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...