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 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.
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, “Where are you going, now that you’ve been to church?” You won’t be saying, “We’re going to Disney World—the happiest place on earth!”
If coming to church doesn’t necessarily make you happy, then what does?
Happiness in Stuff
Most of us find happiness in having stuff. When we are sad, “Macy’s More You” 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.
Comedian George Carlin has a classic routine on “stuff.”
That’s all I want, that’s all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? Everybody’s got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that’s
your stuff, that’ll be his stuff over there. That’s all you need in life, a little
place for your stuff.
That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much
stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A
house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re
taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody’s got a little pile
of stuff.
And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody
to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They
never bother with that junk you’re saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That’s
what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get…more
stuff! Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for
your stuff anymore.
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?
The Beatitudes
Today’s Scripture is the beginning of Jesus’ 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.
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 “right stuff” which caught the peoples’ attention. Great crowds now followed him.
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—leaving 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’s not for the general public to hear, but only for those who believe enough and trust enough to follow Jesus.
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—what it means to being blessed.
Jesus wants to teach us that God’s 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.
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.
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 “winners take all” attitude, we are blessed. We think we are then happy.
Poor in Spirit
In these beatitudes, Jesus is saying that those who find true happiness in God’s kingdom are disciples who journey with him in moral obedience and away from the false gods of
materialism, greed, and worldly power. Joy in life is found in forsaking the power and privileges of a world that’s attached only to it self.
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. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 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.
We all want to be happy, don’t we? Sometimes I think that I can be happier with a BMW—the 300 Series. I can be happier with more money in the bank. Perhaps I can be happier when I can always “have it my way.”
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 “Joy,” I have received the blessings. Now I’m not saying that it’s 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’t go out and buy it. It can’t be captured in a Macy’s 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.
To be blessed is to receive the joy of God—a 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—the fullness of joy—is the ultimate gift of God. And it can only be received with an open and repentant heart.
We think that with the more stuff that we have, the less we will have in need. Jesus is saying that God’s 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—the fullness of joy in our lives.
Barbara Brown Taylor recalls an experience with her affluent Atlanta youth group when they traveled to Appalachia. She writes,
…they thought all teenagers received cars for their 16th birthdays and went
on cruises to the Bahamas for their senior class parties…The only thing they
were missing was an experience of poverty, so we drove to Appalachia to get
them one.
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.
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—with
teenage emotion spilling down their cheeks—they prayed heartfelt intercession for these “poor” people of Appalachia.
This absolutely infuriated their new friend Dwayne. His response to their condescending words was: “You 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’t sound poor to me. You all should save your prayers for someone who needs them.”
Although we may have money in the bank, we are poor—poor 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.
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.
Super Bowl Blessings
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’m rooting for! I know that some of you out there don’t understand or don’t care what’s all the hype is about. And when some of you might say, “You guys act like you’re on the team!” In some ways, this comment is right.
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 “blessing” them with athletic prowess or even larger salaries. And when your team wins, you get this sense of power and success—even though all you did was eat dip and chips.
Whether we seek blessings from all the stuff that we have or demanding that there’s 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.
Blessed Already
The beatitudes of Jesus are blessings that are already ours. Jesus said,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Blessings of comfort and inheritance and fullness and mercy and vision—these blessings are already ours, right now in the midst of our anxieties and desire for happiness. Jesus says, “blessed are,” not “blessed will be.” We are already blessed with happy stuff.
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.
Every time we dedicate a baby, we are offering God’s blessing.
Every time we hug a friend, we are offering God’s blessing.
Every time we touch the hand of someone who needs a prayer, we are offering God’s blessing.
Every time we cook a meal or write a note of thanks or lovingly record the minutes of a meeting, we are sharing God’s blessing.
Every time we make a waffle or sing in the choir or teach Friday Night School, we are sharing God’s blessing.
Every time we do nothing but listen to a friend talk or call someone by name or serve The Lord’s Supper, we share God’s blessing.
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, “We are ALL going to Disney World!” For in God’s world, there are no winners who are more blessed than the losers. In the name of Christ, we are all blessed with happy stuff.
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!