St. Matthew’s Sermon 02-17-2019

Now AND Later

Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 1, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Luke 6:17-26

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen

Being successful can be defined in a multitude of ways. For some, living in dire circumstances, success might mean not dying of starvation. For others, who live a simpler life, success might be getting married and raising a family. Others, measuring success in terms of financial gain, may take the road of higher education with hopes of getting that good paying job. And there are those who seek success as measured by the amount of power they can wield; these usually enter politics.

These are, of course, just a few of the many ways success can be defined and measured, there are many more, perhaps as many as there are people living in the world. But by any definition, or by any measure, the most successful people are those that set goals for themselves and, with unwavering focus, work toward those goals.

I won’t say, today, that any of my examples, or any others that you can imagine, are “good” goals or “bad” goals; I could spend a lot of time sorting those out but that’s not what I want to focus on this morning. I will say, however, that what is good for some is not always good for all and, likewise, what is bad for some is not always bad for all. In this regard, we need all kinds of people with differing points of focus to make the world run. We need leaders to keep our societies in order; we need business minded people to keep manufacturing and services running just as much as we need farmers to provide food, and laborers to build houses and infrastructure.

That being said, a problem arises when success, by whatever definition, becomes our only focus. When one goal becomes the only thing we can see and the only effort we expend our energy on we will fail to see the larger picture.

We can see this happening when those seeking power forfeit their ideals to gain and maintain their power; when those seeking financial gain sacrifice living life with friends and family to do so; and when those who are just trying to survive from one day to the next fail to notice the others beside them needing someone to lean on and who they can also lean on.

So, it’s not what we focus on that becomes a problem as much as what we lose sight of as we pursue our goals.

This can all to easily happen in matters of faith as well. Jesus addresses this in today’s reading in several ways; two that I will point out today.

First, in Luke’s account of the sermon on the plain, Jesus speaks of four “blessings” the “Beatitudes” as they are commonly known…

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven

The message is clear; we don’t have to wait until we are out of our poverty, no longer hungry or weeping or not hated; we are already blessed! We are loved by God! And as long as we believe that we are loved, keep our focus on that fact; we will be lifted above all our suffering!

But then Jesus flips the coin to the other side with an equal number of “woes”…

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Again, the message is clear. Those who lose the focus of God’s blessings will lose those blessings.

The second part of the message Christ delivers in this speech is not as clear, it doesn’t jump out at us but is there none the less. It comes up in the contrast of verse 20 with the words of verse 23.

Verse 20 we hear the phrase “…yours is the kingdom of God” and in 23 we read “…your reward is great in heaven”.

Sometimes, perhaps often, we tend to merge the “kingdom of God” and “heaven” into one thought, inspiring thoughts of the place where God dwells; where we will go when we leave this earthly life; but it is not always so. Heaven is the dwelling place of God and our afterlife. But the kingdom is God’s will for the order of life on earth. As we pray “… thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

As people of the Christian faith our ultimate goal is to reach eternity in heaven! But just like everything else, if that is our only focus we fail to see the larger picture. If our eyes are so fixed on that heaven we fail to see the path we are walking; we trip over the stumbling blocks, we don’t notice those walking the path with us who we can support and who can support us, and we trample under foot those who have fallen along the way. That image is not of the kingdom nor is it the vision of heaven.

Flipping the same coin to the other side, if we have no focus on the ultimate goal of eternal life in heaven we are stuck with what we have here on earth; we become stagnant, helpless, and of no help to others; joyless in our pursuit of earthly pleasures that will not satisfy and will not last.

Each of these images represent the extremes of one way or the other. Neither is right and neither is wrong. But, as is true with most everything else in life, perfection is found in the balance; that place where we notice and appreciate the glory and beauty of God’s created order in this realm without losing the vision of what awaits us in the end; when we keep our eye on the larger picture that includes health, joy, and prosperity in this life without losing sight of our end reward!

There we will find God’s presence in the kingdom and in heaven!

Amen

Jeremiah 17:5-10
17:5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
17:6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
17:7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.
17:8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
17:9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse– who can understand it?
17:10 I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Psalm 1
1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
15:13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;
15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.
15:15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ–whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.
15:17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
15:18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.
15:19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Luke 6:17-26
6:17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
6:18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
6:19 And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
6:20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
6:21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
6:23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
6:24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
6:25 Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
6:26 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”