03/20/2023
I enjoyed Pastor Jessica’s sermon Sunday in which she looks at the Sermon on the Mount, and specifically the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 as “a map of where we can find Jesus.” Listening to her exploration of where and how we might best discover Jesus, Jessica did point out his unique identification with the poor and hurting of our world. It reminded me of the following from a Catholic theologian and churchwoman.
Author Monika Hellwig suggests that there may be a reason that the Hebrew and Christian God consistently goes out of His way to lift up the poor and their plight. She offers a variety of “advantages” that she’s put into the beatitude format famously used by Jesus. After all, those beatitudes—both in Luke and Matthew begin with “Blessed are the poor….”
Blessed are the poor for they rest their security not on things but on people.
Blessed are the poor because they do not have an exaggerated sense of their own importance, nor an exaggerated need for privacy.
Blessed are the poor because they expect little from competition and much from cooperation.
Blessed are the poor because they can distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
Blessed are the poor because they already know that with God’s help it is possible to survive great suffering and want.
Blessed are the poor because when the gospel is preached to them, it sounds like good news and not like a scolding.
Blessed are the poor because they are free to respond to the call of Jesus with abandon. The poor are especially blessed because they have so little to lose and almost everything to gain.
I think if Jesus were speaking to us today, in person, he’d close this list of blessings with: “Blessed are the well-off who come to the aid of the poor and blessed are the poor who aid the well-off in seeing the good news in a new light.”
*I excerpted and ‘beatitudized’ this from Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew
Archived Posts
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...
So many quips and quotes...
So little time to preach
I wonder what Mary and Martha’s phones might look like:
* Martha = the open browser with 27 tabs
* Mary = the single window that matters
* Psalm 46 = God saying, “Close the tabs.”
Quotable Outtakes That Didn’t Make the Sermon This Week
“When you try to control everything, you don’t just exhaust yourself—you quietly replace trust in God with trust in you.” & more
There is a challenge when it comes to preaching the Word of God.
Preachers are called to open up and interpret the word—inspired and written down thousands of years ago—and make it relevant to a very different world. On top of that there’s a degree of persuasion that goes along with the process.
What Jessica Really Meant to Say in Her Sermon…
When Jessica or Rick or a guest preacher takes the pulpit it’s hard for me to write a One More Thing Blog. I can’t share with you what didn’t make it into the sermon because I have no idea, not having written or delivered it.
Jesus Keeps On Ruining Funerals!
I didn’t have anything this last week that didn’t end up in the sermon. No catchy illustrations that didn’t make the cut. No theological insights that slowed down the main point. No one can ruin a funeral like Jesus. Told as I saw it and that was it. So I did some quick research and I thought I’d share just a reminder of what Easter is all about.