Saturday, February 26, 2005

040919 Sermon on Mount

– Blessed are the poor in Spirit

Sermon on Mount M1 Blessed are the poor in Spirit September 19 04
In New York City, according one, there are about eight million cats and about eleven million dogs. New York City is city with a lot of concrete and steel, so when you have a pet in New York City and it dies, you can't just go out in the back yard and bury it. The city authorities decided that for $50 they would dispose of your deceased pet for you.
One lady was enterprising. She thought, I can render a service to people in the city and save them money. She placed an ad in the newspaper that said, "When your pet dies, I will come and take care of the carcass for you for $25." This lady would go to the local Salvation Army and buy an old suitcase for two dollars. Then when someone would call about his or her pet, she would go to the home and put the deceased pet in the suitcase.
She would then take a ride on the subway, where there are thieves. She would set the suitcase down, and she would act like she wasn't watching. A thief would come by and steal her suitcase. She'd look up and say, "Wait. Stop. Thief." My guess is the people who stole those suitcases got a real surprise when they got home.
A lot of us are like those New York thieves. We're chasing after happiness, and we grab a suitcase we think will give us happiness; however, when we get it, it doesn't quite deliver.
But in life are also some suitcases which we don’t think will bring us happiness, but in end make us truly blessed. One the suitcases—which probably on first look does it lead into true happiness or blessed in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
But countless that the teaching of Jesus outline in his famous has been the path to true blessedness. This morning and over the next weeks unpacking this treasure that Jesus has given to us.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Matthew 5:

(The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5, 6, &7 is considered some of the greatest teaching of history… People as diverse as Gandhi, Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Jr. have been deeply impacted through it)

Text:
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying: 3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Jesus begins his first most famous teaching with the pronouncement “blessed are.”

Some people have translated this word “blessed” (the Greek word makarioi) word as “happy”; this is part of what it means to be blessed, but word that God uses here “blessed” is a word to describe the person that God pronounces to that a to be especially favored or fortunate. The Amplified Version described the blessed as person to be envied because the situation the God has placed them in.

The famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth has said the blessed are people we might describe as “lucky bums!”

So, let’s take a closer look at the kind of person that God describes as blessed. I say person in the singular intentionally. There are 9 “blessed ares” that describe a person who is blessed, who is in especially favorable circumstances because she or he is being drawn (or has been drawn) into the reality of God. There 9 “blessed ares” but all they are describing ONE person—the person who is or has been drawn into a relationship with God.

The first blessed are or the first beatitude says “Blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” In Luke’s account he simply says blessed are the poor.

Jesus words seem counter-intuitive here don’t they? We don’t think of the poor as being blessed at all. We tend to think of the rich as blessed. People buy lottery tickets (or go on a reality TV shows) with hopes of striking it rich, no one buys a lottery ticket with the hopes of sinking into poverty.

What then does Jesus mean when he says “blessed are the poor in spirit” because theirs is the Kingdom of heaven?

Jesus is saying the person who realizes that she or he has absolutely nothing in and of themselves to commend themselves to God is in position to one day enter the Kingdom of heaven.

There are two words in the Greek to words to describe poverty and one word means you live “hand to mouth.” We might say “check to check.” The other word refers to those who have absolutely nothing at all, those who were completely dependent on another for their existence.

When Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit he using the LATER word that describes the person who is absolutely destitute and who needs to rely on someone other than himself/herself for survival.

When is this poor, it much more likely that this person will become aware of how much her or she needs God’s mercy. Need likely cry for God’s and receive and when this happens, the doors of the Kingdom of God swing open to you.

One of the disadvantages in the economy of God of being rich and successful is that you have a tendency to think that through your efforts you can make doors swing open for you:

If you go the Olympics and win 6 gold medals as Michael Phelps did what will happen? A lot of doors will open for you. Doors will open for to turn pro if that’s an option for you in your sports, doors for endorsements with Speedo or Nike will swing open, doors perhaps later to coach to become a TV commentator, doors for relationships, etc.

Or a little closer to home, say you are admitted a good school and you graduate at the top of your class, win a number of academic awards, have great recommendations from your teachers, certain doors will open for you.

If you succeed in business certain doors will open for you…

But if begin to think that based your relative success in this life that based on your efforts door to God’s Kingdom will open your in for rude awakening at judgment day.
For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the coffin, draped in the black and gold imperial colors.
To the accompaniment of a military band's somber dirges and by the light of torches, the cortege descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna. The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before.
"Open!" he cried. "Who goes there?" responded the Cardinal. "We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Prince of Bohemia-Moravia, Grand Duke of Lombardy, Venezia, Styrgia..." The officer continued to list the Emperor's thirty-seven titles.
"We know him not," replied the Cardinal. "Who goes there?" The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. "We know him not," the Cardinal said again. "Who goes there?" The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: "We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!"
At that, the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted. In death all are reduced to the same level. Neither wealth nor fame can open the way of salvation, but only Gods grace, given to those who will humbly acknowledge their need.
Blessed are the poor in Spirit, Jesus says, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed who know they are sinners, who know a spiritually and cry to God for mercy for theirs in the Kingdom of God.

Second says Jesus blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted…. When you realize your need, when you realize you are spiritually destitute before God, you will mourn over your sins.

As English minister David Martyn Lloyd Jones has pointed out, the beatitudes describe the SAME person but a person who goes through a kind of sequential progression toward God.

First a person recognizes they have nothing to offer God, they are poor in spirit… then they mourn over their sin (and the door of the kingdom opens to them).

In psychotheraptist’s M Scott Peck’s powerful book People of the Lie… he argues that the basest kind of evil is not necessarily what we think—“flamboyant sins”, “dramatic crimes”; the greatest evil is the denying we are evil; constantly blaming others, scapegoating and not taking responsibilities for our evil is the worst and most dangerous kind of evil according to Peck.

Jesus is those who don’t feel like they are sinners are the real sinners and those who do feel like they are sinners who are close the Kingdom… It not so much the good who are in and the bad who are out, it’s those the proud who are out and humble who are in.

I remember some years ago listening to woman named Becky Pippert talking about how she started to study the Bible with a woman; who was secular, upper class socialite, who dressed in most the provocative, skimpy clothes… After they had studied the Gospels, this woman said Jesus is a not all who I thought he was going to be. He is the most thoughtful, caring, beautiful person imaginable. Then paused and it seems with Jesus, “When you are a sinner and you know you’re a sinner, you’re not far from His Kingdom.”

When we are sinners and we know we’re sinners we’re not far from the Kingdom… When we know we’re sinners we’ll mourn over our sinners and we’ll be comforted and forgiven.

“Lucky bums”!

Then when are realize that we are spiritually busted, we mourn and receive forgiveness, and become meek.

If you realize your poor in spirit, mourn sin and receive forgiveness you become meek.

Meeks isn’t weakness, meekness is strength--controlled strength. It’s a terms used to describe a strong, spirited horse under the control of its master. Meekness isn’t weakness, it’s strengthen, under control.

Jesus was the most powerful person ever to have walked the face of this earth: If he wanted he could have made Uma Thurman’s lead character in Kill Bill looked like a total woos. Read the Gospels (particularly the parts surrounding his trial and death), you’ll see how incredibly under control Jesus strength was.

How doe we become people whose strength is under control?

We realize we are poor in spirit, we mourn over sins we receive God’s forgiveness and we become people who experience, we’ll become meek, strength under control.

Let’s you have a thousand dollar balance in your bank and you write a check for $100 dollars and the bank has computer glitch that “shows” incorrectly you have zero bank balance and your check bounces and you’re charged $50. And you walk into your bank, you’re majorly ticked and you unload on the teller and then one the manager, the manager… we’re sorry to have over charged you…not only will we refund you that 50 dollars we’re also going to cancel your $400,000 home mortgage… If that actually happened, I guarantee that you that next time at that bank you’re be much more self-controlled the next time. When we realize our spiritual debt of a gazillion was paid off by Jesus through his death on the cross, when there was nothing we could do to pay it back, we’ll have more self-control more meekness…

The text tells us that the meek will one day inherit the earth; The Bible tells us in Revelation that one day the Kingdoms of the world will belong to our Lord and to his Christ… And if we are joined to Christ we will inherit the nations with Him.

What do you think of when you think of non-meek, out of control anger? One of the images I think of is of a baseball manager who feels the umpire has just made a really bad call that’s hurt his team, and runs on to field and starts kicking up dirt on him. (I think if you’re that mad, stop kicking up dirt, just punch him, you’ll feel better) The baseball manager, kicking up dirt on the umpire is a picture of un-meekness.

Let’s say the manager KNEW somehow that in spite of the bad call his team was going to win in the end… Would he be that out control? I doubt it.

You noticed how with the Olympics sometimes the broadcast was delayed? I think of one race, I really wanted to see, the 200 meters breast stroke. Kitajima is swimmer, from my country of origin Japan. Before the TV broadcast via the internet, I knew he had won the race. But I as watched race, I was still a little nervous… the net could be wrong… but them I comforted myself by asking what are chances CBC.com NBC.com and EPSN.COM are ALL wrong… I knew he’d win so I was pretty calm… Even IF another swimmer had gotten off with undetected false start, had gotten an early lead through an illegal dolphin kick, I would have been calm about knowing he’d win.

When a person knows he or she will one day win, one day inherit the earth, he or she will lives with a certain poise, with strength under control, with meekness.

Lucky Bums!

Blessed are those who hunger after righteousness for they will be satisfied.

When we realize that we are poor in spirit, when we mourn over our sins, we will become meek, and we will develop a hunger and thirst for righteous… and as we hunger for righteousness, we will gain a greater vision of Jesus and when this happens our desire to be righteousness will increases.

A professor of political philosophy at the University of Chicago has said young people have the image of the perfect body and pursue this incessantly, but no longer have the image of a perfect soul and therefore do not desire one…

But when we are exposed to the perfect soul of Jesus Christ, we will develop a hunger to become like him…

The vision of Jesus can help us become people of virtue as his personhood inspires our desire to become like him…

When we realize that we are poor in Spirit, when we mourn of over our sin, we will become meek and will hunger and thirst after righteous and will become people who are deeply satisfied.

I pray, I think, as much as anything for myself that I would live as person who hunger deeply for God.

Every person longs for God, though not everyone recognizes that desire for what it is.

C.S. Lewis says when we first fall in love or when we first marry or when we finally break into our chosen field or succeed in that field, when we at last get that weekend condo in Tofino or Whistler—these breakthroughs arouse in us anticipation of “something” which, as it turns out, never delivers.

We discover that our desire for that precious something is a longing no lover
no achievement can ever satisfy. The satisfaction fades even as we close our fingers around our goal. Nothing delivers the joy it seems to promise.

Nothing in this world wholly satisfies us, because we were made for something beyond this world. We were made for God.

Jesus in this great sermon that we will be exploring in the coming weeks describes that it means to be in a relationship with the God for whom we were made—it begins with realizing that we are poor in spirit, with knowing that there this is nothing we can do to cause the door of God to swing open, it begins with mourning over our sin, being forgiven and as result becoming meek and hungering and thirsting for the God for whom we were made.

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Benediction: May you know what it means to live and move and have your being in the God for whom you were made.

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