Salvogesis

The Beatitudes, which we are looking at today, is Jesus’ introduction to his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon He tells us that we are now citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and, as such, we will interact with the world in a whole new way, even while we are still living and working in Canada or wherever we happen to be.   The word ‘beatitude’ comes from the Latin word for blessing which makes sense since each line of the beatitudes begins with, ‘blessed is so and so…” Now, of course, the word ‘blessed’ can mean ‘happy’, ‘at peace’, ‘experiencing well-being’ or even ‘saved’. This is what is available to us even here and now as Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.   This is important: By ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, we don’t mean what it will be like ‘when you die and go to heaven’; 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 marria...

I can remember when I was in my late teens: I was a janitor. I worked in a lot of high security buildings and so I needed a high security rating. One of the reasons I needed the extra special RCMP clearance was because one of the buildings I was asked to cover when regular janitor was away was the CSIS building   When I first had my RCMP clearance done, it was quite something. I was just a teenager and in my interview they asked me what I did twenty years ago, I responded ‘nothing’ – ‘I’m only 18. I thought it was funny – the police officer interviewing me didn’t. They asked me how come I haven’t held a job for 5 years or more – I reminded them that I am only 18 and smiled – they didn’t. This interview went on for an hour or so and then they fingerprinted me and also interviewed two of my friends for character  references , one by telephone and one in person. In speaking with them afterwards, it was really quite an in-depth interview and because of this I really began to have ...