“The Blessed Community”

Matthew 5:1-12

Rev. Jason Alspaugh

First Baptist Church of Dayton

January 29, 2017

“Blessed…” I have received some contradictory advice over the years about preaching. On the one hand, I’ve been told not to say anything too important in the first few sentences because people aren’t really paying attention yet and they’ll miss it. On the other hand, I’ve been told that the first words of a sermon, the words that break the silence, are the most important and should be carefully chosen because they will determine whether or not people will continue to listen or just tune out. Well Jesus decides to start off his Sermon on the Mount with some of the most important words any of us will ever hear. “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain [a very Moses-like thing to do]; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them…” The disciples draw near, but Jesus’ words are still audible to the crowds. There is no great barrier between the disciples and the crowds, so that at any moment a crowd-goer might step up and become a Jesus follower. And the first word he utters is “Blessed,” and every word that follows conveys his blessing on the people he is gathering.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he says. I don’t think anyone wants to be “poor in spirit,” and I venture to say that neither God nor Jesus wants anyone to be “poor in spirit.” Mark Allan Powell suggests that these “are not people who trust in God because they have no reason for hope in this world. They are people who have no reason for hope in this world, period.”[i] The “poor in spirit” are people who have been pushed to the edges of society, to the very edges of existence. You probably won’t see them posting on Facebook; in fact, you may not see them at all. And yet, he says, “those who have no reason for hope in the world, who may be on the verge of giving up, are blessed, for the rule of heaven has drawn near (4:17), and their situation is about to change.”[ii] “[T]heirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says, not as something that can be possessed, but as a new reality where hope abides. CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THE POOR IN SPIRIT.

“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus goes on. Again, no one wants to be among “those who mourn,” and neither God nor Jesus wants anyone to be mournful. It’s been said that “If the poor in spirit are those who find no reason for hope in this life, then the ones who mourn are those who find no cause for joy.” But no one is “blessed” because they mourn. God does not admire “those who mourn,” God abides with them. I imagine that what causes us to mourn causes God to mourn as well. And so, “they will be comforted,” Jesus says. God will bring comfort so that there can be joy. CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THOSE WHO MOURN.

“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says, and for a second I think that meekness can be a virtue. After all, our world could use a little more humility; at least our leaders could. But while that’s true, it’s been suggested that this “does not refer to ‘the humble’ but to the ‘humiliated’…‘the oppressed’ or ‘powerless.’”[iii] Taken in this way, being “meek” doesn’t sound so virtuous. No one achieves meekness. No one seeks out humiliation or oppression or powerlessness. It is something awful that is done to us—we are humiliated, we are oppressed, our power is taken from us. Howard Thurman referred to such people as “the disinherited.” It’s been argued that such people “have not been given their share of the earth. They have been denied access to the world’s resources and have not had opportunity to enjoy the creation that God intended for all people.”[iv]

It’s not hard to think of present day refugees being among the meek. Church World Service estimates that “more than 65-million people worldwide are displaced from their homes,” and “more than half of the world’s refugees…are children”; “they do not choose to leave their home country—they are forced to flee.”[v] And yet they are to be given an inheritance. “[T]hey shall inherit the earth,” Jesus says. In the kingdom of God the meek—the humiliated, the oppressed, the disinherited, the refugee, the displaced—are to have a place. For “when God rules,” Powell says, “the weak and powerless will receive what God wants them to have.”[vi] CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THE MEEK.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” These are people who are said to be “starved for justice, [and they] include people who have no reason for hope, no cause for joy, and no access to the resources of this world.”[vii] This is not purely a metaphor; some injustices actually cause people to hunger for enough food and to thirst for clean water. “For such people,” Powell says, “the coming of God’s kingdom is a blessing, because when God rules, all this will change and things will be set right.”[viii] Jesus says, “[T]hey shall be filled.” CHRIST IS GATHERING UP ALL THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

This is the blessed community that Jesus is beginning to create. Jesus gathers those who are unfortunate, whereas others tend to look away. That’s actually the theme song to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events—i.e, “Look Away.” It is a sign of privilege to be able to look away from the unfortunate, to be able to simply change the channel, to think that the plight of “those people” has nothing to do with us. But Jesus is not only gathering “those who have been deprived of righteousness or justice,” Powell says, he is also gathering those who are or will be dedicated to establishing it.[ix] Jesus is gathering is not only gathering those who need help, but he is also gathering the helpers. With some words of blessing there are demands placed on our lives.

So Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful…” It’s been noted that in Matthew’s gospel mercy is connected not only with forgiveness of sins, but also with forgiveness of debts and tending to the sick and the outcast; and so “‘the merciful’ are healers, people who seek to put right what has gone wrong.”[x] We have heard the words of the prophet Micah this morning, and they remind us that if the LORD wants anything from us it is “to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.”[xi] And mercy itself is a blessing; it is its own reward. We are told that the merciful are blessed because “they will receive mercy,”—in other words, “they will see mercy prevail.”[xii] CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THE MERCIFUL.

And Jesus adds, “Blessed are the pure in heart…” It’s been said that the heart speaks of “‘the truest self,’ what one really is, apart from pretense,” and that this is primarily a word about “integrity.”[xiii] “They shall see God,” Jesus says. “[A]s people who are truly pleasing to God, [having offered their truest selves, the pure in heart] have offered the world a vision of what is godly,” Powell says, and “[t]hose who will see God are those in whom something of God has been seen.”[xiv] CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THE PURE IN HEART.

And: “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus declares. Douglas Hare has said that “Where others build walls, [peacemakers] painstakingly construct bridges.”[xv] Such people, Jesus says, “will be called children of God.” Later in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven.”[xvi] According to Jesus, God loves even those who do not love God in return, and that makes God perfect.[xvii] And so, when we love those who do not love us, when we love not only our neighbors but our enemies, we are imitating God; and we will be blessed to be called children of God. CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THE PEACEMAKERS.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,” Jesus says. Such people are not blessed because they suffer, but because they are so committed to the cause of justice and mercy and peace that they are willing to suffer.[xviii] They are willing to risk everything for “the poor in spirit,” “those who mourn,” “the meek,” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and for that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” too. CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED FOR THE SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

And then turning most directly to his disciples, Jesus says, “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.” This is where Jesus’ teachings tend to trip up prosperity gospel preachers. There is no promise here of financial success, only the promise that we will be counted among the most faithful. When we pursue God’s cause of justice and righteousness, when we put the well-being of others first, we will find ourselves blessed to be in the good company of the prophets who have gone before us. We will be in good company with Elijah and Elisha. We will be in good company with Isaiah and Micah and Amos. We will be in good company with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Will Campbell and Dorothy Day; and many other lesser known men and women who have carried the mantle and burden of prophet. CHRIST IS GATHERING UP THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED ON HIS ACCOUNT.

Friends, this is the blessed community that Jesus is gathering up—those with no reason to hope and no reason for joy alongside those who show mercy and give glimpses of God; those who are humiliated and oppressed and starved for justice alongside those who pursue peace and righteousness and risk suffering for it. Can we see ourselves in this community? Friends, this is us. Christ is gathering us all together that we all might know God’s blessing. Fred Craddock highlights the fact that all of Jesus’ words of blessing “appear at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, before a single instruction is given, before there has been time for obedience or disobedience…God’s favor precedes all our endeavors.”[xix] So let us remember that this blessed community is gathered by the grace of God and held together by the grace of God. And it is the gift of God for the world. So be it. Amen.

1

[i] Powell, Mark Allan. "Matthew's Beatitudes: Reversals and Rewards of the Kingdom." The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58, no. 3 (July 1996): 464. In preparing this sermon, I found Powell’s work on the Beatitudes enlightening. So often all of the Beatitudes are interpreted as “entrance requirements,” and Powell argues that this is not entirely the case. In relatively short order he sums up a great deal of scholarship on the subject. And so, while his work has been quoted/referenced somewhat extensively here, it builds off of the efforts of several others.

[ii] Ibid., 465.

[iii] Ibid., 466.

[iv] Ibid., 467.

[v] See www.GreaterAs1.org

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Ibid., 468.

[viii] Ibid., 470.

[ix] Ibid., 475.

[x] Ibid., 471.

[xi] Micah 6:8

[xii] Powell, “Matthew’s Beatitudes,” 471.

[xiii] Ibid., 472.

[xiv] Ibid., 473.

[xv] Hare, Douglas R. A. Matthew. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993; 42.

[xvi] Matthew 5:43-45a

[xvii] Matthew 5:46-48

[xviii] Ibid., 474.

[xix] Craddock, Fred B. 1990. "Hearing God's blessing." The Christian Century 107, no. 3: 74.