& disassemble my despair

it never took me anywhere

A sermon on the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-20):

One of my favorite movies, and I've talked about it before, is "Little Miss Sunshine." This movie, for me, coincided with lutheran theology. And so it occupies a place right alongside "Lutheranism 101."

That said, this movie is not PG, so if you rent it and are offended, don't say I didn't try to warn you...

The movie follows a more or less nuclear family. And like many families these days, every member struggles to put up with one another. For various reasons, they all grate on each-other’s nerves. 

One of the funniest points of friction in the movie, is the father with, well, basically everyone…

The father aspires to be a self-help guru. In fact, the movie opens on him giving one of his seminars. …The class, though, is comprised of a small handful of students, in a dimly-lit and depressing little classroom. 

Despite his apparent failure, though, the father is determined to keep at it, live by his principals, and one day achieve his dreamt of success…

So great is his fervor, he not only lives by his principals. He also tries to foist them upon the rest of the family… And, to varying degrees, they go along with it. 

Now, the core of the movie is the family driving from New Mexico to California, to get the daughter to a beauty pageant. 

A beauty pageant she has no chance of winning. As the movie progresses it turns out it’s not just the pageant that threaten to be a disaster, the entire trip is one disaster after another. 

Over the course of the movie, with each disaster, every attempt the family makes to hold it all together falls apart.

…Eventually, even the father begins to doubt the efficacy of his self-help principals. 

It all comes crashing down on him, when he chases down his agent, to find out about the progress of getting his book published. The agent, whose clearly been avoiding him, tells him it didn’t pan out. 

Undeterred, the father say they can’t just quit like that. Sticking to his principals, he says they need to keep at it. 

To which, the agent lays it out. He tried. No one wants the father’s book. No one knows the author. The book will never be published. 

…And that’s the trouble with our self-help hacks. Isn’t it? 

They work, until they don’t. And when they don’t, they don’t all the way. 

And let’s be honest, all our little tricks eventually stop working.

What I love about “Little Miss Sunshine,” is the way it manages to, in a nice, tidy 90 minutes, explore this fact of our existence. Like so many good pieces of art, Little Miss Sunshine explores the conundrum of lives; that we’re not all we could be. That we’re aware of it, too! And worst of all, that our attempts to  bridge that gap, only widen it!

Now these days this observation is paraded before us as a novel realization, but the truth is, it’s not new.

In fact, this observation is an important part of our lutheran heritage. 

Later in the reformation movement, a catholic, humanist scholar, Erasmus; wrote against Luther. To Erasmus’ way of thinking, Luther’s emphasis on our inability to get ourselves right with God, was all wrong. 

To make his point, Erasmus pointed to passages like today’s, full of commands. If we can’t do what God commands, Erasmus asked, why does God give us commands?

Now, Luther had a lot to reply, but his greatest insight was, that just because God says we should, doesn’t necessarily mean we actually can. 

Luther agreed with Erasmus, God does command us to live a particular way. And we should live this way. The trouble, though, is not just that we don’t. But that we can’t.

And to prove that point, Luther also pointed to the Bible. Since the fall, Luther noted, our will, the force that drives us to do one thing or another, has been co-opted by twin forces; death and the devil…

And these force have corrupted every one of our attempts to do God’s will.

Yes, there is a gap between what we are and what we should be. That’s plain enough. The trouble is, despite all our efforts, we’ve never quite managed to bridge that gap. Have we? 

In fact, all our efforts, usually makes matters worse.

And therein lays the proverbial canary in the coal mine. 

The trouble with self-help books and their ilk is, they rely on a faulty lever, our will. 

Yes, it still works. But it is badly damaged. (Like my garage door)

And that, that’s what you need to know before you hear Jesus’ sermon today.

Because the temptation is to hear his sermon, like so many others you’ve heard, as yet one more in a series of never-ending to-do lists to be a little better. 

But, that would be to miss who Jesus say his sermon is for… 

And it’s not folks waiting in-line to buy the next self-help book. No, more like folks who, after buying a stack of self-help books, still find themselves picking up the pieces of the latest mess they’ve made.

Jesus begins his sermon by blessing the “poor in spirit.” The poor in spirit.

And “poor in spirit” does not mean some humble attitude you can cobble together to earn Jesus’ blessing. No, Jesus isn’t being coy like that. Being poor in spirit is what it actually says it is, being poor at the core of it; your spirit!

That’s what makes Jesus’ sermon so unlike every other one you’ve heard! 

All self-help methods work by trying to get you to do something. Something that, presumably, will make you life better. 

But Jesus begins his sermon the exact opposite way! Not by trying to get you to do something, but by trying to get you to confess that the part of you that wills one thing or another is running poorly!

Jesus wants you to hear this sermon from where he preaches best, where he promises to meet you; the shadow of the cross! Those places when you will is running poorly, barely functioning! 

We prefer our self-help books, I know. But, when they cease to be of any actual help, this strange sermon of Jesus’ will be the best help you’ve ever received! 

Not as one more thing you should do to measure up, but the unfathomably mercy of God to send Jesus to bless you when you haven’t measured up!

Remember, God is far-sighted! The further off you feel from God, the better God sees you! 

This is something self-help gurus and their lackeys will never prescribe. Because you CAN’T will your way into it! You can only experience it. Experience it when all the other platitudes have failed, but you’ve been blessed to find yourself in the presence of a preacher with the Word of God on their lips!

And then, when you’re there, Jesus gets to work; doing for you what he’s promised; fulfill all righteousness! 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets,” Jesus said. I have not come to abolish, but fulfill.”

It’s all a matter of the will, you see!

And Jesus, rather than throw the problem back on itself, us and our damaged wills; takes the problem upon himself. Bearing us. Becoming our righteousness for us. Doing his will to us!

…That’s the promise that lays at the heart of Little Miss Sunshine; why it can take such an honest look at our situation, and crack a joke. 

It’s what’s at the beginning and end of Jesus’ sermon today. 

And, it’s what covers you, and your life, you baptized children of God!

…We’re all just trying to be all we can be. Aren’t we? Usually our attempts only make matters worse.

Unfortunately, I have no advice for you. What I have is something better; a blessing. And not one of my own concocting, but one Jesus has hidden for you in the cracks of your life. 

Those places where you fail to measure up, where the marks of your failure are impossible to ignore; they are the places Jesus comes bearing his cross-shaped blessing. That it is for the poor in spirit, the mourning, meek and hungering and thirsting for righteousness that Jesus comes!

This promise transforms valleys into the mountain where you finally hear what Jesus has been telling you all along; that he has come to actually be your blessing! That he comes, not for those who are crushing life, but those of us who have been crushed by life. 

…You’re here on a crummy weekend. You could be anywhere else. And the temptation is always the same, isn’t it? Act like you're here because you have it all together. 

But today Jesus invites you to put that aside, and instead hear what he has to say. That he comes for you, unspiritual, unhappy, un-powerful and unrighteous though you may be!

Jesus has no seven steps to being a boss. What he offers instead is himself. Himself broken for you. Broken for you, so that when you’re broken, you would hear the One who is stands on the other side, speaking the blessing that heals the broken, sets to right the unrighteous and bridges the gap between us and God!