Giving Words
Gate Pa – 4th Sunday
in Ordinary Time- Year A – 2023
Readings:Psalm - Psalm: 84
As we end Epiphany-Christmas with its focus on light and revelation, we are given the beatitudes. Jesus gives words to what he is already and will continue doing. He is living the empire of Heaven and inviting his disciples to join him.
What I want to happen:
What invitation is in this?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:This Sunday often offers us some options around themes and readings.
It is the fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
We have mostly listened to the readings for that Sunday.
This coming Thursday (February 2) when we celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the temple which we heard about as our second reading.
This day is more commonly known as Candlemas – the day the candles for the coming year are blessed.
Candles are about light and seeing – in every way we can understand that?
For some this celebration marks the end of the 40 days of the Christmas-Epiphany season.
This is this season is about the revelation of God in Jesus the messiah and how people respond to that.
We heard the Christmas story, God comes among us in the baby born in a stable in a small poor town
Epiphany - the coming of the Magi and Jesus being revealed to the Gentiles.
We also heard about Jesus’ baptism where he is revealed to be God’s Son.
And we heard about the beginnings of his ministry.
In each reading we hear more about who Jesus is, and through that who God is.
In Matthew he is the new Moses brining in the Empire of Heaven – living out God’s loving justice.
Each Sunday we are invited to see more
In a sense the candles grow brighter
And we are invited to wrap our minds around all this and more
We need to take time to listen to them
To see with them
Allow them to reveal God in Jesus.
Let’s hear that story again
Where his Identity is sorely tested
He hears of John baptiser’s arrest
And responds by returning to Galilee
To a small fishing town on Sea of Galilee
Capernaum
Where he teaches and heals
Crowds come to him
Poor people
Sick people
Ground down
By poverty brutally imposed by their imperial overlords
Breaking their backs trying to survive
Invisible
Broken
Crushed by Rome’s empire.
Mourning the deaths of children and family members
Mourning their lives
Longing for another way.
Jesus brings healing and hope in his actions and his words.
Eventually he calls some people who have been listening to him
engaged with him
fisherman and others
He invites them to give away all they are
To let go of who they are
Their family
Their place in their community
Those relationships and roles that sustained and defined
He invites them to follow
To a new identity
To be his disciples
This new rabbi
And some follow.
After a short while he gathers them
Overlooking their world
All they had known of life
With its grief and despair
Violence always lurking on the edge
Poverty defining each day
The constant demand of upholding honour
Surviving Rome
Paying the masters
Living
Jesus looks around
At his new disciples
And those others who saw them go
Who tagged along to listen in
I invite you to join them on that hill
Listening in
Where are you in this picture?
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Gesturing at this world
Gesturing at the place he has taught and healed
He gives words to his deeds
And says
Imagine a world where these are most important people
The poor
The broken
Those who have lost hope
How different would this world be?
Can you imagine a world where we look up to those who mourn,
Or where people aspire to be like the meek.
That is what the empire of heaven looks like
I long for people to join me in honouring those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
and where all have enough to thrive
and hunger and fear are no more.
Imagine a world where the pure in heart receive greatest honour.
Or where children grow up aspiring to be numbered among the peacemakers,
True peace based on God’s desires for all
Not Rome’s peace based on legions.
For the sake of all you see out there
All who are listening
All who have come for healing and hope
Hold in the greatest honour those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I say to you, "Blessed 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 reign of God,
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Look around
How are people reacting
Can you imagine
Some are stunned
These brand spanking new disciples
This is not what they were expecting
They cannot believe their ears.
What would it mean to live this.
What would it mean in this country if we started with these?
4. Election year
This year is an election year
How do we use beatitudes and the sermon on the Mount to shape what we aspire for our country
How does it help us name the issues and look for ways forward.
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