TEXTS:

Matthew 5: 1-12 [NRSV]

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.’

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

‘Following God’s rules’

Jesus tells us here that these people should consider themselves blessed; the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. Sometimes we think his words mean that if we are meek we will be blessed, that if we are persecuted we will be blessed, and we put up with situations we shouldn’t because of it. Sometimes this teaching is used by the powerful to excuse their oppression, or to excuse ordinary people from fighting injustice – ‘they will get their reward in heaven’ is the cry, and the underlying message is – ‘don’t rock the boat’. And as we know, those that mourn are not always comforted, those that are meek are usually stomped on, and the merciful are often dismissed as weak.

Does that mean we dismiss this amazing message as pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die stuff? No, because Jesus wasn’t laying down the standards of behaviour necessary before Christians are rewarded, nor was he promoting life truths that would get him labelled as a ‘good teacher.’ What Jesus was doing was proclaiming a new covenant between God and people, upside down rules for an upside world. Jesus’ point was that under God’s rule everything would be different. That if heaven was on earth the world would belong to the meek, that peacemakers would be called God’s children, and that the pure in heart would really see God. And Jesus’ presence was the beginning.

Now we all know that, despite Jesus saying that the kingdom is here, two thousand years later it is still hard to see signs of the new covenant he was talking about. The world doesn’t bless its down-trodden, people are hurt both deliberately and by accident and they certainly don’t feel blessed. In fact, those blessed with good looks, health, money and so on seem mostly to be the least deserving. So what’s going on?

Well, the reality is, the kingdom is here, but not in its entirety. And so that perfect world where all those who deserve to be are blessed is still a wishful hope. Or is it? Jesus talked as if this kingdom of heaven had arrived and yet he was hated, rejected and reviled, tortured and killed. So were many of the people he was talking to that day. And yet all through his ministry he kept saying, ‘The kingdom is here.’ Was he delusional? Was God mucking him about? or was he demonstrating the secret of God’s kingdom on earth? a secret that all Christians have access to but which so many miss.

The secret of living as if the kingdom of God is here. This is what makes a person blessed. This is what we see in the lives of those we call saints. This is what we see in the lives of the prophets before them. This refusal to live as others do and instead to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there is another way to live, a way sanctioned by God.

What this most famous of sayings is telling us, is not that if we are good we are blessed but that if we truly believe God is in control then we will behave as if we are already living the blessed life of one who belongs to the kingdom of God. And if we live as if we are already part of the kingdom of God, a little bit of that new heaven and earth will indeed be present.

At no point is Jesus promising an easy ride for those that take on this radical stance. His last blessings are clear that the most likely outcome of living out kingdom values is being called names, being discriminated against, being libelled, and worse. He mentions the prophets before him as examples. Jeremiah, for one, was ignored, imprisoned in a muddy pit, disowned by his family, and exiled. He suffered depression and constantly told God how much he hated being his prophet. Elijah suffered burnout after years of arguing God’s side against the rulers and religious authorities of his day. He also went through famine and drought, facing starvation just like everyone else. Some of the prophets were even killed by their own people, one of them in the temple.

In the years since Jesus, those named saints, and many more besides, have also lived as if God’s kingdom was already here. They have lived by different rules to those around them – God’s rules, and have often suffered the consequences. But I’m not talking about the stories of those perfect, very holy, always pious saints. I’m talking about people like Mother Teresa who forced people to look at the dignity of all living people, even those dying in an Indian slum. Who treated the President of the United States exactly the same as one of her youngest nuns and demanded that they see God in the pock-ravaged face of the old man dying in the filthy streets of Calcutta.

I’m talking about Columba who left Ireland in disgrace after causing a bloody war and spent the rest of his life in exile in Scotland training monks to share the gospel, to pray and to be peacemakers. I’m talking about Oscar Romero a bishop in South America who discarded his comfortable church life to fight for the poor and to speak about the injustice he had previously ignored. Even in the face of death threats, he spoke out until he was killed. I’m talking about Teresa of Avila who fought bishops and her fellow nuns to reform her convent from the abuses it had fallen into and to develop a rule of life that spread throughout the Catholic world of her day.

None of these people were perfect. Most took many years to finally live as God wanted them to, to do the things that we remember them for. All of them claimed they still had a long way to go to reach the perfection they aspired to. But now we claim them as saints.

And that gives me the hope that being a saint is actually quite easy. All we have to do is to start believing, or at least acting as if we believe, that Jesus is right. That God’s kingdom is here, that there really is at least a bit of heaven here on earth. And that if we behave as if this is true, that here tears will be wiped dry and that the persecuted and the poor in spirit will belong, then we too will start being different, because we will be moving to a different beat, obeying a different set of rules. And as we live more as if the promise is true, here and now, I believe we too will get a glimpse of God, not because we have made ourselves pure enough, or good enough, but because living God’s way purifies, and casting off old ways releases all that binds us.

So, let’s take those first steps on the road less-travelled. Let’s be fools for Christ and with Christ. Let’s join the multitude of saints who have gone before us who have said “There is something more than how we are living today. Let’s be God’s people and act like it.”