ya know you can't lose a fight

if you take cover or abandon it

A sermon on Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount:

Here you are, doing your best to keep your spiritual house in order. 

And let me say this is no small thing! Being here this morning makes you a rare bird, indeed. Plus, it’s not like you’re here because you’ve got nothing else to do. Is it? No, we’ve all got a lot on our plates. Too much, in fact. 

But, despite all the hindrances, here you are. And for all that, Christ sallies up the great mountain and delivers the most consequential sermon in all human history. And he tells you, NOT good on you. And he tells you, NOT keep at it. No, he tells you, in effect, don’t bother!

Don’t bother?!? I mean, here you are, defying odds and the obstacles, and Jesus just shrugs! He climbs the mountain, parts his lips, and pronounces his blessings. Pronounces his blessings not upon the prayer warriors but rather the prayer weary. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus declares. The poor in spirit. NOT powerful in spirit. Not even those on the path to power in the spirit. 

No, Jesus just stands up and pronounces HIS blessings upon the poor in spirit. In other words, the dispirited. In other words, those whose spiritual life is decidedly not in order. Or, for that matter, nonexistent.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus says…

Today is our Annual Meeting. And the temptation is to treat this day as an occasion to measure our progress and recommit ourselves to making a little headway. Isn’t it? The most natural impulse for us is to read the report as a diagnosis of the previous year or a plan for the upcoming one.

And believe me, I put all sorts of pressure on the council to treat the meeting as such! Didn’t I?

And sure, there are parts in the Annual Report where you can spot that sort of thing. There’s the budget and attendance assessment. But even in those places, there are off notes to that glory story!

For instance, there’s the roll call for the saints who have been called home this past year. And, believe it or not, this dissonance even rings in something like the record of confirmations. 

Confirmation is not these adolescents passing some church test. Although, believe me, it can be testing! And confirmation isn’t even celebrating these catechumens deciding to stick it out. Although we ought to celebrate because the fact God is still calling these confirmands is a joyous thing! Especially since I’m sure, for them, it did feel like something they had to get through a time or two. 

Be that as it may, though, confirmation isn’t any of that. No, confirmation is a reaffirmation of the vows made at baptism. And baptism isn’t an initiation into Christian development. It’s initiation into death. 

Christ’s death, to be specific. But death nonetheless.

Baptism isn’t empowerment for victory. No, it’s recruitment into defeat. As Jesus’ final beatitude makes abundantly clear, the mark of a disciple isn’t perfection. It’s persecution…

It’s easy to read the beatitudes as a recipe for Christian living. Isn’t it? But I’ve got to ask, how’s that working out?!? Because the beatitudes absolutely will not work as an instruction manual! 

And if you don’t believe me—well, phooey on you! But if you don’t believe me, by all means, go ahead and try!

Try to MAKE yourself poor in spirit! Or try and gin up a little grief! Try and drain yourself of confidence until you’re actually meek. Or try and stoke up an appetite for all the righteousness you lack!

…Well? C’mon! I’m waiting.

It doesn’t work like that. Does it? Either you’re mourning, or you’re not. And if you’re not all torn up, you can’t decide to be, either! Can you?

Isn’t that what makes grief so hard? That you’re NOT choosing to be sad. That you just are sad. 

And the same goes for the rest of the beatitudes, too! You don’t choose to be dispirited, diffident, or deprived. You just are! You just are, despite all your attempts to be otherwise.

After all, what else could a hunger and a thirst for righteousness mean except a desire for something you lack! You’re not hungry after you just ate. Are you? No, you’re hungry when you don’t have enough food to satisfy your hunger. The only people who actually hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who don’t have any of their own—or at least not enough to get by.

Understand this, Jesus isn’t blessing people with good attitudes. No, he’s blessing people in bad situations! Jesus isn’t consecrating virtues. He’s sanctifying the void! 

And that means if your spiritual tank is empty, you’re just the kind of person Jesus loves to bless!

And that’s not all, either! Because here’s more Good News: Jesus is here to stir your appetite and pique your thirst, too! If you’ve been going along happily oblivious, Jesus is here to clue you in to just how dire your straights are. As Luther observed, if you’re not poor in spirit by the time Jesus begins this sermon, you will be by the time he’s done. 

Here, try this: Jesus said, “blessed are the merciful.” So, go ahead and consider just how compassionate YOU’VE been lately. Have you been totally forgiving and accepting of everyone who crossed your path? No exceptions? 

Or what about purity of heart? Have YOU solely desired those things that make for godliness? How about peacemaking? Have you been serene and irenic in all your encounters? How about that scam caller? Were you gracious and kind to them? 

I presume the answer to all these questions is no. But just in case any of us are so dehydrated that we can no longer tell just how thirsty we are, let me ask about your righteousness.

Is your house as in order as that of the fastidious Pharisees or the professionally religious scribes? Because if you’re not more righteous than them, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. At least, according to Jesus…

Hmmm. Perhaps our spirits are a little more impoverished than we thought. Aren’t they? 

Well, that’s good! Hear THIS loud and clear: Jesus blesses ONLY the poor in spirit! According to Jesus, ONLY those whose spiritual lives are so shabby as to be nonexistent belong in the kingdom of heaven!

It’s not your accomplishments that get you into heaven. No, it’s your lack of them! Because it’s only those who don’t have any righteousness of their own who really CRAVE the righteousness the king of heaven has to give! And believe me, Christ is more than ready to hand over his goods!

You want a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees? Ok. TAKE Christ’s! 

Of course, you’ll never have even the slightest appetite for that until you sense just how paltry YOUR own righteousness is! Won’t you? Now that you do, though, you finally have a hankering for it! Don’t you?

Well, well and good, faithful disciple! Well and good because Christ is eager to hand over his goods! In fact, he’s already done it! He did this at the beginning of this service when, on account of his name, your sins were forgiven! 

Christ is even doing this right now! Christ is giving you HIS righteousness in the smorgasbord of these words! Christ is, at this very moment, riding the breath of the Holy Spirit to get his word made flesh INTO you!

Christ will do this all over again, too! Christ will fill you with himself when he invites you to this table! And there, he will pour out the riches of his mercy upon the poverty of your spirit! At this table, Christ breaks his body and pours out his blood to FEED you with himself and all his righteousness, too!

And Christ doesn’t do this because you’ve got it all together. NO, quite the contrary. He’s doing so because it’s all come apart! CHRIST is the one in whom all things come together. ESPECIALLY all that which is broken. 

Jesus pours the riches of his mercies to the poor in spirit and no one else! So if that’s you, and who among us isn’t, then lift up your head! Lift up your head, for your salvation himself draws near!

Today, Christ blows in on the breath of the Holy Spirit. And he flies directly into the mess of your life! And he doesn’t come to put things in order, either! NO, he comes to gather up all the debris and into his one great mount. 

Today, Christ climbs the rubble of your life! And there, he sits down, parts his lips, and blesses YOU! 

You whose spiritual life is in a shambles. You whose heart is heavy. You who have been laid low by life. You who are starving for deliverance. 

You. 

You who are barely holding it together. You who know what it’s like to stand on the wrong side of life. You who have learned to look at your feet after one too many hard knocks. You who don’t have what it takes. 

You. Blessed are you. In the name of Jesus Christ, blessed are you. 

Blessed are you because Jesus Christ draws closest to you when you feel furthest from God. Blessed are you because Jesus Christ gives you all his blessings when you feel most godforsaken. Blessed are you because Jesus Christ is using the worst of it to give you the best of himself.

Blessed, blessed are you. Blessed are you right now. Blessed are you right here. Blessed. Blessed are you. You.