SEEK THE WELFARE: BLESSED ARE THE POOR BY ADAM FRONCZEK SEPTEMBER 13, 2020
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12. The scripture reading may be found at the end of the sermon.
This is a written transcription of the video message Adam Fronczek offered on Sunday, September 13, 2020. The full video can be found at knox.org/sundayseptember13.
This sermon was preached at the home of Knox member Liz McGann.
Preaching to my phone has been a very lonely experience for me. I don’t look forward to the experience of preaching in a room by myself. I find it harder to get excited about writing sermons these days, knowing that I’ll be preaching them by myself. I’ve also found it lonely to be away from our church community, where sermons often lead to conversations with all of you about what is going on in your own life. I will admit that my own yearning for connection is part of what lead to these small group sermons we’re starting this week—I’m really excited about being here today. What we’re doing today is different from preaching to hundreds at once in our church building. But it’s a lot better than preaching to my phone. And, the way things used to be—pre- Covid—I never had time for an extended conversation with only half-a-dozen of you right after the sermon. So, this is a great opportunity.
At this point, if you’re watching with a group, I want to invite you to stop the video and consider that question yourself: Describe some experience you’ve had during this time of pandemic that has felt either very lonely and isolating and difficult for you; or talk about a time at which you were pleasantly surprised that you did feel connected to someone else. I shared that little bit about me, and I asked this group to tell their own stories; I did that for a reason. This strange time we’re living in is what the Bible refers to as wilderness time—the Bible also calls it exile. Feeling lonely or disconnected or removed from your normal life is a kind of exile. Today, and throughout the fall, we’re going to be talking about how we navigate wilderness times as people of faith.
Today we’re starting a fall series of sermons that will be drawn from two sources in the Bible. The first source is the Book of Jeremiah. Back on August 16 and 23, I started talking about some wisdom from Jeremiah for times of exile and wilderness. Jeremiah spoke to the people of Israel when they were living through their own time of exile, sent away from their home in Jerusalem to exile in the city of Babylon. Jeremiah shared with them an instruction from God. He told them to “seek the welfare of the city to which I have sent you, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” In other words, in times like these, you’ve got to “play the hand you’ve been dealt” or “dance with the one you brung you.” We ourselves must do this. Because pining away for the coronavirus to just be over already is only going to lead to misery and pretending it doesn’t matter won’t keep us safe. So, we’ve got to do the best we can with the situation we’ve got. We’ve gotta seek the welfare of this “city” to which we’ve been sent. That’s the theme from Jeremiah.
There will also be New Testament Lessons that are the focus of each week in this series, words from the Gospel According to Matthew. We’ll start today with Jesus’ words in chapter 5, words known as the Beatitudes.
Today I’m going to begin by doing some teaching on the Beatitudes. This should be some good context for all the texts we’re studying this fall. The Beatitudes are the introduction of what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. It’s Jesus’ greatest collection of teachings, collected in Matthew, chapters 5-7. Matthew sets it up with these words: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to 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.’”
This is the first of eight Beatitudes, eight “blessings” Jesus gives to the people who are gathered around him. “Blessed are those who mourn;” “Blessed are the meek;” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” It’s very important that these words are understood as blessings given by Jesus, and not as instructions saying what we should do. The Greek grammar makes it clear: Jesus does not start his sermon by saying, ‘Go out and find something to mourn about,’ ‘Go be hungry, ‘Go be thirsty,’ ‘Go be poor in spirit…and if you seek out suffering in these ways, you will be blessed.’ No, Jesus says, ‘I know your spirits may not be feeling rich these days;’ I know you are mourning things you have lost and are missing; ‘I know you hunger and thirst for something better. Receive my blessing, for God has not forgotten about you.’
This is how Jesus welcomes his listeners as he begins his greatest sermon. Jesus knew that the people he was preaching to in those days were living in a time of wilderness. The Roman Empire had occupied their city. Their Jewish leaders had become a puppet government that served the Romans; they extracted food and money from regular people to support the occupying armies. Can you imagine having a foreign power occupy your city and make all the rules? Can you imagine having trouble feeding your family because they were paying their soldiers by squeezing you for every extra penny. How long would this go on? How could you carry on a normal life in such times? Jesus knows times are hard for these people; the opening words of his sermon are meant to show that he understands.
If you back out a little further from the Sermon on the Mount and look at all the first several chapters of Matthew, you see even more evidence of the same message. God is trying to reassure us that we are cared for, and that God can be trusted in hard times. Let’s look at how Matthew sends that message in the way he tells the story.
The Book of Matthew begins with the birth of Jesus, and that story is followed right away by the awful story of King Herod seeking to eliminate this new rival king by slaughtering all the infants in the land. Mary and Joseph are warned and escape with the child to Egypt. Later, Jesus returns to Israel, and before beginning his ministry, he is baptized in water, and will go into the wilderness for 40 days of temptation. The wilderness times will build up his spiritual stamina for what lies ahead. Only after that time in the wilderness does Jesus begin his ministry, which he does by going up to the mountain for the great Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew has a good reason for including each of these details as he tells the story of Jesus’ life. Matthew is the most Jewish of the four Gospel writers—he’s always referring back to the Old Testament to reinforce the idea that this man Jesus is consistent with the God of the Jewish people. So, this story about Jesus that begins with the slaughter of innocent children, baptism in water, a time in the wilderness, the emergence of a new leader and a journey up to the mountaintop.
We’ve heard this story before. It’s the story of Moses.
At the time when Moses was born, the Hebrew slaves had become too numerous in Egypt and Pharaoh became afraid. So, he orders the slaughter of all male children. But two midwives hide Moses away and place him among the reeds in the Nile River. The child Moses survives and will grow to lead his people out of Egypt and into the promised land of Israel, but only after they pass through the waters of the Red Sea and wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And Moses will give a great address to the Hebrews to give them God’s Law, beginning with the 10 Commandments that he receives, how? He goes up to the mountaintop.
Slaughter of infants, passing through water, wandering in the wilderness, and going up to the mountaintop. The way Matthew tells the story of Jesus is not an accident. Moses and Jesus are both going to be great teachers of the people, they are going to show the people how to live together in a time of wilderness. The instructions they give will not always be easy.
Why should the people listen? Because of all that God has done for them. This is the God who freed them from slavery and brought them into the Promised Land. This story has been a part of the fabric of their people for countless generations. So, one afternoon, having heard amazing things about this young rabbi Jesus who is traveling through the land called Galilee, crowds of people gather on a mountainside to hear what he has to say. They are living in a wilderness of oppression, overcome by the power of the Roman Empire that holds sway over every aspect of their lives, and they seek a savior who understands what it is like for them. And Jesus steps onto the mountaintop and he says to them: “Blessed are you who are feeling poor in spirit…for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”
There is no doubt that we are living in a wilderness season these days—that many of us are feeling poor in spirit. Covid 19 has upset so many of our normal ways of being. We do not know how long this wilderness wandering will last and what the Promised Land will look like when we get there. We are getting weary of the journey and like the Israelites, we may at times wish to go back to Egypt— to the habits and rhythms that were familiar to us before, even if we know that doing so would be unsafe. To have the strength for this journey, we have to believe that our God can be trusted, so we look back and remember that we have heard this story before, that we are not the first people to find ourselves in the wilderness, and that God will lead us through it.
Wilderness times are hard, so we must figure out ways to safely go together and to build one another up along the way.
Amen.
In response to today’s sermon, you might consider the following questions as you talk with one another:
• What points of connection do you hear between the wilderness story we heard today and the times we are living in? • How do you feel inspired to ‘seek the welfare of this city to which we’ve been sent?’ • What would you like to see us do as a church as we seek to stay connected with each other?
MATTHEW 5:1-12
New Revised Standard Version The Beatitudes
5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.