PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS
The Beatitudes – Matthew 5:1-12
Everybody I know wants to be happy. However, it appears to me that some folks may not understand what true happiness is.
There are those, for example, who seem to think that lots of money would make them happy; yet, some of the wealthiest people in the world have said that fortune brought misery to their lives.
Others seem to think that if they could just be famous, they would be happy; yet, many famous folks come to the end of their way feeling unhappy due to loneliness and sadness.
Neither fame nor fortune brings true happiness to any individual. This is as true today as it was when Jesus preached a sermon about happiness during his ministry on this earth.
Times have changed, but the search for happiness is still one of our top priorities.
Perhaps we would do well to adopt as one of our main goals in life: To be happy and to make other happy.
One of the memories that I cherish of my father-in-law is the note that he wrote to himself and taped on the mirror into which he looked every morning when he shaved.
The note read:
“Thursday mornings
Go to nursing home
Make people happy.”
Whether in a nursing home or not, we all want to be happy. We want to wake up each morning with a reason for living yet another day . . . with an inward feeling of assurance that life is worthwhile . . . with no thought as to whether or not our needs are going to be met that day . . . with as bright an outlook on life as possible . . . with the hope that someone who needs a word of encouragement will cross our path that day; so, “Lord, help me to encourage someone today.”
My father-in-law discovered happiness by making others happy. He could not make people happy by giving them money; nor could he make them happy by offering them fame. He did so simply by going where there was a need for encouragement. Oftentimes all he had to offer was a smile, a handshake, or a pat on the back, without saying a word. His actions spoke, as if to say, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee.”
When Jesus saw a multitude of people searching for happiness, he had pity on them – and then, “He went up on a mountainside and sat down, and he began to teach them.”
“How to be Happy” was the theme of the first lesson Jesus taught in His “Sermon on the Mount”. Here was the Great Physician, taking time to sit down with those longing for a happy life, giving them a prescription consisting of eight components of the blessing of happiness.
Think of these eight components as noted minister-author Robert Schuler and my long-time friend Harmon Born, along with other respected servants of God have suggested: BE Attitudes – the person God wants me (us) to BE.
When a medical doctor prescribes an antibiotic, the patient is advised to take the entire dosage over a period of time in order to realize the full benefit of the prescription.
Jesus our Great Physician advises those who desire true happiness to incorporate all eight BE Attitudes into daily life if they (we) want to benefit fully from God’s Prescription for Happiness. Amen.
PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS SERMON III: BE MEEK
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)
It should come as no surprise to you that most folks tend to shy away from the notion that it is a good thing to be meek. Perhaps this is so because the word rhymes with weak. Believe me, in no way is meek associated with weak. Meekness is not weakness!
Even Webster’s dictionary misses the biblical meaning of the word. Look it up in a modern dictionary and you find this definition: “patient and mild; not inclined to anger or resentment; too submissive; spineless.”
So, if you took Webster’s word for it, you would have to read the third beatitude this way: “Happy is the person who is patient and mild, never gets angry, abstains from resentment, and is so submissive that he is spineless. This is the kind of person who will inherit the earth.”
Does anyone really think that a spineless individual would stand a chance of getting anywhere in life, let alone “inherit the earth” – whatever that means?
Actually, when Jesus gave this beatitude, He was quoting from the Old Testament – Psalm 37:11 – “But the meek shall inherit the earth and enjoy great peace” – and to whom was that original quote attributed? Remember David?
Would you agree that there is no way that David – the shepherd lad who slew Goliath the giant with a sling shot – could be considered spineless?
Now hear this: In Numbers 12:3 we read, “Now Moses was a meek man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.”
Did you hear what I read? Moses, of all people, was said to be the meekest man on earth. Was he not the man who got so angry that he killed one of Pharaoh’s guards . . . got so incensed at the treatment of his people that he risked his life to lead them out of Egypt . . . got so caught up in his people’s well-being that he forged them into a nation under God?
When we think of the greatest personalities of Old Testament times, Moses comes to mind. When folks are asked to name the strongest spiritual and political leaders of biblical history, the name of Moses is always at the top of the list. When movie critics are asked to name the top ten religious movies ever made, The Ten Commandments, centered round the life of Moses, tops the list.
Moses is the man of many years ago thought of as a man of strength. Yet, he is described in the Bible as a meek man. So, in my mind, there is emerging a picture of what Jesus meant by meek that in no way can be thought of as weak.
Was Moses patient? Yes. He had to be. No impatient leader could have put up with all he had to go through in order to organize slaves into a powerful nation that would become God’s chosen people. No impatient leader could have taken a bunch of nomads and mold them into a unified force to be reckoned with by their enemies.
No impatient leader would have stuck with these people for forty years with all of their problems.
Was Moses submissive? Yes and No. He was certainly not submissive to Pharaoh, nor did he give in to the murmuring of his followers. He indeed was submissive to God. At first, when God called him to go to Egypt to lead his people out of bondage, Moses was reluctant and resistant; but in the end he submitted to the will of God.
Moses was patient; he was submissive; but you can forget about all the other words used in Webster’s dictionary to define meek. Forget about the notion that Moses never became angry . . . was always so gentle that he had no resentments . . . was a man with no backbone.
Quite the opposite! Moses was a man of such strength and moral character that he stood up for what was right, but he did it in a way that won him the respect of even his enemies.
You might have heard it said that might makes right; but as far as the Bible is concerned, right makes might. Moses was a man whose strength of character earned him the reputation of being the meekest man on earth.
Jesus said that a person who has strength of character will inherit the earth – which does not mean that if you are meek (a person of strong character, submissive to God, and patiently pursuing God’s purpose for your life) that one day you will literally own every square inch of earth.
No, the meaning goes far deeper and is far more spiritual than the ownership of land.
To say that you will “inherit the earth” is a way of saying that, if you patiently pursue God’s purpose for your life, with the strength of character that keeps you moving toward God’s goal, there is no limit to what God can do in you and through you.
This is what the apostle Paul may have had in mind when he said, “I press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
He too was a person who patiently pursued God’s goal and did not give up
when the going got tough. Like someone said, “When the going gets tough, the tough keep going.” The meek keep going. Don’t ever give up!
The meek person – the one who perseveres in spite of setbacks and handicaps – will get as much out of life that it is possible for him or her to get from life. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
The meek person enjoys spiritual life to its fullest extent. This does not mean that if you are meek you will be given wealth or that you will never experience pain. It does not mean that you will be exempt from the many problems that have a way of finding us.
If, however, you will turn your situation over to your Father who is in heaven; then your heavenly Father, who sees all and knows all, will give you the inner peace that only God can give.
The meek person is neither jealous, nor envious, nor so proud that he or she cannot rejoice with others when good things happen to them.
It is not surprising that a person who is known for strength of character gets the most out of others because he or she has given so much of themselves – so that others want to be like the person who is truly meek.
Meekness, then, is really strength of character that enables one to get the most out of life and inspire others to follow. Working together, the meek strive to make this world a better place in which to live. This can happen only if meekness begins with each of us as individuals and spreads to others – within our families, our churches, our communities and our world.
It is up to those of us who take the teachings of Jesus seriously to pray, and really mean it, “Lord, help me to be meek, so that my strength of character will spread to those around me, until all who live within my sphere of influence, shall likewise become meek, so that together, we shall experience the peace that only you can give.”
Be meek, and you will be happy! Amen!
