Sermon on the Mount

 

As January winds down and wraps up, as 2025 continues to unfold in unforeseen and uncertain ways, we may wonder, where might we ground ourselves amid the shifting sand of the world today?  What can guide us in ways that are life-giving?  Are we searching for comfort and confirmation or that God will stretch us and shape us in new/sacred ways?  Over the next few weeks, we will focus on the Sermon on the Mount ~ a collection of wisdom Jesus spoke on a mountain to his disciples then and to you/me/we as disciples today.  I invite you today to read the whole Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). 

 

Wait, you think, can he assign homework in these morning meditations?

 

To be sure, you don’t have to do this.  In fact, if life is too frenzied and fragile right now, maybe you take a hard pass on this.  Or maybe, if life seems to be unraveling like a sweater caught on something…if life is spreading you thin ~ like too little butter on a piece of dry burnt toast (thanks to J.R. Tolkien for that image), this might actually be a way to center yourself in wisdom beyond the color commentary in your mind that keeps pointing out all the places you bumble and stumble and fall flat (splat) on your face.

 

Slowly read Matthew 5-7.  As you do, where do you find your soul strangely warmed ~ write down chapter and verse.  Where does your inner defense attorney yell, “Objection” to what Jesus is saying?  Where do you roll your eyes thinking, “Nice try, Jesus, but that ain’t going work with Ted, because we all know Ted just love to stir the pot and get people’s goat!”

 

Where do you find your eyes glazing over as you read these three chapters?

 

To be clear, I can find the Sermon on the Mount perplexing and provocative, stretching me sometimes in ways I don’t want to be stretched (says my inner teenager protesting and slamming the door to my soul).  And yet, I come back to these chapters as central to our shared faith and ways to embrace/embody the faith today.

 

Sit with this sermon.  One of my favorite quotes about the Sermon on the Mount comes from Amy Jill Levine who says, “If Jesus had preached this whole sermon at one time…the disciples’ heads would have exploded!”  It is too much…which is why we are going to slow down with this wisdom of Jesus to see what is provoked and evoke within us.  Today, I invite you to get an overview ~ see the forest for the trees ~ to see what threads and themes you can pick up on in these chapters.  As always, if you want to talk, my door is wide open to chat ~ as a Bible nerd there is nothing, I love more than diving and dwelling in Scripture.  Happy reading…with God’s love.