The Upside-Down Kingdom or an Upright Moralism? A Review of a Sermon on the Beatitudes

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] Lord, open our lips. Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
[00:11:54] Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:05] name, through Christ our Lord. Let us now join together in our prayer of

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:15:24] confession. Let us pray. Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will. We have broken your law. We have rebelled against your love. We
[00:15:44] have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:15:50] us we pray free us for joyful obedience through jesus christ our lord amen hear the good news

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:16:55] christ died for us while we were yet sinners that proves god's love toward us in the name of jesus christ you are forgiven glory to god amen brothers and sisters in christ through the sacrament of
[00:17:15] baptism, we are initiated into Christ's holy church. We're incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift offered to us without price. This morning, we present Andrew Nicholas Dannenfelser for
[00:17:37] the sacrament of baptism.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:17:39] Andrew Dannenfelser, Sr.: Timothy and Catherine, on behalf of the whole church, I ask you, Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
[00:18:02] If so, say, I do.
[00:18:04] Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?
[00:18:10] If so, say, I do.
[00:18:13] Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the church, which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?
[00:18:24] If so, say, I do.
[00:18:25] Will you nurture Andrew in Christ's holy church that by your teaching and example he may be guided to accept God's grace for himself, profess his faith openly, and lead a Christian life? If so, say we will. And to you, Christ's body, the church, do you reaffirm both your rejection of sin
[00:18:43] and your commitment to Christ to nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and to include Andrew in your care? If so, say we will. Will you pray for him and surround him with a
[00:18:55] community of love and forgiveness, that he will grow in his trust of God and be found faithful in his service to others, that he may be a true disciple who walks in the way that leads to life.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:19:05] If so, say, we will. The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Eternal Father, when nothing existed but chaos, you swept across the dark waters and brought forth light. In the days of Noah, you saved those
[00:19:25] on the ark through water, and after the flood, you sat in the clouds a rainbow. When you saw your people as slaves in Egypt, you led them to freedom in the sea. Their children you brought
[00:19:37] through the Jordan to the land that you promised. In the fullness of time, you sent Jesus, nurtured in the water of a womb. He was baptized by John and anointed by your Spirit. He called his disciples
[00:19:50] to share in the baptism of his death and resurrection, and to make disciples of all nations.
[00:19:57] Pour out your Holy Spirit to bless this gift of water and he who receives it, to wash away his sin and clothe him in righteousness throughout his life, that dying and being raised with Christ,
[00:20:10] he may share in Christ's final victory.
[00:20:13] Amen.
[00:20:31] Andrew and Nicholas, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:35] the holy spirit work within you that being born of water in the spirit you may be a faithful disciple of jesus christ amen friends uh meet your newest brother in christ andrew nicholas he uh of course is raised by his mom and dad who do the day-to-day work
[00:20:59] but we've committed to help him grow in his faith to pray for him to pray for them to encourage him, to teach him, to live the faith before him, that he might be a faithful disciple
[00:21:10] who lives out his baptism and makes an impact in the world in the name of Christ. Will you sing

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:21:15] together as we greet him? Please stand as you are able. Today's scripture reading is from the

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:46] gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5, beginning with the first verse. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
[00:22:59] Then he began to speak and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who won't mourn, for they will be comforted.
[00:23:12] Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for
[00:23:32] they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revel you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward
[00:23:53] is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you this is the gospel of our lord praise to you oh christ good morning it's good to see you and to

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:24:19] be together after um an unexpected break so glad to to like lay eyes on your actual faces and not see each other on a screen.
[00:24:34] We sat in a circle that day, just a handful of us, maybe 10 or 12.
[00:24:41] I was at the community shelter kitchen where a couple of times a month I did a midday prayer service for the folks who came to take advantage of the resources there.
[00:24:54] And I remember thinking in that moment, in that circle, because we had talked about this morning's scripture reading.
[00:25:04] I remember thinking, you know, by all the measures that we normally use, in that particular circle, I was the one who was blessed.
[00:25:13] I had an education. I had a job.
[00:25:16] I had family support.
[00:25:19] I had a comfortable home, a retirement account.
[00:25:23] All the things that we often think of when we describe ourselves as being blessed.
[00:25:30] and the others were mostly homeless folks living on the margins of a society who often judged them for their lack of success we made our way around the circle as we usually did at the end we joined
[00:25:47] hands and we were each offering a word that had meant something to us from the passage that day or we were offering a a simple prayer and we came to um the the woman sitting closest to me
[00:26:00] um who um had almost nothing like she she carried um this is not an exaggeration she carried her entire world in a small little duffel on her back um and when it was her turn she simply prayed
[00:26:22] God thank you for the blood that is running through my veins that was it that was her prayer thank you for the blood running through my veins Richard Rohr often teaches that we spend the first
[00:26:39] half of our life building a successful container career reputation security but the gospel isn't about the container it's about the contents about what we fill our lives with Jesus didn't say blessed are those who have their act together or blessed are those who've got it all figured out
[00:27:07] and everything well in hand or blessed are the self-sufficient Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit suggesting that those who've lost their container or those at least who don't place the emphasis there are perhaps the ones with enough empty space in their lives that there's room for
[00:27:31] God. From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus had a way of unsettling people who thought they already understood how God worked, how the world worked. He had a way of disrupting our assumptions about who is blessed and why we think they're blessed. And when people began to follow
[00:27:52] him people sensed in him the hope of god the hope for the world that he somehow embodied god's dream for the world when when folks began to follow him he didn't offer them answers to their hardest
[00:28:06] questions he didn't promise a safe future with no cost or demands he didn't give them a 10-step religious program to achieve the so-called good life he simply said follow me follow me walk with me come and see come discover for yourself what what god's dream for your life
[00:28:36] is really like come and see what it means to be blessed he invited them into relationship not certainty about everything he he invited them into trust not control he invited them to walk alongside him and to learn a new way of seeing the world. And in the end, what Jesus
[00:28:58] offered them was what they actually needed the most. He offered them himself, the presence of God's love. And in receiving him, in placing their trust in him, day by day they were blessed.
[00:29:16] The call to follow Jesus is never an invitation to climb a ladder of success, but really it's to join him in downward mobility. Bishop Will Williman reminds us that we're trained to think that the dream is kind of an exalted position. We look down from the world, on the world from the
[00:29:39] top. Our society tells us that living the dream means things like power and popularity and position and privilege. Jesus invites us to the bottom. Barbara Brown Taylor calls it the upside down kingdom and and Richard Rohr would say it's it's the view from the margins because from the
[00:30:03] top we see problems to be solved systems to be managed but from the bottom we can see people to be loved wounds to be tended this is the kenosis the the self-emptying that Philippians speaks of
[00:30:25] Christ emptied himself taking the form of a servant becoming like us in order to meet us in the midst of our humanity with all of its limitations and imperfections I recall the reality of this upside down world coming into focus once in that
[00:30:47] very same community ministry watching a group of young children doing their homework on the floor of the common room, just sitting here and there, some working on math, others practicing their spelling, some working on their writing. Most likely, those very same kids sat beside my kids
[00:31:12] in a desk during the week, but there they were, cold tile floor, just kids. And I thought about, because you know this, the studies, the metrics, the numbers just bear it out.
[00:31:32] I thought about how challenging life would be for most of them if that's their beginning.
[00:31:42] And I thought about the head start that our kids had and how privileged they were.
[00:31:49] Just by being born in a certain place in a certain time, it's easy to look away from that, to become desensitized to it, And yet, the fact that Jesus in the Gospels consistently moves towards those spaces to people and circumstances that we sometimes would rather forget, not be reminded about,
[00:32:18] is a reminder that being blessed doesn't mean being insulated from the pain of the world or the struggles of our neighbors.
[00:32:26] because jesus seems to say over and over again and clearly this morning in the beatitudes that that a shelter floor a prayer circle is exactly where the kingdom of god breaks through now he's not romanticizing poverty or grief or hardship or struggle he's saying however i think that in
[00:32:53] the place of nothingness, when you have little else, God can become everything. Or as Eugene Peterson put it beautifully, with less of you, there's more of God. With less of me, there's more of God. I'm not good at that always, but it's true. Today's passage, of course, is known as the
[00:33:20] Beatitudes. It's the opening of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount where he gathers his followers by the sea and he begins in a couple of chapters to begin to paint a picture of what the kingdom looks like.
[00:33:34] And what's so striking about the Beatitudes is that they're not prescriptive.
[00:33:39] Jesus isn't prescribing behavior so much as he's describing a new kind of reality.
[00:33:47] He's not saying to us, now you go and be poor in spirit, or go and mourn, and you'll be blessed.
[00:33:54] what he's saying is that this is what the world looks like when god reigns this is what god's dream is like the poor in spirit those who mourn the meek they're already blessed because even
[00:34:12] though they may lack the things that we normally think make us blessed they're blessed simply because god is with them and for them we're tempted at times to turn scripture into a list of proposition to propositions to rules to things we do they it's easier maybe that way telling us
[00:34:33] what's right and wrong what to do what not to do but that's not how the kingdom works we're saved by grace through faith in christ by placing our trust in jesus and his particular way of being
[00:34:46] human in the world the the christ who who didn't come to bring a new law to replace the old law and say here follow all of these things but the one that that announced and embodied and revealed
[00:34:59] the kingdom of god and said this is what the world is really like jesus came to turn our ideas of blessing upside down to challenge our dreams and to give us a new way of seeing the world
[00:35:16] he's saying i think because this is already true because this is how the world is this is how the kingdom works. Live like it. Live like it. The world says, blessed are the rich who have God
[00:35:38] figured out and life in order. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. When you're at the end of your rope, with less of you, there's more of God. The world says, blessed are those who avoid
[00:35:53] suffering. Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn. When your heart is broken, you may find that it can open to God. The world says, blessed are the powerful. Jesus says, no, blessed are the meek.
[00:36:12] When you're content with who you are, you will inherit what cannot be bought.
[00:36:19] The world says, blessed are the warriors who crush their enemies to secure their peace.
[00:36:25] Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers. They reflect the heart of God. The question the Beatitudes pose is not what are we going to do with them, but what are they going to do with us?
[00:36:42] How might they change us? If we're to be citizens in the kingdom of God and co-workers with Christ, the Beatitudes invite us to move. As one person puts it, to move beyond mere concern or sympathy
[00:36:59] and move toward proximity. The Beatitudes invite us to move closer the way Jesus moved closer to prayer circles, to shelter floors. So maybe this week as we go about our day-to-day lives, maybe we can think a couple of things. Think about how we use the word blessed,
[00:37:21] our definition of it. When we use it, does it normally refer to some material blessing or or a stroke of luck maybe we can reframe that a bit and find the blessing in a moment of weakness
[00:37:34] or silence or a moment of uncertainty not knowing moving closer practicing proximity means following jesus on the journey of downward mobility if we have some place in our lives where we are exalted some position we hold being right in an argument our material
[00:37:59] comforts maybe we could step away from that for a moment and listen more than we speak and serve where we usually lead or move toward those who are struggling don't look at the margins but go
[00:38:17] to the margins that's where jesus is and because jesus is there those who live on the margins are already blessed whether it's serving with one of our mission partners or simply sitting with someone who's struggling with life we encounter jesus when we go to the upside down places
[00:38:38] he's already there the reality is um she had nothing almost nothing and hear me there's nothing good about that this we're not romanticizing poverty and poor poverty of spirit and grief and mourning and all of those things jesus tells us care for the needs of those around
[00:39:04] you. That's also part of the gospel call. Care for those who are struggling with life. But she did in her poverty, she did seem to know, as Merton says, that all of life is a windfall. It's all
[00:39:22] a windfall. Raise your hand if you did something to be born. It's all a gift, every bit of it.
[00:39:31] and she was aware that her very own breath was an inheritance and was grateful for the grace that kept her heart beating.
[00:39:43] With less of me, less of you, less of us, there is more of God.
[00:39:50] Friends, may we be so blessed. Amen.

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:40:07] I invite you to stand.
[00:40:11] Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the one true church, apostolic and universal, whose holy faith let us now declare.
[00:40:18] there. We believe in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, power, and love, whose mercy is over all His works and whose will is ever directed to His children's good. We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, the gift of the Father's unfailing grace,
[00:40:40] the ground of our hope, and the promise of our deliverance from sin and death. We believe in the Holy Spirit as the divine presence in our lives, whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ and find strength and help in time of need.
[00:40:59] We believe that this faith should manifest itself in the service of love as set forth in the example of our blessed Lord, to the end that the kingdom of God may come upon the earth.
[00:41:13] Amen.

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:41:16] You may be seated.

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:42:03] Let us join together now in prayer.
[00:42:18] Loving Lord, God of power and of peace, you taught your people on the mount long ago, and we pray that we can still hear your word for us today.
[00:42:34] God, open our ears to hear and our hearts to embrace you.
[00:42:39] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:42:44] Blessed are the poor in spirit, you told us.
[00:42:48] So God, make us humble people.
[00:42:50] recognizing and confessing our sin, acknowledging our dependence upon you, and opening our hands to share with those in need, in poverty, in homelessness, in despair.
[00:43:08] God, may your church reflect the light of Christ's love in the world.
[00:43:14] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:43:18] Blessed are the meek, the peacemakers, you said.
[00:43:22] And so we pray for all people and nations devastated by war and violence and brutality, including our own, that justice and peace will prevail over conflict and division.
[00:43:40] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:43:42] Amen.
[00:43:45] Blessed are the merciful and the pure in heart, you told us.
[00:43:51] So, Lord, mold us into people of integrity and compassion and mercy.
[00:43:58] Soften our hardened hearts.
[00:44:01] Heal our broken relationships.
[00:44:03] Teach us to see each other as you do, as those who are created in your image and likeness.
[00:44:10] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:44:12] Hear our prayer.
[00:44:15] Blessed are the persecuted, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
[00:44:20] So God, give us courage in the face of oppression and injustice and tyranny.
[00:44:29] And bring your protection and peace to all who live in danger.
[00:44:33] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:44:39] Blessed are those who mourn.
[00:44:42] So God, send your healing spirit to all who hurt and who suffer.
[00:44:48] And comfort us in our grief and our sadness for what and who we have lost.
[00:44:55] We remember especially this week the Watts family and the death of Angela's mother and the Johnson family and Courtney's passing.
[00:45:08] And Lord, hear our concerns today, lifted to you silently and aloud in this space as we pray now for, sustain us, loving God, with your peace.
[00:45:27] Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
[00:45:29] Hear our prayer, Lord, as we try to hear what you say to us.
[00:45:36] And we make this prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us on the mount how to follow him faithfully and how to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:45:50] Thy kingdom come.
[00:45:52] Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:45:56] Give us this day our daily bread.
[00:45:58] And forgive us our trespasses.
[00:46:01] as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[00:46:04] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[00:46:09] For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever. Amen.
[00:46:18] Well, we welcome you to Davidson United Methodist Church.
[00:46:20] Welcome back, as David said.
[00:46:22] It's good to be together.
[00:46:25] We're grateful for online worship the past couple of weeks.
[00:46:28] We're grateful for you joining us online.
[00:46:30] but it's also really good to be back together in worship especially if you are here for the first time worshiping at DUMC for the first time we give you a special thank you for being here and invite you after
[00:46:42] the service to join us at our welcome table which is in the gathering space just behind you so that we can greet you and offer you a little gift for being with us today thanks everyone for joining us here and online
[00:46:54] we haven't been in worship the past couple of weeks but we've been a busy place nonetheless and we will continue to have lots going on in the church in the days ahead. I want to talk about a few things,
[00:47:05] a couple things happening today and then something this week. The first one is our Valentine's Brunch that is happening actually right after the service, in between the services. For families, if you have kids and you'd like to make some cards, they're going to be doing
[00:47:20] Valentine's cards upstairs in the Seymour Building, and there'll be some food as well.
[00:47:25] So we invite you to stop by our Valentine's brunch this morning.
[00:47:31] Also, we had kind of an emergency request that was made of us for something that's happening today.
[00:47:38] Many of you know that our missions team provides a meal to the roof above, which is the men's homeless shelter in Charlotte.
[00:47:46] And we are providing that meal today, and they need some food.
[00:47:49] They have casseroles and other things all prepared, but we still need some side items, some canned green beans, some canned fruit cocktail, those types of things.
[00:47:59] So if you can bring those to the church over at the Dale House on the other side of the parking lot by 4 o'clock today, they would be very appreciative, the men in the shelter as well as our mission team.
[00:48:11] That's by 4 o'clock today to the Dale House.
[00:48:14] And then something happening this week.
[00:48:16] We have Discover DUMC, which is our new member class, which is happening on Wednesday night.
[00:48:21] for anybody who is interested in becoming a member of the church or just learning more about what it means to be a United Methodist.
[00:48:29] You're invited to be a part of this class.
[00:48:31] It's just for you, and it happens at 5.30 this coming Wednesday evening.
[00:48:35] We'll start with dinner and then move on to the class after that.
[00:48:40] And you can register for that by scanning the QR code that's in your bulletin today.
[00:48:46] One final thing.
[00:48:48] There's a game today that you may have heard about.
[00:48:53] We're excited about that.
[00:48:56] You know, it's not every day that we can say, I know the starting quarterback in the Super Bowl.
[00:49:04] But you can say that today.
[00:49:07] And so I don't know who you're rooting for in the game, but we can all wish Drake May and the May family our best today and in the days to come.
[00:49:19] We're thankful to you for all the ways that you step up to help and to share Christ's love, including offering food for our homeless friends in a very quick request.
[00:49:34] So thank you for that and for all the ways that you help share Christ's love, including your tithes and your offerings.
[00:54:08] Gracious God, your generosity overflows.
[00:54:11] accept our gifts so that with your blessing we may use them to proclaim Christ in our community

[00:54:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:54:17] and beyond. Amen. The Beatitudes invite us to proximity, to move in the direction of the places

[00:57:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:57:59] where Jesus already is at work waiting on us to show up and join Him there, especially those of us who by most measures are blessed in so many ways. Maybe a question for us to wrestle with
[00:58:15] is what are we going to do with our blessing?
[00:58:18] How are we going to invest it in kingdom things?
[00:58:21] So as we depart to do that this week, friends, let's remember our mission that we will be the body of Christ in our community through worship, education, fellowship, and service.
[00:58:33] Go in peace.