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The EvangelicalLutheranChurch

in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL)

PO Box 14076, Muristan Road • Jerusalem, Israel 91140 • +972-2-626-6800

Reformed for a costly discipleship and creative diakonia

Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan

Matt. 5:1-12

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion ofthe Holy Spirit be with you all ever more. Amen.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

It is a great privilege to celebrate Reformation Day year after year in this church in Jerusalem. For us, the day of Reformation is not only a celebration of events that took place around500 years ago, but in fact, it is an ecumenical celebration in which we join with other churches to celebrate that the church of God continues to preach the Gospel in its truth and purity and to rightly administer the sacraments. In this sense, it is an ecumenical thanksgiving service that Christ empowers us to declare the Good News in Jerusalem.

On this day, we celebrate the fresh proclamation of the Gospel by Martin Luther. You might say that we in the Middle East had a Reformation of our own 170 years ago, when German missionaries brought a fresh proclamation of the Gospel to Jerusalem, where it originated two millennia ago. This means that when peopleneed a fresh proclamation of the Gospel, God sends disciples to renew the Good News of salvation and liberation. This is the heart of the Reformation: that the church should always to be ready to be reformed to live out the Good News of salvation in terms of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

The evangelical movement in the Middle East lived out that Good News through diakonia in education, social work, health work and ecumenism. Its missionaries did not intend to establish a new church in the Holy Land. But our Palestinian ancestors insistedon it, in response to the message and service of the loyal missionaries.

This year, the ELCJHL celebrated the 50th anniversary of the royal recognition of our church. We also celebrated the 30thanniversary of the Arab Lutheran bishopric. In our Reformation Day servicethree decades ago, the first Arab Lutheran bishop, Daoud Haddad, was consecrated. For this festive occasion, Bishop Haddad chose to preach on the Beatitudes, as found in Matt. 5:1-12. That is why I have chosen this text for today.

This familiar and beloved text is found in both St Matthew’s and St. Luke’s gospels, but in different settings. St. Matthew sets the Beatitudes as the preamble of the Sermon on the Mount. St. Luke places the beatitudes immediately after the call of the disciples. This is why one scholar calls them “the ordination address of the Twelve.” Some consider the Beatitudes to be “the Compendium of Christ’s doctrine.” Others see them as the “Magna Carta of the Kingdom”. Others speak of a “Manifesto of the King.” Many Christians and non-Christians are inspired by the depth of wisdom they contain. It is said that even Mahatma Gandhi found guidance for his life in them.

The “blessed are … ” language of the Beatitudes goes back to Old Testament worship language. Psalm 2:12 says, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” Psalm 84:5 says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you.” King Solomon in his proverbs says, “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding” (Proverbs 3:13).The books of Daniel and Revelation also use language of blessing those who persevere in the face of affliction and persecution.

Although we oftenread the Beatitudes as individual verses, some theologians say that they are meant to be read togetheras a unit. The Beatitudes are a complete whole and cannot be divided. Each phrase implies the next. It is said that when lived out,a personmanifests all the attributes described here simultaneously. For example, the one justified by faith cannot be poor in the spirit without mourning. That one cannot mourn without hungering and thirsting for righteousness or without being meek and peace-making. It is impossible to manifest one of these attributes–and receive the blessing pronounced upon it – without manifesting the others also. They may appear in varying degrees in different people, but all are present, as they are meant to be.

What do the beatitudes mean for us today?The beatitudes are not another set of commandments or a code of conduct for Christians. Instead, the Beatitudes are Christ’s clear call to a costly discipleship and a creativediakonia for the healing of this globalized, materialistic, unjust world.

1. The Beatitudes call us to a costly discipleship.

In his inaugural sermon, Bishop Haddad asked, “What kind of people does our world need today? Does our world need politicians, economists, administrators, diplomats, teachers or reformers?”

I would answer him today that the world needs people in all these important professions. But, in the Beatitudes, Jesus is saying that our world needs more than professional expertise. Our world needs people who are ready for a costly discipleship. It needs true disciples who are justified by faith and are ready to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus in order to change the world. It needs every baptized believer to live out the Beatitudes in their daily lives. Our world needs true disciples who do not pursue their own interests or seek to acquire power and influence. Instead, Christ needs disciples today who, like the first disciples, responded to the power of his call. Indeed, it is their response to his call that made them poor and mournful and hungry.

This is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained it: “He calls them blessed, not because of their privation, or their renunciation they have made, for these are not blessed in themselves. Only the call and the promise, for the sake of which they are ready to suffer poverty and renunciation, can justify the beatitudes. … External privation and personal renunciation both have the same ground – the call and the promise of Jesus. Neither possesses any intrinsic claim to recognition.”

One of our youth recently asked me about this text. “Here in the Middle East, we live in a multi-cultural, multi-religious society,” he said. “We are few in number. What do the Beatitudes mean for us?”

The Beatitudes were preached to the disciples, who were also few in number, I reminded him. Then as now, Jesus’ call is not dependent on numbers or context or the prevailing political situation but to all believers at all times. Jesus calls his hearers blessed not because of what they have but indeed because they recognize what they lack.

In this year of anniversary celebrations, the Arab evangelical Lutheran church has commemorated God’s faithfulness in allowing us to become an established church. Like all churches here in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, our numbers are comparatively small. But our strength is not in numbers or buildings or bank accounts or political power. The strength of Christ’s church in the land of resurrection is always in its vital proclamation of the Gospel of salvation and its positive commitment to society. Its strength is the Holy Spirit working in and guiding us,empowering us to reflect God’s love through prophetic, costly discipleship. Its power in us, the local expression of worldwide Lutheranism, is revealed when we fulfill the call for living witness and creative diakonia. Are we ready for it?

2. The Beatitudes call us to creativediakonia for the healing of the world.

There is old Arab story of a king who gave each of his three sons a precious gift. He gave the first prince a special telescope to reveal the invisible. He gave the second prince a flying carpet to transport him anywhere he wishes to go. He gave the youngest prince a miraculous apple toheal any disease.

Thanking their father, the three princes took their gifts and went out into the world. One day, by coincidence, the brothers found themselves together in one town. The first prince used his telescope and saw that their youngest sister was sick.So the second prince used his flying carpet to transport them back to the palace. The third prince used the miraculous apple to heal their beloved sister.

When the king learned of what they had done, he said, “Well done, my sons. When you use whatever gift you have with the gifts of others, you can change the world.”

I believe the King of Kings has gifted the church abundantly and calls us to cooperate like the three princes for the healing of the world. We can use our special telescope to reveal hidden injustice, like human trafficking and systemic poverty. We can use our flying carpet to accompany those who struggle alone against hegemony and extremism. We can use the miraculous apple to cure those who suffer from ailments of body, mind and spirit. We can use all our gifts to promote abundant life, as the Gospel of John calls it or, as the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish put it, “On this earth there is that which deserves life and is worth living for.”

Closer to home, we can see that our sister, our country of Palestine-Israel, is also in dire need of this healing. She is sick with injustice, hatred, bloodshed, extremism, division, occupation and oppression. Palestinians and Israelis are dying for justice and peace. Jerusalem, the place where God and humanity were reconciled, needs reconciliation among the three faiths and two nations that seek to share it.

I know it is possible, for God has used the church to bring healing to another lingering, festering wound. Today in Augsburg, Germany, events are planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. In this declaration, the church bodies agreed on the basic truths of justification by faith and ended centuries of condemnation against each other.

Dear sisters and brothers, the tasks are momentous: comforting those who mourn, satisfying those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, standing with the meek, the merciful and the persecuted. The call is clear: “You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.”

On this Reformation Day, may we all be open to the work of the Holy Spirit to reform us as individuals, as churches, as the people of God to be renewed daily in our costly discipleship for the healing of the world.

Let us close with St. Augustine’s reflection on the beatitudes.

What does it mean to follow if not to imitate? The proof of this is that Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his footsteps (1 Peter 2:21).

Blessed are the poor in spirit. So imitate him who for your sake became poor although he was rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Blessed are the meek. Imitate him who said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29).

Blessed are they who mourn. Imitate him who will weep over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Imitate him who said: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me (John 4:34).

Blessed are the merciful. Imitate him who came to the help of the man who had been wounded by robbers and lay half-dead and despairing on the ground (Luke 10:33).

Blessed are the clean in heart. Imitate him who committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth (1 Peter 2:22).

Blessed are the peacemakers. Imitate him who prayed on behalf of his persecutors: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Imitate him who suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might followin his footsteps. (1 Peter 2:21)

Oh good Jesus, I see you with the eyes of faith you have opened within me. I see you calling out and saying, as though berating humankind: “Come to me and place yourselves in my school.”

May the peace that surpasses our understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.