Sermon on the Mount

 

In the coming weeks, I invite you to dive and dwell into the Sermon on the Mount with me.  The Sermon on the Mount can be found in Matthew chapters 5-7.  My favorite quote about this these three chapters is, “The Sermon on the Mount was probably not preached all at once, because that might have caused the disciples’ heads to explode!”

 

Indeed.

 

In these chapters you find God’s alternative vision for the world or what has been called, “A curriculum of Christlikeness”.  Yet, the words that fall from Jesus’ lips describe a world that is upside down from the “normal” way of life as you and I know it.  In our world, we seek fame, fortune, power, privilege, and positioning.  We want (dare I say, need) to win.  We stuff our lives with stuff and long for people to like our posts on social media.  Jesus’ wisdom is that blessing/goodness/God-ness/peacefulness is found not in the balance of our bank accounts, but among the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, hungry, justice-seekers, those who walk humbly with God, cultivate peace, and are even persecuted.

 

Huh?  That is not easy to hear or understand.  With a job description like that, it is surprising anyone followed Jesus OR still attends church.  I imagine people walking away from the Sermon on the Mount shaking their heads in disbelief.  I imagine the angry emails he got afterwards.   

 

How do we live in the tension between how the world we know describes and defines as blessing/goodness and how Jesus preaches and teaches the way of blessing/goodness?

 

I don’t think that question is easily solved or resolved.  That question needs to sit and simmer on our souls.  The Sermon on the Mount is like learning a foreign language, it takes time.  Jesus is laying out an alternative plan for life that will challenge us to the very core of our being; that will ask us to look at our calendars, checkbooks, credit card receipts, and conversations we are having with God and others and ourselves.

 

Today, I invite you to read all of Matthew 5-7.  After you read, write down the chapters/verses that you find meaningful (for example, I love the image of salt and light in chapter 5 and the instructions on prayer in chapter 6).  Also, name and notice what feels like sandpaper to your soul.  I confess the Beatitudes of chapter 5 of how Jesus talks about blessedness make my mind spin!  Moreover, the part about loving your enemy at the end of chapter 5 causes the defense attorney in my mind to stand up and say, “Objection!  This is NOT how the world works!  Plus, you don’t know how much my enemy hurt me!” (More on this part of the Sermon on the Mount in the weeks to come).

 

Soak yourself in these words.  Let them rummage and roam around your life.  You may want to re-read these chapters several times in the coming days as a prayer practice.  You may want to read different translations of these words to see if the words of one translation opens you to a different insight.  Please note, I am NOT offering a money-back guarantee, that at the end of the next few weeks of studying the Sermon on the Mount there will be some kind of spiritual break through (in fact, it might feel more like a break down).  But, I trust that when we dwell in the Word, the Word begins to dwell with us in ways that make a difference.  I trust this ancient wisdom of Jesus was not just good advice we may or may not accept, but a way of life that causes my soul to be curious.  Let’s dive in to see where this journey takes us.