The brothers and sisters did realise that all these consequences were already who we are in Christ; the debate, then, was more about them being our personal experience, realising that we don’t all live all of them, all of the time!

I certainly remember – as did others who agreed - that there had been a time when the Beatitudes had been held accusingly over us, rather like the Ten Commandments, as the benchmark of true discipleship. How encouraging that grace and mercy prevails, then!

A study of the Beatitudes occurs in numerous books about Christian living, but one in particular has stayed with me, and that is the chapters about them in The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. (Harper Collins 1998. The book is a groundbreaking masterpiece and worth the cover price for this section alone!)

Willard’s main point is that anyone and everyone receives “Blessedness” because the kingdom of heaven is upon/among/in us. “Those poor in spirit,” Willard writes of the first statement, “are called ‘blessed’ by Jesus, not because they are in a meritorious condition, but because, precisely in spite of and in the midst of their ever so deplorable condition, the rule of the heavens has moved redemptively upon and through them by the grace of Christ.”

He goes on to quote Alfred Edersheim, who wrote: “…[I]n the Sermon on the Mount…the promises attaching, for example, to the so-called ‘Beatitudes’ must not be regarded as the reward of the spiritual states with which we are respectively connected, nor yet as their result. It is not because a man is poor in spirit that his is the Kingdom of Heaven, in the sense that the one state will grow into the other, or be its result; still less is the one the reward of the other. The connecting link is in each case Christ Himself: because He…’has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.’ Edersheim Life and Times p529)

This is largely true: however, I would not tag on “to all believers” as a qualification or condition of the opening up of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus - then Peter, John, James and, most especially, Paul, made it very clear that the Kingdom is accessible to all; it is being enabled to enter into and enjoy the blessings and benefit of what is available that requires us to believe and receive.

In John Henson’s “retelling” of this extract from Matthew’s gospel he proposes this rendering:

Splendid are those who take sides with the poor;

They are citizens of the Bright New World.

Splendid are those who grieve deeply over misfortunes:

The more deeply they grieve, the stronger they become.

Splendid are the gentle:

The world will be safe in their hands.

Splendid are those who have a passion for justice:

They will get things done.

Splendid are those who make allowances for others:

Allowances will be made for them.

Splendid are those who seek the best for others and not themselves:

They will have God for company.

Splendid are those who help enemies to be friends:

They will be recognised as God’s true children.

Splendid are those who have a rough time of it because they

stand up for what is right:

They too are citizens of the Bright New World.

(From Good As New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures, John Henson, O Books 2004)

            I put as a title “Hilltop Homilies, and Plain Speaking,” and that is because we have two summaries of Jesus’ discourse on the blessings of Kingdom living: one in Matthew, and a quite different one, in Luke. Matthew situates the discourse up on a hillside (the “mount” of the Sermon…), while Luke has Jesus sat down on the plain. And, while Matthew reiterates all the hilltop “blessings,” Luke throws in a number of “woes” by way of plain speaking. We shall come to those in due course.

(Richard Rohr -CAC)

The summary on the back cover of Richard Rohr’s book on the Beatitudes, Jesus’ Alternative Plan – The Sermon on The Mount (Franciscan Media, 1996, revised 2022), reads: “When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, he was talking about an utterly different way of relating to human society as we know it. He lays out a blueprint for this new life in his best-known teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. From the Beatitudes onward, the Sermon on the Mount overturns conventional wisdom and traditional power structures, offering a plan for an alternative way of being.”

That seems a very good basis to pursue these matters in detail. God willing, I will offer some thoughts and observations on various aspects of the Sermon over the next few posts.

In the meantime, go well, Wayfarers.

Grace - and especially at this time, peace - to all.