So, each Sunday for awhile, I'm intending on putting one of my past sermons on my blog for whoever's interested in reading it. To make this feasible, as well as emotionally doable, I'm not going to try and edit or change them in any significant way. I may or may not agree now with everything I wrote then, but I'm going to leave them alone and let them speak for themselves!
In looking through my list, I've decided that I'm going to start with a sermon series I preached in 1994 on the Beatitudes, while I was pastoring in Highlands, NC. I am drawn to this in part because for me, the teachings of Jesus, such as we find in the Beatitudes and the larger Sermon on the Mount in which they are contained (Matthew chapters 5-7), are at the heart of the Christian faith.
And in the case of this first sermon, dealing with the first Beatitude--"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"--I can't help but of the newly elected Roman Catholic leader, Pope Francis. In his recent statements and interviews, he seems to embody the humility and meekness that is at the heart of being 'poor in spirit'.
So I would like to dedicate this first sermon on my blog to Pope Francis. May he have a long and successful Papacy!
Spiritual Paupers
September 25, 1994; Rev. Carl W. Lindquist
“When
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his
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.’” (Matthew 5:1-3)
When Mary Beth and I traveled to the Holy Land 18
months ago, one of the most beautiful places we visited was a mountainside high
above the coastline of the Sea of Galilee, near the ancient village of
Capernaum. From this vantage point we
could see the entire lake and the surrounding countryside, with its bright,
contrasting hues of blue, brown and green.
It was on that very site, called the Mount of Beatitudes and now consecrated
by the presence of a most lovely chapel, that Jesus is believed to have
delivered his most famous teaching, what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
It is of course no accident that Jesus gave this
ethical teaching where he did, on the mountain.
For from the perspective of our Resurrection faith, we can see the
similarities between Moses and Jesus.
Moses, the greatest of all the prophets of Israel, received God’s Law on
the mountain of Sinai and brought it down for the people to hear and obey. Now Jesus, the new Moses, who was the
fulfillment of the covenant of Israel, was giving a new law for a new
covenant and a new Kingdom.
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking a look
at this timeless biblical passage, that has probably been more historically
influential than any other, and we will be trying to gain insights into its
true meaning and its relevance for us as late-20th century Christians.
Imagine, if you can, the scene on that hillside,
almost 2,000 years ago. People from all
over Israel were excited about a new rabbi (what we would call minister) who
was traveling around, preaching, teaching, and performing marvelous works of
healing. His headquarters being in the
fishing village of Capernaum, it was no wonder that crowds of interested
seekers came there to see and hear him in person. And so they gathered in the open fields on
the hillside outside the village, and Jesus came with his handful of specially
chosen disciples, and he sat down and taught them all what has become the most
famous and beloved body of teaching in all of history, the Sermon on the Mount.
And the first line of the Sermon is, “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This simple sentence, the first of what we call the
Beatitudes, contains within it a whole world of meaning and truth. Before we go further into the meaning of this
particular Beatitude, let’s look for just a second at the Beatitudes in
general.
These eight elegant and timeless statements take
their name from the first word, “blessed.”
They are the gateway to the Sermon on the Mount, and they are God’s
answer to man’s greatest question, namely, how do I find the summum bonum, the highest good, the greatest treasure of
life? Last week, we saw that the
greatest treasure and possession of life is true joy and happiness. That is what we all seek. And in the Beatitudes, Christ is pointing us
toward true blessedness and joy.
This is a blessedness that is not temporary, but
permanent, that is not fleeting and merely feeling but a matter of objective
reality, not based on mere fortune and circumstance but dependent on God’s
grace and our choice. This is a
blessedness that is a part of the kingdom that Christ inaugurated.
And so Jesus began by saying, “Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
So what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”, and why
does that bring any kind of blessing?
After all, isn’t poverty a bad thing?
And doesn’t this sound a bit like a case of “the blues?”
This quite literal translation of the Greek here, ptwcoi tw
pneumati, will
be more understandable if we listen to two alternate paraphrases. The Phillips Modern English translation of
this text says, “How happy are those who
know their need for God.” And the
Living Bible reads, “Humble men are very
fortunate!” Here we find the answer
to our search for meaning in this first Beatitude.
To be “poor in spirit” means to realize, first of
all, that we need God, that we are
dependent upon God alone, and that without God, we are ultimately nothing.
That seems so commonsensical. But there has always been a great temptation
to try and live without God. This is
what the Bible means when it talks about “living by bread alone.”
We humans are composite creatures, made up of a dual
nature, both a physical nature and a spiritual nature. As to our physical natures, we have eyes,
ears, nose, hands, and feet. Our bodies
have certain natural and legitimate desires and appetites: for food and drink,
for sexual intimacy, for social fellowship.
These elements of our physical nature are God-given and intended for our
good. At the same time, they can be
distorted and abused, bringing sorrow and ruin to our lives.
But we human beings are more than our bodies, more
than just animals. We are actually
living souls, created in God’s image, with a mind, sense of morality, emotions,
an ability to know the past and look into the future. And we have in our souls a longing for God,
that is as real as our hunger for food and intimacy. This is our spiritual nature.
There has been a great temptation in our modern
world, with its great materialistic advancement and prosperity (as well as its
even greater arrogance about what it thinks it knows) to become so preoccupied
with meeting the needs of our bodies and their desires that we have seriously
neglected the equally real needs of our souls.
When this happens, we become fat physically and materially, while
spiritually we become desperately weak and sickly.
In this very secular age in which we live, it is
easy to live oblivious to the reality of God.
There has been over the last fifty years in our own country a concerted
effort on the part of a virulently secular minority to try and drive the
acknowledgment of God out of our public life, and it continues today. The Asheville paper only last week carried
news of a lawsuit recently filed to try and force the removal of an historical
display of the Ten Commandments in a local courthouse.
Some misguided souls may think we have outgrown God,
that, as the Death of God theologians in the sixties used to say, “our need for
God is dead.” But that is such a foolish
idea. For our human nature has not
changed since Jesus walked the earth. We are still spiritual beings who need
God, and unless we recognize that need and do what we must to meet that need,
we are going to pursue all kinds of alternative divinities to fill the vacuum
in our souls left by the absence of God.
Dostoevski put it well in his classic work The Brothers Karamazov, when he said, “Without God, one doesn’t
believe in nothing, rather one will believe in anything.”
As creatures made in God’s image, it is a simple
fact that we cannot achieve true satisfaction and joy and ‘blessedness’ until
we care for our souls and come to know God.
For only God can resolve the deepest longings and desires of our
souls. Nothing but the true and living
God completely satisfies, because the soul was made for God, and without God
the soul is restless and in secret torment.
What Jesus is telling us here in this first
Beatitude is that unless we realize and understand our need for God and our
dependence upon God, we will never be truly happy in this life, not to speak of
the life to come.
To accept our need for God involves humility, doesn’t it. The proud person thinks of themselves as just
fine in their self-sufficiency. That is
why humility has always been recognized as the foundational virtue of the Christian
life, because without some sense of humility we don’t even bother to worry
about God.
Humility is a tricky virtue, though. A certain clergyman, burdened by a sense of
his unworthiness, went into the church to pray.
Falling to his knees, he prayed, "O Lord, I am nothing! I am nothing!"
The organist was passing by, and overhearing the
pastor praying, was moved to join him on his knees. He too cried aloud, "O Lord, I too am
nothing. I am nothing."
The janitor of the church also happened to be
passing by, and awed by the sight of the men praying, joined them and prayed,
"O Lord, I also am nothing."
At this, the organist nudged the pastor and said,
"Now look who thinks he's nothing!"
To be truly humble means that you recognize yourself
to be what indeed we all are, mere finite creatures, severely limited in so
many ways, sinful beings who in our weakness easily succumb to ever-present
temptation.
To be humble means to realistically see both the
good and the bad that lies within us.
Yes, we do have some pretty incredible talents, abilities, and
aptitudes, and for that we can thank God who created us. But we also have an inclination to
self-centeredness and pride, to greed and hatred, to self-indulgence and
violence, to wanting, not to trust and love God, but rather to BE God, to take
his place as omniscient and omnipotent.
Because we are so inclined toward evil, we need
God. The humble person recognizes all of
this and submits themselves and their will to God in trust, obedience and
faith. The proud man places himself at
the center of his world (becoming self-centered), but the humble man is happy
to place God at the center (becoming God-centered).
In what must be the ultimate biblical example of
pride and humility, Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector
praying in the temple.
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying
thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a
tenth of all my income.' 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not
even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!' 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home
justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’”
And so, on that beautiful mountainside crowded with
people, hungering to hear a word of truth, Jesus taught them, “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Some of them listening that day heard these
words and heeded them, becoming his followers.
Others turned away in indifference or refusal.
And so we today hear the Lord speaking to us. What will we do with Christ and his
teaching? Will we humbly follow him, or
will we proudly turn away?
May God help us to recognize our need for Him, to do
that which will open our souls unto the
Master, and to always keep us humble, submitting ourselves unto Christ in faith
and obedience. For then the promise of
God is that His blessing will come near
unto us and will fill us with “the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy
Spirit. “
O Lord, even as you bless us with so many wonderful
material blessings in life, also keep us ‘poor in spirit,’ humbly aware of our
constant need for your grace, love, and tender mercy. So may we store up treasures in heaven and be
rich toward you. We pray in Christ’s
name. Amen.
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