A recent survey has compiled all the qualities that people expect from the perfect pastor:
Results of a computerized survey indicated that the perfect pastor preaches exactly 12 minutes.
He frequently condemns sin but never upsets anyone.
She works from 8 a.m. until midnight and is also a janitor.
He makes $300 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $400 a week to the poor.
She is 28 years of age, but she’s been preaching for 30 years.
He is wonderfully gentle and handsome.
She gives herself completely but never gets too close to anyone to avoid criticism.
He speaks boldly on social issues, but must never become politically involved.
She has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and she spends all her time with senior citizens.
He makes 15 daily calls to parish families, visits shut-ins and the hospitalized, spends all his time evangelizing the unchurched, and is always in his office when needed.
I have a confession to make to you about sermon titles. Linda and I plan out the sermon schedule well in advance. The texts come from the lectionary, so we know what those will be as far in advance as you’d like. We select which text we will be focusing on months in advance, and that is when we come up with titles. I don’t actually begin writing my sermons until a couple of weeks in advance and I don’t finish my sermon until the Friday before it is delivered. Because the titles come before the actual sermons, sometimes they don’t fit. Sometimes the title turns out to be better than the sermon. This week, I meant for the title to be “Bless You” and that is what is on the sign. Linda thought that I had selected, “Bless Me” so that is what is in the bulletin. Actually, “Bless Them” would be a better fit for the sermon.
It is always difficult dealing with a familiar passage. I want to bring out some new thought or present an old idea in a new and memorable way. I often feel unsuccessful. The beatitudes and the entire Sermon on the Mount create that difficulty, but here goes.
In 1965, there was testimony before a Senate subcommittee that predicted that by 1985, the average American worker would be working 22 hours a week and would retire by the age of forty. Why? That was the impact that computers and related technologies were going to have on our lives. The factories would be automated. Typing would give way to Word Processing. Data would be stored and transmitted electronically. Communications would be revolutionized.
Before you scoff too much at these experts, you have to understand that they were reporting the conventional wisdom. It was even on prime time TV. In 1962 a prime time cartoon show about a family of the future made its début. The Jetson’s was a story of a family living in the distant future. They still show up in reruns and are currently being featured in an ad campaign for dish washer soap. George Jetson, the father, had a job with Spacely Sprockets. He would go into the office three days a week and push one big red button. That, and getting into trouble with the boss, Mr. Spacely, was the extent of George’s work.
Do we live in the world that was imagined in the 60’s? Do we have tons of time on our hands. I read a story about a man billing his doctor for the time that he spent waiting for a delayed appointment, and I felt sympathy. We have microwaves and instant everything and still we have no time. We shop on line and want next day delivery. We can’t waist the time that we spend in our cars, so we have entertainment systems for the kids while we talk on our cell phones. I have even seen advertisements for fax machines designed to be used in our cars.
In 1965 those senate experts were predicting just 20 years into the future, we now stand at forty years from that event. The average American worker now puts in over 45 hours a week. The retirement age is moving up, not down, with many choosing not to retire at all. People are engaging in second and third careers. What went wrong? Why were those experts so mistaken?
The surprising fact is that the testimony from 1965 was essentially correct. We actually saw greater gains in productivity than the experts had predicted. They did, of course, make a fundamental error. They assumed that we would be satisfied producing about the same amount of about the same sort of stuff. Increased productivity for the same output yields reduced time. They misunderstood the human desire to have more and better things. The more that we produce, the more that we want, and the harder we have to work to get it. We are riding on a rollercoaster that goes around the very same track with the same twists and turns and loops, but it is moving faster and faster with every turn.
It is no wonder that in our hurry to get to the point of this passage that we so often pass over the very first two verse, but reading these verses carefully will change much of our understanding of what follows.
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
What did Jesus do when he saw the crowds? Does it say that he rushed immediately into their midst in order to minister to their needs? No. Did he begin to deliver a magnificent sermon to them? That’s what we usually assume, but that is not what it says. When he saw the crowds and all of their needs, what he did was to take a moment away. He went to a mountain, not so that he could be heard by the crowd, but so that he could be apart from them for a short while.
Much is made of the fact that these teachings, it wasn’t actually a sermon, were delivered on a mountain. Matthew makes a point of highlighting parallels between the life of Jesus and the children of Israel. Jesus baptism is paralleled to the crossing of the Red Sea. Jesus temptation is paralleled to the temptation of the people wandering in the wilderness. The Gospel of Matthew itself is divided into five distinct sections, just as there were five books of Moses that constituted the Jewish Torah. And just as Moses went up on the mountain of God to receive and deliver the Ten Commandments, Jesus goes up on the mountain to deliver the new Law of Love – to establish the ground rules for the new covenant. Depending on how you count, there are either eight or nine beatitudes. Many scholars have tried to construct a tenth somewhere so that there would be one beatitude for each commandment. Maybe the tenth should be “Blessed is the scholar who doesn’t push a parallel too far.”
But the mountain here is not just a literary device. Jesus is actually drawing back a bit. There will be hours and hours spent ministering to those crowds, but this hour will be spent differently. This hour will be spent connecting to God and preparing for the work to come.
If Jesus needed to step back for a bit, how much more do we need to halt our own headlong rush. Speed by itself is meaningless. Movement gains power when it also has direction. The orders are “Ready, Aim, Fire” not “Ready, Fire, Aim.”
This past week Linda and I pulled back for a bit. We rented a condo a little more than an hour away. We could have stayed home, but being home makes it more difficult to set aside the demands of our world. We thought and we prayed and we studied and we discussed. We read a great book “The Unstoppable Force” out loud. Actually Linda read it and I listened. Our goal for the week was to plan out the next few months of our ministry here at Park. It is so easy to get sucked into planning services from week to week with one having little or no connection to the next. It is so easy to get so focused on surviving the next week that we don’t ever engage in the kind of planning that is needed to allow us to do something more. It may seem counterintuitive, especially in our race-ahead culture, but pulling back a bit can be the best way to move forward. A rest can be productive.
In a couple of weeks, the leaders of this congregation are going to do exactly the same thing. We are going to be spending a Friday evening and Saturday morning at a retreat house not far from here. Spending the night together deepens relationships, but more importantly, it will give us all some concentrated time for us to think together. We will focus, not so much on where we are going, because we have our vision statement, but on what it will take for us to get there. It is an expression of their deep commitment to this congregation that these leaders, who already give so much of their time, are willing to take this time away from the other demands on their lives and to focus on the church.
Jesus didn’t just go to the mountain, he sat down. That phrase would have had meaning for the Jewish readers of Matthew’s Gospel. While someone would stand to make a speech, it was traditional for Jewish teachers to sit. In the synagogue, there was even a special chair called the Moses Seat where the Rabbi would sit to open up the Scriptures to teach. It is probably a good thing that we don’t still have that tradition today. How long would sermons be if the preacher got to sit down when delivering them? The fact that Jesus was seated makes it clear that this is a teaching, an exposition of the Scriptures, not a speech to persuade the crowds. That is why I said earlier that this really isn’t a sermon.
And do you notice that it isn’t the crowds to whom the message is addressed. It is to the disciples that Jesus is speaking. Jesus sees the crowds and knows that they are hurting and have needs that must be met. His response is to teach the disciples about the kingdom so that they can be effective in providing that ministry. It remains the same today. When we accept the label “disciple” which means student, we are accepting a responsibility to learn the truth of God, but to go beyond that and teach it to others, meeting their needs in the process. The goal is not to nail down every bit of minutia about our theology, but to enable ourselves for mission. There is a reason that our New Testaments contain a book of “Acts” instead of a book of “Truths”. The truth of the gospel is always revealed in the acts of the believers.
Stop for a moment and place yourself in the shoes of those disciples. You are following a charismatic leader whose words change hearts. You have seen him heal the sick. Crowds are now following him everywhere and hang on his every word. He speaks with a clarity and a passion that is totally outside your experience. This is truly a man who could lead a movement that could change the world. But you know that there are two types of people in this world. There are those of wealth and privilege and power. These crowds are composed of the other kind, the common folks, the people of the land.
Be honest, if you were a disciple wouldn’t you be thinking about the need to get the people of power on your side. Sure it is nice to have a crowd of peasants on a hill side, but their importance pales next to having one prince in a palace who is an ally to your cause.
Before we can make sense of the beatitudes, which I promise we will get to, we must first consider the flip side of this story. That is presented to us in chapter 19 with the story of the rich young ruler.
Imagine that you’re a disciple of Jesus and here comes a guy wearing a tailored suit and Italian shoes. He is the kind of guy who thinks that traveling first-class is a hardship because he would rather be on a private charter. Looking for funds, well he certainly has them. Need contacts or influence, he can provide that. Have problems, he makes his living solving them. This guy could do more for the movement than you can possibly imagine, and as he approaches your mind is swimming with the possibilities. Just one problem, how do you win him over. We talked about fishing last week. This guy would make one big trophy to hang on the wall.
What are the first words out of his mouth? “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” What better set up could you ask for? The guy is already hooked. Jesus just has to reel him in. After that, the possibilities are endless.
But what happens? Jesus blows it. He simply recites the commandments, “don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your parents, love your neighbor.” Any Jewish boy who has been through bar mitzvah knows that. Jesus, your loosing him!
The ruler says “All these I have kept. What do I lack.” Good, there is still a chance. Then Jesus tells the man to give up everything. The man turns away. The disciples are in shock.
The thing that Jesus saw and the disciples missed, is that while the man seemed to be very close to the kingdom, he was actually far off. The clue is in his first question. “What good thing must I do” shows the problem. He saw eternal life, not as a gift from God, but as something that could be earned, - something that he could earn. He was a self-made man, at least in his own eyes, and what he relied on in this world is what he is relying on for eternity.
In the beatitudes, Jesus is teaching the disciples to look at people differently. We are not to judge by externals, but we are to accept those in need as brothers and sisters – children of God. Jesus is telling us that ministry to the crowd is not a burden, but a privilege.
Who will make up this new movement of the kingdom? Will it be the rich and powerful? Maybe, sometimes, but that isn’t the focus. The Kingdom of God is made up of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. None of this is about whether your wallet is fat or empty, it is about the state of your soul. In the midst of a hurting crowd, in the midst of a broken world, it is easy to become overwhelmed. As long as what we see is an ocean of need, we will either exhaust ourselves in ministry or we will give up on the impossibility of the task, When we cease to see the crowd, and begin to see individual souls aching to be connected to something that gives meaning to their lives, than we will have passion to share ourselves with them so that they too can see our savior.
And what is that message that values and save these souls at the same time? Did you ever notice that there is a progression in the beatitudes?
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. It is when our spirits become empty that we begin to seek for something more. That is what puts us on the path to understanding God’s love for us.
Blessed are those that mourn. We become conscious of all that we have done that has created the chasm that separates us from God. It is our sorrow over our failure that leads us to accepting God’s gift.
Blessed are the meek. Meek doesn’t mean wimpy. The Bible describes Moses as meek. It means surrendered. It means that we relinquish control and accept God’s leadership in our lives.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our relationship with God does not end with our surrender to him, it begins there. An authentic encounter with God instills within us a desire to learn and grow.
Blessed are the merciful. Having experienced the mercy of God, we begin showing mercy, strengthening our relationships with others.
Blessed are the peacemakers. Beyond our personal relationships, we now must act to bring justice and reconciliation to our world.
Blessed are the persecuted. Once our faith moves from something personal to something that begins having an impact on our world, some level of resistance and persecution is inevitable.
Remember that Jesus is addressing his disciples. It is no accident that the one beatitude that he chooses to expound on is the one about persecution. They will be going back to the crowd. They will be sharing the message. They will learn the meaning of persecution. Still they must be glad, because it is because of such people of faith that the Gospel is spread. The gospel promise is about connecting with God for eternity. There is no promise of security for today. Most of the disciples who were listening to these teachings gave up their lives in this mission.
We too are his disciples. We too are called to bring a healing touch to a hurting world. And we too must understand that when we accept this mission, we accept a risk. When we follow in the footsteps of the disciples, we should expect nothing else. That is the risk you take when you set out to transform the world.
