Showed
Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12

January 30, 2005

Macarius was an Egyptian who heard Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, but didn’t know what to say. He decided to do something – leave. He went off into wilderness and prayed a lot alone, except that God had a habit of whispering. That always seemed to keep Macarius humble.

One day upon returning to his cell he found a man who had broken in and was stealing his possessions, loading up his donkey. Macarius went up to the thief as though he were a traveler who did not live there and he merrily helped him load up his donkey, and led him off his way in peace, thinking to himself, “We brought nothing into this world; but the Lord gave, as he willed, so it is done, blessed be the Lord in all things.”

Macarius is not a random name. In Greek it means “blessed one.” Some of us may remember Archbishop Makarios, the first president of Cyprus from 1960-1977. Was he still blessed after his presidency? Did he enable others to become blessed?

Makarios is exactly the word that Jesus uses in the Beatitudes, the Latin title for these words. Some of you had to memorize the beatitudes, and if you did, the Ten Commandments were not far behind. One of my severe shortcomings is that I did not. I also have never seen “Gone With the Wind” – if that is all related. Lack of culture, I suppose.

You can memorize the Beatitudes, but understanding and doing them, living them, is another universe.

People found out quickly that Jesus was a lot of things – healer, exorcist of demons, saviour, a person of love that knows no bounds, a teacher and a visionary. He had something to say, sometimes to a single person, sometimes to a madding crowd, sometimes to the small intimate cluster of friends. Sometimes he had something to say to you and me through the words of the text across the millennia.

Sometimes he talks on the road walking somewhere else. Sometimes he talks insides some new acquaintance’s house; sometimes in a boat a little way out on the lake, sometimes up and away on a mountain, almost like the wilderness of a desert isolated from human contact. This time he was talking up a mountain, and he wasn’t just teaching commandments to memorize.

The difficult part has been figuring out what Jesus pointing at in the Beatitudes. A new Moses on the new Mount Sinai delivering a new eight or nine Ten Commandments, to be sure. But is he telling us what to do right now? Is he telling us the way it can be, in the fulfillment of all things, in the bye and bye of the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it possible to blessed right now?

Instead, what Jesus is doing is stating the obvious. O how happy are those who are humble and poor in spirit for they shall see the Kingdom of God. If you are living in this state of mind, this condition of soul, and including others in this God-saturated world, then you are happy, fortunate, blessed. No two ways about it.

It is not a commandment, as if you can plan to go out and do it today. It is how you see and understand yourself and the universe, driven and powered all along by a portion of the grace of God.

Every beatitude is anchored in that most misunderstood of virtues – humility. I am talking about real humility, not any humble pie and putting on a false veneer of piety.

How do you describe humility, this elusive trait? Eugene Peterson restates the first beatitude. “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” Less of you and more of God is the real quantum physics.

“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.”

“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.”

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”

Students of the Bible don’t usually call Micah a speaker of beatitudes, but I will add one of his to the collection. How do we do justice in this unjust world? By being humble and not thinking about how much attention we will get. Again, the way Peterson works out the words, “It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love. And don’t take yourself seriously – take God seriously.”

Less of you becomes more of God. When you have lost, you are embraced. When you don’t care or pay attention to what you think others think of you, then you have gained everything that matters. And you are who you are really meant to be.

The devil tried to attack Macarius, going after him with a scythe, but he couldn’t do anything to him. “What is your power, Macarius, that makes me powerless against you? Everything that you can do, I do too. You fast, so do I. You keep vigil; I never sleep! In one thing only do you beat me.”

Macarius asked him, “What is that?” He really didn’t know. “Your humility. Because of that I can do nothing against you.”

Who can?

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan