Micah 6: 1-8 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Matthew 5:1-12 (NRSV)
For Matthew, Jesus is viewed as a kind of “New Moses” and like the original Moses, Jesus delivers his famous sermon from a mountainside. It is known as the Beatitudes which comes from the Latin word beatitudus which means blessedness or joy. Just as the Hebrew Bible begins with divine blessings of creation and the exodus from enslavement, Jesus begins a divine blessing which seems contrary to common norms. In Jesus’ sermon he puts the values of people in a totally different way. Instead of blessed are the rich, being happy, strong, satisfied and well liked, Jesus says blessed are the poor, those who mourn, those who are gentle, the merciful and pure of heart. Do you ever think you would hear a sermon like that from a prosperity gospel preacher with his $500 three-piece suit preaching in a mega-church?
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus is saying the higher you go up in the system, the more trapped you are. Every promotion or recognition you receive, there is a price to pay in following the party line. And this is true in any business or organization.
Blessed are those who mourn. Jesus is describing the situation of those who weep and have something to mourn about. They feel the pain of the world. Jesus is saying those who grieve are showing true empathy. There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is showing sorrow for someone. Empathy is being identified with their pain. We certainly need more empathy in today’s world.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Jesus is saying to live a just life is to identify with the poor, the forgotten and the persecuted. This teaching is both spiritual and social.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. The experience of forgiveness or mercy is the action of the Creator who loves unconditionally. This is the story of Jesus driving out the money-changers from the Temple. The buying and selling of God is over. One cannot buy God’s blessings by worthiness, achievements or obeying commandments. Healing salvation is God’s free gift to humanity.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Jesus is not on the side of the violent. There is no way to peace, other than peace-making itself. Peacemakers have always faced abuse. They have been called traitors, communists and even jailed. One former president once said, “it’s easier to wage war than it is to wage peace.”
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Persecution for the cause of justice is bound to happen. It happened during the civil rights era, against unjust wars, against fossil fuel polluters, against
whistle-blowers and it will continue to happen. Those who protest for righteous causes will be blessed, because they are creating God’s Kingdom on earth.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. First of all, Christians in America are not being persecuted, although some are upset they can no longer practice their bigotry as openly in the media as in prior years. That is not persecution. But there are Christians elsewhere in the world facing real persecution. Jesus is saying to live joyfully in the midst of persecution and misunderstanding. But even in America, Christians who truly have followed the actual teachings of Jesus have faced persecution and imprisonment. One only has to remember Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and others like them.
One way to look at the Beatitudes that Jesus preached, if your own religious practice does not assist you to transcend your culture, then your practice is not religion at all, it is just some sort of support group for living in the status-quo of your culture.
In closing I would like to say something about Micah chapter six, verse eight, which some call Biblical ethics in a nutshell, which fits well with the Beatitudes. Do Justice, not as a thought, but an action. Love Kindness, without love, justice is incomplete. Walk Humbly, or rather walk with reverence alongside God. This writing from the Prophet Micah conveys more than human ethics. It reflects how we act with one another as a reflection of our relationship with God. And it makes a very excellent motto for our own beloved faith community - the Salem
Presbyterian Church.
AMEN
