The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached

No posts for a long time. Apologies. I've been swamped here at church but finally it looks like I can breathe again and take a few swipes at the keyboard. Thank God!

I had been posting reflections on the Gospel of Matthew. That much I remember. If my memory serves me right the last post rounded off chapter 4 and left us hanging at chapter 5. Since then, though my studies through Matthew at church have proceeded all the way to chapter 8! So, I guess I'll have to type fast and sacrifice some of the trees for the forest.

The glue that has held Matthew's Gospel together thus far has been the message of a coming new kingdom; a kingdom in which God reigns as King over his creation. Jesus has been singled out as this One peculiar King - God in flesh - God with us; and yet the way He has begun to piece together His kingdom is quite unusual. Matthew 4 ended with a few quick vignettes in which we saw the beginnings of Christ's Kingdom breaking out into history. Chapters 5-7 (traditionally called the Sermon on the Mount) begin the first lengthy teachings of Jesus and shed some powerful light on the way that men and women are expected to live when God is their King. Take a look ...

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Matthew  5-7 

I. A New Charter

Matthew often makes interesting theological points simply by locating Jesus' activity. For example, you remember the baptism He received at the Jordan. That baptism was reminiscent of Israel's 'baptism' at the Jordan i.e., their leaving behind the wilderness for a new promised land. Matthew makes a point to locate Jesus at the Jordan so that his reader can make this theological connection.

Similarly, by locating Jesus on a mountain, teaching with authority, Matthew means for us to remember Moses; not just Moses but all of the theological imagery he evokes!

Just as Moses brought Israel out of Egypt and into communion with God, so Jesus brings men and women out of their old lives and into God's Kingdom communion. Just as Moses gave Israel the law in order to teach the Jewish people a new way of life - one very different from that in Egypt; so Jesus gives men and women a new law, a charter, to teach them a way of life very different from the world's.

What we are hearing in the Sermon on the Mount then is a reeducation; teaching us how to live in a world where God is King. This is just like Israel's reeducation at Sinai. We are not brought out of the kingdom of this world into a vacuum. No. We are brought out of the world into a new Kingdom, a Kingdom in which God rules over us in Jesus Christ. 

Imagine, Matthew conjures all of these images up for us by simply locating Jesus on a mountain. Interesting.

II. Real Life Aliens!

As kids, we all imagined aliens to be strange pointy-eared green men. We imagined them wobbling around all wrinkly-like eating up all the leftovers from our Skittles ... friggin E.T!  What we never did picture as kids, was the possibility that we ourselves could become real life aliens in the here and now; but that is just what Jesus says here in the Sermon on the Mount!

As He makes His way through the message, He makes it clear that those who follow Him and live by His teachings will become real life, here and now aliens in this world. We will live amongst men and women who see our actions as foreign and other-worldly. Our way of life will be radically different from the lives lived in this world. People will look at us and be confused. Perhaps some will be afraid, others just dismissive - but whatever the reaction may be, the Sermon on the Mount makes it clear that when a man or woman lives with God as their King, the world will not understand them. 

III. Standing Around, Waiting ... 

Boston winters suck. They're cold, snowy and down-right annoying. I would suggest that's why everyone is so damn bitter out there, but anyways I digress. Boston winters suck .... 

I remember as a child living in Boston, having to wait around outside for my dad or mom to pick me up from school. Winters were the worst. All my friends and I would huddle up like old homeless men around a fire-filled trash can to wait impatiently (as 3rd graders tend to be) for our parents. Complaint after complaint we would shiver and wait ...

But O how great was the warmth of my parents old run down Toyota Camry. Like a white horse down the hill of snow coming to the rescue I would wave my friends good-bye and hop into the heated comfortable car. Home Ronnie! (ok I never called my dad 'Ronnie' he probably would have killed me for that ... ) Anyways, I was safe. 

Now all this nostalgia is for a purpose, I promise. You see, when I read these words below - the words that conclude Jesus' Sermon on the Mount - I am reminded of the images of my youth. I find for myself an interesting point of connection:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. 

// Matthew 7:24-27//

We're all, in some way shape or form, waiting for our dad. We're all sitting outside in the cold bitter winter of life. All of us are weathering the storms and anticipating the great and final storm; when our heavenly Father returns. Like impatient 3rd graders we're all waiting around, huddling up. 

But Jesus offers us a hope and an anchor, he offers us a foundation for life while we await that return and weather the winter storms of life. He offers Himself. He offers a lifestyle lived in obedience to His teachings made possible by the heavy cross He bore and the Spirit He extends. The Sermon on the Mount closes with a final offer to make Jesus and His teaching the foundation for your life and it leaves you and I with the hope of something much better than a run-down heated Toyota Camry. It offers us life in communion with the One True Living God. Creator of Heaven and Earth. Any other foundation would be, simply put, foolish. 

Read the Sermon on the Mount brothers and sisters. Read it and be changed by it. Amen. 

//Ex Profundis//

Hope in the Wilderness - II

Chapter 4

We left off in the wilderness and here pick up in the wilderness. A new man stands in the dry, desert land; vulnerable and in want. Jesus, our God in humble flesh, waits and prays and lives in the wilderness for us and is met by an old familiar foe; the adversary. Here in the wilderness, like Israel and Adam of old, the One True Man is tested and tried. See here in the wilderness, the King put to the test.

I. The King Put To The Test (Matthew 4:1-11)

Immediately after His baptism Jesus retreats to the wilderness and is tested there by Satan; the adversary of God's plan. While there is much in the text, for times sake, I'll hone in on one very intriguing aspect of the story. Its very interesting that all three temptations appeal to Jesus' use of power. Each of these temptations are an attempt by Satan to get Jesus to use His legitimate, God ordained power/authority selfishly. Each of these temptations play on Jesus' greatness and essentially say - prove it! You're the King? Really? Prove it with a fantastic display of power! So goes Satan's advance.

Yet, Jesus does not falter. He stands firm. In His reflection and meditation on the Scriptures - He remains true to God's mission for Him. Though His use of power will look strange and unusual, though it will be demonstrated in His going to the cross; He will stand firmly committed to it. He is the only One who can do this and He in fact does do it. He uses His power for the service of His people. He is the King who reigns from the cross. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here ... suffice it to say, I find it very interesting that Jesus is quite unwilling to use His power in ways that the world (and sometimes the church) would expect Him to. He has a very different idea of power and greatness.

With this ordeal finished, Jesus returns home prepared to start His ministry. Matthew gives us three interesting 'snapshots' of things to come in the following verses. Snapshots of the Kingdom.

II. Snapshots of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:12-25)

These three short stories (3:12-17|3:18-22|3:23-25) combine to give us a very exciting collage of the Kingdom life:

(3:12-17) - reminds us that the Kingdom comes as a light and a hope for those who are lost in darkness.

(3:18-22) - reminds us that the Kingdom creates witnesses; it calls men and women to participate in the new message of hope found in the King who establishes this Kingdom - Christ!

(3:23-25) - reminds us of the type of people whom Jesus and the Kingdom He brings benefits; the sick, helpless and outcasts of the world - those who recognize they need a King.

All of these small narrations combine to create a great introduction to the strange new world of the Kingdom. God has come as King in Jesus. His Kingdom has come to benefit the sick and hopeless members of society. The down-trodden and overlooked. Those who have been dealt with unjustly. He comes as savior - and he comes to put men to work for His Kingdom; to make them fishers of men. Being in the Kingdom means being put to work by Jesus. It means carrying out what He came to do for the people He came to do it for. An interesting and difficult challenge for the church today and those who call on the name Jesus as Lord.

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A rejection of the common use of power and instead a use of that power for the benefit of those in need. That is the essential message of hope found in this fourth chapter of Matthew. Hope for strange people, from a strange place - but hope nonetheless. Hope in the Wilderness.

//Ex Profundis//