9/22/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

(Matthew 5.4)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As the Spirit was teaching me yesterday in reflection on the “Beatitudes” which lead into the full “Sermon on the Mount,” I was inspired to consider the Decalogue as well. At first, in my logical mind, I wanted to parallel them one with the other. I haven’t done that yet as of this writing, but I will. First, however, I want to reflect on the way many traditionally look at the Decalogue. From that I believe we may also be challenged as to how we may have long considered the Beatitudes; or the “Be Attitudes” as some have taught about them. The Decalogue, most know them as “The Ten Commandments,” are usually seen as that impossible and dreaded “to do” list of being one of the people of God. We know how they came to be within the Hebrew community of faith. Either scribed by God onto tablets of stone or by Moses who took dictation as God’s amenuensis, these ten “commandments” were the guidelines of “right” behavior. I called them a “to do” list but many know them better as the “to don’t” list. Nothing is more shuttering to a child than to be told “don’t do this” and “don’t do that.” Granted, those 2.5 million freed slaves coming out of four hundred years of bondage in Egypt were now a fledgling nation to be called “Israel” after their progenitor Jacob Israel. They were taking baby steps in this faith journey through the Wilderness of Sin, literally. If we look at their journey and sitz im leben in that light, we might have a bit more understanding and compassion for both our journeys. Their reticence to be obedient to, sometimes a blind obedience it would seem, and trusting of a higher authority (be it God, He who has no name, or Moses) is fairly predictable in light of childhood and adolescent behavior. We shouldn’t be too hard on them because it was a part of their physical, psychological and spiritual process of maturing. Because of that reticence, it would take an entire generation (forty years worth) of “growing up” before they could move into their Promised Land.

How does that impact the “Ten Commandments”? Well, if we look at them as “don’t do these things and it will go well with you in the days to come” then we get that works righteousness feel and response to them. In fact, the commandment to “Honor your mother and father…” actually says “…so that it may go well with you in the days to come.” So, I am not making this up, we come by it honestly. There is another way to view these commandments etched in stone, however. I call them “guidelines of righteousness.” From this perspective, our relationship with God comes first and our actions are in response to that relationship. Embracing a sincere and fervent faith in God elicits a whole system of right behavior. Because of our love for God and thus for one another (thus the greatest commandment moniker attached to those two realities), we shouldn’t even think about having others gods, graven images, dishonoring the Sabbath or parents or property or reputation, etc. It isn’t that we are told “don’t” do these things, we say we “won’t” do them. This brings about the mentality and spirituality of “righteous works.” They are the things we do because we embrace the state of righteousness and goodness out of which God created us and all things. I sadly profess that we have lost this mentality in the modern age. The current declining “culture and climate” surely indicates the poverty of our authentic spirituality and well-being.

How does that impact then the “beatitudes”? Take today’s “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” for example. It makes sense, doesn’t it, that those who are in mourning should receive comfort. It is, for most everyone, a normal and nature response to grief and mourning to comfort and want to be comforted. If we look at the beatitudes from a purely worldly point of view, then the consequence of that acknowledged reality would seem obvious. It is far too easy to identity yesterday’s “poor” with a monetary, socio-economic, definition. Doing so would say “those who are spirit poor” are those who have no spirit. The theological problem with that is “without a spirit within us” we are not a living creature. Death is a spiritless reality. Creation exists because the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, responded to the will of God. When we arrive on the sixth day, we see the “inspiration” of human beings as God-breathed so that they would have life. The imago dei is the infusion of God’s internal identity becoming human life identity. His Spirit becomes our spirit and we live. So, those who are “poor in spirit” are actually those who by means of the spirit see themselves as “poor” or incapable of becoming fully human again. This would happen only by the healing of the brokenness of humanity which occured with the infection of our lives by sin (thus my term: sin-fection). Unable to overcome this disease of sin because we lack the means and the resources to do so makes us “poor” when we were initially created rich. Such richness comes in recognizing our “faith, hope and love” manifested in trusting God in all things and leaning not on our own understanding and ability to provide for our needs. If God is providing then, as David sang, “…no want shall I know.”

Now, consider “blessed are those who mourn” beyond the psycho-emotional “natural” identification. With this new construct, “mourning” speaks to our understanding of being “dead,” without possibility of authentic living, without the blessing of God and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. That is something we should certainly lament. We can glean from Paul’s “looking into a mirror dimly and then one day I will see Him face to face” as our lead to this understanding. In sin, our reflection in the mirror looks like death, warmed over or not. But, in Christ, our reflection begins to clear day by day as we follow after Him in a life of righteousness. In our desire and our actions of loving God and loving others (thus growing in our love for self in appropriate and well-defined measure), we see righteousness as it was meant in the beginning manifest itself until it is like looking at Jesus face to face! Our confession of our sinful and death-pursuing nature as broken and enslaved people with a glimmer of hope opens the door of comfort that we shall again see Jesus and God and eternal life and the fulfillment of all we were intended to be! We become established in the midst of God’s Kingdom on earth as if we were living in Heaven. And don’t be confused by such “Immanuel” in today’s world. An authentic reading of The Book of Revelation as given to John, shows that there is beyond that New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem, the ever circling and sad reality of darkness where “death exists without any hope of the Spirit in which mercy, grace and forgiveness provides liberation of the soul from the hell it has chosen.” So, choosing to live as heavenly a life here on earth as we can in spite of the terrible odds seemingly against doing so, brings strength in the comfort of knowing “God is with us” and promised to be with us “to the close of the age” and beyond! But first, we must mourn the sadness of being broken by sin and living in a world that is broken. Then we must profess that such brokenness is temporary in terms of eternity and thus be consoled that not even death can hold us. That is, for those who will believe, receive and declare that Jesus is Lord!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.