Some months ago when Dan Burton and I were planning the order of worship for this Sunday, he suggested that he write an anthem on the Beatitudes for this service, since the gospel lesson for this morning, as you heard, is from the Gospel of Luke, and Luke's version of the Beatitudes.

The only problem is that Luke's version of the Beatitudes is not the one that we are familiar with. The much more popular version of the Beatitudes is to be found in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew, the Beatitudes serve as the preface to the Sermon on the Mount. There are nine Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. In Luke, the Beatitudes are the preface to what is called the Sermon on the Plain. There are only four Beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke.

In Luke it is called the Sermon on the Plain because in the…