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!