SermonStudio

The committee responsible for the wording of the New Revised Standard Version did not replace the familiar word blessed in the Beatitudes with the word happy as has been done in some translations. They preserved an important meaning. The Greek word so translated blessed did bear the meaning of happiness in the wider Greek speaking world. That happiness was defined as a life beyond care, labor and death. A model of such happiness was the life of the gods on Mount Olympus who lived beyond the hassles of everyday mortal life. It became an everyday term that could also mean simply rich. The wealthy who had the means to live without economic anxieties of lesser folk were described as happy. That meaning is not unknown among us. That television program so representative of the decade of the '80s, The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, takes us right back to the emulation of the gods by the ancient Greeks.

Webster's dictionary defines the word beatitude as "a state of utmost bliss." Do you suppose that is what Jesus had in mind? There is a delightful English comedy series on public television titled, Waiting for God. The locale is a retirement home for the elderly. Central to the story is a fiesty, irreverent and unconventional resident who is forever colliding with the staff. The social director is a benign lady with a perpetual smile, a cross hanging around her neck and a verbal fund of religious platitudes. One day the fiesty resident snaps at her, "Oh, stop it, you look like the Mona Lisa on Valium." It is difficult to imagine that Jesus intended to send out into the world a stream of followers wearing smile buttons. Preachers are tempted to present him as a dispenser of mental tricks for attitude adjustment.

The blessings of Jesus do not focus on the external circumstances of the person, but on inner moral and spiritual content. Some redefining is going on here. When we look at those who are called blessed we realize that something radical is afoot here. The blessed are not those the world would call blessed. In terms of what the world would call happiness, Peter, James, John and Andrew were a lot better off in many ways before they encountered Jesus. Economically, for one thing. The fishing industry in first century Palestine was a prosperous enterprise. James and John were doing quite well for Mark tells us that when they met Jesus they left the hired hands in charge of the boats. (Mark 1:20) They were employers. I bet their fish were turning up in all the upscale delis of Jerusalem. Levi, the tax collector turned disciple, had a comfortable position and enough means to throw a big dinner for Jesus in his own home. (Mark 2:15) They were doing quite well before Jesus came along to enlist them in what was destined to become a high risk enterprise in which some of them would even lose their lives. Out of memory comes a line from a hymn, "The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod."

No, this is no guru dispensing mental keys to happiness and healthier attitudes. This is a commander reassuring his troops and pointing them to the victory beyond many a losing battle. This is the risen Lord preparing his church to live, pray andlabor for the kingdom in a world where the score will always seem to be Christians 6, Lions 70. We are on the mountain here. The story of Jesus as told by Matthew moves from mountain to mountain. From the mount of temptation to the mount of mobilization and teaching, to the mount of healing, to the mount from whence Jesus comes to deliver his church, to the mount of transfigured seeing, to the mount of the great commission. The mountain is the place of revelation, instruction, command, ordination and assurance. Trace the path of Jesus through Matthew's gospel from mountain to mountain. It is fascinating. And, of course, these mountains point back to Mount Sinai where God spoke to Moses and through him addressed Israel. Some weighty things are being said here through the artistry of Matthew about the one who speaks and blesses. Here is one greater than Moses to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given.

And right here the phrase often translated "Happy are you" breaks down and proves inadequate. Jesus is after all giving a blessing and in the faith tradition of Israel a blessing is something special. A blessing conveys the soul force of the giver. A blessing carries an assurance and a guarantee, especially the blessing of God. Go back to the book with that distressing name, Numbers, and read the story of Balaam who was hired by Balak to curse the Israelites. "You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed." Three times God cancels the human curse Balaam would utter and turns it into a blessing. When we read this old story we cannot help but see in it a foreshadowing of the Divine reversal of the human curse of the cross and the reassertion of the blessing of God. "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." The Beatitudes point beyond the present to love's far ranging victory, but they do not ignore the present. Here are the promises that sustain the blessed in the worst of times, in seeming defeat, in many a dark night of the soul. When Lattimore and Gridley were burned at the stake for their non-conformist ways, Lattimore shouted to Gridley, "Be strong, Master Gridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a fire in England that by God's grace shall never be put out."

With a renewed appreciation of the forcefulness of that word "Blessed," let's take a brief glimpse at a few of the beatitudes. Take the first one. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Who are the poor? The poor in the gospels include not only the poverty stricken, but all judged by a harsh and ruling piety to be beyond the pale of respectability and the approval of God. The blessing of Jesus signals that the switches of history are set on the side of those who, as he did, turn the situations of human pain, suffering, and alienation into occasions for healing, mercy and reconciliation. To the beatitude as reported by Luke, Matthew makes a slight change, "poor in spirit." We want to remember that Matthew's congregation is removed in time from this group around Jesus. They are not so poor any more. In fact, all the evidence suggests a prosperous, urban congregation. How might we interpret this beatitude to such a congregation? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? I suggest this. To be poor in spirit is to stay connected to the pain of all our brothers and sisters in this world. When we become a community of the comfortable and indifferent, we will have little relevance to the kingdom.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Who are the meek? They are the oppressed who are excluded from the mainstream, the people without clout.

They are not silent door mats. They may speak up. They may organize and knock on the doors of power and privilege. But, I think here of the comment of a United Methodist Bishop. "It is true, the meek will inherit the earth. The problem is how to keep them meek once that has happened." I think here of a congregation in colonial Massachusetts. These folk had their eyes on some land owned by the Indians. The following entry was found in the minutes of a meeting they held to decide if they should claim that land. "Voted, the earth is the Lord's. Voted, the saints shall inherit the earth. Voted, we are the saints." In this century we have seen the oppressed assume power and become themselves arrogant and bloody tyrants. We have also witnessed how this arrogance can bring its own unique doom.

The folk in that parish in Massachusetts singled out only one beatitude. They should have gone further and pondered "Blessed are the pure in heart." The late Emil Brunner commented that the church is called "The Church Militant not only because she is in confrontation with the world, but because each Christian is called to an inner struggle of the soul. In instructing his church, Jesus is not setting up an us versus them group. The evils in the world do not exist somewhere else in someone else. They exist also in us. "Only in humility, charity and purity can we be prepared to receive the grace of God without which human operations are vain." T.S. Eliot said that.

That suffices for now. The aim of this sermon was to help us all rediscover the Beatitudes for ourselves and the radical way they turn our cultural values upside down. The ancient Greeks called the person rich in things blessed. We still do. The Beatitudes point us to that inner wealth that constitutes true blessedness. Philip Yancy, a columnist, cited in a recent column the people in his own life who manifested great wisdom. Among them was included a patient at a leprosarium in India, a civil rights leader who worked out his theology in a jail cell, a mother who lost two children to cystic fibrosis, a priest who works in a home for the disabled, and a minister turned innkeeper for the homeless. His concluding comment will be of interest to us. "At one point in my life I pitied such people. Then I came to admire them. And now I envy them. They help me understand the Beatitudes which jar me because I now recognize in them a richness that unmasks my own poverty."

If you covet the phony happiness of the world, read the glossy magazines. If you covet blessedness, heed the Lord who speaks from the mountain and follow him.