Salvogesis

  Matthew 5:10-16: “blessed, [peaceful and saved] are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; blessed, [peaceful and saved] are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the Kingdom of Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You [as you stand up under persecution] are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You [as you stand up under persecution] are the light of the world, a city built on a hill [that] cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others [even as you are persecuted], so that they may see your good works an...

  Blessed, saved, and peaceful too are those who make peace for they will be called children of God. We who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven will defuse conflict rather than contribute to it. This is corporate as much as individual. I still remember the day that Canada’s armed forces turned from an army of peacekeepers to an army of war-makers. I had a contract at CFB Esquimalt when Canada invaded Yugoslavia. I spoke with some of our service people headed overseas who until that point had spent their whole military careers standing between warring factions, protecting civilians; now they were ordered to be prepared to kill civilians as collateral damage as necessary in an illegal, internationally condemned war. It tore at the minds and hearts of many of these soldiers. On the other side of this is The Salvation Army in Swift Current (and elsewhere): We facilitate peace through restorative justice in that community by – among other things – the Alternative Measures program. In this p...

  Blessed, peaceful and saved are the pure of heart for they will see God. Pure of heart “denotes one who loves God with all his heart (Deut. 6:5), with an undivided loyalty, and whose inward nature corresponds with his outward profession” (cf. Isa. 29:13).Those of us who love God with all of our heart will see Him and experience Him in our life. This is what it is like to be a Christian. www.sheepspeak.com www.facebook.com/salvogesis

  Always accompanying true justice is mercy (cf. 5:38-48, 6:14-157:1-5,12). You really cannot have one without the other; therefore blessed, peaceful and saved are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Jesus says in this sermon, ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ (7:12). In God’s Kingdom - which is within and amongst those of us who are really the Church - in the Kingdom of Heaven, we need not fear retribution from one another as we confess our sins and as we love our enemies because we will forgive and be forgiven; blessed, peaceful and saved are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. www.sheepspeak.com www.facebook.com/salvogesis

  Blessed, peaceful and saved are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. The word righteousness in this context includes the concept of justice. It speaks to those who long for wrongs to be made right and for those who cry out for salvation from the injustices of our current socio-economic-political structures. I studied Restorative Justice through Simon Fraser University. Did you know that in the US, our closest neighbour in more ways than just geography, one in three 'African-American' men has been disenfranchised; 1/3 of all 'Black' American males have been locked in jail at least once? This is just one symptom of the myriad racial injustices south of the line. No wonder there have been race riots for long periods of time. We also have injustices here, racial, other and especially economic discrimination. Jesus says that those of us who stand against injustice and those of us who stand for His righteousness will be filled. We will be s...

The next group Jesus’ says are blessed, peaceful, and saved are those who mourn. Jesus says we will be comforted. This is speaking about all those who are suffering in our world today and there are many.[4] That Christianity is about comfort shouldn’t be a surprise to us. Of Course, when congregation members are Promoted to Glory I am often blessed to be able to be with their family, grieve alongside them, offering whatever comfort I can. And I am often reminded around Christmas time of the power of God to comfort those who mourn. I often receive Christmas cards, emails, and comments from people whose relatives’ funerals I have officiated telling me how much they have appreciated the comfort received during the memorial and how they draw on the Lord’s comfort now at Christmas time, in the absence of their loved ones. Of course this is a blessing from the Lord, for there is no comfort that I can possibly offer apart from Him. In the Kingdom, blessed, peaceful, and saved are those who mo...

  So then who are these poor in spirit and why are they blessed, saved, and peaceful as they inherit the kingdom of heaven? ‘Poor in spirit’ in a unique phrase. It is not as straightforward as Luke’s ‘blessed are the poor’; it does include those who are monetarily poor but it also includes those who are otherwise not self-reliant. It may refer to anyone who realizes that they cannot make it by themselves; those who inherit the kingdom of heaven as the ‘poor in spirit’ would be the opposite of the ‘me generation’; the poor in spirit are those who realize that they are not independent financially, socially, emotionally… Jesus is saying that those of us who do not buy into the cult of the individual but rather lean on Him, we are the ones who are blessed, saved, and peaceful as we inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed, peaceful and saved also are the meek for they will inherit the earth. Meek is very much a synonym for the ‘poor in spirit’; meek people ...

Jesus’ opening to the Sermon on the Mount speaks about the blessings of serving God and it is often referred to as the beatitudes: the word ‘beatitude’ comes from the Latin word for blessing.[1] These blessings -and indeed this whole sermon- speak about what it is like to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now by ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, we don’t mean what it will be like ‘when you go to heaven’ because this passage speaks very clearly that these blessing occur here on earth. It says the meek will inherit the earth (v. 5) and further on in this sermon Jesus speaks about marriage, adultery, an end to divorce… and –of course- Matthew tells us, as recorded in Chapter 22 of this Gospel, that there is no marriage, let alone divorce, remarriage and adultery in heaven (Matthew 22:23-30, Mark 12:24-26, Luke 20:34-36). This whole sermon speaks to what life is like when we are citizens of God’s Kingdom living here on the equivalent of a divine work visa so to speak or more accurately, as a fifth...

I remember being taught a card game once involving spoons. I am not entirely sure of all the rules now because I only have played it once many years ago. The basic idea is that there are a number of spoons put in the middle of a circle of people playing cards, one less spoon than the number of people playing. You then pass cards around the circle to each other until someone notices they have four-of-kind. Once someone has four-of-kind, one subtly grabs a spoon. Then everyone, once they notice the spoons are disappearing, tries to grab a spoon. The last one to notice that the spoons are going, the last one to grab a spoon loses. You play this game, eliminating one person each time, until only one person is left. (S)he is the winner. Of course it is easiest if you are the one who has the four-of-kind because then you can grab the first spoon and thus not be eliminated. The one time I played, I was blessed to be one of the last two people in the game. We need one person to have four-of-ki...

  Image 4 of 5: Palm branches: John tells us also that the people lining the streets aren’t just yelling, ‘save us king’. This is important.  They are waving palm branches. Today is Palm Sunday. Can anyone tell me the significance of palm leaves at this time and place? The palm branches are important.  What do the Palm branches represent? They didn’t just pick up palm branches because palm branches happen to be near-by; they pick up the palm branches because palm branches are a nationalistic symbol (cf. 1 Maccabees 13:51, 2 Macabbees 10:7; cf. also Leviticus 23:40, Psalm 92:12, Matthew 21:8; Mark 11:8). Recently in Canada our National Flag was lowered for months and it looked like it may never rise again. Later it was used in a massive protest on Parliament Hill. These are significant. The use of the palm branches in our text is even more significant. It would be like if Canada was going to seek independence from the US or someone else and we were waving maple leaves or f...

Our third image to consider today is that of the crowds shouting. Verse 13, John records, ‘They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” This is significant stuff. We sing ‘Hosanna’ in a lot of songs. We always mention ‘Hosanna’ at Palm Sunday. ‘Hosanna’ is what they are shouting as Jesus is riding into the capital of occupied Judea right under the noses of the Romans even as their collaborators, the Jewish religious leaders, have already put a plan into motion to kill Jesus. Do we know what Hosanna means (Verse 13; cf. Psalm 118:25-26)? Hosanna means ‘O Save!’, ‘Salvation!’, ‘Save us!’  Jesus is triumphantly entering the historic capital of Judah – which is occupied by the Romans and people are saying, ‘Jesus! You are our king! You –like all kings are supposed to – you come here in the Name of the Lord! Jesus, you – not Caesar, not the Romans, not the chief priests, not the ric...

The second of our five images for of Palm Sunday: What city is Jesus riding into? Jesus is entering Jerusalem. What is the significance of Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the historic capital of Judah and Israel? Susan the kids and I went to Ottawa for Canada's 150th anniversary. One would expect a lot of patriotism in any capital city on a day of national celebration. Now Jerusalem, in our text today, is part of the occupied territories. The Romans, the Superpower of the time, have troops in the city and they control the government. To some extent they even appoint the religious leaders in Jerusalem (cf. John 18). And like all superpowers they don’t tend to like rebellion and they know that if there is to be a rebellion by the Jewish people it would probably happen here in Jerusalem – their ancient capital city – and it would probably happen now during Passover, when the population of Jerusalem overflows with so many people descending upon the city. Jerusalem is the ancient capital city o...

Palm Sunday is a significant day in the Christian Church. Any of us who have grown up in the church or who have been going to church for a few years have inevitably been to a few Palm Sunday services. Do we know what the big deal is about Palm Sunday? John in his gospel does a great job of telling us the meaning of Palm Sunday in his record of the triumphal entry. He uses a lot of symbolism – not unlike Shakespeare in ‘Julius Caesar’. This week we are going to pull out five pieces of that imagery and then put it back together for a full picture of what Palm Sunday looks like in our life today. In this entry we are going to look at Triumphal Entry and Jerusalem. First, let’s re-read John 12:12-19: The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sa...