February 15, 2004

Mindekirken February 15, 2004
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

I remember my childhood’s services at Tomb church. Pastor Moen used to go to the lectern after the service and say a few words. Those were not about church coffee, but with a warm smile and his head leaning over to the right side he said: Blessed are you who have received the Holy Communion.

It was a beautiful custom, a congratulation, or kind of a blessing or praise. Beatitudes is a biblical word, but the meaning is not far from Congratulations on your…this and that… Psalm 32.1 says: Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

This is a Congratulation on… the forgiveness. But it is even more. To be blessed is the ultimate happiness. To be blessed relates to God. After all, we’ll see that today, when we approach the words of Jesus that we know as the Beatitudes.

Last Sunday we met Jesus on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret. Today the sermon on the mount is on the agenda. It’s not 100% clear where this world’s most famous sermon was held. Matthew says Jesus went up the mountains. Luke came down and stood on a level place.

Some years ago I visited the place where they say the sermon was held. It certainly is a level place at the slope from which there is a wonderful view towards the sea of Gennesaret. A beautiful church has been built in the flower fields there, and it gives the place a special atmosphere of harmony and beauty.

Matthew and Luke agree that a big crowd was present. But Matthew gives the beatitudes in third person, blessed are those who…,and Luke uses second person, blessed are you who…. Matthew has 11 beatitudes, Luke has four.

In addition, Luke has four woe sentences which correspond with the beatitudes. Here the poor disciples are measured against the rich, the full, the laughing and the ones who are spoken well of.

Matthew quotes the first beatitude in this way: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Norw. Says poor in themselves). Luke only says: Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. The poor in spirit are those Jesus gathered around himself, the ill, the rejected, tax collectors and sinners. In Luke, the poor (disciples) makes a contrast to the rich. And according to Luke, Jesus warns the rich people. Woe you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

It would be wrong to call the beatitudes by Luke a beautiful star. It’s rather a flash of lightening followed by thunder. This is radical speech. Jesus turns the standard of his time totally around. The thunder, the woe sentences, might be more than we could take, even today.

In 2004 there’s going to be a presidential election in the USA. The election campaign is about values, and a lot of this is about economy. How should the distribution between rich and poor be? The difference between democrats and republicans is cosmetically compared with what Jesus says here. Could you imagine George W. Bush or John Kerry shouting out:

It’s difficult to relate to what Jesus says here. It is an ideal that people should be spoken well of, that’s about respect. It’s an ideal that people should laugh, that’s about joy and having a good time. We want people to be full now, nobody should lack food, clothes, and other necessary things. We want people to be rich, at least to a certain extent. Poverty is something we should get people out of.

Didn’t Jesus say that we should care for the poor? Isn’t it the Bible’s message that we that we should share? Didn’t the prophets fire against all kinds of social injustice in society so the welt could be shared by all. Yes, they did. But how then, could Jesus shout: Woe to you who are rich…woe to you who are full now… woe to you who are laughing and spoken well of?

I think we might find a key to understand Jesus in verse 24: you have already received your consolation. Jesus speaks about those who are rich and don’t care for others. If our only concern is gain wealth here and now, we fail. Material prosperity is one of God’s blessings. We thank God for daily bread and all that it includes. But as Ole Paus said: We have all things, but that is also all we have.

Happiness is never measured in kroner or dollars. Wealth must never be a goal in itself. To work for daily bread must not turn into materialism, greed or worship of things. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Tim 6.9-10

Jesus described how the lure of wealth could choke the word, Matt 13.22. Maybe you remember the rich fool. He had everything, and he wanted to enjoy life. But all of a sudden he died. Who would then enjoy the things he had gathered? Luke 12.20. Even more scary is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. The rich man didn’t care about the poor man outside his door. I’m afraid the story mirrors our world today. The gap between the rich and the poor increases. There’s something wrong with our relationship to God when one has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help. 1 John 3.17

In today’s text, Jesus compares two groups. The disciples are comforted because they are poor, and they may expect to be rewarded. The wealthy are warned. It’s about enduring lacking things because of being a disciple of Christ. The church in China has experienced an adventurous growth in the last decades. Thousands have turned to Christ. There are a lot of examples of people who have endured material grief, persecution, and mocking for the sake of Christ. In many ways the church in China is closer to what Jesus described for his disciples than to us in the West.

It’s difficult to get enough pastors and leaders for the Chinese church. And at the places they have full time pastors, it’s difficult to keep them. The temptation to leave for a business where they may make ten times as much, is big. This is about two principles, that the laborer deserves to be paid. Luke 10.7 and godliness combined with contentment, 1 Tim 6.6.

The church in China might have a challenge in paying their pastors and leaders properly, whereas the most important and most difficult for us in the west might be to be content with what we have. Can we find ways to a more simple style of life and a warmer society? May we to a larger extent be willing to appreciate the values that are not Material?

Jesus’ beatitudes should never cease to stir us. We should seek a commitment to Christ that made us willing to pay the price of being poor, hungry and weeping. Jesus has called us to follow him. The way may include suffering. But it leads to a wonderful goal. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Glory be to God, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

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