Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then 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.

12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Many of you know that I enjoy reading-whether or not the book with real pages is in my hand, or on my kindle, or listening to a book while driving, I love to read. As I have spent time reading books that talk about simple living, generous giving, uncluttering, a book about developmental needs for Emma, financial health, or flipping house (The Magnolia Story that we are reading for book club), I think I constantly am thinking through and evaluating what is important to me and for my family. In a way, I am always thinking about what is important to me, what I value, and what is my purpose. Why did God put me here on this earth, at this time? Do you ever have those thoughts too? The ?why am I here?? thoughts? A couple of weeks ago I shared about the passage from 1 Timothy that talked about living the ?life that is really life.? This continues to encourage me to think about what is really important to me and what?s the purpose of my life. And I wonder if the values that I have are values that God would say, ?yes, Devon, you got it!? or if God would say, ?Devon, that?s close, but no cigar.? Or if God would say, ?Devon, you are way off base, let?s get back to the essence: a value is about being, and defines a way of life. I don?t like the life you are defining.? Real conversations like these happen in prayer and silence with God. And our values define what we do, how we act, and where we are headed. I think many of us have values that are worldly, earthy, and are important for today; and I think we have values that are heavenly focused, kingdom minded, and look towards what God desires for all of humanity. Hopefully, our values are centered in our relationship with God and we live them out of that place. All of our values, individually and as a congregation, shape what is important to us and shape who we are. Values shape how we spend our time, money, and energy and by who we are in relationship with.

If we look at the values for our congregation, our values are the lens in which we look at everything we do. Our values are: Welcome, Worship, Servant Hearts, and Fellowship.

Welcome

We include all people into a warm and friendly environment to worship God.

Worship

We engage in uplifting, meaningful, and inspiring praise of God through sermons, ??? music, and scripture.

Servant Hearts

We are proactively involved in our congregation and community, sharing the gospel ??? of Christ.

Fellowship

We enjoy one another?s company through sharing time and experiences that help us get to know God better.

These values are the way we as a congregation in our community are being present with one another. We also have an understanding of being open, understanding, accepting, and non-judgmental. It?s a hard balance to maintain these different aspects, but we are doing the best we can, and we mess up sometimes!

As I was looking at all of these aspects of the values I have personally and the values we exhibit here at Wintergarden, the Beatitudes that I read from Matthew in Jesus? words from the Sermon on the Mount, struck me in a different way. It was in a way that I needed these words to impact me.? A few weeks ago I mentioned that scripture offends me on a regular basis. Every time I read God?s inspired word, I am offended. Sometimes in a good way and other times in a way of ?do you really mean it, God?? kinda way, or a ?seriously, God??? That is so not far!? So when reading from what is known as the Beatitudes, I think I was offended at first and truly wonder how in the world could anyone live up to these words? Do you think about that when you read them too?

Let us look closer at these words, these values, and the context in which they were written. First, I want to approach it from the literary standpoint. We have to contextualize the words to interpret them. The important piece of context for us today, is that we need to know who this Jesus is that is saying these words of the Sermon on the Mount. One of the big things happening in the gospel of Matthew is that Matthew is proving that Jesus is the Messiah. So he is writing to the people to prove who Jesus was, is, and will be. He does that by quoting Old Testament scripture throughout the book. Matthew is giving Jesus authority to teach in the Sermon on the Mount by how the first 4 chapters are written. We are able to define who Jesus is because of what has already been shared with us in the first 4 chapters. His genealogy and conception is in chapter 1, the fear of him by the government and those in power is in chapter 2, his identity as the judging and saving presence of God is in chapter 3 and 4, and his mission to reveal and enact what the reign of God looks like amount humans at the end of chapter 4. When the Sermon is placed in this narrative context-almost as if Matthew is a lawyer who is stating his case, we are able to hear that everything that has been envisioned and foretold throughout all the Scriptures will be realized. The scripture will be realized in Jesus, God?s Son and Jesus will imagine, inspire, and dream with the people about what an alternative way of life and community would be like for his disciples and the crowds who follow him.

The second way to understand the context is by looking at the social scientific approach-meaning, remembering that the community who was following Jesus and who Jesus were Jewish. And there was a community that didn?t have anything to do with religion, but only followed what was happening culturally. With looking at both of these, it is important to remember that these words are written to a group of people who are learning what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ, while living in an alternative community in a Jewish world. And everything for Matthew pointed to the new kingdom of God that was coming and it would come soon.

Which leads us to the moment when Jesus began teaching the Beatitudes. Jesus was delivering this message about the values and the kingdom of God to the disciples and those in the crowd. Those in the crowd would be brand new followers of Jesus, or in our day in age, those who would be called ?Seekers? because they wanted to learn more about this Jesus guy and what it meant to live out your faith. Jesus? message would challenge how everyone?s lives in the Roman Empire and would especially be a challenge for those who followed a very high profile Jewish establishment, like the Pharisees and Sadduces. In addition, it is important for us to remember that Jesus wasn?t teaching these words to lifelong Christians or people who always cared about what God had to say?and Jesus was saying that those who receive God?s favor are not always from the privileged classes of the Roman Empire of the Jewish establishment. Hard words for those gathered to hear. And hard words for us today as well.

The Beatitudes are spoken to those people whom God deems worthy, not by virtue of their own achievements or status in society, but because God chooses to be on the side of the weak, the forgotten, the despised, the justice seekers, the peacemakers, and those persecuted because of their beliefs. In this statement, Jesus shared the truth that the Beatitudes are for everyone. Everyone.

In addition, when we look at how in the world can we live into these teachings from Jesus, we need to look at the Beatitudes as a whole and see how they blend and move into one another. For instance, those who are meek, meaning humble, are more likely to hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they remain open to continued knowledge of God. When looking at these words this way, they invite us into a way of being in the world that leads to particular practices. I encourage you to read these at home a little closer and see how they all blend and flow into one another. As I looked at the Beatitudes closer, I felt there were three principles for living into the spirit of the Beatitudes: simplicity, hopefulness, and compassion. When looking at the Beatitudes in this way, it flips upside down the values of the world and teach values that are an alternative to what the world is pursuing.

When we look at the principle ?simplicity? it has to do with hearing the words of Jesus for what they are, not what we would prefer them to be. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard made a reference to the importance of hearing the Gospel in a ?primitive way,? stripped of all refinements that we so often bring to any difficult text, in order to avoid its meaning. To approach the Beatitudes simply is to hear the words clearly, without prejudice, and to know that the words are spoken directly to us.

The second principle we look at is ?hopefulness.? I think there are many times when we can look at all the different situations we are in and say there is a lack of hope in our world. Sometimes we get caught in a place of being very cynical, buy cynicism does very little to help us see hope. The Beatitudes invite us to the opposite point of view-the opposite of cynicism, and into a place of hopefulness. We place our hope in Christ, who offered hope to the hopeless. Then we are able to approach the world with a spirit of hope, even when the outward signs indicate otherwise. When we are hopeful, we stand in the world sure of the possibility that the day will come when mercy, humility, peace and love are the descriptions of what it means to live.

And the third principle of the Beatitudes is living compassion. Compassion is not associated with either pity or sympathy. It goes so much deeper. Pity means to feel sorry for someone. Sympathy means you understand what another person is experiencing and offer advice. Henri Nouwen shares the following about compassion: compassion ?grows with inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you. This partnership cuts through all walls which might have kept you separate. Across all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, destined by the same end.? We are distinct, but more importantly, we share that gift of being created in God?s image; so we belong to one another as family. Compassion requires not walking the same path with a companion, but walking in his or her shoes. What a powerful image of compassion.

Applying these principles of the Beatitudes and how we look at how our congregation lives these out through study, common prayer, worship, and mutual service the congregation can grow as a blessed community. Growing as a blessed community means that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we bless those we meet everywhere we go. It allows for us to lead a life that is really life. If we do this, maybe more folks will join us. And then, our congregation, one person at a time, will begin to show people what really living in Christ looks like. It is our call as disciples of Jesus Christ to be grounded in God?s steadfast love, goodness, justice, and mercy for all; just as God first loved us, giving us the blessing of Jesus Christ, our salvation.

I pray that we can all look at our lives and see how we are blessed and being a blessing to others.