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upside down kingdom

Devotions: Beatitudes (3) — Practical Humility

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. — Matthew 5:5, The Message

Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865), 16th president of the United States, gave the Gettysburg Address on 11/19/1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (Gettysburg, PA). Image from http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/?sc_id=wikip. Accessed 6/28/2014.

How do you measure “greatness?” What kind of person causes you to remark, “That’s a great man or woman!”  “Meekness” is underrated and much misunderstood today. But true meekness produces amazing greatness. Take Abraham Lincoln, possibly one of the most revered Presidents this nation has ever seen. We visit his memorial in Washington, D.C. We remember his greatness every time we step onto the battlefield at Gettysburg, PA. There on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, in a little over three minutes and 272 words, Lincoln uttered probably one of the most memorable and greatest speeches ever heard. So, greatness is not based on how gifted a public speaker a person might be, or how intelligent he or she may be or how long he or she may be in front of crowds.

“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus said, indeed the most humble man that ever lived. His definition of greatness comes in sentences like this:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle ( = meek) and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

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Devotions: Beatitudes (2) — Joyful Mourning

You’re blessed that when truly broken, God gives you what you need the most. – Matthew 5:4

Mourning

This is the second of a series of nine Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has been laying down the ethics of an “upside down” kingdom in these short, pithy but profound declarations. Rather than focusing on how we feel or the way we operate our lives, or on our distinctive personalities or preferences, Jesus forces us to go much deeper and much broader at the same time. These are characteristics of the NORMAL Christian, not the special Christian, or the trained Christian, or the mature Christian, or the Christian professional. They are qualities for all who have been made, in the words of the Bible, a “new creation” in Christ Jesus, and in whom God the Holy Spirit, is producing his fruit of grace, love, joy and peace. As John Piper has well said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

Joyful mourning. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it, like the “living dead,” or “bitter sweet” or “accidentally on purpose” or “pretty ugly.” Shakespeare strings them together in the play, Romeo and Juliet – “O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!” Who are those who mourn? They are people who have a gut-level sense of anguish and sorrow. It may be over personal or corporate tragedy or disaster. It may be deep grief over both sins we commit and those sins committed outside of us that deeply touch us. “Contrition” would be the old word here. But this is sorrow without gloominess or moodiness, and seriousness without sullenness. [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (2) — Joyful Mourning

Devotions: Beatitudes — Poverty of Spirit

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. — Matthew 5:3, The Message

Our culture today believes in fame for fame’s sake.
— Actor Rob Lowe, Radio Interview, June 12, 2014.


JESUS MAFA. The Sermon on the Mount, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48284 (retrieved June 12, 2014).

Jesus in his introductory sermon gives us a new way of behaving in the kingdom of God. Rather than the kingdom of power, fame, greed, and possession, Jesus teaches an “upside down” kingdom of poverty of spirit, of practical mourning, meekness, desire for true righteousness, mercy, peacemaking, purity of heart and unjust persecution. He speaks to a largely Jewish audience, buffeted by self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, who think they have a lock on the kingdom of God. He re-imagines true and deep happiness, satisfaction that comes from a relationship with a heavenly Father, whose kingdom is surely and clearly coming. These are not eight separate and distinct descriptions for distinct groups of disciples, nor are they eight marks of a spiritually “elite” aristocracy who have it all figured out. Every Christian needs every one of these attributes all of the time. [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes — Poverty of Spirit