LutheranLectionary.org

Reflections on Scripture with Dr. Leins

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:03	hello
0:05	today let’s talk about the Beatitudes
0:09	the Beatitudes are nine sayings at the
0:13	beginning of the Sermon on the Mount
0:15	they’re found in chapter 5 of Matthew’s
0:18	gospel
0:19	and they begin with the blessings
0:23	blessed are the poor in spirit for
0:26	example
0:26	for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
0:28	Jesus gives nine blessings
0:32	and it tells us about
0:34	what that blessing might include
0:37	and as you read them you’ll probably be
0:39	wondering if you’re blessed
0:41	or wondering how can I become blessed
0:44	because I’d like to become one who
0:47	receives the Kingdom of Heaven I’d like
0:49	to receive God’s blessings so that I’m
0:51	comforted or that I would inherit the
0:53	Earth or that I would be satisfied what
0:57	must I do to be blessed
1:00	and truthfully though that’s a natural
1:02	reaction it’s just the opposite of what
1:04	Jesus is saying what Jesus is saying is
1:07	so foreign to us is not only in a
1:09	foreign language but it’s foreign
1:11	thinking to us
1:12	and to kind of get on board with what
1:14	Jesus is teaching I’d like to S to tell
1:18	you a story of something that happened
1:20	to me that was foreign to me happened in
1:22	a foreign land
1:24	it was 1989 or 1990 and I was traveling
1:28	in Nicaragua and El Salvador
1:32	I was in perhaps one of the first groups
1:35	of North Americans to go into El
1:38	Salvador after the murder of six Jesuit
1:40	priests and their housekeeper and her
1:43	daughter
1:44	it happened at the Catholic University
1:46	in San Salvador
1:48	and I arrived there and met the
1:51	president of the University John sabrino
1:53	a Catholic priest and theologian
1:56	now sabrino and I had surely several
1:59	differences when it came to theology but
2:02	Sabrina said something to me that I will
2:04	not ever forget I think
2:06	he said that there is a privilege that
2:09	belongs to the poor
2:12	why is that I said
2:14	because the poor the desperate poor the
2:18	beggarly poor
2:20	they have no hope except God
2:25	I have thought about that quite a bit
2:29	before I met sabrino I was visiting a
2:34	base Christian Community that’s a
2:36	community of people who live at the very
2:38	base subsistence level
2:41	of life
2:42	they are
2:45	typically without
2:46	food or water that’s reliable they might
2:49	have very little food in the water is
2:51	typically not potable they don’t have
2:53	medicine they don’t have clothing they
2:55	don’t have jobs
2:57	um I had visited with a group of people
2:59	who lived in the right-of-way of a
3:03	railroad track
3:04	they they lived six feet from the track
3:07	on either side
3:09	their Community consisted of emaciated
3:11	dogs naked children
3:13	and uh mostly women and babies
3:18	after I left sabrino I visited another
3:20	group of
3:21	the community of
3:26	the base Christian Community
3:29	this basic subsistence level
3:32	group of Christians
3:34	and they lived on an uninhabitable piece
3:37	of land
3:38	about 1200 people and
3:42	um
3:43	I remember children with dirty faces and
3:45	dirty hands
3:46	and little or no clothing some had none
3:49	and some had a scrap of dirty clothes to
3:52	cover themselves and I watched as a
3:55	woman took a small smooth Stone and
3:59	ground corn and out of that she she made
4:02	a Patty and she put it on a small scrap
4:07	of aluminum that was on an open fire
4:09	aluminum aluminum looked black
4:13	um
4:14	but it was scalding hot so I I guess it
4:17	it was clean
4:19	um she knew exactly when to turn it I
4:21	marveled
4:22	and before long she handed me a plate of
4:24	food that had this
4:27	Patty of
4:29	corn meal it had
4:33	um a scrap of beans and a small tiny
4:37	portion of rice and 1200 people watched
4:40	me eat it
4:41	this plate of food that would have fed a
4:45	family for two days
4:49	I’ve thought about those people
4:53	and then about the Beatitudes that Jesus
4:57	used as the introduction to his Sermon
4:59	on the Mount these are the words that
5:01	set the the
5:03	Pace set the scene the foundation for
5:05	the entirety of his sermon
5:08	and he says blessed are the poor and
5:11	there were several words he could have
5:13	chosen in Greek there are several words
5:15	for poor but the word chosen here is
5:17	patokoi and it means the poorest of the
5:20	poor the most desperate beggarly poor
5:23	blessed are the poor and now Jesus turns
5:26	a phrase and makes our heads spin
5:27	blessed are the poor in spirit
5:31	who are the poor in spirit
5:34	and you are blessed if you understand
5:35	that you are poor in spirit I am poor in
5:40	spirit the poor the beggarly poor have
5:43	nothing to offer God
5:45	he he sees us not just the exterior but
5:48	the interior he sees right into the
5:50	insides of who we are our selfishness
5:53	and our sin sickness we are beggarly
5:56	poor such that the only hope that we
5:59	have is not that we could earn or Merit
6:01	our way into heaven but that God would
6:04	come and and wash our filthiness and and
6:07	somehow medicate our sickness and
6:10	somehow cover our nakedness and that God
6:13	would change our situation
6:16	so Jesus says blessed are the poor in
6:20	spirit
6:21	for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and
6:23	that’s his point
6:25	when Jesus comes it means that God is
6:27	broken into the world he’s broken into
6:29	our lives
6:31	to change
6:32	the spiritually poor
6:35	and he goes on to say and blessed are
6:37	those who hunger and thirst and they are
6:39	the word
6:40	is once again
6:43	not just people who have missed a meal
6:45	but people who don’t have enough food
6:49	so that they would have nutrition to
6:51	sustain life
6:53	they’re choosing which child will eat
6:55	today
6:57	blessed are those who are so hungry and
6:59	thirsty that they are so for
7:01	righteousness
7:03	you’re blessed when you’re sick and
7:05	tired of being sinful and dirty
7:08	and Jesus says when that happens
7:11	how blessed you are
7:13	for you will be satisfied
7:15	Christ Jesus is promising
7:18	indeed his life is the Fulfillment of
7:21	the promise
7:22	that God has broken into your life
7:24	and if you know yourself to be naked and
7:27	poor and dirty with distended belly of
7:31	sin sickness and if you know yourself to
7:33	be sick of being unrighteous and
7:36	Desiring to be righteous before God and
7:38	knowing that your only hope is that God
7:42	would do for you what you cannot do for
7:44	yourself
7:45	then says Jesus
7:48	the Kingdom of Heaven is broken into
7:49	your life and you are blessed
7:54	you cannot earn this gift
7:57	it’s a free one given by Jesus Christ he
8:00	is rich
8:02	but he demonstrates his riches in such a
8:04	strange way
8:05	nailed to a cross He blesses those who
8:08	put him there
8:09	Sanhedrin
8:12	Roman soldiers
8:14	forgive them Father he says how he loves
8:18	those
8:19	children
8:21	with dirty faces
8:24	they need the Waters of baptism for
8:27	washing
8:29	clean their insides as well as their
8:30	outside they need the gift of the Holy
8:33	meal
8:34	the Lord’s Supper
8:36	to feed
8:38	their starving Souls
8:41	they need the robe of righteousness that
8:43	comes by grace through faith in Jesus
8:46	so beloved
8:48	if today
8:50	you are poor in spirit
8:53	and hungry for righteousness
8:56	Jesus Christ says a word for you
9:00	you are indeed blessed
9:03	in the Kingdom of Heaven is yours
9:07	amen