Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

We are beginning to wrap up and wind down the Sermon on the Mount.  There is much more that could be said on these three chapters and I certainly didn’t comment on every single verse. So, if you were struck or stuck in a passage or verse, come talk to me.  I do not promise to resolve or answer all your questions.  After all, who do I think I am trying to do interpret Jesus’ sermon for you?  I promise to listen to your questions.  I promise to sit with you in the pondering.  I promise to wait and watch to see if there might be an insight that dawns in you like the rising of the sun.  I wonder, what is one insight or idea from the last five weeks that you want to carry with you?  Please know that one insight is enough.  You may want to rewind and review some of what was offered in morning meditations and sermons over the last four weeks.  What is one question you still hold with this sermon?  I still wonder about loving my enemies and I still know there is a whole forest of logs in my own ways of seeing the world…that too often I think that I get to write my own story rather than letting God be a creative collaborator with me.  The more I name this and claim this…the more those threads are woven into my living.  As Jesus offered the benediction and began to descend the mountain, I wonder if the disciples thought, “What have I gotten myself into?”  I wonder if as modern-day followers of Jesus we think the same thing!  And yet on this day after dwelling with these words for several weeks the hymn that is in my heart goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; No turning back, no turning back.”  May you and I know that we do not go alone, we go as a community of faith seeking to grow together, learn together, stumble and pray together.  And because of that, we forge faithfully forward seeking to let these words guide us through the year to come.