WEEK 2: "BLESSED are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."  Jesus

We opened today's study of the Beatitudes with an open meditation on the word "Blessed," used in many english translations.
  What comes to mind for you when you hear the word "blessed?"  What do you hear?



Here are some of the things we heard this morning that come to mind when we see the word "blessed"~

Jesus began each of the 8 beatitudes with this word.  What is it that He is saying to us?  

Remember that 3 languages, and 2 millenia lie between Jesus speaking these words on the Mount and our contemplation today!  Jesus spoke the words in Arameic (a Hebrew language), the account of the Beatitudes in Matthew was written in Greek (and, form of "common" Greek at that), and most of us read them today, and have throughout our lives, in English.

Languages change, so even English has changed and evolved over the centuries, hence so many biblical translations!  And languages rarely have "one-to-one" translations, so grasping the full meaning of what may translate as a single word is rarely this simple, and may I add as a language major, this is wonderfully so! (it's part of what to me, makes studying foreign languages so intriguing!)

So, with this in mind we sought to dive into understanding more of what Jesus may have really been saying, so that we could take this even more deeply into our spirits~

See entry on "He Makarios" - the Greek word used in Matthew translated into english as "blessed" or "happy."

A key takeaway here is that Jesus, in each of the openings to the Beatitudes, is describing a state of abiding joy, an "enjoyment" of joy, not a happy state to strive for.  This is key because most of our conceptions of happiness are really rooted in the belief that this is something we are lacking in some way today and can attain. 

Now this all sounds super awesome, so why don't we feel happier?!?    

• Life events of loss, illness, isolation can leave us feeling not very happy deep inside.  
• The busy-ness of life's demands can drown out Jesus.  We don't have "time" to sit around and crack open Matthew 3 every day.
• We are bombarded daily--by text, images, audio messages all around us every day--with all the things we need every day that to find true Happiness, we merely need to strive for this, or purchase that.  
• The perception that it obviously isn't true-everyone we see around us seems happier than we are.

Marketing messages are subtle but powerful.  I work in the field of marketing communications!  I've seen the research budgets for, and findings from, market research--there absolutely is a science to influence.  Now marketers merely want to sell products or ideas, but their tactics can have the subtle effect of undermining Jesus' message for us, making it hard to really believe.  They can make it almost even seem to good to be true. 

We cracked open some popular retail catalogues and looked at a few of these messages and promises.  Within seconds people found incredible seductive promises~

• have friends who will never want to leave your home!
• your family can always be happy! 
• a successful Thanksgiving is really about a gorgeous table--nothing says "I love you" more than elegant placesettings.
• comfort can be found in italian cashmere.
• you can always be smiling and never cry! 
• zen in your home!

... some are even more chilling~

• "your character is measured by your style"
• "you can be perfect"
• "happiness is exclusive, only for the select few, do you not want to be among them?

The products in these catalogues are harmless enough, but the messages used to sell them can be toxic to our spiritual wellbeing when for whatever reason, we begin to feel excluded from this dominion of happiness, left out... when this happiness we've been promised by the world around us, for whatever reason, eludes us.  Some of us can't afford to buy the promised keys to happiness.  Others discover the emptiness of these promises, when they purchase those keys and yet find themselves still feeling unfulfilled and disenchanted.

There is a reason the Bible implores us to meditate on the Word, and that Jesus implored people to "follow" him.  This implies a state of continual focus, orienting towards him, and action.  God says "Be Still and Know that I am God."  

We noted that "the Pursuit of Happiness" is an enormous and profitable industry.  It is the title of a Movie, you can even engage in a Happiness Project, and there are hundreds of books that you can buy that purport to show you the path to the Happiness you are lacking and working so hard to attain.

Jesus, says, "No no.  I am describing a happiness that you do not "attain"--I am describing a happiness not as the world defines it but as I define it, that transcends all of your worldly circumstances and cannot be touched by chance, is here right now for all of you.  And you need do nothing for it." 

THIS WEEK:

1. Meditate on the Jesus' promise to you that you are "blessed..."

 2.  Notice messages you encounter in your life from "the world" that seek to undermine Jesus' promise or drown it out.  Seek to give Jesus at least as much "air time" as these messages to help you keep his promise ever-present before you, and notice if you feel better in your spirit.

Next we turned our attention to the enigmatic spiritual state Jesus describes in this first beatitude, describing those who are happy or blessed:  "poor in spirit."  The beatitudes are among the most misunderstood of Jesus' teachings, so we decided to delve into our current conceptions as our starting point.  The language seems to bless, in the words of one scholar, "conduct contrary to what it takes to survive in the real world."

What do you hear when you hear "poor in spirit?"

Examples of what many of us "hear" in "poor in spirit":

• Rejected
• Sad
• Downtrodden
• Depressed
• Hopeless
• Feeling down about oneself
• Lonely
• Stark
• Lacking in faith
• Stripped away, stripped of illusions

What does Jesus mean by this?  

(This last one comes very close) 

We turned out attention back to the original Greek language used in Matthew, and peered even into the  Aramaic Jesus used for deeper clues to the meaning of this teaching~

We learned that the Greek used in Matthew has two words for "poor"--PENES and PTOCHOS.  The former means "one who has nothing superfluous, one who must work."  The latter means "one who has nothing.  Abject poverty."  

The latter is the word used in this verse.

Biblical scholars note that the word is used metaphorically--Jesus does not want people to live in abject poverty, and indeed calls all believers to help and minister to this ever-present need in the world.

William Barclay notes that the Hebrew word for poor ('ani or ebion) underwent "a four-stage development of meaning, first meaning simply poor... then meaning because poor, having no influence or power or help or prestige.... then went on to mean because having no influence, therefore downtrodden and oppressed.... and finally they came to describe those who, because they have no earthly resources whatever, put their whole trust in God." (p139, Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1)

Put Your Whole Trust in God

The message that began to emerge for us in this first beatitude was one of

• Utter humility
• An acknowledgement that we are utterly and wholly dependent on God as Provider in our lives
• A willingness to put our whole trust in God.  
• Willing to hold nothing back, be fully open and wholly vulnerable
• Seeking right relationship
• Open to mercy and receiving forgiveness with integrity
• Ready to establish and make peace. 

Even this is not an easy proposition, but it shed new hope and new light for us on one of Jesus' most important teachings, delivered like an oracle to those gathered around him, and through the Word, us today.

THIS WEEK: 
3. Contemplate what it would mean to put all of your trust in God.  What would this feel like?  What, if anything, blocks you from "living" in the  "Kingdom of Heaven?" Experiment with being more fully seen and known by God who loves you so dearly he wants not just what we think of as happiness but "makaria" for you.  Note how this feels.
4.  Write your own version of this beatitude.  Use your own words.  What is Jesus saying to you?  Carry this with you this week, or put it some place you can see it and glance at it daily.

Please remember the joys and prayer concerns of our small group this week.

See you next Sunday!
April

Prayer List (Updated Sunday, 9/30)

Each week as part of our small group, we will share our joys and prayer concerns, and pray with and for another as a true community of believers.

Please remember the following people in your prayers this week:

• Ann Klofkorn-Bloome and David G who are grieving the loss of their fathers.   
• Cindy Bolbach, as she continues in her battle with cancer
• Georgine's friend of 50 years, Mary Lou, who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.  Please pray for Mary Lou as she completes her 5th of 6 chemo treatments this week, and then waits to see how her body and the cancer responds.
• Janice is beginning to move into recovery after suffering shingles in her eye
• April's aunt Carol in Colorado, her mother's youngest sister, was in a severe car crash and is currently in ICU.  She broker her neck in two places, and has been fitted with a halo to immobilize the spine.  Please pray for her as she prepares to spend 3 months in this in hopes of facilitating healing.
• The week ahead for each of our group members
• And all of those prayers we hold in our hearts

"He Makaria" = Abundant Life 

William Barclay tells us that the Greek word for "blessing" or "happy," at the start of each of the 8 beatitudes,"he makaria," ("happy isle") was used by common Greeks to describe the island of Cyprus.

It was considered to be so beautiful, rich in sources, so fertile by regular people that a person would never need to go beyond it's coastline to find perfect happiness.  I recently came from a trip to the southern coastline of the Antalya region in Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea and can truly say I can imagine this feeling they had.  I had never experienced a more 'complete' place of beauty--from the translucent warm bath waters, to the fertile land, to the sublime weather.

So, rather than fancy language, the greek word "makaria" used in the Beatitudes translated in today's english as "blessed" or "happy", was used by common Greeks to refer to a JOY that is:

Complete within itself

Serene untouchable, contained within itself

Completely independent of the chances and changes in life

MEETING 1:  The "Be"-Attitudes

(Matthew 5:3-12)

Why the Beatitudes are intriguing~

•  Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes--he chooses to begin this seminal teaching with the Beatitudes. They must be significant.
• This is his first documented public "sermon." The bible notes that Jesus (who was young at the time) "spoke with authority... not as a "scribe," one responsible to record the words of authorities.
• The teachings are radical both in their promise to everyone, in every material, educational or emotional station and in their utter simplicity.  At a time when rabbinical priests were schooled in and diligently sought to rigorously adhere to (and enforce) up to 600 individual codes of righteous conduct, these 8 simple precepts radically dispensed with the ornate and often ruthless established rules of the social hierarchy.
• The teachings are gentle and poetic and seem paradoxical--the "poor" shall have not only a kingdom but the Kingdom of Heaven??!  

"The most sublime and benevolent code of morals ever offered."   

(Thomas Jefferson) 

But they are also oft misunderstood...

• Many shared they don't feel they have a clear understanding of the beatitudes and would like to gain more insight into this portion of Jesus' teachings
• Are they the 10 commandments summarized into 8?
• A youth shared that Sunday School's introduce us to the Beattitudes but we don't really delve deep (Editor's Note: Of course, Sunday School's job is to plant seeds deep that we can explore more deeply through.... wait for it... ADULT EDUCATION CLASSES IN SUNDAY SCHOOL!) :)
• Other skepticism about the Beatitudes:
• Are they a call to a heroic life, of total nonresistance and self sacrifice?
• Are they a renunciation of all human values to live a life with God?
• Do they encourage a life of unachievement? 

"I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly."  

(Jesus) John 10:10

Some of the motivations for joining this small group included:

• Most folks are just interested to learn more about this pivotal teaching of Jesus-"These are the crux of Jesus' teachings," as one said.
• "I am intrigued by the paradox, the contrast between being so poor, and all Jesus says we can gain in our experience"
• "Their ecumenical nature"
• The Beatitudes closely parallel the Jewish teachings of the Old Testament and some scholars see structural parallels with Buddha's teachings and some in Islam
• One person is looking forward to discovering these passages in the Bible that his mother dearly loved.
• April likes to call them the "Be" Attitudes, believing wants to teach here less what to "do," but how to "be" (after all, as she was once told by a beloved former colleague, "we are human be-ings, not human do-ings.

Gary Gutting (professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame), in a post in the New York Times notes "There is no doubt that the code [of the Sermon on the Mount] is love," and notes that Thomas Aquinus said "to love is to will good for someone-to do what we can to see that a person has a good life..."  He goes on to note that first we must know what it means to have a good life. 

(See: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/returning-to-the-sermon-on-the-mount/)

We closed by reading the Beatitudes backward, kind of

(we read only the backend of each of the 8 beatitudes).  We were challenged to listen with our hearts to the radical promise of Jesus to each one of us normal people, that so astonished his listeners that day on the mountain.  

"...when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching…” 

(Mt. 5:2; 7:28).

We opened ourselves to receiving the Beatitudes in a new way; by beginning with their endings, to hear anew the promises Jesus offers the least of us, which is all of us~

... Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

... You shall be comforted.

... You shall inherit the earth.

... You shall be satisfied.

... You shall obtain mercy.

... You shall see God.

... You shall be called, "Child of God."Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

How does it feel to us today to hear these words?  Can you hear Jesus speaking them to you?  How does it feel to trluy receive this message?

HOMEWORK: Our assignment for the week is to  

Allow ourselves to hear these words anew, to CONTEMPLATE the life to which Jesus is calling each of us today, by reflecting this week on the promise of life for us, from Jesus, in each of the Beatitudes.

In the coming weeks, we will contemplate each of them in turn, and discover with more clarity how we might experience, even more deeply, Jesus' radical promise to each one of us to have life, and have it fully.

See you next Sunday!

Welcome to the "Be"-Attitudes Small Group!

ABOUT THE BEATTITUDES SUNDAY SCHOOL SMALL GROUP:

Welcome to the First Presbyterian Church's "Be"-Attitudes "Sunday School" Small Group!  This Small Group is not a traditional "class," rather is a facilitated small group.

Each week for up to 10 weeks, we will explore and discover  together the meaning of Jesus' teachings in the 8 poetic opening lines of this first, and perhaps most famous, of Jesus' large forum teachings known as the "Beattitudes."  

"I came that they may have life, and have it fully."  Jesus Christ

With love,

April (your small group facilitator)

*****

MISSION OF THIS SMALL GROUP

• Connect and cultivate our Community of believers
• Inspire our Congregation of ministers 
• Equip and nurture our Call to discipleship

...through our exploration of the Beattitudes!

FORMAT of Sunday School class

• Reflection on the week (10 min)
• Inductive study and reflection (35 min)
• Observation-what does this passage say?
• Interpretation-what does this passage mean?
• Application-what does this passage mean to me?
• Takeaway summary (5 min)
• Prayer (10 min)

*****

You are invited to join for one or as many of the meetings as you can make in person, and to participate online as you feel inspired to do so! Each week we will post a brief from the group to connect those not able to make the meeting in person, and infuse the group with any postings from our virtual members.