Sermon January 30 2011

Micah 6:1-8

Psalm 15

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Matthew 5:1-16

“Vision Beautiful”

Beauty is notoriously hard to define. That may sound kind of dramatic, but think just about people you love and find beautiful. What makes each one beautiful? Is it some quality you can name or even something that anyone could see? It is also said that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder—which emphasizes this hard to define quality and makes sense as we look around us and see the diversity of that which we call beauty. The notion of beauty differs somewhat from person to person and is extremely different from culture to culture.

This morning we seek to understand the beautiful word that Jesus gives in the beginning of the sermon on the mount , which we’ve come to call the beatitudes. A beatitude, as I understand it, is a beautiful word picture—in this case a beautiful word picture of Jesus vision of the possibilities and realities for humanity. It’s not just a idealized notion of a heavenly world, but how Jesus faced and named those things that are often denied or opposed by majority society.

Jesus’ vision beautiful is one of depth, breadth and the great heights of peace, justice and kindness—not just all things sweet and nice, pleasant and comfortable. But this beauty is only realized with genuine change or clear intention. Each beatitude and description of the life of disciples draws us to God’s household—where the vision of Jesus’ teaching is lived, not just in the great beyond, but as real community is built and shared here and now. As a “vision beautiful,” they command our attention and willing responses for the transformation of this world for the sake of all.[1]

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:3) The disciples gathered round him, sitting at his feet—on top of the mountain, where Jesus, like Moses, heard God’s word of guidance for the people. By seeing Jesus on the mountain, we are made aware that something important is about to happen.

Jesus began with this teaching about those who are poor in spirit. But what does that mean? One perspective on the blessedness of being poor in spirit emphasizes our need for God. And in this way, we understand that we cannot meet the challenges, problems and obstacles in life without God. We have to admit our powerlessness so that we can accept God’s presence and power in our lives. I struggle with this in some pretty mundane ways personally, when I try and do everything by myself and then get angry about it. This happens in so many areas of my life. In the most pragmatic ways, I have to learn not to just do something instead of offering a task, duty or idea to be done in community because I believe that working together is one of the ways that God’s power is manifested in church as well as in our personal relationships.

Another way of exploring the blessedness of the poor in spirit is to understand that spirit and breath use the same word in both Hebrew and Greek. The text can be understood to express physical breathlessness or weakness—this expresses the urgency of the household of heaven—not just in some distance place, but it is a nearby for the relief of those in need. Through our own weakness, we find ourselves living in and with God’s household and through our own weakness, we are called upon to reach out and express the hospitality of God’s household to others seeking what God has to offer. We don’t offer all the answers—we welcome others to a place where limitations and questions, problems and searches are encouraged.

In our daily discipleship, in our rising awareness and participation in the Vision Beautiful, we acknowledge our need for God and how it is that we welcome others into God’s household with open arms and hearts.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

How can it be that blessings come as we sorrow for those we lose? I’ve seen people rail in anger when loved ones die—shaking in rage—and I understand it. I’ve seen people crumple in sorrow, stolidly face the future almost without responding, quietly weep, tell stories of celebrating and any combination of those and other reactions.

We mourn in the face of loss—and we find comfort. How does God work to comfort us? Most of the time when I have been aware of the comfort of God in the lives of those who sorrow, it comes in the form of family and friends who reach out or who accompany and care. Sometimes it’s the pastor who calls and brings comfort, but the most effective comfort comes in the form of a covered dish and an embrace, just simply being there. It comes, as I read once in a now lost poem, in the bouquet of peonies from the garden, still tightly bound, ant adorned and dew splashed, accompanied by tuna casserole. Comfort comes when a friend just sits and doesn’t try to make the pain go away. This is comfort in the household of God.

We also mourn when we realize when we have sinned—when we are in need of forgiveness and the grace of God in our lives. Again, this comes from the realization of our own need to be forgiven as we fail to live fully into our potential. We need to know that God will wipe the slate clean and we can begin again—by asking for forgiveness and by forgiving others weekly, daily or if necessary, by the minute.

In our daily discipleship, in our rising awareness and participation in the Vision Beautiful, we acknowledge how our care for others brings comfort and brings the house of God alive each day. We mourn our failings and our brokenness and bring those to God seeking the wholeness God desires for us.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

As the Vision Beautiful grows and fills us with wonder, we realize that our understanding of power is being overturned and God’s power emerges in weakness. As I read and contemplated the texts for the week, I couldn’t find a better example of this than Paul’s letter to Corinth, in my paraphrase of his words, “Some of us like to have miracles and others of us like to have the reasonable explanation, but instead, we talk about Christ being crucified—which is shameful to some and ridiculous to others. But to those of us to whom it is revealed, both those raised to think it’s shameful and those who were taught it was weak and ridiculous, it is Christ who walked to the cross by unfailingly revealing God in his life who shows God’s power and God’s wisdom. Gods’ power was revealed as Jesus denied the power of tyranny wherever it exists and denied corrupting influence in God’s people and tyranny’s power everywhere.” The Cross points us to "…a third way: transformation — look for God's presence in unexpected places: in suffering, weakness and abandonment rather than in signs, wonders, and reason" (Craddock et al, Preaching Through the Christian Year A). [2]

In our lives of discipleship—as students of Jesus, we are called upon to live according to God’s will as he lived. I have heard this called obedience to God—and I agree, but it’s deeper and fuller than simply following the rules. Jesus often called upon leadership of the Jewish people to consider the spirit of the law rather than ritual obedience. For example, Sabbath observance served at least two purposes, according to the First Testament, revealed a full understanding of the abundance of God’s creation. We can rest for one day—and not work—because God’s creation provides enough and more. Obedience to Sabbath observance reminds us and others of that abundance. The second reason for Sabbath revealed God’s justice and mercy in the world—according to Deuteronomy 5 (14-15) which says, “you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” Sabbath means respite from labor for all living things who work with and around God’s people. That is discipleship while being attentive to God’s mercy and God’s justice—which is more than blind obedience.

In our daily discipleship, in our rising awareness and participation in the Vision Beautiful, we realize how each blessed saying—each beautiful word builds, each upon the other, layer upon layer of a vision of the habitation of God.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Jesus sought to reveal God’s desire for a world where the hungry are fed and the thirsty given drink—where the homeless are found a place of belonging and where the lonely find companionship. In a broader and fuller awareness of the places and times when we glimpse God, we are made aware of the places where we can bring the presence of God. In Micah’s words, God’s people, disciples of Jesus Christ among them, are called to do justice and to love kindness. Justice we understand, even if we don’t always know what to do about it. We understand that needs must be met. According to one Hebrew scholar the phrase hesed, translated kindness means [to] Love covenant loyalty: the translation of 'kindness' is disastrously weak. The word hesed means to reorder life into a community of enduring relations of fidelity. Community means standing together in right relationship—righteousness, which is a word that contains God’s justice, mercy, compassion, peace and all that God is and intends for us as we live within covenant.

In our daily discipleship, in our rising awareness and participation in the Vision Beautiful, we move beyond what we want for ourselves into a place where we can envision God’s will for all the world.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

As faithful lives move us and awareness of the full nature of discipleship arises, we understand that in being merciful—letting go of vengeance, retribution, accusation, reprisal and giving God our anger—we receive that mercy. Unless and until this can happen, we don’t understand the household of God in and through us today.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

As our vision clears, as we give up our objections to needing God for life itself and know the comfort of acknowledging our sins, receiving forgiveness, we are less distracted by the struggle to live according to material signs of success. We can see God, perhaps just glimpses—even if we are still unable to encompass that experience in words or any other way.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

In the same way, our rising sight and knowledge of Jesus’ living participation in God’s household and way means we let go of the unimportant disagreements and focus on what brings us together. As God’s created beings, as one people on this earth, we can realize that national boundaries, tribal loyalty, even religious fidelity are infinitely less important that coming together over what unites us. As one of my former seminary professors wrote this week in regard to President Obama, “The president's Christian faith compels him to seek common ground with his political opponents in our shared desire to provide a secure and prosperous life for the nation, especially for those who are poor and vulnerable. It requires him to seek strength in our diversity, to explore solutions that bridge the partisan divide.”[3] Whatever divides us, politics or otherwise—we are called to follow the same principles. Making peace and giving in are not the same, yet in humility, we are called to be children of God together.

In our daily discipleship, in our rising awareness and participation in the Vision Beautiful, we can see that while this vision is for the here and now and for the lifetime to come—it is a vision only available with the strength and power of God in and around us.

Jesus taught them, saying, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And Jesus also taught them, saying, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely* on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The way of discipleship, following Jesus Christ faithfully is not one that makes us popular. It may mean that we have to stand up and proclaim truth to power—what is justice when 5 year old girls are responsible for feeding and providing for their families in lands where we spend billions to fight a “relatively popular” war? When do we see righteousness when thousands of people lose their homes because of a culture of greed?

In Micah’s word—we do our best to remain faithful. We don’t do it by trying to placate God—thinking that all awful things must be God’s will and so we try to make up for our supposed failings. We are called to be real with God and one another in our discipleship. And it begins, lives and ends as we walk humbly with God: abandon[ing] all self-sufficiency, acknowledg[ing] in our daily attitude and actionst that life is indeed derived from the reality of God" (Brueggeman et al, Texts for Preaching Year A).[4]

Let our discipleship continue with the goal and the hope of revealing more of God within us and the hope of seeing more of God around us. Amen.

[1] VISION BEAUTIFUL By Sean M. Gilbert, p. 107, seasons of the spirit, articles: ACE 2010-2011.

[2] http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-30-2011-i-third.html

[3] http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/winter2011lowery

[4] http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-30-2011-i-third.html