Sermon on the Mount
“Restoring Memory”
One of the enduring images that we have been using as we have considered the Beatitudes is the enslavement of Israel for 430 years, and the Exodus. Their escape from slavery by the hand of God. The Sermon on the Mount is delivered by a new Moses to humanity who are enslaved. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes - blessings to people who are in an enslaved world, and themselves in an enslaved condition.
There is a theologian by the name of Ray Anderson. His area of expertise is pastoral care. He makes this observation. Once Israel had left Egypt - if you had sidled up to Moses and asked him what his immediate problem was and what he intended to do to resolve it - he might have said something along the lines of:
"I have about 2 million people who have a slave mentality and a deep sense of shame due to their isolation and disconnection with each other. God has inspired me to tell them of the creation in which men and women bear His image and likeness. Their God-created identity needs to be restored. They need to be reminded about their inherent worth and dignity."
There was not one person who had been alive when they arrived in Egypt as free people. Not one person who knew first hand the experiences and wonder of God when they had been saved 400 years before and led into Egypt. No-one who could really remember what it meant to be in covenant with God. So Moses needed to remind them of their identity. Their relationship with God. He had to restore their memory. He did this by telling the creation story (Gen 1-2).
This morning - to talk about being made in the image of God; that this is the DNA of your sense of identity, dignity and worth is a stretch for many people. You don't really have a memory of that. Or an experience of that. Years of slavery have assaulted your God-likeness in this regard. There is a resultant sense of being disconnected from others and God. So we are battling and struggling to retain and recover a sense of peace. But across the spectrum of human relationships; from a misplaced word, a misunderstanding, an argument, a total breakdown in a relationship - our very identity and sense of worth as a human is assaulted. Across the spectrum of relationship with God; from a dry patch spiritually, a dulling of the experience and touch of God, a period of not hearing His voice, profound tragedy and suffering - our very belief that He is present is threatened. We are slaves. We need to hear a creation story so that our memories can be restored.
The three Beatitudes we are looking at this morning are about restoring memory. Reminding people about their God-given; God-created dignity and worth. Reminding people about the fact that each other equally share that same God-given and created dignity and worth. These next three Beatitudes work at powerfully restoring the memory - and in the process transforming people from a slave mentality to people under the reign of God; people who are free to serve God and impact the world. These three Beatitudes enable us to unearth the image of God in ours and other people's lives. They restore the memory of the divine gift that God has placed in every human being: "You, you, you and you are all made in My image and likeness." The words of Christ invite, challenge, encourage, enable us to "remember" this. And to work at reminding the world. That people may discover their God-created identity in Him. That they may come home.
1. Restore Memory by Fighting for Others
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." This is about being passionate about people who are not in right relationships with others or God. It's about seeing injustice in people's lives and "hungering and thirsting" to see that the "right" thing is done. That the expression of "righteousness" is seen in real ways in day-to-day ways. This is not just talking about the kind of righteousness that we are gifted by God that we may have peace with Him. That we may be found in right standing with Him. This is as basic as the need to eat and drink every day to stay alive. I have been reading a book by Max De Pree. He ran a furniture business in the US. It was not an especially large company in the wider scheme of things. But it has received accolades and awards, and in a list compiled by "Fortune 500" made the top 10 companies people would most want to work for in the US. Max De Pree's leadership and management principles rest on the conviction that everyone is made in the image of God. And he treats them accordingly. In what I have read about his approach, and the stories he tells, he hungers and thirsts for righteousness by ensuring that his employees are treated in dignified ways. He forms covenants with them. He developed a parental leave provision for his employees. One day in a meeting a woman asked why he did not think adopted children were as valuable as children who are born and stay with their natural family. He responded that he did value adopted children as much. "Why then do you not grant parental leave for those parents who adopt children?" Max De Pree changed the policy immediately. The very language of this beatitude deliberately draws on the very essence of life - hunger and thirst. It's that critical and it is placed alongside this desire to see righteousness done. Placed alongside because maybe this sense of justice; of being in right standing; of being justified in the best sense - is as basic and essential as food and drink. Without them you will die. Without righteousness in your life - you will die. As a slave. Those who fight for others in this regard - revive and indeed create - the memory that there is an innate dignity and worth that has been gifted and created by God. There is a lot of injustice around. And you could take it on at any level. But what about starting with your own family. Your friends. As a result of knowing and loving you - are you convinced that your brother, father, wife, work colleague, friend - are they in a relationship that honours the fact they are made in the image of God? Do they know that through knowing you? By the way you treat them? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness for the people who live, work, and deal with you each day? Fight for them. You will restore memory; and restore community.
2. Restore Memory by Foregoing your Rights
"Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy." I'm not sure what comes to mind for you when you think of "mercy" or the "merciful." I've realise that I think "weakness." Interesting. In the Bible - whenever "mercy" is mentioned it is usually describing God. Hmmm. And I associate "mercy" with "weakness." Interesting association! Mercy encapusalates a number of amazing qualities. Compassion being one of them. Being attentive to people in need another. But in terms of restoring memory - of enabling people to come into that revelation of who they are in God, of how He created them - there is a powerful angle to this whole idea of mercy.
To show mercy means three things:
- You are in a position of power
- The other person is a position of weakness
- You determine that they don't receive "what's coming to them!" (in the worse sense of that phrase)
Mercy receives a lot of exposure in scripture. Jesus told a story about the Unforgiving Servant (Matt 18) and when he failed to forgive the debt of another servant, the King says to him "You should have shown mercy to your fellow servant." This was a story told in response to the question how many times should I forgive someone when they sin against us. Jesus then told a story about "mercy." If you demonstrate mercy in this way - you call up the memory from within a person that somehow they are of great worth in the midst of great failure. You create space for them to discover their nature in God because you have taken away the burden of their debt. This is a powerful thing. You make it possible for them to live; for them to be set free.
Once a soldier in Napolean's army fell asleep on duty. He was sentenced to death. His mother walked miles to have an audience with Napolean and plead for his life. She said to him "Please have mercy." Napolean said "Justice demands that he dies." She replied "I didn't ask for justice; I asked for mercy." Her son was released. There is a movie called "In My Country." It tells the story of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in 1996 after the collapse of Apartheid. It worked like this. If the perpetrators of murder and torture faced their victims and gave a full and frank confession, and admitted their guilt - they would be granted amnesty under Ubuntu. The custom of forgiveness. In this movie a police officer speaks of killing a family as a very young boy, a member of the family, looked on. He shaped to shoot the boy, but he couldn't do it. In the court room the boy sat impassively. He had not spoken since the atrocity. The officer begs for relief from the torment of his guilt. He promises to do whatever it takes. Pay for the boy's schooling. Anything. The man is on his knees before the boy. The boy stands and remains still. Then he hugs the man. Blessed are the merciful… "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:12-13, NRSV)
3. Restore Memory by Focussing on One Thing
If the word "mercy" conjures up some interesting word associations - then I wonder what comes to mind for you when you hear the Beatitude: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Purity - the very thought!! Surely it is beyond us all. The moral implications of purity. Who can keep up with that?! Scriptures like Proverbs 20:9 sum it up rather well: "Who can say, "I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin"?" Based on that, I won't be seeing God anytime soon!
As I contemplated this Beatitude, and my instinctive response to it, my mind went to two things. A cooking ingredient and a prayer written quite a number of years ago. And as I reflected on this cooking ingredient and prayer, I realised that I have been considering purity in a way that breeds guilt and condemnation. I, and anyone else, is up against it in terms of attaining a pure heart, mind and life. We try and fail; beset with a sense of guilt and frustration. Feeling very impure. Until I wondered about the cooking ingredient, and until I remembered the prayer.
First the cooking ingredient. Made and sold by a couple who attend this church. "Pure Vanilla." So, without declaring where I was going with my conversation, I asked what's "pure" about "Pure Vanilla." The answer confirmed in a wonderful way what I believe God wants to convey this morning. What's so pure about this product? The way they make their product: they extract the flavour from the vanilla pod, and the extraction process is such that the vanilla is untainted, untampered, unaltered and not adding anything to make it something it is not. So, in the light of that, is it stretching things too far to reword this Beatitude as: "Blessed are those from whom God extracts what is in your heart and are untainted, untampered, unaltered and have not had anything added to them to make them someone they're not, they shall see God." Purity is more about what is extracted than what is put in. When Israel were in slavery, God called them out of Egypt; extracted them out of their slavery for one reason. So that they could worship Him. "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me." (Exodus 8:1, NRSV) He drew them out of slavery so that He could draw out of them the sole purpose for which they were created: to worship God.
Second the prayer. The first time I used this prayer was in a worship service in Dunedin hospital when I was training and doing time as an assistant chaplain. After the service an elderly gentleman approached me and said he had heard that prayer once before. 50 years ago. And he told me who had written it: Soren Kierkegaard who lived in the 1800's. He spoke briefly about it and it was a God moment. And then this pyjama clad gentleman shuffled off. I mentioned it later to my supervisor. She asked me to describe the man. She smiled. He was one of the foremost theologians in NZ who had been a professor at Otago University. I think he died not so long after. I think he saw God. It goes like this:
Father in Heaven! What are we without You! What is all that we know, vast accumulation though it be, but a chipped fragment if we do not know You! What is all our striving, could it even encompass a world, but a half-finished work if we do not know You: You the One, who is one thing and who ist all! So may You give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing; to the heart, sincerity to receive this understanding; to the will, purity that wills only one thing. In prosperity may You grant perseverance to will one thing; amid distractions, collectedness to will one thing; in suffering, patience to will one thing. Oh, You that gives both the beginning and the completion, may You early, at the dawn of day, give to the young the resolution to will one thing. As the day wanes, may You give to the old a renewed remembrance of their first resolution, that the first may be like the last, the last like the first, in possession of a life that has willed only one thing. Alas, but this has indeed not come to pass. Something has come in between. The separation of sin lies in between. Each day, and day after day something is being placed in between: delay, blockage, interruption, delusion, corruption. So in this time of repentance may Thou give the courage once again to will one thing. True, it is an interruption of our ordinary tasks, we do lay down our work as though it were a day of rest, when the penitent (and it is only in a time of repentance that the heavy-laden worker may be quiet in the confession of sin) is alone before Thee in self-accusation. This is in deed an interruption. But it is an interruption that searches back intoits very beginnings that it might bind up anew that which sin has separated, that in its grief it might atone for lost time, that in its anxiety it might bring to completion that which lies before it. Oh, Thou that givest both the beginning and the completion, give Thou victory in the day of need so that what neither a man's burning wish nor his determined resolution may attain to, may be granted unto him in the sorrowing of repentance: to will only one thing.
The pure in heart will one thing: God. That is the single focus of the pure in heart. Their purity is not primarily defined by their behaviour (often the given definition of purity); their purity is defined primarily by their single-mindedness to will one thing. Knowing God. Their behaviour will be a natural spin off from that. It will be the fruit of their lives. And the pure in heart have the memory evoked of why they were created. To worship Him. To serve and love God. This purity is extracted by the Spirit of God; drawn out so that they may will one thing. God. That purity takes the form of devotion to Him. It does not take the form of separation from the world. He evokes the memory of the fact that they are created in the image and likeness of God. And they worship Him and serve Him and this world He has created as a result. They will see God.
Conclusion
The Beatitudes evoke memory. They are about us recalling where we have come from; how we are created. And as your memory clears, and you live as described in these Beatitudes, you will impact the world and evoke the same memory from others. In the movie "Empire of the Sun" the story is told of Jim Graham, a young boy separated from his parents in 1942 when the Japanese and invaded Shangi Hi. For the remainder of the war he went through traumatic experiences in internment camps, and at the end of the war parents came back to try and find their children. In the closing scene, the boy stands before his mother. But he has no memory of her. But slowly he is evoked. And he gently traces his finger over her lips and hair. And he remembers. He slowly hugs her and closes his eyes. He had come home. Christ stands before you. Your memory is dulled. The Beatitudes have you tracing your finger over His face; and slowly you recognise you have come home.
Presented By: Rev. Geoff New