Sermon 26th January 2014

Today, Ben Hughes, Assistant Minister, continues our study of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. 

Not wanting to be out of step with the theme of last week’s excellent sermon …

What flies through the jungle singing opera?

The parrots of Penzance, of course!

Hopefully it is not just bad parrot jokes that you have learnt from Gill!

Well the overriding message of Matthew’s Gospel that we have learnt so far is this ‘seismic’ message of change that points to Jesus as the new way of doing things!

Jesus who demands nothing short of our perfection. And what type of perfection is that? Perfection that derives from the transformation of the heart!

Before Jesus came, you have law and the prophets to guide the way, the Old Testament. But what Matthew is saying now is that in this new order that is  Jesus we have grace; and grace means that our hearts can be changed by the transforming nature of Christ in our lives. That is the deal and the new way! That is why the message of Matthew’s Gospel was so difficult for the Pharisees and priests to hear – because they knew it made their priestly old ways redundant!

What Matthew was telling the Jews of his day is the same message for us today! That is:

Jesus is the truth, the way and the life and in that, the only way forward for anyone from now onwards – which is Matthew’s message. In Christ alone our hope is in found. In him and by and through him we can be saved and it is this principle of grace which underpins our message of Matthew and our series on the Sermon on the Mount!

So because we are under Grace we can be forgiven and although we will make mistakes and no doubt do the things that Jesus is telling us not to, nothing that we ever do is unforgiveable because of Grace and the Love of God.

So it is not just about what we do or do not do: it is about how we are being transformed inside – and that is heart that matter! The battleground is in the heart! And certainly not appearances! The Old Testament order of the Law – which is a guide for doing this and not doing that – is still relevant; but in this new order in Christ it is inside us that matters. And it is about writing the Law upon our hearts, so that the spirit of sinning does not sit comfortably within us anymore!

Jesus says Yes! Murder of course is always a crime; but it is as bad to have hateful thoughts: adultery is still a sin; but we should not have lustful thoughts. Jesus lifts the laws out of the book and puts them right into our hearts today, in the here and now. And in doing so, Jesus is making everything the ‘heart of the matter’ within us. And as he later teaches in the John’s Gospel, if the heart is well then everything else follows, like the roots of a tree! John 15 v 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”. So Jesus says don’t get hung up on the laws and the all the complications of their application; but get your hearts right in God! Remain in me and I in you!

In verse 33 of today’s passage he says “Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.” Jesus says do not swear by anything on earth or in Heaven. In other words, know your place in the great scheme of things. You are just a human, yes loved by God, but never think you are greater than God because you cannot even change the colour of your hair. So keep your language smart, because God knows your heart already and he respects and demands worship and honour!

Jesus also says do not fill your heart-space and mind-space with unsuitable and dangerous clutter. Instead that space should be filled with God and is the space that should be set aside for the Holy Spirit to reside.

That means God’s love and life becomes the core of your very being! So how do you keep God at the forefront of your thoughts and heart when life is so busy and where there are so many challenges and temptations? The big question of course! I believe it to be with prayer, good Christian fellowship, singing, and reading the Bible on a daily basis. That is the heart of the matter! And that is where it is all decided: in the heart!

And Jesus helps us achieve this by giving us a model for  prayer “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil”.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: what does that exactly mean?

In the book of Proverbs, 6:16-19 lists sixth things God despises in a person … very interesting to read, if you get the chance. The Chapter in Exodus that Jesus references regarding an eye for an eye (Exodus 21. 22-23) is also a very worthwhile read on sin. You may have also heard of the seven deadly sins listed by the early church - which are anger, greed, laziness, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.  These deadly sins are often referred to as ‘capita’ sins as they engender other sins and vices within us. And they can start as venial but can become mortal sins if not checked.

But all sin – as Jesus says – can be distilled down to rebellion against God; and if there such a thing as the root of all evil then it is probably the evil of wanting to make ourselves God! And that desire of Adam within us all drives self preservation and self grandiosment!  And revenge, lust and greed that Jesus is teaching us about in this passage today is as ever just an extension of the basic sin. Again it is Jesus putting its finger on the heart of the matter.

So, revenge, let us look at that first!

Getting your own back … standing tall … no one  get one over me … I will show them … I always do the best for me and my family … nobody will take that away from me … looking over your shoulder … rubbing salt in the wound … one-up-manship ... bullying … seeing justice done!

Revenge is a dish best served cold! Say the poets.

Or and old Chinese proverb. When one embarks upon the journey of revenge, best dig two graves!

So how does revenge work in the Bible?

Well simply put, there is no real need for revenge post-Jesus, because he died on the cross enabling us to be forgiven and to forgive! And the ‘to forgive’ bit in the Lord’s prayer “forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sins against us” should cancel out the necessity for revenge! In other words: if you have genuinely forgiven someone, how can you then take out revenge on them? So the antidote to revenge is the cross of Christ! Because all forgiveness hangs upon those pieced hands.

It is also the case for us, that as believers and Christian converts we come under the judgment of God which means that we accept God as Judge of ourselves and others. And in that, it is His prerogative to judge. And he is a loving and fair judge. And so we must never take the law into our own hands! The old eye for an eye, tooth for tooth is over and the turning the cheek is in!

But we are all people: we are human and we hurt! If you cut me do I not bleed? And our hurts are real and for the victim of any crime we do need recompense and to see that we get justice! That is only fair. We as Christians might be able to forgive but we will always feel the pain because we are human! But God will always hear the cries of broken, for example Exodus 22-23:  “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. ²³ If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry”.

Jesus, as ever, understands people: he understand our hurts before they have happened. That is why he is so great in the way he gives practical solutions to our problems.  Jesus is also a realist; he understands that human beings will fall out and that they will hurt each other. He knows the primitive instinct to lash out! He understands that our hearts will wander and our eyes and hands will cause us to sin. We can remind ourselves that Jesus was also human and is there to help and that we can call on him even in the white heat of temptation. And He of course understands our need for dignity and a sense of integrity when we are hurting from the sin of others. Jesus knows that people need to get justice and that someone or something has to pay. He understands that so much because it is the very thing that put him on a cross! His deep understanding of injustice and any thought of retaliation was never on the cards as he turned the other cheek and gave his last breadth.

Turn the other cheek therefore! Go the extra mile; gives to anyone who asks; lend without seeking return; and if you have two shirts, give one away! Quite explicit: does what it says on the label: give me away if not needed; wash at 90 degrees, iron dry! And it works. If you have ever tried doing any of this when people are having a go at you, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile stops the action of revenge in its tracks. Bang!  People are amazed it floors them; their jaws drop. Even if they do not take you seriously, God will take you seriously; and in Him he will heap burning coals upon their hearts so that they have nowhere to turn and burn up inside in shame.

Romans 12.19-20 says "¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD."

And turning the other cheek and going the extra mile is a great method of preventing escalation. I remember seeing a number of events in my younger days where a relatively small incident over words or something like that ended up as very serious crimes whereby the action of revenge bought another and more serious event at each turn  And the hatred and anger took over people and sucked in the innocent, their children and homes. And it could all happen so quickly! Like road rage, usually over nothing.

And these words of Jesus in Mathew were not spoken lightly either. As mentioned, Jesus allowed himself to be tortured and abused! He experienced first-hand people’s out of control cruelty. Offering his life to corrupt officials to judge and his body for soldiers to beat; his cheeks were turned over again by the crunch of Roman fists and lots were cast for his clothing. He stood before Pilate wearing a crown of thorns and was presented to the people as an alternative to a committed criminal – Barabbas. Jesus leads by example, by his own teaching, and again sets the perfect example for us! Because he was innocent the grave could not hold him and he burst out of hell riding his motorbike of glory!

And for the people listening to the Sermon on the Mount at the time, these people were not just gentle people and law-abiding citizens. No, many were probably terrorists with revenge and anger in their hearts. Their sworn revenge, aimed at Rome and the occupying soldiers! Israel at the time was on the doorstep of revolution and anarchy and within 70 years, had torn itself apart in blood and slaughter. If only they could have listened and understood Jesus words instead: history would have been so different!

And that takes me our final point for today.

I was talking recently with a newly converted Christian friend who said that he cannot watch extreme horror films anymore. They sicken him he said. I too remember the point when I struggled to listen to certain albums and watch certain films because the spirit in them stopped resonating truth within me. I found them troublesome and dispiriting and longed for the real spirit which is that given by God - the Holy Spirit, of course. My thirst had been awoken in faith and now there was no turning back!!! I was and am hungry for more – the thirst for righteousness. And thirst is the beginning of perfection in Christ. We are on our way! We are running the race of Glory!

Perfection in Christ: God has fashioned us in His own image (Psalm 139) and not necessarily our looks and brains, thank God for that. But that thing which is essentially us, our very core being which is the part of us that will live forever either in God or not! The perfection that Christ enables us to be is a beautiful thing, a wonderful thing so precious that his son Jesus died for us and now is working for us in the court of heaven. Pleading on our behalf: “Don’t give up on him he’s alright; give her a break she so worth it!” And we get glimpses of it in ourselves, as we change and come to know Christ as Lord and Saviour; and we begin to see it in others too, who are being transformed into his likeness: that transformation, that shaping and forming, refining and forging that takes us from being doomed earth-bound creatures to the children of light with an eternal hope: Brilliant, amazing, and life changing!

So the question for all of us is: freedom or slavery? Is the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount rubbish, to restrict your conscious and appetite for the pleasures of life; or is it the crowbar that will break the shackles of slavery that bind your feet and that prevent you running the race that God intended?

I leave that with you, and, of course, the Holy Spirit’s conviction of your heart …

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord? Amen.

Sermon 19th January 2014

Today our Honorary Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from Matthew 5 verses 17 to 30.

The Sermon on the Mount:

Anger

David received a parrot for his birthday. This parrot had a bad attitude and even worse vocabulary. Every other word was a swear word! David tried hard to change the bird and was constantly saying polite words, and playing soft music. But nothing worked. He yelled at the bird & the bird got worse. Finally, in a moment of desperation, David put the parrot in the freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, no more noise came from the freezer. David was frightened he might actually have hurt the bird, & quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto David’s arm, and said, "I'm sorry that I offended you with my bad language. I ask for your forgiveness."David was astounded and was about to ask what changed him,  when the parrot continued, "May I ask what the chicken in there did?"

Anger and swearing – I wonder whether they’re issues in your life? In the part of the sermon on the mount that we’ve just heard, Jesus has a lot to say about these issues, and others. We’re going to look at what he says, especially about anger and lustful desire. He challenges our words, and actions, and it’s a call to be more self controlled and do the right thing.

But it’s MUCH more than that! This morning we need to really grasp the main point Jesus was making with these words, which is this: It’s not just our actions that need to change; it’s our hearts. It’s not just what we do on the outside, what other people see; it’s what we’re like on the inside, that only we and God see.

As Cameron said last week, in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching his followers how to live in the kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven, in the here and now. (Read or listen to his sermon on the website, or ask for a paper copy, if you want to.) And in this morning’s passage, Jesus takes us to the source of our actions, good and bad, to our heart. He takes us deep into the kind of people we are, the kind of love God has for us, and the kind of love that, as we share it, brings us into harmony with God’s life.

That’s what American theologian Dallas Willard says about these verses, and I draw on some more of his ideas and Bishop Tom Wright’s too, in what I say this morning.

So, before we look in detail at the 2 issues of anger and lust, that effect us all surely, we need to get the point of the first paragraph we read this morning, headed up Teaching about the law. It’s key to what follows.

In that first paragraph, Jesus relates himself, and his teaching, to the Old Testament Law & the Prophets. This meant not only the Ten Commandments, but the massive body of hundreds more laws and regulations built up around them. Ceremonial law that related to how to worship the one true holy God. Civil law that applied to daily living in Israel. And the moral law that revealed the nature and will of God. Jesus says, referring to these laws and to the truth about God revealed through the Old Testament prophets, that he, Jesus, hasn’t come to abolish the law and prophets but to make their teachings come true, or to fulfil them.

No Jesus wasn’t intending to abandon the law and the prophets. Israel’s whole story, commands, promises and all, was going to come true in him. Now that he was here, everything was changing, God’s kingdom was coming, and life could be lived in that kingdom not by just keeping rules but by a change of heart & mind itself.This was truly revolutionary, and at the same time deeply in tune with the ancient promises of the Bible. Jesus embodied the way of self giving love which is the deepest fulfilment of the law & prophets, as the commands of the law provide a blueprint for the way of being fully, genuinely, freely, gloriously human.

So, not only does Jesus say he’s not doing away with the law, he goes on to say to this followers that they’re to be more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.

The teachers of the law and especially the Pharisees were scrupulous in their attempts to follow their laws. So what does Jesus mean calling his followers to be more faithful in doing what God requires?

Well the Pharisees were content to obey the laws outwardly, to go through the motions, to do the right thing. That’s fine as far as it goes, but Jesus calls his followers to something greater, something deeper. He calls them (and us) to a change of heart, to a goodness that flows from the heart, not just effort.

In the first 2 examples that follow, the practical outworking of this in dealing with anger and with lustful desire, Jesus says we have to go further and deeper than just changing our actions, we need to change our hearts, change our attitudes, our thinking, what goes on inside us, not just the outside.

And that’s the big big challenge of today’s reading. It’s not just: can we control our anger or our lust? It’s, can we become people who aren’t easily angry, who don’t have obsessive desire? Can we change, and not just: can our words and actions change?

Let’s look at each of the two areas Jesus discusses in detail and then we’ll come back to the question of how we can change from the inside out.

First anger. Anger is a spontaneous feeling that arises as a response when our will is crossed, when something happens that’s different from what we want. We can’t help that first feeling of anger, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But then we choose what happens next – do we embrace it, encourage it, stir it up by thinking about how we shouldn’t have been treated like that, how dare they say or do that to me? Often our anger is based on self importance, self righteousness or vanity. And we nurture it by holding on to those ideas and thoughts that we’ve been mistreated or wronged; we go over and over it in our heads.

And of course it spills out. Either straight away, with harsh rude hurtful words or actions, or later, if we’ve kept them in but still gone round with them inside us. So some small incident on the bus or in the car sets us off with an angry over-reaction. Road rage so often began somewhere else.

And all too easily anger slips into contempt. The Good News Bible uses the phrase “you good for nothing!” as the example of a hateful insult. The original Aramaic word, Raca, was used in Jesus day to express contempt for someone and to mark out him or her as contemptible. It may have originated from the sound you make to collect spittle from the throat in order to spit.

In anger I want to hurt you. In contempt I don’t care whether you’re hurt or not. You are not worth consideration one way or the other. Today we wouldn’t say Raca. But we have other words in our vocabulary of contempt, some with sexual or racial or cultural bearing, others just personally degrading. It’s not always done crudely, sometimes it is done with refinement! We see it in the school playground, at a party, in the home and even in the church. Someone being put down or left out, even if subtly.

The intention of contempt - and its effect - is to exclude someone, to push them away, leave them out and isolate them. Contempt spits on our deep need to be accepted and belong, and it hurts and destroys very badly and deeply too.

So, Jesus says, don’t let your anger rip, don’t be contemptuous. And he says it’s so important to be in the opposite frame of mind, so important to have good, loving, respectful relationships, that when you don’t, when you’re angry with someone – or even just if you know they’re angry with you! – sort it out as a matter of the utmost priority. He says it’s so important, so urgent, that it takes precedence over even the sacred rituals of worship. If you’re on your way to the temple and remember a strained or broken relationship, go and sort it out straight away. He says to leave the animal offering you had for God there at the altar, and go make reconciliation and then come back to complete your worship. Speaking to people in Galilee, several days’ journey from the temple at Jerusalem, this may well have been an amusing exaggeration – leave an animal standing there for 4 or 5 days?! But the point was clear. Make reconciliation an urgent priority. Even if you consider yourself in the right, and it’s the other person who has something against you, not vice versa. And again, if someone is suing you, make reconciliation with them, make peace with your adversary if you can, without bitterness or hostility.

...Challenging stuff...

And so we see how Jesus is taking us much much further than just the commandment, do not murder. Because with Jesus, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, has come! Living in it means living in new ways, like we heard in the Beatitudes last Sunday. With God as our king, and Jesus the embodiment of his love, we can see the world and other people as he does. And value and love them as he does. So when we’re angry, we remember that this other person is God’s child, made in his image, and infinitely valuable and precious to him. We won’t stir up that anger or become contemptuous of them, we’ll forgive, make peace, be genuinely committed to what is good for them, and to seek their well being. We’ll be prepared to sacrifice our interest for that of another if that seems wise. And we’ll keep a joyous confidence in God regardless of what happens.

This is what it means to be more faithful than the Pharisees in doing what God requires. Simply not killing looks quite empty by contrast with this doesn’t it.

So, let’s think about this personally. Whether anger is a big issue in your life or not, I’m sure we ALL experience the feeling of anger from time to time and have to decide what to do with it, hold on to it and nurture our indignation, or not.So, let’s think for a moment about which of these ways are WE most likely to express our anger? yelling? sarcasm? moodiness? withdrawing? grumbling and complaining? criticising ? cynicism? feeling like a victim and saying ‘poor me’? Which way do you and I most often ‘do’ anger?

Now let’s think of someone we are, or have been, angry with, and ask ourselves: How did my anger express the fact that I didn’t value that person as God does? How would it feel to value that person?

Am I sad about the harm that the anger between us is doing, to them, to me, and others around us?And, in all honesty do I long for reconciliation? Have I done all I can to move toward that? Truly?

Do I offer genuine actions of love instead of going through the motions?

..........

Plenty to think about there, about anger. Now, and much more briefly, the destructiveness of lustful desire.

As with murder, a specific action is forbidden by the commandment, do not commit adultery. But as with murder, not committing adultery doesn’t go nearly far enough. Do we look at someone, gaze lingeringly at someone we find attractive, deliberately taking pleasure in imagining or fanaticizing about what an encounter, romantic or sexual, with him or her would be like? Of course it’s different for men and women, and for different individuals, but we all know what it means to cultivate and savour a ‘look’ at someone we find attractive. But it can be very destructive, demeaning them, or progres to inappropriate action, especially harmful if we’re committed to someone else, or spill over into sexual harassment, or worse. Even if it seems less harmful than that, we stop seeing the person as a valued, loved child of God, and see them only as someone to give us shallow pleasure.

A sexual response to someone we find attractive is not wrong, any more than anger is. It’s what we do with it that counts. Scholars say that in verse 28 the wording refers to looking at a woman with the purpose of desiring her. That is we desire to desire. We indulge and cultivate desiring because we enjoy the fantasy.

So Jesus says, with another exaggerated illustration, cut off your hand or gouge out your eye, deal drastically with this problem, which again flows from an ungodly heart.

We’re back to the heart. It’s our hearts, our inner attitudes, which must be changed.

And they can be! In this new Kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven era, that has arrived with Jesus, we can be changed deep down inside! ?Yes, truly! But – BUT – we will only change if we really REALLY want to.

We have to really REALLY want to, because it’ll take humility and teachability. In order to change, we have to first be willing to see what’s in our hearts, our inner attitudes, as bad, as needing to change. As horrid and abhorrent, as sinful and a part of what Jesus had to die for. We won’t change unless we are prepared to tear away the excuses and defences we try and cover it up with. We have to see the state of our heart for what it is. We may be blind to it, or to the fact that there are layers of it that have to be recognised and peeled off. We may find there are deep seated causes of our anger, we may find hurts that need addressing before we can be free from them. But if we ask God to, with genuine humility, he will help us see what needs to change. Look at Jesus, read what he was like and what he said and did, and pray and see yourself in the light of it.

We might need to ask someone to help us see what we’re really like. The greatest times of true change in my inner attitude have come when someone who loves me has pointed out what I’ve been blind to see myself, on one occasion a self-focused attitude I was completely blind to, and how it played out daily. Ouch that’s painful. Yes recognising our sin is painful – but we do so in the light of God’s love and mercy. So when we do recognise it, we want to fall to our knees and repent of it; my God I’m so sorry...

And when we do that, THEN God’s LOVE and mercy and grace and power can forgive us, cleanse us, start to change us, and free us. Bit by bit we’ll replace the bad attitudes with good and Godly ones, by starting to see and value others as God does, infinitely precious and loved.

Do we want that? Do we want to change? Not just carry on a battle to control our temper or our words, our actions? But our hearts? Not just to stop angry and contemptuous words and lustful looks, but to become people who aren’t angry or contemptuous or lustful; people from whom good deeds and words flow naturally, people who are loving and gracious, like God our Father is?

Then let’s pray... Heavenly Father, thank you for your mercy and your grace to forgive us, and for your power to change us. Please help us to see where our hearts need changing, so that we can become the people you’ve made us to be, living and loving as you love us. In J name, amen.

Sermon 12th January 2014

Between now and Lent, adults will hear what Jesus actually said.  The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' most extensive block of teaching; it covers unexpected ground, in unexpected ways.

Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, begins our study and the reading is from Matthew 5, verses 1-16.

12th January: already! Well, I wonder just how many New Year resolutions are still in place with the month almost half-gone? Don’t worry; this isn’t going to turn into a straw poll! It’s meant instead to offer some encouragement; especially if your resolution included anything exercise-based. Even if it didn’t, here’s a late suggestion that you might even want to adopt yourself – of exercises that we’d be better off without!

In no particular order, then how about not:

~ Running around in circles;

~ Leaping on bandwagons;

~ Pushing our luck;

~ Beating our heads against brick walls;

~ Jumping to any conclusions;

~ Dragging our heels;

~ Throwing our weight around; or

~ Passing the buck;

throughout the rest of 2014?!

Now it might be that you think you know what’s coming next. Again, this is rhetorical; but do you think I’m going to suggest that our positive exercise plan for the year should instead be drawn from those verses that I’ve just read? If so, nothing can be further from where we will actually go with To think of these words in that way is to fall into a classic trap, of not grasping what Jesus was doing here. Yes, it is true to say that Jesus went on to teach some key ethical do’s and don’ts in the rest of this Sermon on the Mount. But the way that it begins is from a very different perspective. It’s vital that we understand that, in order for the whole to make proper sense.

To be clear about it, we are going to cover the whole of the Sermon on the Mount in this series. That’s our preaching plan here for this period up until the start of Lent. In the Church of England we are now into a Year of Matthew. So we’re picking up the story of Jesus post-Christmas, in this place, right near the start of it in Matthew. I say we’re picking up the story, but there isn’t too much story involved, of course! It’s solid teaching; as it will be right through to the end of this series. To some   extent that’s by our own design; but it’s mostly determined by the way that Matthew uniquely wrote his Gospel.

It’s always helpful, I think, to start any new series like this with a little background information. We do need to know some things about the Bible book that we’re studying, so we can better understand what it is, and isn’t about, and what it is, and isn’t saying, and doing. This background won’t be very in-depth: mostly because it doesn’t need to be this time. But there is some important stuff about Matthew’s Gospel that it would help us to know. And we should all at least know that the big two questions about it are: who wrote it; and when. As ever, there are no definitive answers, to either question but some people do get quite vexed over it. I’d suggest that we needn’t do, though, because to us it doesn’t matter if this book was written by Jesus’ disciple, Matthew – who used to be the tax-collector called Levi; or if this gospel comes first in the New Testament because it was written first!

What does matter is that we know this: whoever ‘Matthew’ was, and whenever he wrote, using whatever sources, he had a definite agenda. Like the other 3 Gospel-writers, his main agenda was for people to come to know who Jesus was, and what he’d done. Matthew wanted them, like him, then to become disciples of Jesus. Disciples are people living in, and for, God’s kingdom; in all the ways that Jesus had taught them to. That’s what Matthew also laid out very clearly in his book – what Jesus had taught – in a very systematic fashion; and for a very particular audience. Not for nothing has Matthew been called ‘the Gospel for the Jews’: his specific focus in writing was to prove how Jesus was God’s Messiah, the one promised in the Old Testament – in ways that were designed to convert Jews in his day.

For this reason we can’t rely on Matthew for accuracy, in terms of what happened when, or where, even – but then we were never meant to. That’s not the kind of book that he wrote. Instead Matthew is thematic; it’s written to a pattern that alternates narrative, story-telling, with blocks of teaching on particular subjects. What we know as the Sermon on the Mount is the first of those 5 major teaching blocks. It comes after the opening narrative on the birth of Jesus and the launch of his public ministry, aged 30. As I said, it does overall have an ethical thrust to it, this teaching-block that takes up the next 3 chapters of Matthew. But that’s not where, or how, it starts – and again that’s very likely down to Matthew.

Still on an introductory note, it’s important to add that most scholars don’t doubt Matthew’s accuracy in terms of his content. There’s little argument that Jesus did and said all that we read in this Gospel. It’s just that – with this Sermon being a classic example – Matthew tended to put things in the places that suited his particular purpose. So what we have here is very likely a collection of Jesus’ teaching that was given on a number of different occasions. Matthew brought it together in this place, to form this one solid block. Now it may not have been part of his original intention, but for centuries believers have found his structure very helpful. Before these debates started raging in modern times, Matthew was the go-to account – for instructing converts and training leaders alike; so there should be something for all of us in here too, then, no matter what stage we are at on the road of faith.

All of which brings us to the detail for today, then: the start of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We will keep on calling it Jesus’, because these are all his words; and also using title that it’s always had, because that’s pretty handy. There’s no reason to doubt that Jesus taught some of this on a hill near his new base in Capernaum; or that he spoke to his disciples when there were big crowd around either. That is the clear implication here: that Jesus was addressing his close followers, rather than everyone generally – though at some point that changed. But in term of us understanding what this part of it means, that distinction really matters.

As usual, it’s the ex-Bishop, scholar Tom Wright who says it most clearly and helpfully. This is Jesus making an announcement – not him giving a philosophical analysis of the world. It’s about something that is starting to happen – which is good news for all people everywhere. What this very definitely is not is good advice! Matthew doesn’t have Jesus telling people what to do, or how to behave, to make the world a better place. This is not some list of timeless truths about the way that the world actually is, really. As Tom Wright points out, life so obviously isn’t like this; and we all know that it isn’t too!

I’m sure you don’t need me to spell out all the apparent holes there would be if that was the word-picture that Jesus was trying to paint here. So I’ll jump straight to the discussion around how to translate the Greek word that’s used throughout these Beatitudes, as they’re most commonly called. The Good News goes with ‘Happy’, which is likely closer to the true sense of it than the ‘Blessed’ of the NIV. The Message version gets even closer, I’m told, by using ‘You’re blessed when ... ’; but Tom Wright goes even further by making it ‘Wonderful news ...’ As I said, this is Jesus’ announcement: not of the sort of people or circumstances God blesses so much as how God is now at work in new ways in His whole new, upside down world.

Of course one of the big questions in all this is when God’s promises will come true. Again it’s Tom Wright who says that the great temptation (or cop out!) is to say that it’s after death, in heaven. That is what the bracketed opening and closing Beatitudes seem to point to; but that is to misunderstand what heaven is. As we’ve heard before, heaven isn’t the place we go when we die. Rather it’s the realm where God is fully in charge: that realm sometimes touches the here and now – as it especially did through the words and deeds of Jesus when he lived here in person. God’s promise is that one day these two realms, heaven and earth, will be fully joined; as indeed Jesus himself taught us to pray for, later on in this Sermon.

When that happens we will see in full what we only catch very occasional glimpses of now. That really is a day to look forward to, and to pray and work for, though. This life of heaven, where God is already King, is to become the life of the whole world, for all of us. God’s promise is that life as we know it will be transformed into the realm of beauty, delight, and wonder that He has always intended it to be. The point of the Sermon on the Mount in general – and of these Beatitudes in particular – is to dare to live in the present in ways that will make sense in God’s promised future. And the basis of that challenge, Tom Wright says, is that God’s future has already arrived in the present, in the person of Jesus.

I hope that gives you a real flavour of what’s to come over the next two months or so. As ever, this could be a life-transforming experience – if we’ll engage with it as God is inviting us to. There is a real challenge in taking this upside down view of the world and believing that it is actually the right way up enough to live it. If we do that, we will be not just the preservative but God’s light for whole world – with potentially amazing results. But so that we don’t under-estimate the scale of this challenge, I want to end by reading today’s passage again, from the Message version, with Tom Wright’s translating tweak:

So: “Wonderful news when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

“Wonderful news when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

“Wonderful news when you’re content with just who you are: no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

“Wonderful news when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

“Wonderful news when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

“Wonderful news when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

“Wonderful news when you can show people how to co-operate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

“Wonderful news when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

“Not only that – count it as wonderful news every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – give a cheer, even! – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always got into this kind of trouble.”

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”

And so let’s pray that we will dare to do just that, then ...