True Glory

The scriptures referred to are Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, and Matthew 17:1-9.

On the YouTube channel Religion For Breakfast, Dr. Andrew Mark Henry does deep dives on various aspects of religion from an academic perspective but in a way that the average person can understand and appreciate the findings and opinions of scholars of religion. Recently he discussed a controversial idea some were debating, namely, do animals have religion? And while we obviously do not know what is going on in their minds, one phenomenon struck me. It seems that chimpanzees go nuts when they encounter waterfalls. They shriek and jump around, sometimes waving sticks. Other times they just sit quietly and watch. Some researchers think that what affects them is that the water is moving and yet is not alive. The safest conclusion to draw, however, is that they are experiencing awe.

We all experience awe at times. Going out on a boat and finding yourself surrounded by the vastness of the ocean. Watching a glorious sunset. Looking up on a moonless night and seeing the incredible number of stars in the sky. My grandson recently experienced awe when we when to Colorado. The area around Denver is rather flat but when you drive west, you see the Rocky Mountains, rising up from the plains, some reddish and craggy, some purple with shadows, some green with trees, some capped with snow, and some with their summits hidden in the clouds. Growing up in Florida he had never seen mountains, much less gone up one. From the top of Pike's Peak he saw and touched snow for the first time and was able to gaze down upon the surrounding area, including lesser mountains, from a height of 14,115 feet. It was, to properly use the word for once, awesome.

In today's lectionary texts, we read of two mountain top experiences. The first is Moses' 40 days on the mountain receiving God's law. The second is Jesus taking Peter, James and John up a mountain to see him transfigured. Both were awe-inspiring. Each had a reason for happening.

Moses was called by God to lead his people out of slavery and into the promised land. But that change of venue and status was not the only reason God had for doing it. Long ago, he had promised their ancestor Abraham that the whole world would be blessed through the great nation his descendants would become. (Genesis 12:2-3) But Israel would not become great in the way the world sees greatness. They would not become an empire. Their greatness would be the law God would give them, one characterized by justice and mercy, as exemplified in its preamble: the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20:1-17) Later God's Son would summarize them in two great commandments: to love God with all we are and all we have and to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. (Matthew 22:36-40) He said that no commandment was greater than these. (Mark 12:31)

Why didn't God just whisper these laws to Moses in his sleep? I think it's because we humans are both physical and spiritual. What is spiritual can be ethereal and amorphous. The physical gives the spiritual a form while the spiritual gives the physical a meaning. We see this in communion. The Passover meal commemorated God sparing the children of Israel when death struck the firstborn of the Egyptians on the eve of their release from slavery. Jesus took that and transformed it into the meal in which we remember how the Son of God's self-sacrifice frees us from death and our slavery to sin.

So God takes Moses up on top of a mountain where he enters a cloud and sees God in the form of a devouring fire. Moses is awestruck and will always remember what God tells him. And in our passage from Matthew Jesus takes his inner circle of disciples up to the top of a mountain to show them that he is in fact the glorious Son of Man that Daniel prophesied about. (Daniel 7:13-14)

Why was it necessary for Jesus to do this? Because just 6 days earlier, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” His disciples rattled off the usual suspects: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or some other prophet. Then Jesus asks, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” And Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus blesses Peter and says that this was revealed to him not by man but by God. He goes on to say that his church will be built on this rock and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. They are at Caesarea Philippi, a site built by Herod's son Philip as a tribute to Tiberius Caesar. There was a large cave there that was sacred to pagans who thought it was the entrance to Hades, the underworld of the dead. Jesus may have been referring to that in saying his church could withstand spiritual assaults because it was based on the solid rock of Peter's declaration. (Matthew 16:13-20)

But then the mood changes. Having confirmation that his disciples knew him to be the Anointed One, God's Son, he then tells them something shocking: that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the religious authorities and be killed. He also says that he will be raised to life on the third day but they can't get past the shock that he will be killed. What good is a dead Messiah? So Peter takes him aside and tells Jesus that he is wrong. That's right: he tells the guy he just identified as God's Son that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are not thinking about things as God does but about them as men do.” Satan is literally the Hebrew word for “adversary.” Peter is trying to tempt Jesus to do what any human being would—avoid suffering and death at all costs. But Jesus knows that God has a greater purpose behind this. Still, imagine how this rebuke stung Peter.

Then Jesus turns to all his disciples and says, “If anyone wants to follow me, let them thoroughly deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” In other words, they must give up all rights to do as they want and follow Jesus as if they were condemned men carrying their cross to the place of execution. What a bummer! (Matthew 16:12-28)

So the mood for the next week would have been somber. Peter was trying to forget that Jesus compared him to God's adversary for telling Jesus he should not die. The others were dealing with Jesus telling them that those who try to save their lives will lose them and that those who lose their life for Jesus' sake will find it. Nobody is happy.

Jesus knows that they need to see that this is what God wants for the person Peter identified him as. So he takes the main three disciples up a mountain, probably Mount Hermon, which is not far from Caesarea Philippi. At 9,232 feet above sea level it's the highest point in the area. It is snow covered for most of the year and snow melt feeds the springs at its base. These are the source of the river Jordan. Its name might come from the Semitic root word for “consecrated.”

So this is an awe-inspiring place to be by itself. But while they were up there, Jesus becomes the most awesome sight they've ever seen. His face shines like the sun. Think of how hard it it to look directly at the sun. His clothes also become as bright as the light. The disciples must be shading their eyes when looking in Jesus' direction. The effect is unsettling. They are seeing Jesus as he is: God Incarnate.

Suddenly there are two other figures there: Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the premiere prophet. We are not told how the disciples identify them, but they represent two main parts of the Old Testament scriptures, the Law and the Prophets. Both men also have remarkable endings to their earthly lives. Moses is buried by God in some place unknown (Deuteronomy 34:5-6) and Elijah is taken to heaven by a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11) Luke says they were talking to Jesus about his own upcoming death. (Luke 9:31)

Peter starts babbling about building some shelters for the three glorious figures when a bright cloud overshadows them. A voice says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased.” This echoes a line in today's psalm (Psalm 2:7) as well as what God said at Jesus' baptism. (Matthew 3:16-17) But there is an added sentence: “Listen to him.” In other words, Jesus knows what he's talking about. If he says he has to die, he is telling the truth and you need to accept it, no matter how you feel about it.

The reaction of the disciples is just what you'd think: they fall to the ground and are overcome by fear. All of this is uncanny. Then Jesus comes and touches them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they raise their heads, everything looks normal. It's just Jesus, looking as he does on any other day.

All three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, report this event. John, as usual, is different. Just as John's gospel doesn't actually describe Jesus being baptized or saying the words “This is my body” and “This is my blood” at the last supper, he doesn't mention this glimpse of Jesus' glory. But he does record Jesus talking of his being glorified. However, the event that Jesus says will glorify him is his death on the cross. (John 12:23; 13:31; 17:1) Just how is that glorious?

Paul says, “For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8) That is extraordinary. God who is holy becomes a human and dies to save unholy humanity. The good guy dies to save the villains. The embodiment of God's law of love dies to save those who break the law. And Paul was also in awe of this because he writes, “This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Paul started out persecuting the church. He was at the stoning of Stephen and approved of it. He arrested Christians and had them thrown into prison. (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3; 9:1-2) After becoming a follower of Jesus, Paul was acutely aware that it was God's grace that saved him and not anything he had done. (1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:12-14) He said that ironically when people heard that “...the one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy.' So they glorified God because of me.” (Galatians 1:23-24)

Jesus Christ, God's Son, dying for a world of sinners in order that they might be saved and become sons and daughters of God is truly awesome. It is the greatest act of mercy ever. But of course, what really makes people listen to him is his resurrection. Other people have died for causes and not all of those causes were good. People died for the crusades or for the European conquest of the Americas or to keep slavery or for the Nazi conquest of Europe and Russia. A smaller number have died for good causes. What makes Jesus different from those who died for a good cause, like Socrates or Jan Huss or Martin Luther King Jr., is that God raised him to life again. Jesus' resurrection validates what he said. It changes him from just another martyr to the Redeemer of our lives.

When Jesus revealed his fate to the disciples, it demoralized them. He needed to keep them together till he rose again. So he gave them a glimpse of who he was, unfiltered. Perhaps this is what he meant when he said, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28) It left a lasting impression, as we see in our passage from 2 Peter. Even so his crucifixion and death caused them to doubt. They would not be able to see how glorious what happened was until they saw him and touched him and ate with him. Often the clearest way to see God's hand at work in our worst experiences is to look back and see things from the other side of the trauma. Things not experienced as good at the time may in retrospect be seen at the vital turning point, the hinge upon which our story turned into something so much better. It's good to remember this when we are going through a time of trial. In Jesus we see God turn a tragedy into a triumph.

What Jesus did on that mountain and what he did on the cross he did not for himself but for others. The disciples needed a vision of hope so he lifted the veil on his heavenly glory. He showed them that what he was going to do was in line with what God revealed in the law and the prophets. He knew there was going to be a time when he would not look like the Christ, the Son of the living God, but a bloody corpse. They needed an awesome glimpse of his glory on a mountain top so that when they saw the awful sight of him on a cross they would later be able to see in it the true glory of his self-sacrificial love. 

The Right Balance

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 112:1-9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, and Matthew 5:13-20.

I used to work for US-1 Radio as production director and copywriter. I was responsible for writing and recording the commercials, which paid everyone's salary. I won awards for my ads. But the station was most proud of a national award it got for its coverage during Hurricane Georges. They let me, my wife and our kids evacuate because they stopped running commercials and our news director Bill Becker and the on-air staff covered the hurricane 24 hours a day, even as water leaked into the studio. During Hurricane Irma, one of the staff stood outside in the storm holding the satellite dish in place, so the signal would get beamed to the tower and from there to people throughout the Florida Keys. If that dish had failed, what they were saying in the studio would not have mattered. The physical setup made spreading of the message possible.

Which would you miss first should they disappear from this place: Pastor Art and I bringing you communion or the trustees bringing you food? Access to Bibles or access to blankets? The chaplains or the nurses? I'm not saying that our spiritual needs are not important, but if a person doesn't have their physical needs met first, it is hard for them to focus on spiritual matters, however important.

Jesus knew that. Just before the Sermon on the Mount begins we read in Matthew, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:21-25) Which do you think was more likely—that the crowds came to Jesus mainly to hear him preach and then maybe to stay and be healed? Or that they came first to be healed and then stayed to hear what the person who healed them had to say about God's love and forgiveness?

Very early a philosophy tried to infiltrate the church: Gnosticism. The name came from the Greek word for knowledge and that knowledge was that everything physical was evil and only what was spiritual was good. It attracted a lot of people. The most famous Gnostic work was the so-called Gospel of Thomas. The problem is that, according to the Gnostics, Christ did not really become one of us. He couldn't have a physical and therefore evil body, so the incarnation was an illusion. Which also meant he wasn't crucified and thus didn't die or rise again. They were illusions. Salvation came through learning the secret knowledge the Gnostics taught. There were levels of secret knowledge their followers had to ascend through, rather like Scientology. Lots of cults follow this plan.

Gnosticism was condemned as a heresy. But even in the mainstream church you find people who wish to separate the spiritual from the physical. They think the church should focus almost exclusively on spiritual matters. They say that the church shouldn't get involved in things like social justice. They even say that empathy can be a sin!

I wonder what they make of today's passage from Isaiah, the prophet Jesus quoted the most. Here God is saying that his people's religious fasts do not count with him and their prayers do not reach him if at the same time they are inflicting or even tolerating injustice. He wants them to first free the oppressed and share their food with the hungry and “bring the homeless poor into your house.” They are to clothe the naked and “satisfy the needs of the afflicted.” Only after that are we told “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, 'Here I am'”

And in today's passage from the Psalms, the book of the Bible that Jesus quoted the most, we read that “the righteous are merciful and full of compassion. It is good for them to be generous in lending and to manage their affairs with justice...They have given freely to the poor.” The righteous, then, are not just concerned with spiritual matters but with physical matters as well, like helping the poor. 

(By the way, empathy is a synonym for compassion. If the righteous are to be “full of compassion,” if God is described as compassionate (Exodus 34:6; Deuteronomy 4:31; Psalms 78:38; 86:15; 103:8), if Jesus is described as being moved by compassion (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34), then empathy, another word for compassion, cannot be a sin.)

In our passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares his followers to salt and light. What did he mean by that?

Today we think of salt primarily as adding flavor to foods. One of the problems heart patients and people with high blood pressure face when avoiding too much salt is that they find their diets have become bland. Look at any food packaging and you will generally find sodium (ie, salt) as one of the ingredients. Yet sodium is an important electrolyte that helps us regulate our fluid balance, blood pressure, nerve function and muscle contractions. So the trick is to maintain the proper balance between too much and too little. Balance, called homeostasis in biology, is vital to a healthy life.

Jesus however is probably thinking of the use of salt as a preservative. There was no such thing as refrigeration back then. Yes, rich people had ice cellars in which they kept snow and ice from the previous winter but usually this was used to cool beverages. The average person preserved perishable foods, like fish, by using salt. So Jesus is thinking of his followers as people who preserve the earth. How? Just previously he had described citizens of God's kingdom as being merciful and peacemakers among other things. People who are merciless and troublemakers do not preserve communities but fracture them. They destroy the trust which underlies all relationships. It's ironic that we talk about a “dog eat dog” society because dogs are intensely loyal to their packs and families and do not like conflict. My kids found to their amusement that if they pretended to fight our dog went nuts trying to stop them. It distressed her. She knew what some humans don't: peace and mercy are necessary to keeping a family and a community together. By showing mercy and making peace Jesus' followers keep the world from descending into conflict and chaos.

Then Jesus calls his followers “the light of the world.” Ever experience total darkness? I remember being on a commercial tour of a cave when the tour guide showed us what the cave looked like before they installed lighting. He turned all the lights off. We were plunged into absolute darkness. Even on nights when the moon is not visible, you can usually see a little. And in the modern world we typically have access to light. But when that cave went dark, it was as if everything ceased to exist. You could not see your hand or the person next to you or the cave floor or the guardrails that kept you on the path. Most people have never experienced total darkness. It is scary.

Light lets us navigate this world. It enables us to see things as they are. We can see the things that we need. We can see dangers ahead and we can see the path that is safe. We can see the faces of those we love and their expressions and their gestures. Jesus is saying that we are to act like light in those ways. We are to help others navigate this life. We are to reveal how things actually are. We are to point out dangers and the safe path that leads away from them. We are to express our love for others in all we say and do.

And doing loving things is a vital part of being the light of the world. Jesus says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Our good works reveal God's love. We are not saved by our works, but we are saved in order that we can do good works. As Paul writes in Ephesians, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we might do them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, emphasis mine) We are not Gnostics, just drinking in knowledge and no more involved in the physical world than necessary. We are to roll up our sleeves and reach out and help one another. How else will people see that the good news of God's love is more than mere words?

But didn't Jesus say of himself, “I am the light of the world”? So how is it that he tells us “You are the light of the world”? Indeed, he is the light of the world. And he continued, “The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) The light we show the world does not come from us but from Jesus. We mirror and reflect his light. Or think of us as lamps lit by his flame. A candle lit from another candle does not diminish the first candle and burns as brightly.

And when his critics did not believe him, Jesus said, “If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 10:37-38) “If you do not believe me, believe the deeds.” Jesus wasn't asking for blind faith; the evidence that God was acting in him was in the deeds he did. He fed people and healed them and raised the dead. His works validated his words. Many a false prophet is betrayed by the fact that his evil works contradict whatever good words he says, not to mention the Word of God.

Paul seems to be playing with the idea of secret wisdom in our passage from 1^st Corinthians. He talks of “God's wisdom, the hidden mystery...which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” In this case, he seems to be speaking not of those who neglect the physical for the spiritual but the opposite error: those who disregard the spiritual and so concentrate on physical power, which they use to harm and kill those they oppose. Jesus was executed because he was not only a threat to the religious leaders' authority but to the political leaders' control. Despite Jesus saying his kingdom did not come from this world Pilate charged him with being the King of the Jews, a rival to Caesar, who took the title king of kings. (John 18:36; 19:12, 19)

Worldly wisdom is about looking out for number 1: yourself. But God's wisdom is about looking out for others. It is centered in Christ crucified. This act of self-sacrificial love was not an illusion but is at the very heart of reality. Just as he fed people physical food and healed their physical bodies, he shed his physical blood and died a physical death. And when he talked of his disciples taking up their crosses and following him, he was not being metaphorical. Most were martyred and Peter was literally crucified. Though few of us today face that kind of sacrifice, the crosses we carry should be made evident in physical acts of love, like those spelled out in Isaiah: sharing what we have with the hungry and the homeless, not oppressing workers but freeing them from the bonds of injustice, not quarreling and fighting but satisfying the needs of the afflicted. Jesus did not come to abolish the message of the Law or the prophets but to fulfill them. And as the body of Christ, we must also fulfill them. Teaching people to disregard these commandments to show compassion and act justly may make you look strong and great in the eyes of the world but not in God's kingdom. As Paul says, all the commandments “are summed up in this, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10)

C.S. Lewis pointed out that we are amphibians, at home in both the physical and the spiritual realms. In Jesus, God Incarnate, both heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical, meet. It is foolish to neglect either one. As the radio station could not get its message out without maintaining the physical setup needed to broadcast, we cannot expect the good news to reach people if we only use words and not actions of justice and compassion. And if, as some say, ours is a Christian nation, it cannot go about oppressing people, committing injustices, ignoring the needs of the poor, harming and abusing children (Matthew 18:5-6), not treating the alien as a native born (Leviticus 19:33-34), being merciless and creating trouble rather than making peace. That doesn't sound like the kingdom where the God who is love reigns. It sounds like hell. As Jesus said of his critics who condemned his deeds of compassion because he put people over man-made rules, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

Qualities of the Kingdom

The scriptures referred to are Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and Matthew 5:1-12.

Last week I spoke of the explosion of superheroes in the 1930s and 40s as a reaction to the Great Depression and with the rise of Fascism on the eve of the Second World War. While Superman was not the first costumed hero, his appearance in 1938 opened the floodgates to others. They were either non-humans like Clark Kent, enhanced humans like Captain America, or humans who used technology and well-developed athletic abilities like Batman. They fought criminals, slum lords, abusive husbands and increasingly the Nazis. People loved them because they had the power to do things ordinary people couldn't. In a world where might makes right, we love to see people use might to make things right. It is a fantasy that goes back to figures like Hercules, King Arthur and Robin Hood.

The problem is that people with actual human powers like wealth, influence, charisma, military and political power rarely do use their strengths to help the less powerful. They use them to enrich themselves, often at the expense of the powerless. They are more likely to oppress the downtrodden than to liberate them. And thank God that people with superpowers don't exist. There is a horror film called Brightburn, which is a disturbing but more realistic picture of what an adolescent boy with Superman's powers would do.

Unfortunately some who call themselves Christians don't actually worship the God who is love revealed in Jesus Christ. They worship power. And not God's moral power but his power to control the world. They would be just as happy to worship Zeus or even Kali, the goddess of death and destruction. Because that is the godlike power they crave.

Last week we talked about ways in which the kingdom of God is different than the kingdoms of this world. And as we get into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we see that Jesus is not praising power but highlighting things that we associate with not having power. He pronounces as blessings stuff we see as the opposite of being blessed.

The Greek word translated as “blessed,” makarios, means “happy or fortunate.” So it is ironic that Jesus uses it to describe states of being that we would see as unfortunate and that would make us unhappy. So why does he say that? Let's look at these statements and see if we can discern his reason.

First he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” The Greek doesn't just mean poor but destitute. It refers to someone who is a beggar, who is absolutely dependent on the charity of others. These are people who are under no illusion that they are self-sufficient. J.B. Phillips translates this phrase as “Happy are those who know their need for God...” The rich and powerful may think they don't need anyone else, not even God. When disaster, injury or illness takes away their control over their own circumstances, it comes as a rude awakening. It turns out they are not masters of their own fate. But folks who acknowledge their spiritual poverty know that the only person they can turn to is God. And the reason this is good news is that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” God will give them his kingdom. It is made up of people who are not arrogant and who don't think they can do anything they want. God's kingdom is made up of people who know that all that they have are gifts from God. We cannot take credit for our brains or bodies or talents or the position in society into which we are born. The powerful are fooling themselves if they think they achieved everything on their own or that they had no help. The people who realize that God is the source of all goodness and all gifts, and that these are on loan from him to use for the benefit of all, are the fortunate ones.

Next Jesus says that those who mourn are fortunate. Again the Greek is more specific. It means those who are grieving, especially over a death. It could be the death of a person or the death of a hope or dream. When a person dies, the plans that their loved ones had with them also die. When a person becomes disabled, the dreams they had for achieving certain things may die. The same is true when a disaster radically changes your life. And the reason that is good news is that “they will be comforted.” The Greek means not only emotional comfort and encouragement but also actually receiving help. God's kingdom is made up of empathetic, supportive people who embody Jesus' compassionate Spirit. When a member of my congregation became disabled after a series of small strokes, we took turns helping her husband care for her. I used my nursing skills. Others sat with the woman as her husband went shopping or just took a break from being her full-time caretaker. When he got her a place in an out-of-state nursing care facility that also had homes for the spouses of the patients, we helped load her into their RV so he could take her there. This had not been the couple's plan for their lives but it would have been worse had not their friends from church given them comfort in the form of concrete acts of help and support.

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek...” The Greek means not weakness but strength expressed in gentleness and humility. This world idolizes those who just burst into a situation and disrupt everything to get what they desire. The world mistakes arrogance for confidence. It says, “Yes, he is rude and crude and a real S.O.B., but he gets things done.” And thus those who get pushed out of the way and trampled in the process are seen as just collateral damage. Recently a government offical dismissed “international niceties” to say “...we live in a world, in the real world...that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.” And that has been used as an excuse for others to do whatever they want to do using force: invading countries, breaking laws, separating families, and killing people. They not only assert that this is the world we live in but this is the way they think the world should be. The powerful do whatever they want and that is fine with folks like that official and his ilk. But as our reading from Micah says, “...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

Jesus says that the humble and gentle “will inherit the earth.” How is that possible? The powerful are volatile and surprisingly fragile. Those who are strong but not gentle often break things that they later need to continue to function. And the ambitions of the powerful cause friction between them. Eventually they go after each other. Emperors and kings are assassinated or overthrown by other ambitious men. Powerful empires overextend themselves and collapse or fight one too many wars of conquest and are themselves conquered. The humble and overlooked often survive. The Jewish people have survived the empires of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and even the Nazis. Similarly, the church grew from a tiny persecuted group of believers in Judea to a faith that knows no borders.

Next Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...” Again the Greek is more intense. The word for “hunger” doesn't refer to those who have eaten a few hours before and are ready for their next meal. It means those who are famished. Likewise, the Greek word for “thirst” doesn't refer to those who would like to take a sip of something. It means those who are parched, who are suffering from thirst. And the word for “righteousness” also means “justice.” So Jesus is talking about those who are starving and desperately thirsty for God's justice. They want to be like those described in our psalm: “Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart; they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends; they do not cast discredit upon their neighbor...They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes against the innocent.” They long to see everything and everybody put right with God.

And the reason this is good news? “...they will be filled.” They will be fully satisfied. God will make them righteous and bring justice to the earth. The kingdom of God is made up of people who want to get right with God and with other people. They are fair and gracious in all their dealings.

Jesus now switches from talking about attitudes found in those who populate God's kingdom to the actions they take. He starts with “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.” Some people only point out what others do wrong and do not acknowledge it when they themselves do something wrong. But we all screw up. If you are unforgiving of other people, they will also be unlikely to forgive you. However if you forgive others they tend to be forgiving in return. The kingdom of God is made up of people who are merciful to each other because they have received God's mercy.

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” In the Bible the “heart” doesn't refer to the organ in the center of your chest that pumps blood but to the center of your being: your mind, will and emotions. The problem is that no human being has a pure mind or heart. But the Greek word for “pure” basically means “clean.” Dirty things can be cleaned. And only God can clean our hearts. The kingdom of God is made up of people who have let God clean up their hearts and minds. The good news is that those who seek and serve God without mixed motives will see him in themselves and others and one day will see him face to face. (1 John 3:2)

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” There are those who thrive on chaos because it creates opportunities for them. They exploit those who are caught up in the mess and who are fearful and stressed out by it all. But God desires peace. In Genesis 6:11 we read, “The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” When God reboots creation after the flood, our part of his covenant is to not shed each other's blood because God made humankind in his own image. (Genesis 9:6) He doesn't want us murdering each other. He wants all those made in his image to be at peace. There are lots of people who like to fight and harm and even kill others. The kingdom of God is made up of people who make peace between people. After all, Jesus, in whom we most clearly see the image of God, made peace between God and humanity and made peace between different peoples. (Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-17) The good news is that there is peace and wholeness for those who live in God's kingdom. It is made up of people who are peacemakers.

The most ironic thing Jesus says is “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness...Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” How is it fortunate to be persecuted for doing what's right in God's eyes? Because there are plenty of people in this world who will do the right thing if there is no cost to them. But few people will put themselves at risk to do the right thing, like helping someone who is in trouble or who can't repay them. Just this week an ICU nurse at a VA hospital helped a woman who had been shoved to the ground and he was murdered for doing so. And now people are saying all kinds of evil and false things about him because they do not want to admit that a good man was murdered for doing a good thing. The good news is that God's kingdom is made up of people who are good even when it is inconvenient or dangerous.

And the ultimate example is that Jesus was executed for doing what's right: healing people and telling them that God loved them and was forgiving. In fact Jesus displayed all of the beatitudes. He was completely dependent on God, grieved over the coming destruction of Jerusalem, was strong but gentle, was fueled by his commitment to righteousness and justice, was merciful to sinners, was singleminded in serving God, was a peacemaker and was persecuted for doing all this. And this is good news because the kingdom of God is made up of people committed to becoming like Jesus, God's self-sacrificial love incarnate, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The beatitudes turn the values of the world upside down. They make no sense to the powerful and worldly wise. Which is why Paul says in today's epistle that “...God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are...” A world ruled by strength, force and power is one of the things that are. A world governed by the values Jesus preached is not. Or not yet! The schemes of the violent will fall upon them. (Psalm 7:16) God's plans for us, though not yet complete, will triumph in the end, just as Jesus Christ who was killed by the state triumphed over death. And his kingdom of justice and mercy and peace will prevail.