GUIDELINES FOR THE REAL WORLD

(Preached on Sunday, January 30, 2005)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down his disciples came to him.  Then he began to speak and taught them, saying:...  

-Matthew 5:1-2

 

Thank you, for providing that commentary.

It really is about time that somebody stood up during the reading of scripture and called it into question.

After all, most of us, most of the time, are not really sure we buy all this Jesus and God stuff, anyway.

 

Many of us have heard so many of these passages so often, they are so familiar, that we have been able to build up a thick skin to them, “Oh yeah, that’s those beatitudes.  Nice words, blessings from God and all.  But that’s not really for me.”

We’ve heard them so often that they no longer surprise us.

But for those first listeners, these words of Jesus must have hit them like the proverbial ton of bricks.

(And maybe today, with the added commentary, they shook us up just a bit, too.)

 

And if they do get through our initial defenses, well then we have other fall-back positions.

If they really begin to penetrate our understanding then we can begin to question just to whom are they addressed?

After all, we don’t want to be poor in spirit.

We don’t want to be people who mourn.

We don’t want to be meek or hungry, and if being merciful means forgiving our enemies, we certainly want to think twice about that one.

Being pure in heart, too, we aren’t sure wee want that if it truly means we have to give up all those things we desire and lust after, all our imperfections and bad habits and little addictions, all those impurities so many of us cling to.

It is the same for being a peacemaker; more often than not we want to carry the grudge.

We certainly don’t want to be persecuted or reviled.

So, it would seem that when Jesus addresses the crowd on the side of the mountain, he isn’t really talking to us.

He might be talking to the person sitting next to you, but certainly not to you.  He might be speaking to the church down the street, but not to us here in these pews.

He isn’t talking to me!

 

And if he thinks he is, well, he’s just not in touch with reality.  Of course, most of us don’t blame Jesus for that disconnect with reality — somehow the preacher just has it wrong, or at the most, the gospel writer was just too unrealistic and idealistic.

I mean, all that Jesus stuff is okay, but sometimes you have got to get real.

After all, in the real world, the blessed, the happy, are not the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart or the peacemakers.  And certainly not those who are persecuted and reviled.

No, a real world view of blessedness and happiness is more like this list of 20^th century standards for measuring a man published by the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer a few years ago.

1. His ability to make and conserve money.

2. The cost, style and age of his car.

3. (This is my favorite) How much hair he has.

4. His strength and size.

5. The job he holds and how successful he is at it.

6. What sports he likes.

7. How many clubs he belongs to.

8. His aggressiveness and reliability.

 

There are two things going on in this passage that are important to remember.

First is the issue we have been discussing which is who defines reality?

Your view of reality is going to determine how you act.

How you live in the world is related to what sort of world you think we have.

When it comes to ethics, to behavior, I expect that most of us are practical, utilitarian people.

After all, we are Americans.

Most of us live on the basis, not of some grand high sounding creed, not on the basis of the directives of scripture, but simply on the basis of “what works.”

But what works is a function of what sort of world?

A Buddhist might say that reality consist of surviving and suffering and ought to be escaped through enlightenment.

Freud said that “Obscure, unfeeling, and unloving powers determine men’s fate.”

Thomas Hobbes famously declared reality to be “solitary, hard, brutish, and short.”

 

“No mercy!  None expected, none given.”

This statement printed on a middle school student’s T-shirt caught the attention of a teacher.  The boy was assigned to in-school suspension for fighting in the hallway.  “Do you really believe what is written on your shirt?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t wear it if I didn’t!” he shot back.

“Do you know what ‘mercy’ means?” pressed the teacher.

“It means I give as good as I get!  If someone hurts me, I hurt them back, only worse!”

“But suppose someone is really kind to you.  How do you respond to that?” he suggested.

“I-I guess I’d be kind right back,” he stammered.

“Then wouldn’t you be receiving some sort of mercy, and giving it right back?” he asked, placing his hand on the student’s shoulder.

“I suppose so, but it doesn’t happen very often!” he admitted.

“Perhaps if you began each day expecting goodness and mercy, instead of trouble, you’d have a happier day,” he countered.

 

Jesus is bold enough to tell us straight out, (to borrow a Neil Diamond phrase) that he has looked at life from both sides and that we are following an illusion — we really don’t know life at all.

And so, like a good rabbi who has something really important to teach, he sits down and tells us that there is a new world coming.

Jesus himself was a sign of that new world, the first example of one who lived in radical trust that God loved him and accepted him as he was.

The result was, by the grace of God, reality was making a fundamental shift.

 

So, the first thing to understand about this passage is that Jesus is challenging our view of reality.

He really is suggesting that the way we think the world works is not really the way the world works, and if we truly want to live in God’s reality, then these are the guidelines for finding happiness, blessedness.

 

The second thing going on in this passage which is important to remember is that Jesus is not sharing these guidelines as requirements for receiving God’s favor.

This sense of blessedness Jesus speaks of is a gift from God.

Those he pronounces as blessed have not done anything to earn this blessedness.

They are pronounced winners because God chooses to bestow this happiness on them.

 

The Beatitudes are therefore about God’s grace.

You don’t have to do something to earn this happiness.

In truth, it cannot be earned, but just received as a gift from God.  Pure gift.  Grace.

 

This is part of the new reality Jesus proclaims.