Matthew 5:1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 3, 2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the SF Chronicle<\/em> this past Tuesday, there was article about the factors that lead a person to be happy. Researchers working with college students as their subjects found that the happiest students were more social, spent less time alone and reported strong relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners. They were more extroverted, more agreeable and less neurotic than their unhappy or somewhat happy peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contrary to previous studies, findings that they did not discover were that happy people exercised more, got more sleep or attended church services. Hmmm…I guess none of you will be leaving here this morning saying to the TV cameramen outside when they ask you, \u201cWhere are you going, now that you\u2019ve been to church?\u201d You won\u2019t be saying, \u201cWe’re going to Disney World\u2014the happiest place on earth!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If coming to church doesn\u2019t necessarily make you happy, then what does?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us find happiness in having stuff. When we are sad, \u201cMacy\u2019s More You\u201d tells us to go shopping for your self. With more stuff than we can handle, we end up hiring consultants to help us organize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comedian George Carlin has a classic routine on \u201cstuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s all I want, that\u2019s all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? Everybody\u2019s got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n your stuff, that\u2019ll be his stuff over there. That\u2019s all you need in life, a little<\/p>\n\n\n\n place for your stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn\u2019t have so much<\/p>\n\n\n\n stuff, you wouldn\u2019t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A<\/p>\n\n\n\n house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you\u2019re<\/p>\n\n\n\n taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody\u2019s got a little pile<\/p>\n\n\n\n of stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn\u2019t want somebody<\/p>\n\n\n\n to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They<\/p>\n\n\n\n never bother with that junk you\u2019re saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get\u2026more<\/p>\n\n\n\n stuff! Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for<\/p>\n\n\n\n your stuff anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one is saying that we need to be stuff-less. But if our lives, our houses, our self-storage sheds are filled with stuff, are our souls filled with stuff too? Are our spirits possessed with possessions that we have run out of room for God stuff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s Scripture is the beginning of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has been baptized, taunted and tested in the wilderness. He has called his disciples, and now, he has started his ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By now Jesus has cured enough diseases, healed enough lame beggars, and told enough captivating stories, that the crowds are beginning to check him out. He showed them that he was made of the \u201cright stuff\u201d which caught the peoples\u2019 attention. Great crowds now followed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike Luke, who has Jesus preaching down on the plain in the middle of the crowd, Matthew has Jesus climbing the mountain with his disciples\u2014leaving the crowd wondering from afar what he is saying. It seems like Matthew is telling us that Jesus is about to tell us what we need to hear if we are going to be his disciples. It\u2019s not for the general public to hear, but only for those who believe enough and trust enough to follow Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowds are filled with the all the stuff of curing diseases and making the lame walk. They heard wonderful stories and want to hear more to fill their heads. But Jesus is saying to those who seriously want to be his disciples that following him up that mountain means that you are willing to change your understanding of what happiness is all about\u2014what it means to being blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus wants to teach us that God\u2019s blessedness is not what we like to think of it. The world believes that those who are strong, powerful, and rich are happy and blessed. But Jesus said just the opposite. He turns this world on its head, upside down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who are sad. Blessed are the hungry and thirsty. Blessed are the merciful and pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers and those who are persecuted. Blessed are the stuff-less. Jesus turns conventional blessedness on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those whom we might call victims, fools, the down and out, and the oppressed, Jesus calls blessed. You see, God has a thing for losers. We like to think that when we have accumulated all this stuff in our houses, we are blessed. We like to think that when we have positions of power or we have a \u201cwinners take all\u201d attitude, we are blessed. We think we are then happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poor in Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In these beatitudes, Jesus is saying that those who find true happiness in God\u2019s kingdom are disciples who journey with him in moral obedience and away from the false gods of<\/p>\n\n\n\n materialism, greed, and worldly power. Joy in life is found in forsaking the power and privileges of a world that\u2019s attached only to it self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The beatitudes call us to a life of being merciful, pure, peaceable and meek, even as we face grief, persecution and reviling. Where do we find the strength for such a life? The answer is in the first beatitude. \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d This is a call to repentance and faith. When we can recognize our spiritual poverty, our lack of moral strength, our radical self-centeredness of having too much stuff, we can turn from it. And turn to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all want to be happy, don\u2019t we? Sometimes I think that I can be happier with a BMW\u2014the 300 Series. I can be happier with more money in the bank. Perhaps I can be happier when I can always \u201chave it my way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do have an advantage over anyone of you here this morning in knowing happiness. I am married to Joy for almost 30 years! Although her mother named her \u201cJoy,\u201d I have received the blessings. Now I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s been joyous for 30 years! But every time I call her name or hear her name, I am reminded that joy is a deep-seated sense of well being. You can\u2019t go out and buy it. It can\u2019t be captured in a Macy\u2019s glitzy ad or commercial. Rather joy is a fullness in the spirit that comes as a gift from God and it fills you in a way that the world cannot do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be blessed is to receive the joy of God\u2014a gift that is given and not earned or bought. This blessedness that Jesus proclaims cannot be grasped or created. It does not respond to ambition or pride or self-sufficiency. Blessedness\u2014the fullness of joy\u2014is the ultimate gift of God. And it can only be received with an open and repentant heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We think that with the more stuff that we have, the less we will have in need. Jesus is saying that God\u2019s promise of the abundant life can only be ours is when we find that we have a need. Only if we admit that we are needy people, people who need God. Only then will we be blessed with the sure and certain knowledge that our needs have already been met. Only then will we have blessedness\u2014the fullness of joy in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Brown Taylor recalls an experience with her affluent Atlanta youth group when they traveled to Appalachia. She writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026they thought all teenagers received cars for their 16th<\/sup> birthdays and went<\/p>\n\n\n\n on cruises to the Bahamas for their senior class parties\u2026The only thing they<\/p>\n\n\n\n were missing was an experience of poverty, so we drove to Appalachia to get<\/p>\n\n\n\n them one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course what happened is that the kids had their eyes opened by tar paper shacks, barefoot children, strange food, and people whose grammar would make their AP English teachers cringe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the week, the Atlanta teenagers befriended one of the Appalachian teenagers named Dwayne and included him in all their activities. At the closing worship\u2014with<\/p>\n\n\n\n teenage emotion spilling down their cheeks\u2014they prayed heartfelt intercession for these \u201cpoor\u201d people of Appalachia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This absolutely infuriated their new friend Dwayne. His response to their condescending words was: \u201cYou all called me poor! I never thought of myself that way until you said it. I have all these woods to run around in. I have a grandmama and a granddaddy who love me. I got a whole shed full of rabbits I can play with anytime I want. Does that sound poor to you? It don\u2019t sound poor to me. You all should save your prayers for someone who needs them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although we may have money in the bank, we are poor\u2014poor in Spirit. We sometimes have a deficit of love, compassion and tolerance in our hearts. Our world and culture try to tell us that we are poor and meek unless we follow their ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet we find ourselves unhappy and poor in Spirit because we are needy people. If we are real with God and with ourselves, if we are honest about the bruises and brokenness and unfulfilledness of our lives, we eventually come to the Lord as needy people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later this afternoon, some estimate that 131 million people will be watching the Super Bowl between the Rams and the Patriots. You know whom I\u2019m rooting for! I know that some of you out there don\u2019t understand or don\u2019t care what\u2019s all the hype is about. And when some of you might say, \u201cYou guys act like you\u2019re on the team!\u201d In some ways, this comment is right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As football fans, we want one team to emerge as the winner, the other will be the loser. After the game, one team will be celebrating, the other will be dejected. Sometimes we see athletes give God credit for \u201cblessing\u201d them with athletic prowess or even larger salaries. And when your team wins, you get this sense of power and success\u2014even though all you did was eat dip and chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether we seek blessings from all the stuff that we have or demanding that there\u2019s a winner and a loser in the Super Bowl, we want our lives to have happiness and joy. Losers miss out but being winners mean that we are blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The beatitudes of Jesus are blessings that are already ours. Jesus said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blessings of comfort and inheritance and fullness and mercy and vision\u2014these blessings are already ours, right now in the midst of our anxieties and desire for happiness. Jesus says, \u201cblessed are,\u201d not \u201cblessed will be.\u201d We are already blessed with happy stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are blessed people. We already have abundance which Jesus promises will be ours. And because we are so filled with blessing, we can graciously, generously and energetically be a blessing to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we dedicate a baby, we are offering God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we hug a friend, we are offering God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we touch the hand of someone who needs a prayer, we are offering God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we cook a meal or write a note of thanks or lovingly record the minutes of a meeting, we are sharing God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we make a waffle or sing in the choir or teach Friday Night School, we are sharing God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we do nothing but listen to a friend talk or call someone by name or serve The Lord\u2019s Supper, we share God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happiness will be found when our souls are stuff-less, our need for power is relinquished, and both the Rams and the Patriots regardless who wins this afternoon can say, \u201cWe are ALL going to Disney World!\u201d For in God\u2019s world, there are no winners who are more blessed than the losers. In the name of Christ, we are all blessed with happy stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each and every time we confess that we are poor in Spirit, we will know that God will bless us with the kingdom of heaven. For we are a blessing of God in the world!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 5:1-12 February 3, 2002 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco. In the SF Chronicle this past Tuesday, there was articleHappiness in Stuff<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
The Beatitudes<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Super Bowl Blessings<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Blessed Already<\/h6>\n\n\n\n