Upside Down

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Upside Down

Contributed by Tim Zingale on Jan 24, 2005 (message contributor)

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Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12

Denomination: Lutheran

Summary: A Sermon for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany Series A The Sermon on the Mount

4th Sunday after the Epiphany

Matthew 5:1-12

Upside Down

1 Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, 2 and he began to teach them:

3 "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! 4 "Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them! 5 "Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! 6 "Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully! 7 "Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them! 8 "Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God! 9 "Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children! 10 "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! 11 "Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

1One day as the crowds were gathering, Jesus went up the mountainside with his disciples and sat down to teach them. Good News Translation

The Beatitudes

2This is what he taught them:

3 "God blesses those who realize their need for him,[a]

for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.

4 God blesses those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

5 God blesses those who are gentle and lowly,

for the whole earth will belong to them.

6 God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice,

for they will receive it in full.

7 God blesses those who are merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,

for they will see God.

9 God blesses those who work for peace,

for they will be called the children of God.

10 God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God,

for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

11"God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers.

12Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven.

And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too. New Living Translation

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the great teacher. Amen

I have included two different translations for our gospel lesson this morning. As you can see, we are looking at the Sermon on the Mount and the first 12 verses which are usually called the Beatitudes.

These are the blessing of Jesus. What does that really mean? How are we blessed? Who is blessed? Why are they blessed?

These blessing are like a splash of ice-cold water in the face of those who are self-satisfied and self -righteous. The Pharisees, for example, were wealthy, successful, powerful, and very religious. They thought the coming of the Kingdom of God would surely bring them happiness, and that God would surely reward them for being such good people. But they were not really righteous in God’s eyes, they were self centered and could not see pass their own piety.

These blessing are a cool drink of water for those who have a bad taste in their mouths from all the wicked, evil ways of the world, and are longing for something better&emdash;for something which brings hope into their lives.

Jesus turns the world upside down in these blessing. He gives to those who the world sees as losers the hand of his grace and to those who are so called winners he gives the slap of his hand as a wake up call to their false righteousness.

Richard Jensen says in his book Preaching Matthew’s Gospel, "The people of Israel had begun to serve the law in their time of exile. Jesus turns the law around. Humans are not meant to serve the law. The law is meant to serve humans. The law serves us as we seek to identify the neighbor’s need. The law is not only about us and relationship to God. The laws also about us and our relationship with our neighbor."

Jesus is saying here that these blessing are a blue print for us as we live our lives. It is telling us what we should be looking for, what we should be doing.

Jesus is telling us to look at those people, the ones who the world forgets about, through God’s eyes as God’s view is different. The poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, are blessed, not because they are virtuous, but because they have something to look forward to in the great upheaval, the great world turned upside down.

Philip Yancey points out in his book The Jesus I Never Knew,

"Any Greek scholar will tell you the word "blessed" is far to sedate and beatific to carry the percussive force Jesus intended. The Greek word conveys something like a short cry of joy, "Oh, you lucky person!"…"How lucky are the unlucky!" Jesus said in effect."

Indeed, how lucky are the unlucky, is what these blessings are saying. In God’s kingdom, it is not those who have made it on top in this world, but those who have been forgotten along the way who are blessed.

Jesus is not saying that if you are healthy, wealthy and wise you will not be able to enter the kingdom of God. But he is saying if you do not see past those attributes, then you will not be able to enter the kingdom of God.

Maybe the following story will help to explain.

A man write:

It was the end of the autumn season, past bulb-planting time.

The greenhouse operator had gathered all the unsold tulip bulbs and, finding that these leftovers were mostly in inferior anyway, was bagging them for the trash bin. The good ones had been sold, so he wasn’t concerned about the loss of the small residue. I happened to come in for something and saw the bags of rejects. It seemed a waste, so I persuaded him to let me have them. I took the three bags home, not really knowing what I would do with them. Finally, I offered them to a friend who had an empty corner in his garden, and I forgot all about them.

The following spring he called me one Saturday and suggested I come over to his home. He took me down to the bottom of the yard, and there, row upon row, were my discards, all in beautiful bloom. "Get me any more of them you can," he said.

He made no boast of how he got those worthless bulbs to bloom so gloriously. People say he has a green thumb all the way up to his elbow, but I know that his gentle care and tireless attention made the miracle happen. That’s the way he gardens. He makes winners out of rejects. I haven’t the patience myself.

He make winners out of rejects. That is what Jesus is trying to say with these blessing. He is making winners out of what the world calls rejects. How lucky are the unlucky!"

Paul speaks about that in our second lesson as he says in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 in verse 23 through 29

"23* but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

24* but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25* For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26* For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;

27* but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,

28* God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

29* so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

The foolishness of God is wiser than all the wisdom of this world. God’s foolishness is to bless those who are unlucky and startle those who have become self complacent in their own righteousness. God’s foolishness turns everything upside down.

So these blessings are a reminder to us to look at things through God’s eyes which are a whole lot different than what our eyes see.

Our world likes to see those who have exceeded beyond limits. We cheer those who climb high mountains, we cheer those who have become very wealthy, we cheer those who have over come certain physical limits.

We have seen on television advertisements featuring those who are physical challenged do great things.

For example, some years back we saw a little boy running into the house, filling a bottle with Crystal Clear water and running down to the end of the lane, to give a wheelchair racer a drink of water. Or we have a guy with a great looking girl lifting weights, sweating, grunting and groaning and getting padded on the tummy as he readies himself for a big wheelchair race. This guy doesn’t push back on weekends, but goes for it. But on Sunday he will sleep in and enjoy his Bud.

I do not begrudge those who can do those physical things, but I wonder if then society sees all of us in wheelchairs as somehow not succeeding if we cannot race down the road or prepare for the great race ahead.

There will never be a commercial on television showing someone as they struggle getting dressed in the morning, making breakfast, doing the ordinary things of life.

When I first had to use a wheelchair for my mobility, I had just spent several weeks on a rehab ffloor learning that I needed to conserve what muscles I had, so using a wheelchair would be one way of not loosing all the strength in my legs.

As I came home one weekend, as I was preaching on the weekends and then returning to the rehab unit during the week, a member said, "When does the therapy begin?" as he looked at my chair. I responded, "This is it" and he couldn’t believe it.

But in God’s kingdom it is indeed those who do stubble in the every day events of life, those who mourn, those who are handicapped, those who are hungry, those who face war, it is these people who God calls blessed.

And then Jesus calls us to reach out a hand, to reach out to risk to bring God’s grace into the lives of people around us.

An unknown author wrote a poem whlch speaks of risk

To laugh is to rIsk appearing the fool

To weep is to risk appearIng sentimental

To reach out to another is to risk Involvement

To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self

To place your Ideas, your dreams before a crowd Is to risk their loss

To love Is to risk not being loved In return

To live Is to risk dying To hope is to risk despair To try Is to risk failure

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard In life Is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and Is nothing. One may avoid suttering and sorrow but one will not learn, feel, change, love or live.

Jesus says