The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Matthew 5:1-12
There is chaos and violence in the streets of Egypt. The ancient city of Carthage, known to us today as Tunisia, has seen similar oppressive violence as a response to voices protesting for democracy, equality, and economic opportunity. In Uganda, political tensions are rising, and recent attacks on activists for the rights of gays and on humanitarian workers seem to be an outgrowth of highly-charged political diatribe. In Sudan, the people of the south remain hopeful that voting for secession from the north will hold peacefully, yet violence has erupted and lives lost near the north/south border. Voices in the south clamor for peace and freedom, and in the north, carefully measured statements about a new Sudan are heard. In our own country, a new year brings again the voices of a path continuing forward in difficult times as we continue to struggle economically, and continue to live in a time where our country is at war.
In all of it, one can wonder and be lost, or even overwhelmed, in the dynamics of an unsettled time and unsettled world. In the midst of it all, we can respond to events as they impact our own lives and we can rightly wonder—what voices might we find clarity and action in following. One might also wonder, it all seems so big and we are just regular folk, what is my place in it?
This is the set-up I ask for us to live into this morning as we consider our Gospel today. In a world just as disrupted and challenged, I might suggest that common folk may have been asking the same questions. I am just a regular folk; what is my place in all this mess? Among the many voices crying out in this world, in which one might I find some clarity and action following?
Today we have the Beatitudes. Familiar to all of us, most scholars agree the beatitudes are the platform speech on which Jesus builds, inspires, challenges, and equips his followers to live into a new ideal for their lives and the world that is the Kingdom he has come to usher in. The symbolism in Matthew’s gospel is worth noting. Just as Moses ascended that holy mount to discover and deliver the law for the people of God, so Jesus sits on the mount to deliver the good news that God’s dream is actualized in Jesus, and to those who listen and believe in what he says, they must actualize his teachings in their behavior. In this way, God’s dream comes alive! “Blessed” is the English word we use to translate from the Greek “marikiori” which, more closely translated, may be “how fortunate” or “how fulfilled,” or in that sense, “happy.” “Blessed” are the ones who hear, believe, and live out this path that is not easy of bringing God’s dream to life in their lives and in the world.
This is a large and demanding voice with a call to big things. Who, then, is worthy of such a commendation? Who is there on that hillside? What about you? Can you imagine yourself on that hillside today? What is it that is being asked of them, of us? Surely those sitting there that day must have been spiritual heroes to actualize such behavior; surely this message today must be for the heroes among us.
Hear the words of Fred Beuchner as he responds to the questions, “What voices do I pay attention to, and how is it that a common folk like me fits into this? I paraphrase from his work on the Beatitudes found in his book, Wishful Thinking.
“We might be tempted to guess one sort or another of spiritual hero, (might be picked out to hear this special commendation that is beatitudes), men and women of impeccable credentials morally, spiritually, humanly, BUT we would be wrong.
“Jesus did not pick out the spiritual giants (to follow, listen, and to actualize) but the “poor in spirit,” the ones who spiritually speaking have nothing to give but everything to receive.”
“Not the champions of faith who can rejoice even in the midst of their own suffering, but the ones who mourn over suffering, and have the ability to mourn over the suffering of others.”
(Jesus did not choose) the strong ones but the meek ones, in the sense of the gentle ones, i.e., not like Caspar Milquetoast but like Charlie Chaplain, the little tramp who was stamped on by the world, yet is dapper and undaunted to the end, and somehow makes the world more human in the process.
(Jesus did not choose) the ones who are righteous but the ones who hope they will be some day and in the meantime, are well aware that the distance they have to go is still greater than the distance they have come.
(Jesus did not choose) the winners of great victories over evil in the world, but the ones who, seeing it in themselves every time they comb hair in the mirror, are merciful when they find it in others, and in being merciful maybe win the greater victory.
(Jesus did not choose) the totally pure, but the “pure in heart,” the ones who are as shop-worn and clay-footed as the next, but who somehow have kept some inner freshness and innocence intact.
(Jesus did not choose) necessarily the ones who have found peace in its fullness but the ones who, just for that reason, try to bring it about wherever and however they can, be it peace with their neighbors and God, peace and themselves.
Jesus saved for last the ones who side with heaven (on his account) even when any fool can see it seems to be a losing side in worldly terms. Looking into their faces he says, “Blessed are you.” “How fortunate you will be.” “Happy are you.”
Imagine them looking back at him. Now imagine yourself looking back at him. They are not a high-class crowd, peasants and fisher folk, on the shabby side, some of them, not that bright. It doesn’t look like there is a hero among them, Buechner reminds us. How about among us?
They are blessed—and they must know it as they go forward. It is not his hard times ahead he is concerned with but theirs. It is his own meekness, his own mercy, his own peaceful heart from which he speaks. It is their meekness, their mercy, their own peaceful hearts (and ours) that he seeks.
A final word on this day: If the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus delivering the platform of God’s dream and the opportunity is to hear the beatitudes as a commendation to actualize principles of mercy, meekness, peacefulness, and sacrifice, then we give thanks for Joel Atkinson’s ministry and person, for he is indeed “blessed.”
Amen.
