| "Read the Instructions!" - September 27 2009 - The Rev Vicky Ney | ||
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September 27, 2009 “Read the Instructions!” The Rev. Victoria Ney Text: Matthew 5:1-12 It seems these days that more and more of the things we buy come in a box marked with two dreaded words that strike fear in the hearts of all consumers: Assembly Required. My son Stephen just moved into an apartment earlier this month and bought a couple of pieces of furniture to get started. Unfortunately, his brand new futon was delivered in a box with those two words—assembly required. He had been warned when he purchased it, but he never would have believed how unassembled it was! Big pieces along with a huge array of nuts, bolts, washers, lugs, braces—you name it. In typical macho-style, he tossed the instructions aside and spread everything out on the living room floor. At first he said there didn’t seem to be enough parts. Then there were parts left over. Finally he finished, only to find that when it was turned over and set up, it tilted to one side. I received a phone call from a very frustrated young man, so I immediately handed the phone to Richard. Richard—who, in the past, had been very experienced in the art of trying to put things together without instructions—gave Stephen great advice—look at the instructions. It’s the only way. Stephen went back to work and later he called when the futon was finished. He was laughing because he found a yellow card at the bottom of the box that had these words in block lettering. It read: “By the way ….when all else fails, read the instructions!” Truer words have never been written. I believe it contains a life lesson. Life can be difficult. It’s hard to put the pieces all together when we fail to read the instructions. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an instruction manual? It would be great if we could bring together the brightest minds of all times—psychologists, professors, theologians, lawyers, judges, scientists, doctors, and historians, and ask them to write a basic handbook for living sane, meaningful, and productive lives—a handbook that would be both profound and practical, that would give straightforward instructions for a life of zest and joy. Take those ideas, refine them, and then edit them down to a series of basic principles for living. Guess what? The handbook was written many years ago. It’s called the Bible. Now I realize the Bible is pretty long—66 books. I also realize it’s got a lot of chapters on “begetting,” and stories, and history, and some wild prophecies, and some surrealistic scenes with horsemen and apocalypses. I know it’s not simple literature. There’s an old saying that states, “I could get this mattress up the stairs if I could just figure out how to get hold of it!” This is true with the Bible. Fortunately for us, there are certain “handles” in the Bible that help us to get hold of it. There are a couple of places in the Bible that really make up a handbook for living—some life instructions. I’m thinking especially of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel in the New Testament—part of which we read just a few moments ago. In both places, God is describing how to live life the best way. That doesn’t mean we are damned to hell if we don’t. God is telling us the way in which to live to make life more of a heaven here on earth—or it just might seem like hell! We can look at the Ten Commandments in another sermon series or Bible study sometime, but for the next few weeks I’d like us to concentrate on one portion of the Sermon on the Mount—The Beatitudes. In these verses, God is offering us a boarding pass to a fantastic life in Jesus. But a quick glance over the list alerts us to how odd these ideas are when we stop to look at the values our own culture prizes. In our American culture, we value youth, supple skin, power, muscle, intelligence, self-confidence, sex-appeal. We look suspiciously at any public figure who cries, and we accept unfaithfulness, lack of civility, and lying as part of ordinary life. We walk over meekness like a door mat on the way to the top. And peacemaking is politically correct—hence all those speeches this past week at the United Nations—but everyone wants peace on their own terms. The Beatitudes is one of the most recognizable passages, not only in the Bible, but in all of western literature. But you know, familiarity can often be a negative—an obstacle to really understanding what they say. It’s like a prayer that you’ve memorized and say automatically. Sometimes you just don’t think about what you’re saying. It’s the same for these familiar Beatitudes. They sound pretty, but what do they really mean for our lives? First of all, let’s look at what a Beatitude is. They are called Beatitudes because they come from the Latin word beatus, that means “fortunate.” That word begins each verse in this section. The word for “blessed” in Greek is markarios, which is closer to “being happy.” It’s hard to explain, but these Beatitudes are not blessings—like something pronounced over you. It’s a description of how to be happy or fortunate. It’s not making you immediately happy, but it can lead you there. A Jewish rabbi, Steven Schwarzchild, described it like this: “There is no one word that will do. It’s something like ‘one the right path’—on the way the Creator wants us to go. It’s the opposite of the word for sin, which means ‘losing your way.’” Did you know that the Bible is, in fact, full of “beatitudes?” Psalms and Proverbs contain many. IN fact, the very first Psalm starts with a Beatitude: “Blessed is the man—or Happy are those—who do not follow the advice of the wicked…” (Psalm 1:1) And another can be found at the end of Psalm 2: “Happy are all who take refuge in the Lord.” (Psalm 2:12). So the Beatitudes are part of a well-established literary tradition. As I said, the Beatitudes start out with familiar words—Blessed are they—just like the Old Testament ones—but that’s where the comparison stops. The crowds that gathered to hear Jesus preaching back in the First Century probably expected to hear the familiar, comforting words of traditional wisdom—more of what they heard in the synagogue. But the words of Jesus reveal that something new has been added to the old Beatitude recipe. What’s so shocking about this passage is that it sounds like it’s full of typos. When you read it, you figure there must be a mistake. “Blessed are the meek.” The meek?! I don’t think so! And “fortunate are those who mourn?” Are you crazy? But you see, the only way to see these words clearly is through the lens of the kingdom of God. We need to be looking through divine glasses that Jesus gives us to see clearly what God’s kingdom really looks like. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”…… “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”…..”Blessed are the peacemakers”…. These phrases are not prescriptions from the self-help section of our local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Instead, they are statements of what is true about the new reality that Jesus brings to this world. Remember, Jesus was talking to his disciples here. The disciples were common men. Before they were stained glass saints on the windows of cathedrals, they were ordinary guys, somebody’s neighbor, making a living, support a family. They weren’t cut from special theological cloth or fed supernatural milk. But it turns out that they were just a little more devoted to what Jesus said than they were afraid—sometimes! As a result, they were able to do extraordinary things. What Jesus is saying to this rag-tag group of guys is that they are blessed because they are experiencing the coming of God’s kingdom. To be part of it, they will need to allow their lives to be reshaped by this whole new reality. From now on they won’t be defined by their culture, or the expectations of family and friends, or the size of the income from their fishing business. From now on, their existence will be centered in the kingdom of God. And the blessing of God will come to them because they make a place for this kingdom in their lives. That’s exactly what Jesus is telling us today. Remember, these “blessings” are NOT “be-happy attitudes.” You aren’t going to “be happy” when you’re being persecuted or in mourning. To be blessed, in this case, is to be made privileged or fortunate by the action of God in our world. It carries with it a sense of peace and well-being. It’s clear that the blessings of the Beatitudes are not about us, and it’s not about how we feel. Instead, it’s all about what God has done for us and how we are to respond. We might discover, for example, that we can be “poor in spirit”—a term that describes people who find their true identity and security in Almighty God. There is nothing weak, or pathetic or shameful about being poor in Spirit. Instead it means that we are not deluded enough to think that we are master of the universe and in complete control of our lives. We are dependent on God, first and foremost, and that the Lord will reward us with the gift of his presence—his kingdom. Perhaps we are also trying to be what Jesus calls “the meek”—gentle people who are trying to reject the power-hungry and violent ways of the world we live in. Or maybe we are “pure in heart”—trying to show the world, in word and deed, that there is nothing more life-changing and satisfying than living the way Jesus said to live. All of the Beatitudes may look strange to us at first glance. But they are kingdom-based qualities that can open the door to inner peace and contented life. So, let me ask you, are you happy today? Are you content? Is your life bearing the kind of returns you want it to? Jesus said that it can. That is the promise if we use these unique sayings of Jesus to transform our lives. We can have the change of attitude that can turn our lives from the business of ladder-climbing and keeping up with the Joneses, to the cross-lifting and stone rolling business that God originally intended. Don’t get me wrong. Jesus does NOT promise that if we follow his instructions, we will be rich and famous and giddy happy all the time. What he DOES promise, is that by following the instructions, we will have a life of fulfillment and peace and his victory in the end. |
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