Talk given by the Rector on 11 November 2007Bible Reading: Matthew 5:1-12
As you may know, I'm chaplain to the Air Training Corps here in Newbury. I meet up with them about once or twice a month. They're a fascinating group of about 40 teenagers - a great antidote to the general view that young people today are a dissolute crowd of wastrels. This lot certainly aren't!
The other day, we had Padre's Hour and I invited them all to tell me how they would like to be remembered. What would they like people to say about them at their funeral? In just five words. Apart from 'Oh look, I think he's moving'! There was an intriguing range of responses, some of them quite unexpected. For example, I wasn't anticipating that a 14 or 15 year old guy would like to be remembered as 'affectionate'...
What would you like to be remembered for? It's a good question for all of us to reflect on, isn't it? Perhaps especially this Sunday when remembering is at the forefront of our minds. At the end of the day, what difference would we like to have been able to make? What would we like to be remembered for? What would we like people to say about us?
More importantly, what would we like God to say about us? What will we have made of the circumstances and gifts he has sent our way? Will he be able to say 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'? Or will there be a flicker of disappointment - or perhaps something worse! - as our lives and what we have done with them come under his penetrating gaze at the end of time?
Well, we could do a great deal worse than reflect on these qualities that Jesus sets out at the beginning of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Here is Jesus talking about how to lay the foundation of a life that will be worth remembering, a life that will prove to have really counted for something, a life that is, in short, 'blessed'. It comes as a chain of eight affirmations, eight qualities that lie at the root of a truly good life. They're sometimes called the 'beatitudes', a word which simply derives from the Latin word for blessed.
I want to suggest a framework for how to approach these eight statements in verse 3 to 10. Notice first of all that the promise attached to the first one in verse 3 is the same as that which goes with the last one in verse 10. The blessings described in these verses are like a wonderful sandwich. The bread on either side is this: '...for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'. A better translation is this: '...for the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this'.
In other words, these are the characteristics of the citizens of the kingdom of God. This is what people who acknowledge God as their king are gradually turning into. For, as we shall see, each of these qualities comes about as a response to what God is like. Because God displays quality x, the citizens of his kingdom display quality y in response. Which means that the better our view of God and what he is really like, the deeper our appreciation of the wonder of all that he is, the more these qualities will grow in us, the more we will be genuinely blessed, the more we will live lives that are truly worthwhile.
First, then, in verse 3: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' or, as I say, 'for the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this'.
This is where we begin. In response to what they have come to see as the awesome greatness of their king, the citizens of the kingdom of God acknowledge their utter poverty. Not necessarily material poverty - that's another issue. But certainly spiritual poverty. A life of blessing begins as we face the fact that, in the light of all that God is, we are empty and bankrupt.
It's the complete opposite to what most of us have been taught, isn't it, where self-esteem is the order of the day. Blessed are the gifted, the resourceful, the self-sufficient and the independent. But God says no. Blessed rather are those who are delivered from such illusions and see themselves as who they really are in the light of who he really is. The only adequate response to the awesome greatness of the living God is the humility reflected in this first beatitude: blessed are the poor in spirit.
This accent on humility when getting close to God recurs again and again in the Bible. And it's crucial. James (4:6) reminds us that 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'. It's only as we face up to our need that we can be helped. To how many of us would Jesus have to repeat what he says to the church in Laodicea in the book of Revelation (3:17): 'You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked...' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Here is where a life worth remembering begins.
But it's not only that God is so great. It's also, secondly, that God is so holy. The white-hot perfection of his character blazes out against everything that spoils his world. Which is why our response to him is not only one to be one of humility in acknowledging our spiritual poverty but also one of repentance in grieving over our spiritual poverty. This is what verse 4 is about: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted'. I know that this verse is often used to bring comfort to those who have been bereaved. But although it's true that God does indeed come alongside to comfort us in our grief over the loss of loved ones, this isn't primarily what Jesus means here. It's very much linked to the rest of the passage. This is not so much the sorrow of bereavement but the sorrow of repentance.
Jesus teaches that conviction of sin and repentance are essential if we are to experience genuine comfort, joy and forgiveness. So what is our attitude to the sin which trips us up? Do we behave as though it doesn't really matter? Or do we allow ourselves to see it as God sees it? Only those who mourn can know the blessing of comfort. True happiness begins with acknowledging our spiritual poverty and continues by grieving over it.
Thirdly, we come to verse 5: 'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth'. A well-known piece of graffiti adds 'if that's alright with the rest of you'! But that certainly isn't what Jesus has in mind here. It's 'blessed are the meek', not 'blessed are the weak'! Meekness, far from being a weakness, is actually a great strength. And once again, it is simply a response to a quality which God displays, namely his sovereignty, the fact that, come what may, the king is in charge and nothing can shift him from his throne.
One of the most striking examples of meekness is that of Moses in Numbers 12. Miriam and Aaron grumble and speak against him because of his decisison to marry a foreign woman. Numbers 12:2: '"Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard this.' Yes, the Lord heard it. It's as if Moses didn't hear it at all! Moses chooses not to do anything but simply to leave it with God. Meekness is about refusing to retaliate but leaving it up to God to do what he chooses to do.
Even more striking is the example of Jesus. Here's Peter's comment: 'When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly' (1 Peter 2:23). That's the strength of meekness. And it comes as a response of faith in a God who is great, who is holy and who is utterly sovereign.
Do you see the principle at work? Each of the qualities Jesus describes here comes about as God reveals what he is like and invites us to respond in the light of it. To his greatness we respond in humility. To his holiness we respond in repentance. To his sovereignty we respond in meekness. And so it goes on. To his passion for righteousness, we respond by making that passion our own. To his overwhelming mercy to us, we respond by being merciful to others. To his faithfulness to us, we respond with the undivided loyalty to him that comes from a pure heart. To his enthusiasm for reconciliation and putting things right, we respond by sharing in his work of making peace: peace between people and God through sharing the good news of salvation in Christ, peace between people in conflict by seeking to bring them together, even at a cost to ourselves.
Now, you may have noticed that, as we've gone down the list, we have been describing the character of the Lord Jesus. Apart from number two - repentance is a response we make because of our sin - it doesn't apply to the sinless Son of God. But the others are him to a 't', aren't they? And so we come to this final one in verses 10-12. The sober truth is that the more God-centred and Jesus-shaped our lives become, the more the world around will treat us as it treated him and the prophets, those who paved the way for him by bringing God's word in their own generation.
This is what we come to in verses 10-12: 'Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'
Notice that there's no great virtue in being persecuted in and of itself. The blessing applies to those who are persecuted 'because of righteousness', not because they are a pain in the neck! And notice too that persecution - coming under pressure for our faith - is a sign that things are going well, not that things are going badly.
As we conclude, it's vitally important for us to recognise that it would be quite impossible for us to take this list of qualities and say, 'Right, from now on, I'm going to be this, this and this...' To read the Beatitudes like that can lead only to depression and disillusionment. That's not how the teaching of Jesus works. We need instead to hold on to the fact that these qualities are a response to what God reveals about himself.
And so our prayer needs to be not 'Lord, please help me to be more like this, this and this...' but rather 'Lord, please continue to make yourself known to me in your greatness, your holiness, your sovereignty, your passion for righteousness, your mercy, your faithfulness, your desire for reconciliation, and then help me to respond in humility, in repentance, in meekness, in sharing your passion for righteousness, in showing mercy, in being loyal to you, in seeking to make peace, in being joyful under pressure.'
These are the qualities that lie at the root of lives worth living, lives that make a difference, lives worth remembering. Amen.
© 2007 David Stone |
