These Illustrations are based on Matthew 5:1-12
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Sermon Opener - The True Nature of Happiness - Matthew 5:1-12
Some years ago the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer published an article entitled: "How Do You Measure Up As A Man? The article stated that some extensive research had been conducted on the 20th century standards for measuring a man. The criteria were quite interesting and I thought that I might list them for the men here this morning just to see how they measure up.
1. His ability to make and conserve money (That lets me out already).
2. The cost, style and age of his car.
3. (This is my favorite) How much hair he has.
4. His strength and size.
5. The job he holds and how successful he is at it.
6. What sports he likes.
7. How many clubs he belongs to.
8. His aggressiveness and reliability.
Jesus Christ also once set down eight principles for the measure of a person. His standards stand in stark contrast to the aforementioned. There would appear to be a wide gulf between the popular image of the successful person and what God sees as the successful person.
Here’s what happened: Jesus had just started his ministry and was gaining in popularity. Large crowds were gathering. He had just picked out his disciples. And in the quiet of the rolling grassy hills of northern Israel by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus delivered a sermon to a multitude. Acres and acres of human faces. The crowd represented a cross section of humanity…
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Blessed - Matthew 5:1-12
We hear it all the time. We hear it in church, in interviews with sports and movie stars, and we hear it a whole lot around the Fourth of July.
“I’ve been blessed.” “We’ve been so blessed.”
But what does it mean? What does it mean to be blessed? Usually we associate it with plentitude. It means that we have a lot of something: money, property, talent. Certainly, in that sense things haven’t changed much over the past 2,000 years. Ask any first-century Jew who the blessed people were in their community and they would have shared with you the conventional wisdom of the day.
Blessed are the ruthless, for they are wealthy.
And blessed are the wealthy, for they have lots of stuff.
Blessed are the Romans, for they have power.
And blessed are the powerful, for they get what they want.
Today we might add some blessings that are peculiar to our own time and place in history:
Blessed are the college educated, for they get the good jobs.
Blessed are the attractive, for they get fawned over.
Blessed are the arrogant and the ignorant, the mean and the petty, the shallow and self-absorbed, for they get their own reality TV shows.
Every age and every culture has its own understanding of what it means to be blessed and they are all, surprisingly, similar. Almost all of them involve fame or power or wealth — or sometimes, all three.
Jesus takes all of this and stands it on its head. Jesus re-defines what it means to be blessed....
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Having Lost All, All Is Found
“Having reached the end of the Beatitudes, we naturally ask if there is any place on this earth for the community which they describe. Clearly, there is one place, and only one, and that is where the Poorest, Meekest, and most sorely Tried of all men is to be found — on the cross at Golgotha. The community which is the subject of the Beatitudes is the community of the crucified. With Him it has lost all, and with him it has found all.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
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Balance: The Law of Love
Plato once imagined the spiritual journey as a chariot moving through the wilderness of life, with the soul as the charioteer trying to rein in two powerful horses: the horse of anger or passion, and the horse of reason or order. Plato understood that both passion and reason can be life-giving, but only when they are held in dynamic tension, only when each power neutralizes the potential destruction of the other. This morning Jesus tells us that we must balance the passion of anger with the discipline and reason of love. And he tells us that the law of love can best be fulfilled, not through rules, but through relationships.
Susan R. Andrews, The Offense Of Grace, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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The Key to the Beatitudes
The idea of being poor in spirit is the key to all that is to follow in the Beatitudes. I like the note in the Life Application Bible:
“You cannot mourn without appreciating how insufficient you are to handle life in your own strength.
You cannot be meek unless you know you have needed gentleness yourself.
You cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness if you proudly think of yourself as already righteous.
You cannot be merciful without recognizing your own need for mercy.
You cannot be pure in heart if your heart is full of pride.
You cannot be a peacemaker if you believe that you are always right.
You cannot identify with Christ in the face of negative reactions from others without dying to yourself and renouncing your own rights.”
All of these beatitudes are rooted in humility, being poor in spirit.
Owen Stepp, Unlikely Blessings
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God Shows Through
One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the whole world in His hand. Is that true?" The mother replied, "Yes, that's true, honey." "But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?" Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"
That is what the beatitudes are about – God showing through.
Jerry Shirley, When God Shows Through
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God Means Everything
"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
William Barclay says this verse means, "Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God. If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things....
He will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got it in them to bring happiness or security; and he will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, and hope, and strength.
The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything."
Mickey Anders, The Beatitudes Are Not Platitudes!
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“Best All Around”
I remember in high school having the "Who's Who" for my grade, and one of the categories was "Best All Around." To be considered for this category, the student needed to have a multitude and a wide variety of attributes...and be good at them. Characteristics like being smart, friendly, well-dressed, pretty/handsome, good at sports, and perhaps being musically gifted or artistic are important to have if you want to qualify for the category.
Similarly, if you could make the Beatitudes as a sort of checklist for Christians, they could see the areas they need to improve in. Perhaps if they could check all of the Beatitudes off the list, they might qualify as a sort of "Best All Around" Christian, a great inspiration and role model.
Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes
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Better than Average
A while back, I read that 85% of all drivers in America consider themselves "above-average" drivers. Of course, this cannot be true: By definition, I believe only 49% of drivers are above average. However, the survey gives us an insight into human nature: People generally view themselves as better than others. And if they are better than others, then they are doing a good enough job.
This transfers over into religion far more than we are aware, and it becomes apparent in how these Beatitudes are taught. Often one will hear, "The message of the Beatitudes is that, if I do these things well enough, then I will be happy. If I am good enough at these things, then I will be blessed." It's a human standard of measure: "If I am better at this than average, then I'm in good shape." But does this work for sainthood?
Tim Pauls, What It Takes to Be a Saint
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You Can’t Make It “By The Book”
A small parable: Once upon a time, there was a company who had two junior executives. One did everything by the book, was diligent and trustworthy, always made sure he was covered and, since he always went by the book, rarely made mistakes. The other also was a hard and diligent worker, but he often tested the rules, sometimes received some criticism, and sometimes made mistakes. One day an opening came up for a senior executive position, and the owner of the company promoted the one who made mistakes over the other. Of course Mr. "By the Book" was enraged and asked his boss why - after all, he had a better record, didn't he? He NEVER made mistakes. He ALWAYS followed the book. To which his boss replied, "Yes, but what will you do someday when something comes up that isn't covered by the book. You know the rules, but he knows what we are doing here, and why we are here. He UNDERSTANDS the company. And that's why he was promoted over you."
How do we obtain God's blessing? Well, the answer, of course, is that it's not something we obtain - it's not for sale. It's something he has already freely given to you, but which you can only recognize when you accept it as a gift, and live in it.
Gary Roth, All of God’s Blessings
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Healthy Are the Poor in Spirit
Some years ago a panel of doctors was appointed by the Federal government to meet together and draw up eight laws off public health that could be printed in pamphlet Form and distributed to the public. After twelve days off exhaustive meetings, the doctors were unable to come to a consensus. It seems that their areas off concern were so diverse: one was a cancer specialist, one a cardiologist, one a psychiatrist, and they all approached the problem from their own discipline. The chest expert was concerned about coal dust from the mines and lint From textile mills, while the psychiatrist was concerned about the effects off urban stress. Finally, Dr. Harold Sladen offered Hospital in Detroit came up with an appropriate idea. He said: Let’s just republish the eight beatitudes of Jesus and simply replace the word "Blessed" with the words "healthy."
Staff, Sermons.com
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God's Kind of Happiness, Today
I like the story of the preacher who met two little boys. After greeting them, he said, "Boys, would you like to go to heaven?" "Yes, sir!" one responded immediately. "No, sir," the other boy said honestly. Surprised by such honesty, the preacher asked, "Son, do you mean that eventually you don’t want to go to heaven?" "I’d like to go eventually, "replied the boy, "but I thought you were getting up a load to go today." For many people, happiness--like heaven-- is something that is going to come eventually, but it never quite arrives.
God’s kind of happiness, on the other hand, the kind that God says we can have through our allegiance to his Son, is a present reality. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor." "Happy are those who mourn."
"Happy are those who are humble." Each one of the Beatitudes is in the present tense. Each one of them congratulates the Christian on the happiness he is already experiencing as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
George Matheson was a great preacher and hymn writer who lost his sight at an early age. He thought of that infirmity as his thorn in the flesh, as his personal cross. For several years, he prayed that his blindness would be removed. Like most of us, I suppose, he believed that personal happiness would come to him only after the handicap was gone. But then, one day God sent him a new insight: The creative use of his handicap could actually become his personal means of achieving happiness!
So, Matheson went on to write: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of the cross itself as a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross. Teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow."
Congratulations, George Matheson! Congratulations on finding God’s kind of happiness — the kind of happiness that is not only a future hope, but also a very present reality. So may it be for us all.
John Thomas Randolph, The Best Gift, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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Sermon Opener – Lamplight vs. Starlight by Leonard Sweet - Matthew 5:1-12
Don't worry about whether or not you are "star material." Instead, turn up your lamp and hold it up to help your neighbor around the unexpected holes and rocks that mark every path.
In the middle of the New Mexico desert, astronomers fume about the "light pollution" from all the sprawling cities that are gradually snaking out across the land. Even on the darkest moonless nights, the stars that used to gleam and twinkle so brilliantly look faded and dim. We who dwell in the middle of cities and suburbs rarely glance heavenward at night anymore - at least not to see stars. The lights that now illumine our nights as brightly as our days read "McDonald's," "Holiday Inn," "Casino Open," and "Twenty-Four Hour Service."
In the glare of all these high-powered night lights, it is hard to remember just how dark and frightening the hours between sunset and sunrise used to be for our ancestors. Light, whether natural or artificial, was a precious commodity. Perhaps the only place where people still tune the rhythms of their lives to the lights in the sky are those who dwell above the Arctic Circle. Despite the modern convenience of the light switch, there is no ignoring the fact that the daylight hours all but disappear for several months. In Tromso, Norway, this period of darkness is called morketida. From mid-November to mid-January, the sun does not rise above the horizon. In fact, from August until mid-November, residents can count on losing 10 to 15 minutes of light each day until the depths of the winter solstice. At best, those high above the Arctic Circle may look forward to only two or three hours of indirect or half-light around midday for nearly two months.
Yet while the stars that light the sky during this morketida period may shine for long periods, they are not enough to dispel the gloom that pervades the streets and can easily poison the soul. Those of us who curse "light pollution" for dimming our stars are disgusted, not at losing light, but at losing a beautiful, heavenly starscape to ponder. Stars are both too distant and too overwhelming to offer us any real nighttime comfort or vision.
During our own periods of morketida, we don't really need more stars - we need more common lights or lamps to light our everyday paths on this earth. Whether in literature, academe, Hollywood or the firmament, stars inspire us, they dazzle us, they entice us to dream. But a star won't keep you from stubbing your toe on a stone as you wander down a dark and lonely road.
In Matthew's text this week, Jesus urges us to serve as lamps for one another, not stars that only dazzle and inspire. Jesus calls us to be lights for the world, not exploding supernovas. Alas, there seem to be a lot more Christians who want to be stars than are willing to be lamps…
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Possible Sermon Opener – Raising Troubling (and Humbling) Questions
A friend once came to Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and said to him:
"Two weeks ago, for the first time in my life I went to the funeral of a man my own age. I didn't know him well, but we worked together, talked to each other from time to time, had kids about the same age. He died suddenly over the weekend. A bunch of us went to the funeral, each of us thinking, "It could just as easily have been me."
That was two weeks ago. They have already replaced him at the office. I hear his wife is moving out of state to live with her parents. Two weeks ago he was working fifty feet away from me, and now it's as if he never existed.
It's like a rock falling into a pool of water. For a few seconds, it makes ripples in the water, and then the water is the same as it was before, but the rock isn't there anymore.
Rabbi, I've hardly slept at all since then. I can't stop thinking that it could happen to me, that one day it will happen to me, and a few days later I will be forgotten as if I had never lived. Shouldn't a man's life be more than that?"
This man had just experienced a wake up call! For all of us, there are times like that when we are brought up short, and we are left thinking disturbing questions like, "Shouldn't a man's life be more than that?"
I think we get that kind of feeling when we contrast the reality of our lives against character portrayed in the Beatitudes. Sometimes we want to pass by them quickly on our way to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. We assume that Jesus was simply a Nazarene stumbling along the dusty roads of Palestine mumbling so many platitudes.
But there is that haunting feeling in our gut that Jesus may be right and we just might be wrong. And that's when we need to stop and take another long look at the Beatitudes.
Adapted from Rabbi Harold Kushner, When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, p. 20. Mickey Anders, The Beatitudes Are Not Platitudes!
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To Which Kingdom Do I Belong?
The story is told of Frederick William IV of Prussia who once visited a school and quizzed the students. He held up a stone and asked the children: To what kingdom does this belong? They responded: mineral. He then pointed to a flower and asked: To what kingdom does this belong? They answered: Plant. He then pointed to a bird flying by outside the window and asked: To what Kingdom does that belong? They replied: animal. Then he asked: Now, to what kingdom do I belong? He unknowingly had raised a profoundly theological question. To what Kingdom do I belong?
In a literal sense, we are, of course, part and parcel members of the animal kingdom. The magnificent thing for humans, however, is that it is within us to rise above purely animal desires and become a part of another kingdom--the kingdom of God.
Staff,www.Sermons.com
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Blessed Are the Cheese Makers
Here is the infamous bit from Monty Pythons "Life of Brian." All great humor must have one essential element: Truth. This bit certainly has that. Jesus' words when misunderstood has lead to some pretty fantastic conclusions. And so, this is dedicated to all those knuckle headed interpretations throughout the years. There are two main characters in the bit who are called Trouble and Bignose. They are at the back of the crowd when Jesus is giving the Sermon On The Mount:
Trouble: Well go and talk to him somewhere else... I can't hear a bloody thing.
Bignose: Don't you swear at my wife.
Trouble: I was only asking her to shut up so I could hear what he was saying, Bignose.
Bignosewife: Don't you call my husband Bignose.
Trouble: Well he has got a big nose.
Jew: Could you be quite, please. What was that?
Trouble: I don't know... I was too busy talking to Bignose.
Man: I think it was 'Blessed are the cheese-makers'.
Jewwife: Ah. What's so special about the cheese-makers?
Jew: Well obviously it's not meant to be taken literally, it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.
Trouble: See. If you hadn't been going on, we'd have heard that, Bignose.
Bignose: Hey. Say that once more, I'll smash your bloody face in.
Trouble: Better keep listening. There might be a bit about blessed are the Bignoses.
Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com
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God’s Kind of Happiness
The point I want to make here is this: God’s kind of happiness, as defined in the Beatitudes of our Lord, represents a radical reversal of almost everything we have ever been taught about the meaning of happiness! Look at the Beatitudes again and contrast them with what we have been taught. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor." We have always been taught to define happiness in terms of wealth. "Happy are those who mourn." We have been taught that happiness means never experiencing anything that causes us grief. "Happy are those who are humble." We have been taught that happiness is defined in terms of aggression and the competitive spirit. "Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires." We have been taught that happiness lies in the desire to conform to the values of our own society.
"Happy are those who are merciful to others." We have been taught that the quality of mercy is a sign of weakness. "Happy are the pure in heart." Tell that one to the guys and gals at work! "Happy are those who work for peace."
We have been taught that happiness is defined in terms of preparedness for war. "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires."
We have tended to call such people fools or fanatics! "Happy are you when people insult you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers." We tend to say, "Don’t get mad, get even!" We say it again: God’s kind of happiness reverses almost everything we have been taught about happiness. But if one of us has to be wrong — either us or God — you can be sure that it isn’t God.
John Thomas Randolph, The Best Gift, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Happiness
Dr. Viktor Frankl, author of the book "Man's Search for Meaning," was imprisoned by the Nazis in WWII because he was a Jew. His wife, his children, and his parents were all killed in the holocaust.
The Gestapo made him strip. He stood there totally naked. As they cut away his wedding band, Viktor said to himself, "You can take my wife, you can take away my children, you can strip me of my clothes and my freedom, but there is one thing no person can ever take away from me -- and that is my freedom to choose how I will react to what happens to me!" Even under the most difficult of circumstances, happiness is a choice which transforms our tragedies into triumph.
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1988, p. 278.
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Happiness
Happiness is never in our power and pleasure is. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted joy would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasure in the world.
C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
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Beatitudes as a Song
This is based on The Message by Eugene H. Peterson
Verse 1
You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of GOD in your life. You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for GOD. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.
Verse 2
You're blessed when you're content with just who you are no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see GOD in the outside world.
Verse 3
You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
Verse 4
You're blessed when your commitment to GOD provokes persecution.
The persecution drives you even deeper into GOD's kingdom.
Based on The Message by Eugene H. Peterson
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God's In This
This morning I'd like to do something a little unorthodox and recommend an album (sorry CD) to you. So far it has sold more than 4 million copies. It won "Album of the Year" awards from the Country Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association, and is nominated for five Grammys. Rolling Stone called it one of the best albums of 2001, and Entertainment Weekly named the musicians one of their "Entertainers of the Year."
The remarkable thing is it sounds nothing like Britney Spears or Nine Inch Nails and yet it is one of the best selling albums of the year. So who is it? It's the Soggy Bottom Boys! You heard me. The Whites and a few other groups, along with the Soggy Bottom Boys (a fictional group) perform on the album. The Whites have been performing gospel, country swing, and bluegrass music for more than 30 years but the success of this album caught them by surprise. The direct reason for the albums success is that it is a Sound Track to the movie "O' Brother, Where Art Thou?"
The second reason for the album's success is expressed well by Sharon White, from the family singing group. She said, "This music touches people on a level that we're not accustomed to being touched on in our culture today."
"Modern entertainment is all about arousal and sensuality. But this music is honest and pure, and it moves you like a mountain stream moves you. It's something so deep it almost defies explanation."
Listen to this. I like what she says next. She describes herself as "loosely Southern Baptist," and she believes there are spiritual forces at play:
"God's in this," she says. "There's no doubt about it. We look at everything we do that way, and I hope the people at the concerts see this, because I, we, are very unattractive, weak vessels."
I know what she means. Every now and then you hear something, whether it is music or poetry, or some bit of wisdom that touches you on a level we're not accustomed to being touched. As soon as you hear it, you know that it is addressing eternal truths. I like to think that those who sat around Jesus on that day in Galilee when he first preached, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," looked at each other with that look that says, "That's right!" "I understand what he is saying." God's in this."
The Beatitudes are words so deep they almost defy explanation.
Brett Blair,www.Sermons.com
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Troubled by the Understandable
Somewhere, Mark Twain commented that the sections of the New Testament giving him the most trouble were not those he couldn't understand but rather the sections he could.
The Beatitudes are like that. They are a simple, and yet controversial, guide to life that throws down the gauntlet to popular human values.
Mickey Anders, The Beatitudes Are Not Platitudes!
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Only the Grace of God Can Keep Us
A young employee once pilfered several hundred dollars of his firm’s money. When the breach of trust was discovered he was ordered to report to the senior partner. He knew he would lose his position. He feared legal action. His world was in collapse. Upon his arrival the young man was questioned. When asked if the charges were true, he answered in the affirmative. Then came an unexpected question: “If I keep you in your present capacity, can I trust you in the future?”
Startled, he replied, “Yes, sir, you surely can. I’ve learned my lesson.”
The executive responded, “I’m not going to press charges; you can continue in your present responsibility.” He then concluded, “I think you ought to know you are the second man in this firm who succumbed to temptation.... I was the first.... The mercy you are receiving, I received. It is only the grace of God that can keep us both.”
Phil Thrailkill, Sermons.com, What Making a Difference Looks Like
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From ‘A Letter from Birmingham Jail’
There is a letter that from time to time draws my attention. It was written from one preacher to others. Like many of Paul’s epistles, it was written from inside jail, a Birmingham jail. It was not written just any old time of year but Easter weekend 1963, a turbulent time when peace-makers were few, peace-breakers many, and when most of our churches sat in the guilty silence of peace-fakery, hoping it would all go away.
His flaws we will leave to the historians, but his pen that day was pure prophecy; the candle of his intellect and rhetoric was lit by the Holy Spirit. I read the last two paragraphs as a son of the South, in the hope that one day we will see his words fulfilled, not just in legal matters but in merciful, pure, and peacemaking hearts who will join the biblical prophets in their quest for righteousness. Listen to the content and the poetry:
“One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering, and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence....
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.”
If the reading raises your anxiety a bit, and if old prejudices are uncovered, it tells me we have some work yet to do in the first column of our relationship with God. Five years later King would live into the martyrdom the eighth beatitude predicts as the place to which companionship with Jesus may lead, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Where are you called to speak up? Where are you called to stand out? Where are you called to defend the causes of God in our world?
Phil Thrailkill, Sermons.com, What Making a Difference Looks Like
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The Transforming Power of Mercy
Victor Hugo begins Les Miserables with the story of Jean Valjean. He is an ex-convict who has just been released from nineteen years in prison for stealing bread to feed his sister's children. As he reenters society, no one will house him or give him work because of his criminal record – that is until he stumbles into the bishop's house. Much to Valjean's bewilderment, the bishop treats him with kindness and hospitality. Seizing the moment, Valjean steals the bishop's silver plates and, then, flees into the night.
The bishop's reaction to Valjean's treachery is not what we might expect. Instead of being angry and offering condemnation, the bishop examines his own behavior and finds himself lacking in charity. "I have for a long time wrongfully withheld this silver; it belonged to the poor. Who was this man? A poor man evidently," he reasons to himself. So when the police arrive with the captured Valjean, the bishop's silver in his possession, the bishop calmly greets the thief and says, "But I gave you the candlesticks also ... why did you not take them along with the plates?" The police, surprised and confused, reluctantly let the thief go.
Like Joseph's brothers cowering in fear before the one they have wronged, Jean Valjean expects blame and condemnation for his actions. Instead, he receives forgiveness and mercy. He expects hatred, and, instead, he receives love, and at that moment evil is transformed into good.
Susan R. Andrews, The Offense Of Grace, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Getting Under Someone’s Skin
In the original Aramaic which Jesus spoke, the word "merciful" means literally "to get under someone's skin." It means to wear his skin, as it were; to see life from his perspective, to stand in his shoes. It means more than sympathy; it means active empathy or merciful understanding.
Let me illustrate. A prominent minister was holding a weekend seminar at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, several years ago. He kept noticing a man in the front row nodding sleepily. This aggravated the speaker. Preachers don't like for folks to go to sleep on them. We don't have that problem here since we armed the ushers with those 36-foot extendable fishing rods so they can tap any nodding worshipper on the head.
The speaker at Junaluska though to himself: Wonder why the man didn't stay home if he couldn't stay awake? During the lunch break, a woman approached the speaker and said, "Sir, let me apologize for my husband's drowsiness. He is undergoing chemotherapy. The doctors have given him a medication to control the side-effects, but it makes him very sleepy. I tried to persuade him to stay home today, but he said, "I must go as long as I'm able. I never know when I will no longer be able to gather with God's people."
Suddenly that speaker's attitude toward the drowsy man was transformed. Why? The wife had enabled him to get under the skin of her husband and really understand him. That is the quality of mercy.
Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Peace and Comfort in the Storm
In Robert Louis Stevenson's story of a storm, he describes a ship caught off a rocky coast threatening death to all on board. When terror among the people was at its worst, one man, more daring than the rest, making the perilous passage to the pilot house, saw the pilot lashed to his post, with his hands on the wheel and turning the ship little by little into the open sea. When the pilot saw the ghastly white, terror-stricken face of the man, he smiled, and the man rushed to the deck below, shouting: "I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well." The sight of that pilot's smiling face averted panic and converted despair into hope. So it is that the sight of the face of Christ and the knowledge of the love of God gives us a peace and comfort and confidence as we go through the process of mourning.
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, When Christians Quarrel, CSS Publishing Company
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How Can I Have Any Self-Respect?
In the cartoon strip Cathy, there was a conversation between Cathy and Andrea. Cathy said, "When I was little, I put my own needs first and everyone said I was being selfish and inconsiderate. Now everyone says I'm SUPPOSED to put my own needs first." Andrea answered, "That's right, Cathy. Putting your own needs first is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your self-respect." Cathy looked sad when she asked, "How can I have any self-respect if I'm being selfish and inconsiderate?"
John A. Terry, Invitations to the Kingdom of Heaven, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Grief: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
In her novel Come and Go, Molly Snow, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall gives an account of Carrie attempting to come to grips with the loss of her eight-year-old daughter, Molly Snow. Carrie is a fiddler, but in the wake of this tragic loss she says, "The music doesn't rise up in me right now." In the months that followed, Carrie listens to homespun wisdom and begins the first steps of coming to grips with the absence of Molly Snow and the presence of a deep, dull ache which had taken her place. At one point Carrie remarks, "Sometimes STILL HERE seems stranger than GONE."
Carrie finds it is as hard or harder to deal with being left behind as it is to deal with Molly Snow's being gone. Most anyone who has lost some significant person in his or her life knows that feeling. Without the person we loved, STILL HERE no longer carries the same meaning and joy it once did. When a wife dies, a part of the husband dies, too. When a child dies, a part of the parent dies, too. STILL HERE just isn't the same without them. The plans we made are rendered obsolete. More than that, we wonder how we will go on without the person in whom so much of our lives found their identity and meaning. Stuck in the STILL HERE, Carrie wants to know what is going to happen next. Even as she begins to put her life back together, she admits, "I'm not brave, just cried-out.”
Finally, Carrie comes to this realization, "I'll always have this grief in the center of me, but my life will grow around it. My life will be real. It will have its moments. It will have music in it."
William B. Kincaid, III, And Then Came The Angel, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Sermon Opener - A Topsy-Turvy Gospel - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
“Mushers” and people who travel by dog sled over snowy, frozen terrain. “Mushers” have a saying: “If you’re not the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”
That “Mushers” saying has become a centerpiece doctrine of the leadership literature that has been inundating the corporate and church worlds of the last thirty years. If you are not the “top dog,” in other words, no matter how far you travel your journey is just going to be a “tale of tails.”
Striving to be “top dog” is the goal we are encouraged to achieve from our earliest childhood to our graduate school education. No one wants to be the “under dog” or the “low dog.” Being “on top” means getting the best grades in school, in order to get the best opportunities, the best treatment, the best salary, the bst office, the best seats in the house, the best table, the best of everything everywhere you go. Who could possibly not see the advantages that come with being at the “top” and not the “bottom” of the heap?
In 1897 vision scientist and psychologist George M. Stratton (1865-1957) created a pair of glasses that turned the world upside down. Actually, he turned the world right-side-up because our eyes project an image to our brains that is naturally upside down. Our brains take an image and invert it — giving us our “right side up” perception of the world. Stratton strapped on his goggles and proceeded to blunder into things for several days. In this new, now “upside-down” world, his brain was seeing liquids “poured up,” he saw himself walking on ceilings. Everything he viewed was completely inverted.
But only for a few days. Our eyes are our cameras, but the pictures we take with our eyes are developed by our brains. After a few days Stratton recorded that his most powerful visual organ, his brain, had figured out that something was amiss. After a few days his brain re-inverted the images it was receiving, and the world no longer looked upside down to the scientist. His brain completely flipped the images and presented him with a right-side up world once again. The process took about three days…
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Parable of the Quarrelsome Child
"Jimmy, why are you sitting there all alone?"
"Nobody wants to play with me. They always fight with me."
"Why don't you go over and see Billy?"
"No, he always wants his own way."
"You could play with Dick," said the mother.
"No, we had a fight this morning. I punched him in the nose and his mother sent me home."
"How about Jack?"
"We had a fight in the school yard."
"If everyone fights with you, maybe it's you," said the mother.
"See, you're picking on me, too. Everybody picks on me."
"It is natural to disagree once in awhile with people, but, if everybody quarrels with you and it takes two to quarrel, you must be looking for trouble."
"I don't care. They can all go soak their heads. I don't like any of them."
A person or a nation that is always at odds with others needs some self-examination. Certainly there are principles worth fighting for, but individuals that are always quarrelsome and nations that are torn by strife are going against the principles of man and God and are most likely to be destroyed.
And even when destruction does not come, there remains a misery in existence that is far from really living. Love brings understanding, patience, and promotes peace having the highest goals for the well-being and happiness of all.
To be sitting in a corner all alone day after day at odds with others is a cruel existence. There are new methods and new ways to be sought that can bring about more human happiness, if we follow the teachings of Christ.
Read St. Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
ChristianGlobe Illustrations
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Matthew 5:3-11
J. B. Phillips, in his book When God Was Man (Nashville: Abington, 1955), gives this version of the Beatitudes:
Happy are the pushers, for they get on in the world.
Happy are the hard-boiled, for they never let life hurt them.
Happy are they who complain, for they get their own way in the end.
Happy are the blase, for they never worry over their sins.
Happy are the slave drivers, for they get results.
Happy are the knowledgeable men of the world, for they know their way around.
Happy are the troublemakers, for they make people take notice of them.
Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Books