A Matter of Faith

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, and John 3:1-17.

Stephen King is known for his horror stories but he has written other types of stories. In one short story, the narrator recalls an incident in his childhood. He and his sister would spend their summers on their grandparents' farm. There was a huge barn with a wooden beam that ran the length of the barn high above the concrete floor. The kids were told never to climb up there and so, of course, they did, walking the beam as if it were a tightrope. One day the boy hears his sister screaming his name. He finds her in the barn, hanging by her hands from that high beam. She had slipped and was in danger of falling. The boy realized he could not climb the beam and pull her up. So he tells his sister to hang on while he does something to save her. He begins grabbing armloads of loose hay and piling it under her. Finally, after numerous trips with as much hay as he can carry, he tells her to let go. And without looking down, she does. The enormous pile of hay breaks her fall. She gets off with a broken leg but not a broken or dead body. But what the narrator remembers is that his sister could not see or know what he had done to save her but when he told her to let go, she did. She trusted him with her life.

Trust underlies all relationships, even if it is minimal. When you bring your car in to be repaired, you trust the mechanic to do the job properly and he trusts you to pay him. At work you should be able to trust your coworkers and boss to do their jobs and let you do yours. Business partners should be as good as their word. In the relationship between spouses or between parent and child that trust should be as close to 100% as humanly possible. Lack of trust makes it hard to work with or live with someone. Children who grow up in homes where they can't trust their parents or caretakers can end up with deep-seated insecurity, chronic anxiety and profound trust issues throughout life. They often struggle with low self-esteem, have difficulty forming secure attachments to others, and have a fear of abandonment. They may become people-pleasers or become overly self-sufficient so that they don't need others. They may crave closeness and yet push people away because they think others will inevitably hurt or leave them.

Faith is another word for trust. Faith in God is trusting him. In today's lectionary we look at Abraham, a man who trusted God to a greater extent than most people do. In our passage from Genesis, Abram (his original name) actually becomes an immigrant because of God's call. He grew up in Ur of the Chaldees, a prominent port city on the Euphrates in lower Sumeria, what today is southern Iraq. His father moves the family to Haran, another prominent city in northern Mesopotamia, what is now south-central Turkey. Haran was a trading partner with Tyre on the Mediterranean coast, and it was a major worship site for the moon god Sin.

So God calls Abram away from his family and the big city to live as a shepherd in the land of Canaan, a journey of about a month into an area in which we are soon told there is a famine. (Genesis 12:10) For him to give up family, civilization, and familiar and popular gods to follow a different God into the wilderness takes a great deal of trust.

Abram is trusting God to fulfill his promises to him: that Abram's descendants will become a great nation and a blessing to “all the families of the earth.” And while that may sound tempting, we learn that Abram is 75 and childless. And his wife Sarai is just 10 years younger. (Genesis 17:17) She is post-menopause. (Genesis 18:11) Abram is trusting that God will do what is essentially impossible.

As we know Abram and Sarai (now renamed by God as Abraham and Sarah) do have a child—25 years later! After a long period of Abraham trusting God to deliver, God fulfilled his promise. That is a tremendous display of faith on Abraham's part.

But Abraham has one more test of faith to come. A few chapters later, we are told, “Some time later, God tested Abraham...God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.'” (Genesis 22:1-2) Abraham has pinned all of his hopes on Isaac. He, not Ishmael, his son by Sarah's maid, Hagar, is the one through whom the covenant will be fulfilled. (Genesis 17:19-21) Why would Abraham even consider sacrificing him?

A 2009 study of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, Abraham's hometown, showed evidence of human sacrifice. They were probably palace attendants sacrificed to serve the king in the next life. Ancient Roman and Greek writers mention infant sacrifices performed by the Phoenicians, who occupied the coast of the land of Canaan. And archaeologists have found thousands of infant skeletons there. Worldwide many cultures sacrificed infants in fertility rituals or to put in the foundation of new buildings to protect them. So, while not common, human sacrifices were known and Abraham would have heard of them and thought this was something a god could command.

Yet this is not infant sacrifice. Isaac was by this time an adolescent at least. He carries the wood for the sacrifice. (Genesis 22:6) Abraham and Isaac have a relationship. Why would God tell Abraham to sacrifice his son, whom he loved?

Lots of people follow God to get what they want. This is the attraction of the so-called “prosperity gospel.” Preachers of this “gospel” say, “Believe in God, give to him (through my ministry) and he will make you healthy and wealthy.” In other words, the reason to follow God is to get things out of him. God is reduced to a vending machine: insert faith (and money) and you will get what your heart desires. The downside of the “prosperity gospel” is that if you don't get what you want you didn't believe hard enough. It's your fault. And some people lose their faith because they were taught that God was like a genie but he didn't grant them their wishes.

So did Abraham, a childless man, merely follow God to get a son? Was Isaac an idol in his life, coming before God? Would Abraham trust God even when it meant giving up what was most precious to him?

It turns out that he did trust God. And as C.S. Lewis points out, while God might have known what he would do, Abraham didn't know the extent of his faith or his obedience until he raised that knife. His trust in God was not conditional or transactional. And when God stops him, he also learns that Yahweh is not the kind of God who would have his followers sacrifice others. In fact, in the law he gives Moses, God prohibits such things. (Leviticus 18:21) So here instead God provides a sacrifice in Isaac's place. And later God will provide a sacrifice for the whole world in the person of his son, Jesus, whom he loves.

Abraham's faith in God is an example for all of us who say we believe in God. And he is a key part of Paul's argument that it is faith, not works, that save us. He points to Genesis 15:6, where it says, “Abram believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.” In other words, God saw Abram's firm loyalty and support and trust and God considered it proof that he was a man in the right relationship with him.

As we said, trust underlies all relationships. Remember how last week, we saw that the temptation began with doubts about God's goodness? The first humans doubted that God was reasonable and truthful. They thought he was holding them back from becoming what they wanted to be: knowledgeable and powerful like God. So they decided they didn't need to obey him and tried to find a shortcut to godlike status. As always, this attempt to circumvent God's process, which is growing more fully into his image, failed.

Again, it is hard to work with someone or for someone you don't trust. Learning whom you can trust begins in infancy. This is why children who are abused and neglected have a hard time trusting other people. And if you don't have a father or have an unreliable one, it is hard to trust God, our heavenly Father. You need a new start.

And that leads to our gospel reading. Jesus tells Nicodemus that to enter God's kingdom one must be born again, or “born from above,” another possible translation. In other words, your life needs a new starting point, a spiritual rebirth. Jesus is probably referring to baptism when speaking of being “born of water and the Spirit.” He often uses water as a metaphor for the Spirit. (John 4:14; 7:37-39) He is also possibly referring to Ezekiel, where God says, “I will sprinkle you with pure water and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all idols. I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you; I will cause you to obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27) In other words, just as being physically born is outside our control, in being reborn spiritually God will take the initiative. All we can do is trust him to do as he promised.

So our salvation is not dependent on how good we are but upon how good and faithful God is to those who accept him and put their trust in his promises. This does not mean we should stop being good. The point Jesus is making about the kingdom of God is that God cannot reign in our hearts and rule our lives and enable us to do the good he wants us to until we trust him and are reborn by his Spirit. Just as you cannot live until you are born, you cannot live as a child of God without being reborn. Trust is the first step.

It is not the only step. God not only wants us to trust him but also to love him. Again it is really hard to love someone if you don't trust them. But if you realize that they love you, then your relationship can grow into a mutual love. Think about this: most of the marriages in the Bible were arranged marriages. And yet we see that Abraham loved Sarah, Isaac loved Rebekah, Jacob loved Rachel. (Genesis 23:1-2; 24:67; 29:18) Arranged marriages start with commitment and can grow into love. Modern freely chosen marriages start with love and then lead to a commitment. A 2012 study found “high levels of satisfaction, commitment, and passionate and companionate love” in both arranged and love-based marriages. There were no significant differences in those areas. But the commitment speaks of trust. To say that this is the person you will spend the rest of your life with takes trust on both sides.

The Bible frequently compares our relationship with God and Jesus to a marriage. (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32; Matthew 9:15; Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 19:7) It takes trust in the goodness of the partner and commitment to them. The love in the relationship grows and bears fruit in doing good things. (Ephesians 2:8-10) But if it's true love it does not depend on the ability of the person to perform good works. I spent several years acting as a private duty nurse for a couple. The man had a massive stroke and could do almost nothing for himself. His aged wife, with my help, would give him a suppository, get him out of bed and into his wheelchair, wheel him to a place where she would wash him with a shower hose while he sat on a potty chair, towel him off, dress him, and wheel him to breakfast. In the evening, we would change him and put him to bed. He could do nothing for her. But she loved and cared for him. And he loved her. When she died of breast cancer, he died 6 months later despite being taken care of by his family. But before that he became the first person I baptized. And his wife, who was also a believer, was happy because they would be reunited after death.

You may have lived a life where it was difficult to trust people. It may have been your parents, other family members, a spouse or even a church leader whom you realized you could not trust. Don't transfer that distrust to God. God is not like abusive or neglectful humans. He will not leave you or abandon you. (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5) He will remain faithful to us even if we are sometimes unfaithful to him. (2 Timothy 2:13) In fact, we see his love for us and commitment to us in that it was while we were still sinners that Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, died to save us. (Romans 5:8)

It all starts with trusting God and believing his promises. In Jesus we see what God is like: loving, just, merciful, and forgiving. If you ever find yourself at your wit's end, hanging on by your fingernails, your life all but lost, if you call upon him, if you trust in his goodness, you can be sure that he is there for you. Let go of your past. Let go of your sins. Let go of your bitterness and anger and regrets. Let go and he will catch you. As the Bible says, “The everlasting God is a refuge, and underneath you are his eternal arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

Spoiled Goodness

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 2:15-17; 3-17, Psalm 32, and Matthew 4:1-11.

Some people think that the concept of evil is itself evil. That is, they think that morality is something we made up to control people. They think that everything that humans do is natural. Yeah, but not everything natural is good. Jane Goodall was horrified when she discovered that the chimpanzees she had studied for decades would sometimes practice cannibalism. And archaeologists have dug up human bones that show signs that people have been butchered and eaten. Cannibalism does occur in nature. It's not good.

In fact one of the things that separates humans from other animals is our large frontal lobe. Our judgment and restraint reside in the part of the brain behind our forehead. As a neurosurgical nurse I have seen what happens when people have damage to the frontal lobe. They act like 2 year olds, albeit with human intelligence and strength. One family was at first worried that their son, who received a head injury in an accident, would die. When he didn't, they then worried that he would never wake from his coma. When he did, they were happy. But then they began to realize he was not the same person. He cursed profusely unlike before. He threw tantrums (and as someone well over 6 feet tall, these were frightening and possibly dangerous). And he did things in public that most people do in private. He had lost all his inhibitions. We also see this in frontotemporal dementia, where those lobes of the brain shrink and the person becomes inappropriate, impulsive, loses empathy for others and has language problems or aphasia.

Like any part of the body, the frontal lobe must be exercised and trained to get better at what it does. And so we teach our children rules. Don't hit your friends when you get mad. Don't take things that belong to others. Don't break things when you get frustrated. Basically, we teach children to refrain from harming themselves and others and to refrain from doing things that will harm their relationships with others. Because if they are violent, mean and untrustworthy, it will hurt them throughout their life.

There is a day when a kid learns that not everyone lives by these rules. They see others, and especially adults, break the rules about not doing harm. We call that moment the loss of innocence. They realize the world is not as safe as they thought. They realize they are vulnerable. They lose a bit of the trust they had in others to always do the right thing.

That's what we see at the end of today's reading from Genesis. But first we see a paradigm of how temptation works. And in our gospel passage we see how Jesus handled temptation.

We are told that humans are put on earth to tend it and care for it. We were to be the gardeners of the Garden of Eden. And God gives his one and only rule for the first humans to observe. “You may eat freely of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you shall die.” It's like telling a kid they may play with anything in the toy room but do not mess with the electrical sockets. There is only one thing prohibited and it's for their own good.

By the way, the Hebrew word translated “evil” basically means “spoiled” or “ruined by being broken into pieces.” If God created everything good as it says in Genesis chapter 1, where does evil come from? It comes from spoiling or ruining God's gifts by misusing them to harm rather than to help. One of the first tools humans invented was the knife. It helped us hunt and prepare food; it also became the basic weapon to kill other humans. We always seem to take the gifts God gives us, like intelligence and knowledge and skills, and use them to spoil, ruin and break God's gifts, including other people.

So why would God not want the first humans to learn about good and evil? I think it is for the same reason we tell kids not to go off with strangers but do not tell them that the reason is that they could be kidnapped, sexually abused and killed. They are not ready for that knowledge. We want them to be careful around strangers, not traumatized by the mere presence of strangers. Later, when they are ready, they will learn, hopefully only by hearing stories, of how bad such things can get. In the meantime, the rule suffices.

It seems that babies are born with just two inbuilt fears: fear of falling and fear of snakes. And Genesis uses this second natural fear to show us how temptation works.

First the tempter suggests that God is unreasonable. He says, “Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?” God never said that but the implication is that God's laws are not always rational. I had an aunt who would not let us kids sit on any of the sofas and chairs in her living room, despite the fact that they were all covered in clear plastic! God is not like that. But the doubt of his trustworthiness has been planted.

And though the woman corrects the serpent, she does expand the commandment a bit. She says that they are not merely to refrain from eating it but from touching it. This might seem like a sensible precaution. If you don't touch it, you can't eat it. But people sometimes expand God's commandments to a point where they can hinder doing good things, such as when the Pharisees expanded the rule against working on the Sabbath to include not healing suffering people on it. Jesus points out that it is OK to heal and help people (and animals) on the Sabbath. (Luke 13:10-17) And indeed a lot of young people leave churches because they were taught that a bunch of unnecessary rules were given by God and not actually by men. Joshua Harris admits that his popular evangelical book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which substituted marriage-minded courtship for dating and was seminal in the development of the so-called “purity culture,” has done more harm to young people than good and he has requested it no longer be printed.

Next the tempter flatly contradicts God. “You will not die...” How often do we tell ourselves that breaking a moral rule is not that serious? “Just this once,” we tell ourselves. But some decisions have life-altering consequences that we didn't foresee. We teach our kids not to play with fire. One girl I grew up with played with matches, caught fire, and while she did not die, she was disfigured for life. As someone once said, before you tear down a fence, find out why it was put up in the first place.

The tempter continues, “...for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened...” Secret or forbidden knowledge is tempting. Knowing what others don't makes you feel superior. That's the lure of many occult practices and almost every cult that ever drew unsuspecting people in. They offer false knowledge containing just enough truth to get past some people's B.S. detector.

Even when the unknown knowledge is true, it can be a two-edged sword. When we unlocked the secret of nuclear power, what was the first thing humans did with that knowledge? We created the most destructive bomb in history, one capable of destroying an entire city and vaporizing people, leaving only their shadows burnt into the remaining stones. And since then we went on to create ever more devastating nuclear weapons. As for using that power to help people, that has not been nearly as successful.

And now the tempter delivers the coup de grace: “...and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” That's the real temptation. We humans can do a lot but there are things outside our control. We wish we had the power to control everything and everyone. We daydream about being superheroes who can fly, have super strength and be invulnerable. We wish to be gods. And there are things beyond our understanding (and some always will be, for our brains are finite). Yet we know that knowledge is power. And we want that knowledge so we can control the powers of the universe. It would be wonderful if we used that knowledge and power only to do good for everyone but you just know someone will figure out a way to use those things for their own advantage and to harm and dominate others. In some labs we create cures and in others biological weapons.

The woman is hooked. She “saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise...” It tasted good, it looked good and it made you smarter. As someone who used to be a copywriter, I can tell you that modern advertising still emphasizes those 3 characteristics. We even market junk food so it will have the right balance of sweetness, saltiness, attractive appearance and “8 essential vitamins” so you can scarf down your Lucky Charms and think you had a healthy meal. And notice how the word “good” is being used in a different way here. The text parallels the words “good,” “delight” and “desired.” This is “good” in the sense of “making you feel good.” Absent is the sense of actually “being good for you.”

And lest you want to blame this all on the woman, notice that she doesn't have to hunt the man down to give him the fruit. No, “she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” (Emphasis mine) He was standing right there, listening to all this and not trying to intervene or correct what was being said. Evil isn't always active; evil can be complicity, letting others do the wrong thing and not saying or doing anything. How did the fascists take over Italy and Germany prior to World War 2? How did the Nazis deport and kill the Jews in the countries they conquered? Because most people kept quiet and went about their own business, ignoring the evil others perpetrated.

The first humans' eyes are opened, yet they don't see themselves as more powerful but as vulnerable. They now know how every good gift of God can be used to harm them. They know how to harm each other. They are like children who have seen what matches can do. They wish for armor but all they can do is sew leaves together to cover their naked and vulnerable bodies. The bright world they were given is now covered in sinister shadows. It is no longer paradise for them. The pure goodness in them has died.

Jesus' temptations are different. He has the power of God and so in this case the temptation is to misuse it. He could use his divine powers to benefit himself by making stones into bread. But he counters his temptations with his knowledge of scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy, he asserts that without the spiritual nourishment which comes from God's word, life is meaningless. If all we are here for is to eat, sleep and make sure we don't die, our lives are emptier than our stomachs.

Then he is tempted to test just how much God will protect him, even if he does something as stupid as throwing himself from the top of the temple. The tempter even misuses scripture to that purpose, something we do when we want to justify reckless behavior. But God did not send Jesus to be invulnerable. On the contrary, as the book of Hebrews reminds us, “For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) Jesus doesn't avoid sin by being impervious to it but by choosing to do what is right no matter how tempting the alternative is. And he is not going to test God by doing something rash and expecting God to protect him from the consequences.

Finally the tempter offers him all earthly power. He could be emperor of the world. All he has to do is bend the knee to the one Jesus later calls “the ruler of this world.” (John 14:30; 16:11) Jesus just has to switch allegiance from God and his goodness to his adversary, and the world is his. He will not have to try to convince others to choose to be part of the kingdom of God. He will not have to go to the cross. This is the easy way that people gain power. They suck up to those who will give them power in return for their loyalty. But what else are they giving? The question, as Jesus puts it, is “For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36) Jesus dismisses the tempter, saying that God is the only one we are to worship and serve. Jesus will follow God's will and serve him, even when it leads to the cross.

We are all tempted to do what is easy or desirable, even if it spoils and ruins what God has created for us and in us. And we will at some point succumb. Are we lost? No, not if we do as it says in our psalm and confess to God what we have done wrong. We must acknowledge that we are not God, we are not perfect, and we have done harm or let it be done. We cannot always undo what we have done to others or the world, but we can let God undo the damage we have done to ourselves. And then, as his Holy Spirit repairs us, we can go about as the body of Christ repairing the world we have spoiled and ruined. And we can trust in his goodness, his wisdom and his promise that he will make us and all things new. (Revelation 21:1-5)

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.

Power Failure

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 9:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, and Matthew 4:12-23.

In the distant past, when humans lived in small bands competing for food in various regions, one of the strategies for survival was fighting other groups in defense and to take over their territory. So having a strong man for a leader made sense. The problem was that a strong man was not necessarily a wise man. The ability to fight and conquer a territory was not always accompanied by the ability to rule it well. And so eventually humans came up with laws, rules for how everyone is to behave that ensured peace and cooperation within the group. But when those laws impinged on strong men's ability to do whatever they wanted to, they resisted. A great deal of history is made up of strong men usurping power, trying to consolidate it and fighting others who either attacked them or rebelled to become independent of them. Powerful men never seem to have enough power to satisfy them. Their ruthless drive to gain and retain power inevitably leads to cruelty, causing great suffering for many.

An example of that common scenario lies behind our reading from Isaiah. The Assyrian empire lasted from the 14^th to the 7^th century BC. One of the casualties of its merciless quest for control was the northern kingdom of Israel, which was conquered in 721 BC. Israel had broken away from the southern Davidic kingdom of Judah 200 years before. The Assyrians carried out mass deportations to lessen local resistance, resulting in what have been called “the ten lost tribes of Israel.” They weren't so much lost as dispersed to other Assyrian-controlled territories. Then people from those territories were deported to what used to be Israel. The peoples intermarried, eventually becoming the Samaritans.

Needless to say the poor former Israelites left behind were demoralized. And so Isaiah's prophecy promised hope. The darkness that enveloped them will be pierced by a great light. God promised to break “the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor...” How? Unfortunately our passage ends before the answer given just a couple of verses later: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) In other words, God is promising an ideal Davidic king, the Messiah.

The problem with this is that in a world where “might makes right” people always want another strong man, just one who is on their side, in this case, the Messiah. Bad times lead to such a longing. There's a reason why there was a huge surge of superhero comics during the late 1930s and 40s, when the average person was struggling with the effects of the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism, just preceding the outbreak of World War 2. The cover of the first issue of Captain America showed him punching Hitler. In his first appearance Superman stops a crooked lobbyist corrupting a politician. We love to imagine that a supremely strong person can solve all our problems.

But as Stan Lee, longtime editor of Marvel Comics, said, even superheroes can't solve “the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” He continued, “unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can't be halted with a punch to the snoot, or a zap from a ray-gun.” Lee was talking specifically about bigotry and racism but his point is true of many other problems we face. They arise not from external problems but from internal ones: our attitudes and self-centered ways of thinking. Are we not able to solve problems like poverty, lack of access to healthcare, homelessness and food insecurity because they are physically impossible or because we don't want to make the necessary societal changes? It doesn't help when the people with the money and power to make those changes convince us that the problem is really other relatively powerless people.

There is a cartoon with 3 men sitting at a table. One man has a huge pile of cookies, one man has only one cookie and the third man has none. The guy with lots of cookies says to the man with only one that the third guy “wants to steal your cookie.” Of course the obvious solution is for the guy with tons of cookies to share with the other two. But he would never suggest that. And politicians who are themselves rich and powerful will never suggest that the 1%, who hold as much wealth as the bottom 90% of society, should be more generous. The powerful do not willingly surrender their power.

Which is why Paul says that “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing...” Because the cross was an instrument of shameful, torturous death inflicted on slaves and on those who rebelled against the Roman government. As historian Tom Holland pointed out, the idea of a crucified God was revolutionary. It completely went against the values of the Roman empire, with its emphasis on power and conquest. It made no sense to Greek intellectuals and was seen as blasphemous by Jews. The cross said that God identified with the suffering, the poor and the powerless to the extent of becoming one of them. And by his rising again Jesus, God Incarnate, removed the fear of death which is the primary tool of the powerful. It turned the accepted way of looking at the world upside down. (Acts 17:6)

In today's reading from Matthew we see the beginning of Jesus' ministry. His basic message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” So Jesus is setting up a kingdom that rivals the kingdoms of earth but this is one where God reigns “on earth as it is in heaven.” And the way you become a citizen of the kingdom of God is not by simply being born into it or having your country conquered by it. Instead you must repent, that is, change your heart and mind and as a logical result of that, change how you live. For instance, after having a heart attack at age 69 and getting a quintuple bypass, my father-in-law changed his mind about his lifestyle and lived till he was 91. If we really trust what Jesus says, we will change how we live our lives. In the next few weeks we will look at what this entails as we go into the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' more detailed description of what being a citizen of the kingdom of God is like. But right now we will look at some obvious differences between his kingdom and the kingdoms of earthly origins.

Earthly rulers gather armies. They somehow convince men to fight and possibly die so that the rulers can have power over more people. The term “emperor” comes from the Latin word for military commander. Until the modern era, rulers led their armies into battle. Today's rulers do not expose themselves to such danger. But like the kings of old, they secure their kingdoms and expand them by shedding the blood of others.

Jesus did not gather an army. In fact, Matthew tells us that “Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” Healing is the opposite of killing. And the scandal of the cross is that in order to secure his kingdom, no one's blood is shed but his. Nor does he die in battle, taking down others with him. He lets himself be led by his enemies, carries his own cross, and lets them nail him to it.

So how does Jesus spread his kingdom? By proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Everyone knows what happens when humans reign. They, their friends and their top supporters get the all best stuff. If the common folk are lucky, they get peace and security. But the situation for most people rarely gets better.

God's kingdom is different. The 5 books of Moses say that in Israel provisions are to be made for everyone to receive justice. The poorest and least powerful—widows, the fatherless and immigrants—are singled out for fair treatment. (Exodus 22:22-24; Deuteronomy 10:18; 14:28-29; 27:19; Leviticus 19:33-34) Women are protected from incest. (Leviticus 18:6-18) In one chapter of Leviticus alone we are told that the poor must be fed, deception and lying are forbidden, nobody is to defraud anyone or cheat the people working for them, the disabled are not to be mistreated, justice is to be unbiased, nothing can be done that endangers the lives of others, and both neighbors and resident aliens are to be loved as one loves oneself. (Leviticus 19:9-18, 33-34) We know from the prophets that the people of Israel frequently failed to live up to these principles. Yet these standards are accepted by many today though still not practiced as they should be.

Jesus knew that merely having laws does not change people. The problem is that harmful behavior comes from the heart and mind. (Mark 7:20-23) Again we must change those attitudes and ways of thinking, becoming as open and trusting as a small child, if we are to enter God's kingdom. (Matthew 18:3) And that's another way in which earthly kingdoms differ. You read any history of an empire or kingdom and you see where George R.R. Martin got his inspiration for Game of Thrones. Rulers are rarely trusting. Coups, betrayals, and intrigue arise again and again. Rulers have killed brothers, fathers, cousins, spouses and even children to secure or keep their thrones. Herod killed his wife, her mother, her grandfather, and 3 of his sons. He had plans to have a large number of prominent Jews killed upon his death so that even people who hated him would mourn. This is why I have no trouble believing he wiped out all the toddlers in a small town like Bethlehem. It was totally in character.

The problem is that trust underlies all healthy relationships. And it's not restricted to close relationships. You trust your mechanic to fix your car and he trusts you to pay him. Without trust, not only personal and commercial relationships but societies and civilizations fall apart. When rulers do not trust their people and subjects do not trust their rulers, it spells doom for a nation or empire.

It can do the same for a church. This is one reason Paul is distressed by the divisions he sees in the Corinthian church. They shouldn't break up into cliques centered around their favorite preachers and teachers. They need to realize that their unity is found in Christ. It is he who died for them and he who gives them new life. A preacher or teacher is valuable only in so far as he or she points us to Christ and helps us follow him. That's why it always bothers me when a ministry is named after a preacher or evangelist. When he retires or dies, their main attraction is gone. If he falls into grave sin, he damages the faith of others and the good he had once done for the church. Many times when people leave the faith it is not because of God but because of people who represented God.

Jesus is the only person in the Bible, the church and in the whole history of the world who never sinned. And he is the only person who can help us live up to the high standards of his kingdom. He sends us his Spirit to live in us and produce in us spiritual fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) On the cross Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin. The Spirit at work in us saves us from the power of sin in our lives. But we have to let him. He will not coerce us because real love does not coerce the beloved.

And that's another distinctive feature of God's kingdom. No one is forced into it. Jesus is not like the conqueror who shows up one day and says, “From now on you are my subjects.” Citizenship in God's kingdom is strictly voluntary. That's why even in churches that baptize babies we have confirmation classes for those old enough to decide if they want to make the faith they were brought up in their own.

The rulers of this world do not like giving people choices. They refuse to give up any of their power. They are scared to look powerless. Instead they are always seeking to expand their power by taking it from others or taking over other territories. They are the antithesis of Jesus Christ. He gave people a choice to accept him or not. He did not cling to his divine prerogatives but gave them up to take on our humanity. (Philippians 2:5-7) He let himself be powerless before his enemies. They killed him. And then he showed that even death did not have any real power over him.

His power reveals the weakness of mortal kingdoms: they all will die. The Assyrian empire ceased to exist, as did the Babylonian empire, the Persian empire, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman empire, and the British empire. Nations and empires that exist today will one day cease. But not the kingdom of God. Jesus lives, no longer to die, and he shall reign forever and ever. (Romans 6:9; Revelation 11:15) Nor will we ever have to worry that he will rule unjustly or mercilessly. Because his strength is not based on bullying or violence but on his eternal love. And if we accept his love and join his kingdom, we will reign with him for we too shall live forever and ever.