Sermon on Mount
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Feb. 2, 2020: Matthew 5:1-11
With February comes Matthew’s offering of the beatitudes of Jesus. These comfortable words in the midst of a really harsh winter offer a bit of sunshine. It is so cold that the typical description of “the dogs are sticking to the sidewalk” will not do. For one thing, we haven’t seen a sidewalk in a while, nor have we seen many dogs.
It is a good time to speak of blessedness, which in several translations of the text means happy. Yet hearing “happy are you poor” or “happy are you who mourn” doesn’t seem to offer much comfort. Some will say, “The words are future tense and I am in great need right now!”
I think that Jesus is speaking of knowing what it means to be human. He knew the kinds of pain that we each at some point experience. The Beatitudes offer the first stirring of hope within the gospels. Here is one among us who is able to name our pain and to say this is not forever. We hear the first stirring of hope in a really cold and harmful world. The sayings offer a depth that seems to make life bearable.
In the midst of a really terrible brewing of trouble within the church, this might just offer the healing word. Perhaps we ask, “What can a set of timeless proverbs offer?” The Beatitudes offer public sympathy for those who suffer. Imagine there is still a church organization called United Methodist, whose mission is to all who suffer. This church doesn’t spend its time quarreling and fighting over words that long ago lost their meaning. It is a great blessing just to serve with whomever comes. And you will not need a litmus test to qualify for membership. Wouldn’t that be something?!
I belong to a church like that, and to be there is to understand the meaning of blessedness, only we call it grace.
Together with friends and colleagues, the Rev. Bill Cotton, a retired clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference, produces the weekly sermon resource "Memo for Those Who Preach."