The Gift of Community

The gift of community.   Well, sometimes it doesn't seem like a gift.

For those who grew up in the church, we've heard the Beatitudes a million times and honestly, simply skim over the words when we come to them.  During this season of Epiphany, we have the opportunity to slow down and live in the Sermon on the Mount for a while.  The lectionary forces the issue this week, as we continue our journey through the Gospel of Matthew.

But before we get to Matthew 5:1-12, we have to take a few steps back.

Well - all the way back to the beginning.  In the very beginning - we read the story of creation in the book of Genesis.  When we come to chapter two, we see the intricacy of God's design.  From the very beginning, God imparted the wisdom that men found great joy and identity in the work that He had given Adam to do.  And yet, God says that is not enough.  He speaks and says that it is not good for man to be alone.

We often quickly read on, but don't tarry long enough to realize these words were spoken before the fall.  Before sin.  God created us with the need for relationship from the very beginning - it is not a flaw.  God had a plan for us to be whole, part of that means to be whole together.  To be family, to not be alone.

After the fall, as the story continues, everything was twisted, including how to be together.  One of the first things that happens is the broken relationship with God.  How often do we substitute the wisdom of each other for that of God's?  And yet, God in His graciousness hears our cries and continues to give the gift of relationship.  With Himself.  And of family.  Of community.  To be His people.  We read over and over and over again of the ways He tries to continue to give us this gift, even after the fall.  Relationship with Him, and with each other.

His people are freed from slavery.  Redemption.  The Exodus.  And the very first thing He gives?  His Word - that tells us what we are freed for.  How often we confuse it, reading the story backwards.  Missing the face that Redemption came first, seeing the Ten Commandments simply as a set of rules, and the Torah as explicit detail of how "not" to mess up.  Rather than a gift of how to live in relationship with God and each other.

And the Judges.  The prophets.  His Word continues to tell story after story of the heroes of faith.

And so we reach the Sermon on the Mount.

One of the largest blocks of teaching by Jesus.  The topic?  The same gift He has been trying to give us all along.

How easy it is to skim over these first few verses in the Beatitudes.  To read them as an overview or simply a summary of what is to come next.  But it is critical that we stop in these first twelve verses so we don't misunderstand what's coming next.  Otherwise, we will simply read these next few chapters and feel an unbearable burden that weighs upon us.  An ideal and standard we can never live up to.  The radical teaching of Jesus demands we take pause to hear His words.  To see the gift that He is giving to us.

As we read the Beatitudes, it is easy to think that each couplet speaks of a different group of people.  Those who are poor in spirit.  Those who mourn.  Those who are meek.  Those who are hungry.

But what if we read these words of Jesus in context?  What if these words were not speaking of many different groups of people, but simply about one group of people?  These words that Jesus speaks are not just a summary of the next several chapters, but they describe Christians.  We are poor in Spirit - we recognize that there is nothing in us that deserves the grace of God.  We mourn and repent of our sin.  We hunger and thirst after God's righteous and His Word...  It's an incredible and beautiful picture of who we are as sons and daughters of the King.

And then as we continue to read in the Sermon on the Mount in subsequent chapters, Jesus' teaching explains what it means to live as one of His disciples.  How we live out and into our identity.

But if we are honest with ourselves and one another, we have to say that this is a remark we do not resemble.  That these verses in the beginning of Matthew 5 aren't a picture of us.  Others would not hear this description and recognize us.  How is any of this good news?

The Good News is ultimately found in the word "blessed."  Ian Dugood explains that in the Old Testament, the word "blessed" meant to be favored by God, and thus envied.  In the Old Testament, we read of the heroes of the faith - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David...  We looked up to them.  We tried to live like them.  Envied them.  They are the heroes.  That was the model.

And then we come to the New Testament and the Beatitudes.  We read here a description of a hero, but a strange one.  As we read Matthew 5, we do understand it is describing us as Christians - but that it ultimately pointing to Jesus.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit - for we can be rich because He became poor.

We have joy because He mourned and was left in the darkness.

We are fed and are no longer thirsty, because on the cross, Jesus said: "I thirst."

We gain His inheritance because He was stripped of everything so that we might live.

We have mercy because none was given to Him.

We are pure of heart because our sin was cast upon Him, and He gives us His righteousness.

We have peace because the tomb is empty and the Son of God is victorious.

Because of the blood of Jesus Christ...

It's not that we just need a little help from God.  It is not that we are mostly good and just need a few areas spruced up in our lives.  We need Jesus to give us His righteousness.

And so as we journey together these next few weeks together...  Our prayer is that the Spirit of God stirs up in us again.  To see this gift God has given to us.  To live into our identity.  Not to be crushed but to claim the promise.  To trust God's Word.  This Word that is a double edged sword that wounds, but also binds up.

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to wander in."  -Ephesians 2:8-10