Beatitudes Part Four

 

After living with Matthew 5-7, and specifically the Beatitudes this week, what was one insight or new idea that stirred within you?  What is one question you still hold?  (Wait, you think, just one, I have a thousand questions about this Sermon!)  Does the insight and question connect in any way? 

 

Sermons are not just speechifying…I am not just giving a talk on Sunday mornings.  For me, preaching and teaching is art.  I seek to share what is in my soul (as imperfect as I am) with you.  I trust that God moves in the spaces between words, the pregnant pauses, and the stirring of your sacred imagination to create something I did not intend but is profoundly beautiful for the sake of the world. 

 

Jesus didn’t just go to give a talk on a mountain.  I believe he was laying out the way he was living his life.  He lived a life of poverty, compassion, reaching out to the lost and lonely… and as Jesus did, people discovered right there was God’s realm while Jesus was on earth.  The call for us, you and me, is to not just believe these words intellectually, but live these words intentionally in our bodies. 

 

But…that takes our attention and intention. 

 

We will return to the Sermon on the Mount next week too.  For this week, on this Friday, continue to let God’s wisdom work in your life.  Notice how you are getting caught up in a great symphony God is creating and conducting right here and now.  Take our lives, O God, let them be consecrated/lived faithfully today and always.  Amen.