Matthew 5 : 1-12 Sermon Some of you may be familiar with the American television programme, Sesame Street, which was produced to help educate young children. Often it would begin with one of the characters telling us that today's programme is brought to us, not by a sponsor, but by a particular letter. Then the story for the day would feature many words beginning with that letter. Well following that example I might be inclined to announce that today's sermon is brought to us by the letter B, for reasons which, I hope, will become apparent. I'm sure you will have heard the saying, which is sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, that it is a sign of madness to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well such a course of action may make sense in some contexts. and sometimes persistence is an important quality. Yet I'm sure there is some basic scientific truth in the statement. If you keep repeating the same input there is no reason to expect a different outcome. So here is the thing. If we find that we are not happy with the way the world is, or if we are in some sense discontent with the people we are, we could just continue doing the same things and hoping for a better outcome. But I suggest that it would be more logical if we wish a different result, to try changing some of the inputs. In other words, remembering my introductory words if plan A isn't working, perhaps, rather than sticking with it indefinitely we ought to look for a plan B. We know what plan A is. It is what we have always done. It is all of the assumed wisdom by which we live. Plan A is that we should seek wealth and success and popularity. It is that we must be strong and always alert to defend ourselves. It is that we need above all to look after number 1. Plan A is what drives nations to build up their defences, and their defence forces to go to war. It is what causes tribal conflict to develop and escalate in bloody genocide. It is what causes wealthy people to become ill from stress and it is what leaves millions without the basics needed for a
dignified life. If we accept that plan A is a description of the dominant values of our culture, the guiding principles by which we live I think we can accept that in many ways, plan A is not working.
And yet we continue following it, we continue trusting it, we continue hoping that soon it might lead to a different outcome, that live might somehow become better and fairer and more compassionate. We go on living basically the same way and we wonder why nothing seems to change. Today I want to suggest that we might try a different way. That we should be searching for a plan B. And today, I believe that we have heard plan B when we have read together the gathered wisdom of Jesus which we call the Beatitudes. This is what he said: I'll read from Eugene Peterson's translation The Message which has a great freshness of language, and you will see that whatever else this might be, it is not the conventional wisdom by which people normally live: 3 You re blessed when you re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4 You re blessed when you feel you ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. 5 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. 6 You re blessed when you ve worked up a good appetite for God. food and drink in the best meal you ll ever eat. 7 You re blessed when you care. At the moment of being care-full, you find yourselves cared for. 8 You re blessed when you get your inside world your mind and heart put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 9 You re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God s family.
10 You re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God s kingdom. We might struggle to make sense of these words, but if we do, it might because we are so caught up in the dominant values of our culture that they don't seem to fit. Well they don t fit, because this is not normality, this is an alternative. This is not the wisdom of the human race, this is the foolishness of God. This is not our plan A, but it is offered to us as a plan B. GK Chesterton, in his book What's Wrong With The World, wrote The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. If plan A is not working, perhaps we should consider this plan B. Perhaps we should try living, not by the assumed norms of our culture, but by the values which are expressed in the beatitudes. Plan A is treating people the way they treat us, or treating people the way we fear they might treat us. It is an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and safer to try to get your retaliation in first. It is to the world as we know it today. Plan B is treating others as we would like to be treated, summed in the words of Jesus which feature in all the world's major religions do unto others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31) It is based on the instruction to love our neighbour and to love our enemy. It is not normal and it is not instinctive, but that's the point. We have seen what normal and instinctive has led to, and we want to be part of something different. Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi used to recite the beatitudes every morning, and try to put them into practice every day. Gandhi wasn't a Christian, he was a hindu, but in his simple lifestyle and his commitment to justice and non-violence, he looks more Christ-like than many who would claim his name. He once famously said: You must be the change you want to see in the world. He took Jesus so seriously that he actually tried to live by his teachings. There is a great challenge for us. Could we take Jesus as seriously as Gandhi did? Could we start to live as if we believed the beatitudes, and see what starts to happen? In our churches we have many creeds which state what we believe. That is all fine and important, but the devil could say the creeds. There is nothing
there to disagree with. The beatitudes are not a statement of faith, they are a manifesto for action, a manifesto which really gets to the heart of things. These eight sayings are about how we live, the core attitudes which shape our behaviour. So if we are serious about trusting the teachings of Jesus, if we are serious about following him, if we are serious about bearing witness to him, the beatitudes set out for us what we should be aiming for, and what it all should look like. And I want us to get serious about it because I really believe this is a plan that can change the world. However it can only change the world, if we are willing to try it. Not to talk about it, but to try it. We often think, or at least we act as we think, that the purpose of the church is to talk about the gospel and to try to change other people. But what if we think of the church as the place where we change, and as a result, others start speaking about the gospel. You will have heard of AA groups, where people who are ready to admit they need help come and confess their addiction, and get the help of the group to give up their addiction and to change the way they live. What if the church were, not an AA group, but a B group, where people who are ready to admit they need help come and confess our addiction to the dominant standards of this world, confess that actually we long for power and wealth, that we are hooked on the habit of being judgemental and cynical and selfish and materialistic. We confess our addiction and we help one another to follow the 8 step recovery programme offered by Jesus. We are not called to be people who talk about the need for change in the world. We are called to be the change in the world. There is no place in the church for the attitude which wants to condemn others and urge other people to change. And we have no right to do that, and we are in no position to do that unless we are first changed ourselves. The church is a place of conversion, where people who recognise the need for a plan B have their hearts healed, and discover where real blessing lies. We do not talk about the need for change. By following Jesus, by living the beatitudes we start to be the change. The revolutionary message of Jesus is that change is possible, that another way of living and relating to one another is possible that anther way of sharing and caring for creation is possible and that such change starts in here. It is not trying about trying to coerce anyone else, but being
converted ourselves. If we were to memorise the beatitudes and internalise the way of living they represent and live in such a way that they seem natural and right we will incarnate something of the kingdom of God and being transformed may start to transform the world. Let it be.