The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - January 29

Teaching About Blessedness

Matthew 5:1-12

The Sermon on the Mount.  Today’s Gospel reading is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew’s Gospel, these are Jesus’ first public words.  Matthew records his birth and baptism.  Last week we heard the call of Peter, Andrew, James and John…  Jesus’ personal interaction with them.  In the introductory verses to today’s reading, Matthew describes Jesus teaching in the synagogues and healing in Galilee. 

But this is his first public address.  It frames his entire ministry in Matthew.  And Matthew says that when the disciples had gathered around, Jesus “began to speak and taught them.”  Matthew presents Jesus as “Israel’s ultimate, God-authorized teacher” (Douglas R. A. Hare, Interpretation Commentary).

For Matthew, Jesus is first and foremost teacher.

The Beatitudes, today’s Gospel, are very familiar but actually a bit tricky to understand.  There are some translation challenges, including the Greek word usually translated “blessed.”  And Luke and Matthew’s versions of Jesus’ sermon have some significant differences.

I have generally thought of the Beatitudes as words of comfort.  Jesus speaking comfort to the downtrodden, the poor, the grieving. 

But there are other interpretations.  Some think Jesus is describing the fulfillment of the kingdom.  The “eschatological promise.”  This is God’s vision of the kingdom that is to come.  Or:  these are a set of rules; this is what you need to do to be a part of God’s kingdom.

One interpreter I read said, with these various interpretations, probably all are true, at least in part.  So I hang on to hearing these words as words of comfort…  Jesus speaking into being God’s blessing to people in need of comfort and love.

But this morning let’s also look at another possible interpretation.  Jesus is a teacher.  And, although when we think of the sermon on the mount we picture crowds, Matthew says that Jesus is speaking primarily to his disciples, those who have just drawn near to follow him.  He’s teaching his disciples their first, most important, big lesson.   You who are my followers, this is what you need to learn.

He teaches them how to recognize blessedness (David Lose).  This is what being blessed looks like, he says.  And, for the disciples, it may not be what they thought blessedness looked like.

Blessedness is closeness to God.  We think of blessings as things…  good things, given by God…  and being blessed is having received those good things…  But that’s not quite what Jesus is talking about here.  Jesus is talking about the state of blessedness… a state of being that is close to God and is the recipient of God’s love.  Blessedness is living in open, right, close relationship with God. 

He’s not teaching them how to become blessed.  He doesn’t say:  if you do this you will be blessed (although that might be implied in his words).  Jesus is teaching his disciples how to recognize the blessedness that is already in the world, how to recognize those who ARE blessed.  It’s present tense.  Blessed ARE…

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus says.  (In Luke, Jesus just says “poor” and means “poor.”)  In Matthew “’poor in spirit’ refers neither to those who are poor for religious reasons (the voluntarily poor) nor to those who are deficient with respect to spirit (the dispirited) but rather to those poor who manifest the attitude appropriate to their condition, namely, humble dependence on God’s grace (Hare).”

The poor in spirit ARE blessed, Jesus says.  People who live humbly dependent upon God rather than cherishing the fruits of their own devices are blessed, close to God. Have you learned that, disciples?

Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are the meek.  (I can think of several disciples who would probably not have recognized the meek as blessed!)

Blessed are those who mourn.  Almost certainly Jesus did not mean individuals who mourn the loss of a loved one, although God’s love and compassion is certainly with them in that place of sadness.  But in this teaching, Jesus is speaking more broadly. He means those who grieve that the state of the world is so far from God’s purposes and desire.

The meek are not the timid.  Jesus’ reference to the meek draws upon words in the psalms, and the Greek word is one Matthew uses later to describe Jesus….  The meek are people who are “humble and gentle in their dealings with other people because they have humbled themselves before the greatness of God (Hare).”  People who do not boast of their own greatness, but humble themselves before the greatness of God.

People who mourn the absence of God’s justice.  People who are humble and gentle with other people.  These people ARE blessed.

Are you getting this?  Jesus says…  This is what blessedness looks like.  These are people who are blessed by closeness with God.

Blessed are those who are seeking God’s righteousness.  Blessed are those who are offering mercy, especially when it is very hard.  Blessed are those who are working to make peace in the midst of violence, hatred.

Now that you know what blessedness looks like, Jesus says to his disciples and to us, have you seen it?  Have you seen blessedness in your life in your world?  Will you recognize it when you do?  And will you join in?  Will you offer yourself into that place, that life, of blessedness?

Thinking about Jesus as teacher, I want to offer a postscript.

We’re going to hear Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the mount for several more weeks.

I ask:  Will we let Jesus teach us? 

I’ve done a lot of teaching.  In the church, in the corporate world, in the academic world.  (I’ve taught Introductory Geology to young men in college on football scholarships!)  You have to have students who are willing to learn…  They don’t necessarily have to be profoundly interested or excited about the subject—a good teacher can overcome disinterest.  But there has to be some willingness, some opening, even if small.  To learn, students must be open to hearing and learning more than they already know.

Epiphany season is about recognizing the glory, the presence, of God in Jesus.  In Jesus’ words.

This Epiphany as we hear Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount…  are we open to learning more than we already know?  Will we let Jesus teach us?

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany - January 22

Be Our Light in the Darkness

Isaiah 9:1-4

Psalm 27: 1, 5-13

Matthew 4:12-23

Light coming into darkness is a prominent theme in today’s readings.  People who have been in deep darkness are promised and given light.  We heard it in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, in the psalm and in Matthew’s Gospel.  Light shining in the darkness.  It’s a common theme throughout Scripture:  God bringing light into the darkness.

From Isaiah:  (If you know Handel’s Messiah, these are familiar words.  In your mind you will hear them being sung by the bass.)

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness--  (those who dwell in the shadow of death… in the old translations)
on them light has shined.

There are different kinds of darkness, of course.  The darkness that Isaiah is talking about is geographic or political.  Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel.  The lands of Zebulun and Naphtali lay in the northern part of Israel, between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean.  The northern tribes were particularly susceptible to invasion.

The source of the deep darkness at this time was likely the mighty Assyrian Empire, known for their great cruelty to those whom they conquered, including the northern tribes of Israel.

The light is God’s promise of deliverance, of liberation, from occupation and oppression.

When Matthew quotes this passage from Isaiah, he is intentionally resonating with that God’s earlier promise.  Matthew is saying:  Jesus is continuing to fulfill and further God’s work of deliverance and liberation.  Jesus is doing what God has always done…  bring light and freedom to God’s people.

As I’ve been thinking about these Scripture passages this week, at the same time I’ve been working on today’s adult education class on using the prayer book at home.  And I’ve been reminded of a prayer I memorized as a teenager as part of my relatively regular evening prayers.

In the old prayer book it read:

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night.

That language is still in the current prayer book in the Rite 1 Evening Prayer service, but there is also a version in more contemporary language.

Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I like the new translation.  There is a slight difference in meaning, I think.  The darkness doesn’t go away, but God brings light into it.  We pray for God to be our light in the darkness, to bring light to us.

There are different kinds of darkness.  Some can be lightened by flipping an electrical light switch.  For many kinds of darkness, only God can help.

What darkness do you face in your life?  The darkness may be small or large, constant or just every now and then.  A child’s apprehension at night.  Be our light in the darkness.  An adult’s loneliness throughout the long hours of the night.  Be our light in the darkness.  The darkness of oppression and prejudice.  Be our light in the darkness, O Lord.  Illness.  Fear.  A faith crisis. (It is sad for me when peoples’ faith wavers and they abandon prayer or church.  That is the time to pray all the harder.  Be my light in the darkness.)

As Christians today, we pray.  And we trust.  Pray for God to be light, to bring light to the darkness we face.  And trust that it is God’s desire and action to do that.

Today’s psalm is an encouragement to trust.  It begins:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?

Those are rhetorical questions!  The Lord is my light and my salvation.  Whom then shall I fear?  No one!  If the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid?  No one and no thing!  Trust in the Lord to be the light and strength of your life.

Pray and trust that God will be our light in the darkness.  That God will bring direction, light, vision, hope into all kinds of darkness.

Pray and trust.  Be our light in the darkness, O Lord.

The First Sunday after the Epiphany - January 8

Epiphany/Theophany
Matthew 3:13-17

Today is the first Sunday after The Epiphany.  We celebrated the feast day of the Epiphany on Friday, January 6.  It always falls on the 6^th, twelve days after Christmas.

Now we are in this season after the Epiphany.  I’ve usually thought about this season as a time to focus on us being open to receiving epiphanies.  But this year I’m thinking maybe the focus should be more on God doing theophanies.

First a little bit about the two words….  Not that you’re likely to use either one in everyday conversation.  But making a distinction is important to my point.

Both are derived from the Greek:  And both include the Greek root phanein, which means “to appear.”

Epiphany is defined as “an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.”

Someone who has just experienced an epiphany might say:  “I have seen the light!”  An epiphany is something that happens to us, a new recognition, a new awareness.  In religious terms, an epiphany is a new revelation of God’s presence.  Which we certainly should seek to be open to.

But a theophany, on the other hand, is something that God does.  God appears.  God makes himself known.  The focus in one God and on what God is doing. 

We couldn’t have any personal epiphanies without God revealing himself, without God making himself known, without theophanies.  This Epiphany season I want to focus on these traditional Epiphany stories as theophanies, and to reflect in particular on what they tell us about God. 

Let’s look at three of the big Epiphany stories.

First, the story of the Epiphany.  God revealing himself to the wise men.  God enabling the magi from the East to recognize the divine presence in the baby Jesus.  As I said at the Epiphany service, we don’t really know much at all about the wise men.  The one thing we definitely know is that they were very different from anyone else gathered around that baby.  They were foreigners, from a different culture and background, speaking a different language.  They weren’t even Jews!  God’s first big theophany in Jesus is to major outsiders.  God’s self-revelation is unimaginably expansive and welcoming to all.

The second Epiphany story is the one we heard today.  On the First Sunday after the Epiphany we always hear one of the accounts of Jesus’ baptism.  God’s booming voice reveals Jesus as God’s own beloved Son.  A reminder to us of how important baptism is.  Baptism is the occasion for theophanies.  When we do baptism, God speaks.  Today God’s voice says, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.”  God’s self-revelation is intimate, personal, spoken to each of us by name.

The wedding at Cana in Galilee is another story traditionally associated Epiphany season.  When Jesus changes the water into wine.  In the old one-year lectionary, we would always hear that story next week, on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.  Now with the three-year lectionary, we only hear it in Year C.   It’s a party, a time of community celebration and fellowship.  God’s self-revelation happens when God’s people are gathered in community celebration and fellowship.

Ultimately, all of the stories show us that God wants to be known.  That God wants us to know that he is present with us.  Epiphany season follows Christmas.  These stories are God’s response to the promise of Emmanuel, God-with-us.  I promised to be with you.  Here I am.  In these theophanies, God acts to reveal his presence with us to us.

And in these three stories we see that God wants to be with and to be known to an expansive diversity of people; to each of us individually and personally; and within the gatherings of our faith communities. 

God wants to be known.  With all of these theophanies, he should be hard to miss.