I.N.I.
A sermon to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, Virginia on 6 November 2011, whereon is celebrated All Saints' Day, and based on the Gospel for the day: St. Matthew 5: 1-12.
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord!
[text]
Dear Friends in Christ,
Today's Gospel text is one that's surely familiar to most if not all of us as the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount. Lots of sermons have been preached on these words. A pastor sometimes wonders whether he can say anything new about such a familiar text. There are things about this text, though, that bear repeating, even if you've heard them before.
One place to start is to recall that these words are called “the Beatitudes” ... although that doesn't necessarily help deal with the text, does it? The name “beatitude” is simply a reminder, built on the Latin translation, that the first word in each verse is the word “blessed.” In Latin it is “beata.” Hence “beatitude.” We could just as well call this passage “the blessednesses.”
But what does this passage have to do with All Saints Day? We're observing All Saints this Sunday, even though we're several days past the actual day on the church calendar. The first lesson today, from the book of Revelation, seems to fit real well with the All Saints theme; that lesson has Saint John's vision of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne” of God in Heaven (Rev. 7:9). And from John's first epistle, our second lesson tells his Christian hearers “we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2); giving us the understanding that there is some kind of change, some kind of new thing that our lives will change into in the future, that is, when we are standing before the throne of God
This lesson from Matthew's Gospel actually also has a forward-looking, a future-grasping sense to it. When you stop and look at these Beatitudes, you see that the second half of most of them is a future tense “they shall.” They all indicate some reward yet to come, something that hasn't happened yet, something that might not be fulfilled until – again – we are standing before the throne of God where we will see Jesus as he is. But the first half of each verse is in the present tense.
These verses tell us over an over again that certain groups of people are blessed, blessed now, and blessed because they have something that is related to their identifying trait. First of all, what does “blessed” mean? We find the word used a lot in Scripture, so we can scope out the way God uses the word when communicating with people through the Bible. What it boils down to is that 'the special feature is that it refers overwhelmingly to the distinctive religious joy which accrues to [a person] from his share in the salvation of the Kingdom of God.' [Kittel, IV,307].
Religious joy. Not wealth. That's not what the blessings are. Not success in your job. Not a big house. Not safety and security as you travel. Not general health and well-being. The word “blessed” as it is used in the Bible refers to a particular religious joy that someone gets as a share of salvation.
The point is that this joy rises up only as a result of who we are as Christian people who have been called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The joy of blessedness does not rise up when we have been working hard to be better people. It doesn't come to us by luck. It doesn't just happen randomly to some people for no reason. It comes to us because of who we are are God's daughters and sons, His redeemed children, the ones bought by the blood of Jesus.
In a few words, I'd like you to take home with you today the thought that these Beatitudes describe the Christian life. They don't tell us what we have to do. They don't lay out a plan for developing our lives. The Beatitudes neither prescribe ways we've got to live, nor do they proscribe outlooks we should avoid. In these verses Jesus simply tells us “here's what Christians look like.” So this passage at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount is fitting at an All Saints Day observance because it characterizes all of the saints, all of the Christians, all those who follow Jesus.
While one could easily spend weeks working through these beatitudes one at a time, let's look instead this morning at just some of them to see ways in which this works out. For example, in verse 3 Jesus begins “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” What is this telling us? Is it saying that to be blessed, Christians need to be poor? That no rich people can enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Not really. It might well be harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (as Jesus also said; Matthew 19:24), but it isn't impossible. This description of Christians focuses on the trait Christians display of being unattached to worldly goods and riches. We might own worldly riches, but we aren't defined by them, they don't own us.
We should be rich or poor, whichever we are, part of the 99% or the 1%, knowing that neither condition makes us closer to God in itself, and neither condition means we aren't close to Him. The poor widow whom Jesus saw at the Temple exemplifies this. She wasn't held up as an example of someone especially close to God because she was poor. No, we remember her because of her attitude toward what money she did have. She placed her “widow's mite,” her couple pennies, into the offering plate and thereby gave much more than the rich Pharisees. She was poor, yes, but she was also “poor in spirit” in the sense of this Beatitude.
She knew that the riches of this world really belong here in this world. And that believers are citizens of Heaven, only here on earth for a while. Writing about this beatitude, Martin Luther wrote that “While we live here, we should use all temporal goods and physical necessities the way a guest does in a strange place, where he stays overnight and leaves in the morning.” [Luther's Works, XXI, 13]. What a great image that is! We are only on earth for a short while, and during our stay God gives us various things for our use, but that doesn't make these things ours. Start to think of all your money and resources as a guest towel and bedsheets; they're nice to have while we visit, but we leave them behind when we go home. No regrets. No sadness. These amenities weren't ours to begin with, and they didn't become ours just because we used them a while. Everything we “own” on earth falls into this category.
So, in our spirits, we Christians are poor whether we have a lot of stuff or not. We realize we don't “own” things. How does that define us as blessed? Because we know that we have a treasure stored up for us in Heaven. We have the Kingdom of God awaiting us! What amazing riches that gives us.
What about the verse that says “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”? (Matt. 5:8) Maybe that one gives you trouble. After all, being “poor in spirit” - well, we can see ourselves being poor. And with “Blessed are those who mourn,” well everyone will mourn at some point, we know that, too. But this talk of being “pure in heart”? Who are we to think that this phrase describes us even for a moment?
Maybe we should go off somewhere away from all the distractions of the world, away from people, away from business and advertising. Maybe then we could work on being pure in heart. Except that God doesn't want that, because if he did, then why would he honor our earthly callings? Scripture speaks of this pure heart and mind in a manner that is completely consistent with being a husband, a wife, a child, an employer, an employee, a teacher, a student ... consistent with being, in other words, a person fully engaged in our world. If we all abandoned our society and culture to go try to be pure in heart away from it all, we would not be doing any of God's creation any good (not to mention the people whose lives still need to be touched by God through our presence among them).
So “what is meant by a 'pure heart' is this: one that is watching and pondering what God says and is replacing its own ideas with the Word of God. This alone is pure before God, yes, purity itself, which purifies everything that it includes and touches.” So writes Luther. He continues, “therefore though a common laborer, a shoemaker, or a blacksmith may be dirty and sooty or may smell because he is covered with dirt and pitch, still he may sit at home and think: 'My God has made me a man. He has given me my house, wife, and child and has commanded me to love them and to support them with my work.' Note that he is pondering the Word of God in his heart; and though he stinks outwardly, inwardly he is pure incense before God. But if he attains the highest purity so that he takes hold of the Gospel and believes in Christ ... then he is pure completely, inwardly in heart toward God and outwardly toward everything under him on earth. Then everything he is and does, his walking, standing, eating, and drinking, is pure for him; and nothing can make him impure.” (Luther's Works XXI, 34)
That's all it takes to be rendered pure before God. Sticking with the Word of God that purifies us in our faith, and sticking with the word that teaches us our duty to our fellow human beings. And that's how we “see God” (in the words of the Beatitude). When we have faith that Christ is our Savior, then we see immediately that we have a gracious God. Faith leads us to the throne, and opens our eyes so we see the overwhelming, superabundant grace and love of God for us. That's what it means to “see God,” not with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith.
One more Beatitude that has special appeal is in verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Jesus describes Christians as peacemakers. Not just as avoiders of conflict, but as people actively involved in creating peace. Martin Luther again says that “the Lord here honors those who do their best to try to make peace, not only in their own lives, but also among other people, who try to settle ugly and involved issues, who endure squabbling and try to avoid and prevent war and bloodshed.” (Luther's Works, XXI, 39)
Here we see that peacemaking is an active role. And there are so very many places to exercise that capacity we each have within us. We start especially where we are. We calm our own reactions when someone else slights us, when someone offends us, when someone attacks us. You and I as Christians are here described as peacemakers, so our role would be to endure the harsh, cruel words of people who might gripe and bicker and annoy, and our role is to present the best to people. We begin with our own outlooks. And we do the same to help other people with their outlooks on each other. The old joke punch line “hey, let's you and him fight” never really was all that funny and is less so now that we know Christians simply don't rile up others in arguments.
We actually go out of our way to soften words and turn aside blows. Even “if you are the victim of injustice and violence, you have no right to take the advice of your own foolish head and immediately start getting even and hitting back; but you are to think it over, try to bear it and have peace.” (Luther's Works, XXI, 40). It takes two to quarrel, of course, and by stepping aside and refusing to argue, we not only avoid fighting but we move toward creating peace. If only nations would do that, too. But you know what? Nations are made up of individual people, and if enough individual people cultivated this Christian attitude, our world would be a more peaceful place.
The reward for this peacemaking is multifaceted. Yes, we will be less stressed when we are personally at peace. Yes, our families and communities and churches and workplaces will all be calmer more pleasant places to live when we are at peace. And yes, the international scene will be more livable when nations of peacemakers are cooperating rather than in conflict with each other. But more than any of that, people will look at us and they will call us – God will call us – “sons and daughters of God.” That's an eternal benefit that outlasts the good of peace on earth. Children of God! When we join with the saints who have gone before us to complete the family circle of God in Heaven, we will know that peacemaking on earth was only a prelude to the full peace there that passes all human understanding. There in Heaven we will join with “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:9) Think of it as the melting pot to end all melting pots if you want, but it will be the culmination of all our earthly peacemaking efforts, when we stand united with all these people so different from us, but engaged in praising God at his throne.
These, then, are examples of how the Beatitudes from the beginning of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 describe the Christian life as it is lived on earth. There is a real sense of the “now, but not yet” in all of the promises wherein we have the Kingdom of God now, but not yet as fully as we will in Heaven; where we are comforted now, but not as completely as we will be when we see Christ face to face; where we are satisfied now, but will only feel it completely and forever when we join the rest of the saints above. But remember also the “now” part. Don't forget that these eternal blessings are for us now as the saints of God in the Church on earth. St. John wrote in today's epistle that “we are God's children now” and meant that the blessings of faith are present among us as we go about our daily lives.
Christians are peacemakers, we are pure in heart, we are merciful, we are persecuted for righteousness' sake, and all the rest. But not in the manner of some list of “9 Habits of Successful Christians” self-help book. These aren't traits that only special people can display after years of disciplined hard work and effort, years of prayer and fasting, decades of dedicated training and practice. These traits are things that Christians simply are. By the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we exhibit them more clearly today than yesterday. When we slip back into the world's way of looking at things – as we surely will for as long as we live in this world – then we stop and pray for forgiveness, we refresh ourselves in God's Word, we accept the renewal given us in the Sacrament. Why? Because that's what the saints of God do, and we are among those saints, both now and in the life to come.
May our eyes ever be open to the truths of the Beatitude blessings in our lives. Amen.
And may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
S.D.G.