As a member of Christ Methodist Church-Montgomery and having attended there for a year, teaching some, serving some, and and just generally getting to know and be. known, I have been invited by Rev. Misty Barrett to fill in for her as she has personal family commitments out of town this week, February 8, 2026. I cannot recall the last time I gave a Sunday message in church. It has probably been at least 5 years, the time since Bill’s death. From 2012 to 2020, I was, from time to time given the opportunity to give a Sunday morning message, filling in for a pastor in a church in our district to have a day off. With one small independent congregation I was a regular fill for a pastor undergoing cancer treatments for a few months. Just recently in a meeting at church, Misty commented on an upcoming need to secure someone to fill in for her. I said, “You know, I am not averse to filling in for you occasionally.” LOL! She took me up on in the next week. So, “Here I am, LORD,” preparing a sermon for this 5th Sunday of Epiphany using the lectionary that follows her beautiful exposition on the Beatitudes last week, picking up where she left off. The Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew is place in Scripture where I have sat many hours with the LORD. I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue in that teed-up position and follow through with my first pinch-hitter swing from this spot at Christ Methodist Church! (I know, I’m mixing sports metaphors here!)
Hear now the Word of the LORD:
10 “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD…………(Thanks be to God!)
I was delighted last week to see that Misty was preaching on the Beatitudes, a part of the Sermon on the Mount with which I have had much personal experience. And in accordance with the assigned text for today, I am going to continue where Misty left off.
My journey with the Beatitudes started on a day over 22 years ago, as I drove home with friends from a Women’s Christian Conference cruise after our port arrival in Titusville, FL. The trip had not gone as I had expected. The other three women were asleep as I drove an SUV piled with luggage, sunhats, and bookbags. I was talking to the LORD, praying silently along I-95 North, with some tears, and asking him, “Why is life so difficult? Why do I wind up always on the outside?” I had had friendships, but I was in a new community and I was having difficulty connecting. As I lamented, or grumbled, to God in prayer I felt Him saying to me “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” I recognized the verse and thought “Yeah. That is certainly how I feel!” When I got home, I got out my Bible. And, that verse was the first in that opening section of the Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are they who are poor in spirit, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.” I read through all the Beatitudes. For several days I kept coming back to them. “OK, so I am poor in spirit. This is a good thing? The Kingdom of Heaven is mine? How do I move forward from here?” Over those few days, the Beatitudes unfolded before me as a pathway, a process of maturing in faith as one is broken down in connection to the world, then is built up again in relationship to Christ and the Kingdom of God.
I read the text closely. In each of the first 3 steps, I imagined stooping or kneeling down and then the in next 5 steps moving forward and upward as I imagined being lifted up. Each beatitude couplet contained an invitation to sit with and experience an emotion or an aspect of the human condition or a character trait that is being refined within us. And with each one, we are given a blessing. (Enumerate them visually as I go “1,2,……7”)
–Acknowledging our poverty of spirit provides us access into the kingdom of God.
–Godly grief and repentance over our brokenness and sin brings us the comfort of God.
–Surrendering to humility and meekness provides the key to opening up God’s wisdom and instruction for how to live abundantly in the earth.
–Hungering and thirsting for righteousness brings joy and satisfaction as we are fed by His Word and Spirit.
–As we learn to love mercy and give it others, we are given more mercy
–As we are purified in our hearts, we are given the eyes to see God at work in our own lives and in the world around us.
–As we receive Christ’s peace in our own spirit we are able to offer it to others and we are truly doing what we see the Father do, as Jesus did, and we begin to be assured that we are truly becoming sons and daughters of God through that knowledge.
I observed that Jesus, as he sat with his disciples in earshot of the crowd gathered on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, repeated this pattern “Blessed are those… for they shall …, blessed are those….for they shall… , “and on and on down the list all the way through verse 10, which is #8 of the Beatitudes. Then in that verse Jesus said, “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” and then there is that phrase again, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The phrase, “For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” holds the structure of these stairsteps together, down and then up like, like bookends securing these aspects of the blessedness in a maturing life in faith. I discovered that this is a poetic form in Hebrew literature, of beginning and ending at the same point, in this case, with the Kingdom of Heaven. So, we may find ourselves entering as initiates into the Kingdom of Heaven through our experiences of brokenness. Again and again, we may find ourselves having reached the end of ourselves and having nowhere else to turn. At such times we turn to Jesus and there He stands, ready to receive us. We are formed by the process again and again until we are able to persevere in faithfulness, even in persecution and when others come against us because of how our lives have taken a different direction than those with whom we previously associated. It may be the soft persecution of having friends turn away from us. It may be as objects of gossip or being chided or mocked for being perceived as “Bible-toting enthusiasts” or “just another do-gooder”. But it may, at times, cause the loss of a job or being censured, jeered, or rejected because we have chosen a different way of life than the world. And even though we are in the Kingdom of God, we are also still in the world. However, over time we are becoming less and less OF the world even as we continue to be IN it.
I thought, “Okay, this makes sense to me now. Some friends will pull away or exclude us because of our choice to embrace this Christian journey more completely and with more purpose than they have chosen. It is resistance or withdrawing that comes because of the changes they see in us. Few of us have experiences of out and out physical violence or financial loss or verbal abuse because of our choices to live changed lives following Christ. But there are many in the world who do.
In today’s continuing text in Matthew, however, there are another additional 2 verses, after that bookend of the Kingdom of God being theirs, which at first glance, appear to simply reiterate and emphasize the previous verse. But verses 11-12 take a decided turn away from the pattern that Jesus has been repeating. Here Jesus says not “Blessed are they”, but “Blessed are YOU when people insult YOU and persecute YOU, and falsely say all kinds of evil against YOU because of ME.” It is one thing to exhibit moral righteousness before men and feel their subtle rejection or mocking because of it. It is an altogether different thing to risk being hated or treated with malice because of being an intimate friend and disciple of Jesus. Remember, this occurs very early in Jesus’ public ministry. He needs these twelve men to understand that they moving in to a new role, they are leveling up, beyond merely being men perceived as possessing good character who walk with and are instructed by the rabbi.
It is as if Jesus shifts from general observations directed toward the sea of humanity seated around Him and His Twelve. From reassuring wisdom about the lives of people who are blessed in living resilient lives and doing and becoming the best kind of people they can in this world. But now after those people have all been defined by the secure context of welcome and security into the kingdom of God, Jesus makes a very specific and pointed invitation to those disciples sitting closest to him to enter into covenantal relationship with the LORD God. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it.. Jesus tells them…..and us! He is putting such covenantal relational commitment to friendship with Him, not only in the Kindgom of God, but leveling it up, extending this additional call to perseverance in the same category as that of the life and ministry of a prophet. I envision Jesus gazing into the faces of the twelve seated near him. Now it is “Blessed are YOU.” It is no longer an introduction to a theological treatise for the sake of the hearers or an intention to encourage people in difficult times. It is not just about externally observed changes in discipline, habits, practices, and the company you keep. It is not even about conscious moral development producing good people. It is about one’s readiness to stand with and for the LORD God, Jesus Christ Himself. It’s gotten very real and very personal here with his disciples and those in the future who would seek to become his disciples.
Jesus adds, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before YOU.”
There was a time in my life when I would not wear a cross. I believed. I loved Jesus and the church. I was faithful in attendance and served in ways in which I felt comfortable. But I didn’t want to invite questions about my faith from strangers. I was keeping my faith on the down low in a public sense. I didn’t want to be scrutinized and judged for not living into the world’s expectations of how a Christian should live. I rarely used Jesus’ name. I simply talked in general terms about faith. After a time when I had intentional communion with the LORD God 34 years ago this year, what many would call a “Come to Jesus” time, I moved from generalized conversations about Christian conduct and practices and sermons or Bible studies. Jesus became real and personal to me. I asked my family for a cross for Christmas in 1992. I sought someone to disciple me. I asked for accountability with partners in confidential, confessional and prayerful community. I wanted to not only have God’s banner of love over me, but I wanted to be a banner of His love and mercy and peace and righteousness for others, bearing the name and light and life of Jesus in me. I began learning what being IN the world but not being OF the world really felt like.
Immediately after this shift from “Blessed are They” to “Blessed are You”, Jesus’ sermon on this high point above the shore of the Sea of Galilee includes these words…. And observe how he stays with the pronoun “YOU”, not “THEY”. These are the people who remain, all the way to the cross and beyond…. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
“YOU are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.Let YOUR light shine before men in such a way that they may see YOUR good works AND ALSO GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN.”
That LIGHT that we are to be in the world is the life of Jesus Christ being constructed in us, fulfilling God’s will in us, by the sanctifying and transforming work of the Holy Spirit, not only the banner of his justifying righteousness that God has placed upon us by Jesus Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
Jesus desires more than God- fearers, more than Hearers of the Word, more than followers in his ministry, even more than believers who conduct their lives in a moral and kind way.
The LORD God, Jesus Christ desires disciples who will stand with Him, becoming friends of God in Christ and bold and joyful Sons and Daughters of the Father, like himself. By making space in every nook and cranny of our heart, soul, and mind, by being a temple for His Spirit to abide and inhabit our daily lives and activities. Then ,we become not only blessed people living in the kingdom of God, but also prophetic voices in the world today that God can use at any moment, in any place for His purpose for His people through the fruit of and gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the spiritual gift of prophecy.
This is why:
Moses said in Numbers, Chapter 11 . “…would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”
And why Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2 when he says at Pentecost “… but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel…”. And then Peter goes on to quote the prophet Joel.
In Joel 2:28 we read, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
And it is why the Apostle Paul: In 1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1, and 14:39 commands followers of Christ to “earnestly desire to prophesy.”
And like the prophet in Ezekiel 36 who is visited by and consecrated to the LORD God “..so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.”
This is the gift of prophecy, being a committed, faithful friend and servant of the LORD Jesus and through him, a true Child of God. To be so in covenant with the LORD God, so steadily walking in Christ, and filled with Christ in you, that you will obey the LORD God in all things to be used by Him to bring His timely word at any time, in any place, for His purpose to His people.
By embracing this pathway to maturing faith, YOU and I become the seasoning salt and the illuminating light that can bless and transform the world.
LORD God, may it be unto us as you have desired. Amen