Micah 6: 1–8 , Psalm 15; I Corinthians 1: 18–31; Matthew
5: 1–12
This is a homily by
Fr. Gene Tucker, which was given at St. John’s in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on
Sunday, January 29th, 2017.
“KINGDOM VALUES”
(Homily texts: I
Corinthians 1: 18–31 & Matthew 5: 1–12)
Let’s
ask ourselves two questions as we look at Jesus’ Beatitudes this morning:
- Am I a prophet? (OK, I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not in the same class of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel or Daniel.)
- Am I chosen by God to announce the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to make it a reality? (Jesus did that, but, for sure, I’m not in a league like His.)
Allow
me to suggest that everyone who has been baptized is both a prophet (one who
speaks God’s truth) and a herald (announcer) of the coming Kingdom. In this
homily, I will attempt to connect Baptism to the Beatitudes.
Our
Gospel text which is appointed for this morning brings with it challenges both
for the preacher and for the reader/hearer of Jesus’ teaching. We hear and read
the very familiar Beatitudes, which form the opening of Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount. It’s possible that many of us could recite many – if not most – of
Jesus’ sayings from memory. But our familiarity with Jesus’ sayings might cause
us to miss the point of what He is trying to tell us…we might think that Jesus
is simply giving us some good guidelines to be “good people”. But Jesus’
teaching has everything to do with the Kingdom of Heaven, which breaks into the
world, changing it forever, and which will come in all its fullness someday.
Jesus’
statements look beyond the conventional wisdom of life, beyond the way “things
are”, to the way things “are already to some extent” and which “will be”.
Jesus’ statements are, therefore, counter-cultural and other-worldly. They look
ahead to the coming of God’s kingdom.
To
see how differently Jesus’ view of the Kingdom of Heaven looks from the way conventional
wisdom encourages us to think, we might try rewriting some of the Beatitudes to
see the ways in which the conventional wisdom encourages us to look at things.
If
the conventional wisdom of the world was to draw up its own set of Beatitudes, the
result might look something like this: (I offer a sampling of my own creation,
which is shown in italics.)
- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Yes, the merciful will inherit the earth, six feet of earth.
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. They will be filled with disappointment and will be disappointed at the schemes and successes of those who do evil.
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will find themselves in the middle of intractable disputes and fighting, receiving scorn and abuse from both extremes.
Perhaps
this is enough of a sampling to demonstrate how different the conventional ways
of looking at things are from Jesus’ vision. Depressing, isn’t it? Devoid of
hope and given to a resignation that says nothing will ever change, isn’t it?
If we
look closely at the structure of the Beatitudes, we see a present tense and a future
tense: The present tense is found in
the first and the eighth Beatitudes. The first one says, “Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is (present
tense) the Kingdom of Heaven.” Similarly, the eighth one reads, “Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is (present tense) the Kingdom of Heaven.”
But the other seven sayings are all future tense: “Blessed are those who ____, for they will (future tense) _____.” So the Lord
is telling us that the Kingdom is already ours to possess and enjoy. But the
Kingdom is in the process of coming, and it is our job to announce its coming
by the ways in which we demonstrate Kingdom values in our daily lives. Jesus
describes those who live by godly values in the here-and-now, living according
to the future in which God’s will and God’s Kingdom will be done. We are
reminded of the wording of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
God’s
final will breaks into the world, and we are the prophets who are to announce
the Kingdom’s approach by our allegiance to God, by the
things we say and the things we do. To do these things is to bring the light of
God into the darkness of the world, a light that conquers the darkness. (See
John 1: 5.)
All
of this is counter-cultural stuff. It is the stuff of which St. Paul speaks
when he tells the early Christians in Corinth that “…the foolishness of God is
wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Then Paul adds
(a little later) “God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the
strong.” (I Corinthians 1: 25, 27b)
This
is risky stuff, as well. To dare to be different, to dare to march to a
different drummer and a different beat, God’s drumbeat, invites puzzled looks
from those who do not see the future reality of God’s plans for humankind. To
live according to Kingdom values is to declare that the way things are now in
the world will someday cease to be, for God will usher in a new and glorious
way when the Kingdom comes in all its fullness.
We
can be reminded of God’s claim on our lives, made at baptism. The early Church
acted out this reality in the ways it conducted the rite of Baptism: Those to
be baptized came to the edge of the water and faced west. Then they renounced
Satan and all his works. After that, they turned and faced to the east, and proclaimed
that they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.[1] The next
step involved being immersed three times in the water, each time in the name of
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only then did they leave the water by
a different way than they came in, and they were clothed in a white gown,
signifying their new and holy identity in Christ. All who have passed through
the waters of baptism have turned their backs on the ways of the world,
proclaiming that Jesus has ushered in a new way of being, a new Kingdom of
Heaven that shall have no end. For each one of the baptized, that new Kingdom
has already become a reality.
AMEN.
[1] Elements of this rite survive in our
baptismal liturgy. We can see the connection to the early Church in the
promises made at baptism. See the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, pages 302 – 303.
