This sermon is the eighth in a series entitled “Attitudes for Successful Living: The Power of the Beatitudes” Job 36:5-15 John 15:18-25 I have been struggling with this beatitude all week. “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus used the word blessed to mean fortunate or gifted. He said that those who are persecuted because of righteousness are fortunate. I think that most of have some idea of what persecution is. It has many levels, from being ignored and not taken seriously, all the way to being killed for what we believe and how we live. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Righteousness, last month I talked about righteousness and what it meant. I said that a “right“ relationship with God — righteousness — is about allowing God to be a part of our lives on all levels. It requires that we develop an open and a tender heart where God can live, not just visit when it is convenient for us. It requires a willingness to let God touch and guide everything in our lives. Righteousness lets God into our relationships with others, into our sense of self, into our possessions, our accomplishments, our desire for acceptance, our sense of purpose, our fears, our struggles, and everything else that happens for as long as we are on this earth. To be righteous is to allow God to remold, and redesign, and transform everything that we have and that we are into what he wants it and us to be. And so Jesus says that we are fortunate when we are made fun of and ridiculed for our faith and our relationship with God, because we have entered the kingdom of heaven, because we are experiencing real life and all that it is about. Is this beatitude really relevant to us? Are any of us persecuted for what we believe about God and how we live as Christians? Jesus and his disciples certainly were, and many of the early Christians experienced severe persecution for their faith. But how much persecution is there in St. Petersburg? I think that there is more persecution than we know but it is much more subtle than it was in Jesus’ time. For instance: It’s a jungle out there. It’s a dog eat dog world. Take care of yourself. Watch your step. Look out. Be careful. Have you ever noticed how we unconsciously characterize life in our world? Most often we characterize it in the negative. Most people see a significant part of life in this world as at least a little dangerous, treacherous, and scary. And consequently we know deep down inside that we have to be on our guard. So we say things to each other like, “Take care. Watch your step. It’s a jungle out there.” Now some of you are saying, wait a minute, people aren’t all that negative. Well, ask yourself, how many times do you hear someone say, “It’s a wonderful world,” or “It’s going to be a terrific day,” or “Isn’t it great to be alive?” compared with how many times you hear, “Take care. Be careful out there. Watch your step.” Here is a favorite of what I call a left-handed positive comment. It is an answer to the question, “How are you?” “If I’m not looking at grass roots, I guess I’m doing fine.” OK, but a lot of people will say, ”Have a nice day.” On a regular basis. What about that? Have you ever asked someone what they mean by that? I did, this week, and I got some interesting answers. When someone said, “Have a nice day” to me this week, I said, “Thank you, but what exactly do you mean by nice day?” The most common answer was, “I don’t know.” And several of the other answers I got I can’t repeat in church. But I did get some that were thoughtful and interesting. One young woman at a store said, “Like that you don’t get cancer or killed in a car crash or something like that.” In fact most of the thoughtful answers about what constituted a nice day involved making sure that nothing bad or tragic happened. Only one person responded in the positive. It was a cleaning lady at a hospital. She said that having a nice day meant that God’s face would be smiling on me. She was the only one who said anything spiritual. It’s interesting isn’t it? We tend to equate even the positive aspects of life as an escape from the negative and destructive. It’s a jungle out there. It is. Take a look around. Terrorism, war, violence, child abuse, murder, greed, corruption – do I need to go on? Be careful, watch your step, look out. It’s just the way life is. It’s normal to be on guard and watch out for all of the bad stuff that can happen. Isn’t it? It is said that except for India, Americans are the most religious people on the planet. Nine Americans in 10 say that they have never doubted the existence of God. Eight in 10 say that they believe that God still works miracles in people’s lives, and that prayer to God is a significant part of their daily lives. My guess is that the great majority of us sitting here this morning believe the very same things and more about God. But, does our belief in God have anything to do with the way we live out our daily lives in this world? Does what we say we believe about the power and presence of God really impact the way that we live? An article by Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow argues that for the great majority of people in this country, belief in God has nothing to do with daily life. He says that for the most part “we go about our lives in pretty much the same way as people who have no faith at all.” I guess I’d have to call that “functional atheism” – that is living without any need to take God’s presence into account in the decisions and activities of our daily lives. Wait a minute, did he just call me an atheist? Maybe. It sounds pretty harsh, but it is understandable. We live in a culture where our major source of information about life maximizes our fears and anxieties, and belittles and scoffs at any hope in God or spiritual faith. We live in a culture that praises and encourages personal strength and autonomy, and warns against dependence on anything or anyone outside of ourselves. So maybe we could say that believers in our world experience a subtle form of cultural persecution and maybe we just live in a jaded and cynical world. But either way it is understandable that many people in our culture will say that God is real, but irrelevant to daily life. For many who say they believe, God is simply like a kind old gentleman that they will visit occasionally, but never take very seriously. In this world functional atheism is understandable. But it is enough for happy and fulfilling life. But we don’t have to live that way. We don’t have to let the way we go about our daily lives be governed by fear and anxiety about what might happen, or about what we have or have not accomplished or obtained. We don’t have to let what happens out there, mold what happens in here (point to heart)? It may be a jungle out there. It may be true that no matter how much we try to make life secure there will always be the possibility for a disaster, a tragedy, an awful accident, or something that will make us fearful. But life doesn’t have to be simply about fear and security. Making our lives secure is not why we are here. I heard a story about a salesman who bought an old used car and after about two weeks the only way that he could start it was to push it off. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. Every morning he got his wife and children to push the car off so that he could make his sales rounds for that day. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years. He finally decided to sell the car and as a potential buyer was looking at it, the salesman explained to him about how to start it and keep it running. The buyer popped open the hood and said to the salesman, “It looks like your only problem is this loose battery cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, turned the key, and to the salesman’s astonishment, the engine roared to life. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept the salesman from putting that power to work. I think that a lot of us have the same problem, not with our cars but with our lives. We go through a great deal of trouble trying to be happy and fulfilled but we miss what life is all about because of a loose connection with the source. We are on this earth to experience a life-long, loving, and giving relationship with God and with each other. That is the connection, that is our purpose in life. I wonder how many people just shut down when I said that. “A loving and giving relationship with God and each other” – it sounds so otherworldly, so lifted above the jungle out there, so unreal. But a loving and giving relationship with God is real. It is as real as a sunrise. It is as real as a baby’s smile. It’s as real as the overwhelming feeling that comes at the experience of great beauty in art or music. It is as real as falling in love. You see, we live in a world that says that sunrises, and babies’ smiles, and beauty, and falling in love, are good and desirable things, but that they aren’t necessary. Our world says that if they happen to you, you’re lucky, or maybe even blessed. But don’t expect them. Because it’s a jungle out there and what you can expect is the bad stuff and whatever good stuff you can get for yourself. Our culture says that this love God and each other business is a nice idea, but that as a life style it is pretty silly and naive. Now, whether we like to hear it or not, that way of thinking is atheistic. You cannot believe in a real and loving God and think that way. What would people think of us if we took all of this God business seriously? We say that we believe that God is real and active in our lives. But what if we acted like we believed in the power of God as strongly as we believe in the power of money? We say that God is powerful and trustworthy. But what if we acted like we believed in the power of God as much as we believe in the power of military force? We say we believe that God loves us and wants what is best and most loving for us. But what if we acted like we believed that what God wants for us is more of a priority than what we want for ourselves? What if we stopped and prayed before we made any business decision, or we saw every person in the world, even our enemies, as children of God, or we took seriously what Jesus would do before we acted in any way? I don’t think that would go over well with a lot of people that I know, even those who say that they believe in God. I think that we would be considered more than just a little odd and out of step with most of our culture. But then Jesus and his disciples were considered more than just a little odd and out of step with their culture. In one of the ancient books the story is told of the three demons who stole the key to the meaning of life and sought to hide it from people. One of the demons said, “We will hide it in the depths of the sea. And another said, “No, that place is too obvious; people will find it there.” The second demon said, “We will hide it on top of the highest mountain.” And another said, “No, people are persistent, they will find it there.” Suddenly the third demon cried excitedly, “I have it, we will hide the key within the heart of each person on earth, and tell them that the key is hidden somewhere in the world. None of them will ever think to look for it inside themselves.” All agreed that was the perfect place, so they put the key within the heart of each person on earth and told them that it was hidden somewhere in the world. And since that time very few people ever look for the meaning of life deep within themselves and their relationship with God and each other. Most of them look everywhere else and never really find much of anything. It’s a jungle out there. “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I guess the question for us is whether or not we want to live in the jungle or in the kingdom of God. They are both the same place on the outside, but they are very different on the inside. Let us pray. |