CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE SERMON I: BE DISTINCT NOT EXTINCT
When was the last time you took someone up on a challenge? Not too long ago, it was the “cool” thing to do among the younger generation to challenge another person to some kind of difficult venture or unheard-of activity. This was supposed to be fun.
At our age and stage in life, I doubt that any of us feel up to such challenges for fun but we never outlive the spiritual challenge Jesus put to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.
With our world being topsy-turvy the way it is - crises popping up all over, not the least of which are threats facing Christians – our Christian challenge is to reexamine our core beliefs and renew our commitment to Christ.
While it is the goal of fanatical religions to render Christianity helpless and even extinct, it is the goal of true disciples of Christ to become as distinct as Christ challenged us to become. Christian “becoming” is a never-ending process!
Someone protested to me: “There is no way I can live up to the red-letter edition of the Bible! Christ’s teachings are too hard to live by! His expectations are too high!” My response: “I know. So, get on with it, live it as best you can, and be happy.”
A Quaker minister (Stephen Grillet) put it this way: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to my fellow human beings, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
In a world filled with attitudes and actions reflective of the opposite of good . . . lulled into sinful living by the lack of a moral conscience . . . whose senses have been dulled by too little conviction of “right versus wrong” . . . led astray by a lack of a “spiritual compass”, the need for “spiritual awakening” is as great as ever!
When people long ago were searching for right answers . . . looking for the right person to follow . . . asking for a powerful spokesperson, God sent His Son – whose ministry attracted huge crowds, many of whom became His disciples, the number of them multiplying greatly right after the Resurrection . . . continuing to multiply to this day . . . to continue increasing until the consummation of this age! In times like these, our Christian Challenge “to become” . . . is the same as it was when Jesus saw the multitudes, and taught them – Matthew 5:1-12 . . .
“To be or not to be . . . That IS the question.” Shakespeare did not exactly have Christians in mind when he penned this concise statement of life’s objective, but it perfectly fits the crescendo of Beatitudes which Jesus used to describe what every follower of His ought to strive to become.
Since it is true that, “as we think in our hearts, so are we”, these sayings of Jesus are often thought of as “Be Attitudes” – positive attitudes “to be” translated into actions. “Be this . . . be that . . . be blessed.” Motto: “Be a Blessing and Be Blessed.”
In giving these eight Beatitudes, Jesus was not describing eight different categories or eight distinct groups that make up the Christian fellowship. Rather, He gave eight qualities of the same group, with a progression from first to eighth, with a crescendo of Christian distinctiveness!
(1) We enter into the Fellowship of Believers by first acknowledging that we are poor in spirit. Just as folks who are poor in material goods admit that there is something they need but cannot provide for themselves, the Bible insists that all must admit spiritual poverty in order to position themselves to be blessed of God.
When we confessed our sinful condition we gained access to the kingdom of heaven: a “state of being” under the rule and reign of the LORD God . . . ours in the present yet living in anticipation of the ultimate fulfillment of His kingdom.
(2)Those who admit their spiritual poverty mourn; they lament their losses caused by sin . . . Such “mourning” occurs in connection with repentance – which is why the prophet Joel and John the Baptist pled with a sinful nation to repent: “Even now”, says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with weeping and with mourning.” “Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand!”
(3) To mourn over loss caused by sin is to be comforted - which literally means “to have someone come along beside you”. How fortunate Christians are to have the Holy Spirit of God come alongside us as divine comforter and spiritual guide!
(4) With God as our Father . . . Christ as our Savior. . . and the Holy Spirit of God “by our side” we are empowered to be meek - the opposite of weak!
In ancient literature, meekness was thought of as an ethic or a virtue . . . as striking a balance between opposite extremes – for example, “Blessed is a Christian who is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time”. “Blessed is a Christian who is neither a spendthrift nor a miser but a wise, though generous, giver”.
Moses, said to be the meekest man on earth, was smart, strong, bold, humble, obedient, disciplined and willing – just enough of each - to live in submission to God and still experience the joy of serving the Lord. Balance is the key!
To live in moderation was the happy medium Paul urged believers to adopt as their objective for achieving happiness in the Christian life – Philippians 4:4-7 . . .
(5) Those who live in the blessedness of trusting God sensibly become those who hunger and thirst after righteousness! Once believers and doers of the Word taste the blessedness of a life fully dedicated to the Lord, it whets their desire to experience more of the same . . . “thrilled, filled, spilled!” Righteousness (a right standing with God) has that kind of effect on the person who truly loves the Lord!
You know? I’ve come to believe that a person cannot be a true disciple of Christ without a definitive spiritual change that is brought about by honest confession,
genuine repentance, submissive trust, and a heartfelt desire to be filled with a right spirit that manifests itself in doing the right things.
These first five sayings of Jesus speak to the inner being of a Christian - to you and me - with regard to our relationship to God – that vertical relationship. But there is also the matter of our relationship to others -that horizontal relationship – to be addressed.
God blesses not only our inner attitudes but also our actions toward others in the sense that not only do we sing “mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me,” but we apply that same measure of mercy in our dealings with “neighbors” both inside and outside our group.
Mercy is a two-way street. We receive, we give, mercy. The mercy our Lord gives us in the here and now plus the mercy we give others is a prelude to greater blessings to come!
(6) To give as well as receive mercy is a process by which true disciples are to become pure in heart – inasmuch as one’s disposition . . . feelings . . . will and thoughts become more and more like Jesus – so that, like Jesus, His disciples are blessed with “godly vision” - the gift of discernment - the ability to “see through” the facades and charades in life . . . to see God at work in the world - and to join Him in His work!
(7) To see God at work is to know and understand that: God is at work for the purpose of bringing peace . . . God expects His children to be peacemakers by virtue of our personal relationship to His Son the Prince of Peace.
Peace on earth begins in the hearts of individuals transformed by the One who came to bring peace with God and with one another. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin in me.
(8) Peacemakers are not always popular. Those who preach peace for the sake of righteousness . . . whose lives emulate their Lord and Savior in word and in deed . . . who stand up to enemies of the Gospel are despised if not hated.
Christian peacemakers know God through Christ! So, by faith they press on, believing that the Lord God will not forget them and leave them behind, but will be faithful to His own, see them through the valley of the shadow of death, and bring them home to receive the greatest blessing of all! Therefore, rejoice and be exceeding glad! Amen.
