Blessed Are They

by Elaine Poproski

Wasn’t Easter wonderful? I know some of you were away last weekend and I hope you had time for refreshment and renewal and that at some point over the weekend you were awed by God’s love as demonstrated through the death and resurrection of Jesus. For those of us who were at Walmer:  what a privilege to hear stories of God’s on-going involvement in people’s lives and to witness two of our number publicly declare themselves, through baptism, to be followers of Jesus. Certainly our God is alive and establishing His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Speaking of God’s Kingdom…what does it actually mean that He is establishing it here on earth? How can anyone with eyes and ears suggest such a thing? Isn’t God’s kingdom a place in which righteousness, kindness, and justice prevail? Isn’t it about peace – shalom – a kind of wholeness that unites all creation?

Yes. It is all those things. And yes, God is actively establishing it here on earth, regardless of what we see when we watch the news.

How is He doing it?

He’s doing it in you and in me.

God’s kingdom is a reality wherever Christ is enthroned as king. When Jeff and Brett were baptized last weekend, I asked them, in part, if they intend to follow Christ and serve Him as the Lord of their lives. They said yes. That is the defining characteristic of a Christian. We have invited Jesus Christ to be the Lord (or the King) of our lives and thus God’s Kingdom has come…in us. And if you want to know what that means or what that looks like, then there’s a magnificent picture painted by Matthew in chapters 5 – 7 of his gospel. It’s called the Sermon on the Mount and it’s what we’ll be reading and thinking about over the next few months of Sunday mornings.

This Sunday we’ll be starting where Jesus’ sermon starts, with the first 12 verses of Matthew 5. You may remember we read these verses not too long ago. They consist of something we call the Beatitudes. This week, I’ll be focusing primarily on the first Beatitude: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. As you prepare for Sunday, it might be helpful to read the whole sermon. Try and set some time aside to read all of Matthew 5 – 7 out loud and slowly, pausing wherever a new thought or new idea seems to emerge. What is the overarching feeling or the unifying thought that seems to weave through these chapters? Is there something you found particularly troubling? challenging? encouraging?

As we launch this new series of sermons, I pray that God would use them and the Scripture upon which they are founded, to establish Himself more and more solidly as King/Lord of our lives and that our lives would evidence more and more obviously the presence of His Kingdom in us.