Blessed are those who mourn....

Blessed are the poor in spirit....

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).

The sermon on the mount in the gospel of Matthew begins with these words from Jesus. I preached a sermon yesterday on this but each of these blessings that we call the "beatitudes" is so rich and so great that I thought I would pass along some thoughts on each of these eight blessings in verses 3-10.
Maybe these can help guide us this week. Maybe you will find yourselves in them, or perhaps you will sense where God is leading you in them. So, let's look at that first one, the one about being "poor".
We don't want to be poor in anything. Being poor means that you don't have what others have. And normally we look at this as a bad thing, we often want what other have. Or we think we deserve things that we don't have. But the Beatitudes are a system of blessings in reversals. For each of these "blessings" in Matthew 5 Jesus is flipping the table on what is perceived the cultural and societal norm.
So He begins here, with being poor. But not just poor financially. Poor "in spirit". To be poor in spirit means to be empty of oneself.

The Message paraphrase writes this verse this way, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule".

I understand that. I know what it means and what it feels like to be at the end of my rope. There is nowhere left to go, there are no other options, there is not much time left of holding on. Somethings gotta give! Somethings gotta change!
And that's when it does, or at least it can.
When we empty ourselves of ourselves and see "poor" in spirit not as a bad thing, but as a beginning thing. Being at the end of the rope doesn't have to be the end.
Being at that end can be the liberating beginning!
It is there we finally realize that we are not in control. It is there that we finally realize that if we let go of this thing we have tried to have a white-knuckle grip on, that we are in the hands of an almighty and all-loving God.
And when we let go and empty ourselves He begins to fill us. But we are filled with some different things than we were before. And some of those things are the following verses in these beatitudes that we will get to later.
But first there is a blessing for those who are poor in spirit....the kingdom of heaven.
Wow, talk about a role reversal there! You go from poor and empty to receiving the kingdom. And this is not a future when you die we all go to heaven type of blessing. It is in the here and the now. Today! If you will accept the blessing.
The kingdom of heaven is something Jesus spent a lot of time talking about, and something that I have spent a lot of time reading and praying about. And here is what I think. When we empty ourselves of ourselves and become this vessel for God to fill up we begin living a new life in this kingdom come now. Not fully and completely, of course. The full arrival of the kingdom will usher in a time of no more pain, no more death, no more tears, where the Lord is our light and there is no sin or darkness. But what I mean is that when Jesus said "theirs IS the kingdom of heaven", I think he meant it.
So that's our blessing today. Living a life in the kingdom for the King today. To be filled up with what we need to live this kingdom life with kingdom values.
So be #blessed today, and be a blessing!

Sermon URL: https://www.facebook.com/TelfordUnitedMethodistChurch/videos/1254662261247058/

The Invitation

               I love getting invitations. Well, most of the time I do. Sometimes I get those emails or phone calls that state that I am being invited to take part in a brief survey because my opinion is extremely valuable. Then about 3 hours the “brief” survey is over. And I have been invited to attend those free vacations, with the only caveat being I have to sit through a very brief low-pressure sales presentation for their time share company. Often these are neither brief nor low-pressure. Each year I also get “invited” to attend a consultation with our Johnson City District Committee on Ordained Ministry. Of course I am not equating this time with the dCOM to time share pitches or unwanted telemarketers, I am just saying that some invitations are more enjoyable than others.

               Like a birthday party invitation. Those are usually good. Well, unless you don’t really know the person that well, or if you have no idea what kind of gift to buy. Or if it’s one of those invitations from your child’s elementary school class where they have to invite every single child in the class so you have no idea who the parents are or who you’re going to be hanging out with while wondering why people still scheduled birthday parties at places like Chuck E Cheese (no offense Chuck, I am just using you as an example). OK, so maybe all birthday party invitations aren’t the best.

               But wedding invitations, those are always great! Right? Well, unless it’s one of those Saturday outdoor weddings in August. Hot, hot, hot and humid. Of course these never start on time, because the bridal party is inside the air conditioned oasis of our party building while you sit melting in a chair that is leaving little sweat rings under your backside. And of course these over top once in a lifetime wedding events try to bring in every element of art, dance, drama, and music so that the entire event with snacks before and dinner after lasts hours…or days. OK, so maybe all wedding invitations aren’t that great.

               Now, before you think that I have just gone all cynical on invitations, I am just trying to make a point. We like to be invited to things, that is part of our human nature. We want to be included.

               In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus tells a story about a wedding. This parable was used to illustrate that we are all invited into the kingdom of God, but that not everyone will come. The incredible irony is that while we are waiting for an invitation to something this weekend, we have already been invited to relationship with Jesus. And for many people reading this column, you have already accepted that invitation. But that’s not all there is. Now we get to invite others.

               The end of the first chapter of the gospel of John deals with invitations. Jesus was an inviter. His famous pick up line was “follow me”. And it is still is. And people did, and still do. But my favorite invitation from Jesus was to two disciples of another teacher, John the Baptist. One day they saw Jesus walking by and John said, “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. So naturally these two guys are curious so they follow Jesus, just walking behind him following.

               So Jesus asks them what they want. They say they want to see where He is staying. And his answer is, “Come, and you will see”.

               That’s the invitation. Come and see. Come and see what Jesus is doing. Maybe you’ll get that invitation you’re waiting for, maybe you won’t. But you have already been invited into relationship with the One who takes away the sin of the world. Your invitation is one of relationship. Have you accepted?

God is with us...still

“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old is gone, the new is here!” –

2 Corinthians 5:17

                “Christmas is over”.

I have heard that from a lot of people this past week. Some have said it with a sigh of relief and others have mumbled it with a twinge of sadness, like a friend that has gone away and won’t be seen for a whole year. Some of you may have had your tree taken down and decorations packed up the evening of December 25, and others of you may be waiting as long as possible to un-decorate.

The reality is that Christmas isn’t over.

Technically we are still in what is called “Christmastide” (yes, those 12 days of Christmas from the song are a real thing from Christmas through Epiphany, which is January 6). I know that the season of Christmas is ending, and that eventually all of the decorations will have to be put away, but that whole “Emmanuel—God with us” idea doesn’t get packed away with the stockings and tree skirt. God is not in the manger anymore, God is in us.

God is with us, still.

Even when we might think Christmas is “over”.

And here we are into a new year. But with the new year comes many of the same old things. The same debt, the same worries, the same illness, the same doubts, the same addictions, the same concerns. There is no New Year Resolution big enough for these. So we focus on the things we think we can fix on our own. A Google search for this year’s top Resolutions has “Exercise” topping our wish list with 37% of Americans and then “losing weight” a close 2^nd with 32%. The reality is that many gyms bring in ‘temporary’ equipment for the month of January only. The reason for this is something that we all know all too well. Come February the resolutions are gone.

God is with us, still.

The new creation has come.  This means that we have been created new. But it’s not just a one-time thing that happened in the past. It can be a daily newness in life. A daily refreshing from the presence of God with us. A daily recreating of who we are in Christ. A daily resolution that we are not trying to achieve with our own good intentions, but placing in the capable hands of Jesus.

The old is gone. This means that our old habits, old selfishness, old worries, old addictions, old regrets, old doubts can be gone with our old self. This takes a daily focus on the newness in us so that the oldness doesn’t slip back in.

My kids used to love to play in the mud. And when they did they would get really muddy, cause that’s just what happens when you play in the mud. Not that playing in the mud is a bad thing, I am just using it here metaphorically. Anyway, their clothes would be muddy, their shoes would be muddy, they would just be a muddy mess. When I got them washed off and cleaned up I wouldn’t put them back in those muddy clothes, I would dress them in clean clothes, and wash those muddy clothes (or throw them away—but don’t tell Heather I ever did that). The same is true for us. That oldness in our lives shouldn’t be something that we keep putting back on every day. If we are really made new in Christ, then we should be wearing new clean clothes, not the same old dirty stuff. There is a beautiful picture of baptism there also. The washing away of the old under the water and the rising up of the new clean person.

The new is here!

I think we can live a fresh new life in Christ Jesus. But I think it’s really hard to try to do that alone. I don’t advocate New Year Resolutions. If you want to read the Bible in 2017 that’s great! But you don’t need a New Year Resolution to do that. Just do it. But I do think that being part of a church is important to this new life, to help keep the newness in the oldness out. So if you’re not part of a church family to help you in this new 2017, then check out the list of local churches that is listed in this paper. There really are people here that want to help you, and there are people here that need to be helped by you. We’re all in this together.

So, Happy New Year! Enjoy it. Live it. Love it. And maybe even go play in the mud…just don’t put those muddy clothes back on ;)