Sunday Worship 15 February | The Teacher on the Hillside

Since the beginning of the year, we have followed the story of Jesus from the manger to the beginning of his ministry. As we approach the beginning of Lent and the lead up to Easter, we will keep following him to the cross and beyond. This morning we heard what might be the heart of his teaching ministry, the sermon on the mount, which is found in both Matthew chapters 5 to 7 and Luke chapter 6. I've preached on this a few times since I've been here, but as I've said before, it is the greatest lesson never learnt, and I think it is really important that we keep revisiting it, keep trying to learn it. It can be really helpful to hear familiar texts in new language, so this morning we heard from the Children of God Storybook Bible, written by Desmond Tutu, and from the Book of Belonging, by Mariko Clark. If you want to read more on the sermon on the mount, you can read previous blog series here: Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, Lord's Prayer

It always seems a strange thing to preach on a sermon, as if Jesus needs me to explain what he really meant. Honestly I think he did a pretty good job, so I'm not going to say very much, just offer a few personal responses.

The first thing that strikes me is that the world Jesus is describing is quite unlike the world many of us will have experienced. Blessed are the poor and the heartbroken. I don't think Jesus is trying to convince us that these are good things, or that we should simply accept them for ourselves and others, but I do think he is trying to tell us that these things are not curses, that we are not abandoned to them and there is blessing within them and beyond them. Blessed are those who hold power lightly and try to make the world better. Jesus knew better than anyone that gentleness and compassion are not always rewarded, but they are the work of God in the world and they bring blessing to all they touch.

And we know that Jesus was describing a world that was quite unlike the world the crowd had experienced, because in the full sermon in Matthew's gospel, there is a whole section that repeats the pattern "you have heard it said...but I say to you...". Here Jesus is calling his listeners to live not by the letter of the law but by the spirit of it, to go beyond doing what is right in the eyes of those who see their actions to doing what is right in the eyes of the one who sees their hearts.

So this world that Jesus is describing is unlike the world anyone has ever known, and that means it can feel pretty radical. Indeed it was radical enough to get Jesus killed. But why should it be radical to think that those who are poor and heartbroken should find blessing? What is radical about gentleness and compassion? When did we start thinking that it was radical to do what is right in our hearts and not just in our actions? Isn't that how we were always meant to live?

Desmond Tutu called his rewriting of the Sermon on the Mount ‘Jesus Teaches the Secret of Happiness’, and I think that captures something really important. Jesus isn’t trying to impose a set of rules, he is trying to teach us how to be happy. But most importantly, he’s not trying to teach us how to be happy as individuals, but how to be happy together. We find blessing in poverty and heartbreak when others are there to lift us out of it or sit with us in it. We find blessing in gentleness and compassion when we see the difference they make to those around us.

God’s dream for us is not an impossible one, it is quite literally what we were made for. If I were to write my own retelling of the Sermon on the Mount, I think I might call it ‘Jesus Teaches the Secret of Being Human’, because while it may seem that some of this stuff runs counter to some of our instincts, I believe it is absolutely in line with our best and truest natures.