“Blessed are YOU!”

Rev. Chelsea Simon

Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 9:00am and 10:30am

BULLETIN LISTEN NOW The-Beatitudes

Hello Friends,

As we continue in our Neighborly Resolutions series, we turn our attention to the beatitudes, which serve as Jesus’s opening statements to the Sermon on the Mount. While also found in Luke’s gospel, the Matthean version of the beatitudes is one of the most widely known and quoted sections of Scripture. Sunday school classes focus on memorizing them, companies print them on posters to sell, and many, many books have been written about them.

But while they are commonly recognized and broadly known, perhaps they are not very popular. In part, because they can be difficult to interpret. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Does Jesus want us to be in mourning? Is it really a blessing when, “people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you”? Is meekness something we should actually strive for? Does Jesus imply that we will be blessed now or later?

The message seems so counter-cultural, so radical, so Jesus. Reading through the beatitudes has left me wondering, “Did Jesus really mean that stuff?” So often Jesus taught in parables and metaphors perhaps I could manipulate my reading of these texts to mean something else…something that was not so…convicting.

But alas, after much wrestling, I have come to believe that Jesus did mean these words. I believe Jesus was pointing to a deeper truth about the ways in which society back then, viewed and treated those on the margins. I believe that Jesus’s words are just as relevant, convicting and truthful today as they were 2,000 years ago. And I believe that Jesus’s words have something meaningful to teach us about our own selves now.

I hope you will join us at 8am, 9am or 10:30am as we take a deeper dive into the beatitudes.

Peace in Christ,
Chelsea

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