Walking through Bulawayo

My home town is Bulawayo. City of Kings. “The place of slaughter.” Once the capital of the Ndebele kingdom under Lobengula, now the second city of Zimbabwe. Rail centre and industrial centre, often overlooked by Bamba Zonke (Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, “takes everything”). My home, where I grew up and where I worked.

I went to school in Bulawayo (Hillside and Hamilton) until Form Three. I taught in the Matopos for three years and then again in Bulawayo for another three years: Maths and English; Theology and Bible.

I walked a lot. I was younger then. Bicycled a lot in my youth and walked more as an adult. I learned to ride safely on the streets by going downtown to the Mobil Traffic Training Centre just off 4^th Avenue. They had a small layout of streets where one learned to use the correct hand signals and was introduced to the mysteries of giving way to the left (or was it right?). I rode every school day 15 minutes from our house on Leander Avenue to Hamilton High School and learned another mystery – that girls rode past us the opposite way heading for Townsend. No girls at Hamilton in those days.

 I remember walking through Bulawayo once in those days. From our house (Leander Avenue) to Queens Park for a cricket match. An English team was touring, and I intended to watch the last hour or so. The walk took me too long – it was about four miles – and the game ended just before I got there. So I walked home.

I walked more often when I taught at the Theological College of Zimbabwe, then just behind the Matopo Book Centre of Lobengula Street in what used to be the YMCA. We lived on Wiltshire Avenue in Hillcrest, about a three mile walk. It took me normally about an hour.

The first bit was through an open air market around the corner to the bookstore. I might stop for some peanuts or boiled maize in the market, or just enjoy the sounds and sights – music coming from open doors of shops around the market.

Past the bookstore to the High Court and turn down 8^th Avenue into the commercial centre of the city. I enjoyed that stretch, people everywhere, walking past the city library and Bulawayo Club and post office. Down the street towards what was once Haddon & Sly and then the city hall and bus rank. I could have taken a bus from there home, but walking was too enjoyable.

Past the city hall to Robert Mugabe Way (Grey Street as was) where I turned right and headed towards the suburbs of Bradfield, Hillcrest, and Hillside. There was a petrol station at 12^th Avenue and another at 14^th, where I might stop and buy a bag of biltong at the kiosk. Few delights were better than walking and nibbling on shaved biltong.

 I remember occasionally seeing a white beggar there named Arthur. I have no idea what happened to him, except that I occasionally shared my biltong before carrying on. I assume he slept rough in the open bush just beyond Parirenyatwa (Borrow Street, as was).

Turn left at 14^th or 15^th and join Parirenyatwa then head out Hillside Road for the longer stretch of the walk home. First came the trade fair grounds on the left, with Eskimo Hut at its entrance. These things have all changed now, but they live on in my memory.

After the fair grounds (reminding me of other scenes inside the grounds) came an open space and then the Bradfield Shopping Centre. Famona and Bradfield on either side of Hillside Road were medium density housing – reminders of a relatively vibrant middle class in Zimbabwe of 1990. A class soon to lose its vibrancy under crushing inflation.

I passed the shopping centre, resisting the urge to step inside and buy a Fanta, and walked on towards the Mater Dei Hospital, where I would cross the road to go towards Wiltshire. Now I was in the home stretch – right on Durham, left on Hampshire (or just beyond it, Gloucester) and right again on Wiltshire. Such incredibly English county names, glowing with echoes of “there’ll always be an England”, even in dry and dusty Zimbabwe waiting for the rain to come.

If I had stayed on Hillside, I could walk on to Leander and turn left on Cecil (past my old school, Hillside Junior) or on Leander and thence to Flint Road. I lived for some time at the corner Flint and Leander. Cecil John Rhodes; Leander Starr Jameson. The roads carry the history of Rhodesia, swallowed up within the history of Zimbabwe.

That route would also take me past the Malindela Baptist Church, where I attended for seven years as a boy, sitting under the preaching of Tom Anderson, a Scottish pastor and devout Bible preacher. I have still a book of Scottish stories I got from him.

Walking through Bulawayo. It’s all changed now, of course. Time rolls on, but my memories are still with me, and I walk or ride down those roads within, grateful for the years I lived in my hometown, City of Kings.

On Top of the Mountain

We could go in many different directions with the account of the transfiguration. We could explore the role of the three disciples who went up the mountain with Jesus. Why was it Peter, James, and John? It’s an interesting question: What do we do with the inner circle? But we’ll leave that question aside. 

 

We could ask why Matthew emphasises mountains so much. The Sermon on the Mount is a key example, and the transfiguration is another. Just a comment: The text from Exodus 24 reminds us that Moses received the Law on top of Mount Sinai. Matthew emphasises the mountain to remind us that this event is important. 

 

The Law, Torah, was God’s word. It was a written account of God’s word for God’s people. God’s word written (J.C. Wenger’s term for our written Scripture.) Jesus himself is also God’s word – God’s Word living (Wenger’s term for Jesus.) John’s gospel highlights this understanding of Jesus, saying that the Word of God is one with God and made flesh in the person of Jesus (John 1). 

 

Matthew uses a different term to make a similar point. Jesus is “Emmanuel – God with us” (1: 23). In Jesus, God enters human existence, just as God entered the lives of God’s people in Torah, the Law of Moses. 

 

God’s word, you must understand, is not simply “what God says”; God’s word is active and effective. Listen to Genesis 1: “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. The earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. God said, ‘Let there be light,” and there was light.” God speaks, and reality changes. God’s word is God’s action, so Jesus brings God into human existence in a way that changes reality. 

 

This discussion of Matthew’s emphasis on mountains takes us closer to what I want to talk about this morning. Why did they go to the mountain top? How does the mountain top function in our lives today? 

 

On Top of the Mountain 

When we refer to “a mountain top experience”, we usually mean some sort of incredible amazing ecstatic experience. The mountain top is not where we live each day. We live daily down on the prairie. The plains of Manitoba might represent daily life – walking steadily through the tasks and actions of each day. But every once in a while we take a trip and climb up the Rockies – just to see the view. Wouldn’t want to live there, but “it’s worth the trip.” 

 

For Peter, James, and John, the transfiguration was a real mountain top experience, literally and symbolically. They saw Moses and Elijah transfigured with Jesus. They recognized that this was special, these three shining with what is called the shekinah glory of God. They wanted to stay there,  but in a moment the whole thing was done, and daily life resumed. 

 

Have you ever had a mountain top experience like that? I don’t mean a repetition of this event in Matthew 17, but I mean a moment in which God came to you and you knew that this was a special time. Let me tell you two stories. 

 

Some Stories 

The first is a story of something happening as we worship together this morning: Asbury University is the scene of what many people are calling a revival. Here is a description from a seminary theologian across the street at the seminary.

Most Wednesday mornings at Asbury University are like any other. … But this past Wednesday [February 8, 2023] was different. After the benediction, the gospel choir began to sing a final chorus—and then something began to happen that defies easy description. Students did not leave. They were struck by what seemed to be a quiet but powerful sense of transcendence, and they did not want to go. They stayed and continued to worship. They are still there. 

 

I teach theology across the street at Asbury Theological Seminary, and when I heard of what was happening, I immediately decided to go to the chapel to see for myself. … I saw hundreds of students singing quietly. They were praising and praying earnestly for themselves and their neighbors and our world—expressing repentance and contrition for sin and interceding for healing, wholeness, peace, and justice. … 

 

They were still worshiping when I left in the late afternoon and when I came back in the evening. They were still worshiping when I arrived early Thursday morning—and by midmorning hundreds were filling the auditorium again. I have seen multiple students running toward the chapel each day. 

 

By Thursday evening, there was standing room only. Students had begun to arrive from other universities: the University of Kentucky, the University of the Cumberlands, Purdue University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Ohio Christian University, … and many others. (From the website of Christianity Today) 

 

This observer expressed his concern about such “revivals”:  

I come from a background … where I’ve seen efforts to manufacture “revivals” and “movements of the Spirit” that were sometimes not only hollow but also harmful. I do not want anything to do with that. And truth be told, this is nothing like that. There is no pressure or hype. There is no manipulation. There is no high-pitched emotional fervor. 

 

To the contrary, it has so far been mostly calm and serene. The mix of hope and joy and peace is indescribably strong and indeed almost palpable—a vivid and incredibly powerful sense of shalom. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is undeniably powerful but also so gentle. 

 

The second example comes from a Canadian theologian named John Stackhouse. Stackhouse used to teach at the University of Manitoba and is now at Crandall University in New Brunswick. Reflecting on a revival taking place at Asbury University in Kentucky, he writes: 

I thought of revival today in the life of a single individual—my grandfather—many years ago. An alcoholic binge drinker, forty-year-old Grandpa and a buddy drunkenly piled their car into a tree in their little Ontario town and then staggered home of a Saturday night. The next morning, Grandma bundled the kids off to church while her morose and abashed husband sat in the living room, nursing his hangover. 

 

Grandpa recalled Scripture verses he had memorized as a child and repented of his sin, giving his life to Jesus. Instantly, he was cured of his alcoholism and did not drink again until his death at 96. Two weeks later, he stopped a two-pack-a-day habit of smoking unfiltered cigarettes. 

 

Those of us who have wrestled with addiction know how astonishing is this testimony. But here’s what even the Holy Spirit apparently couldn’t correct in Grandpa all at once: his bad temper. No, it took several decades of caring for his beloved wife as her multiple sclerosis worsened to soften and reshape this man’s soul. By the time she died, he was a different, sanctified person. (Taken from www.johnstackhouse.com) 

 

Stackhouse’s point is that you don’t measure a mountain top experience by that moment. You measure it by long-term change (what he calls “sanctification”) worked out over a lifetime. His grandfather experienced revival in his living room as he nursed a hangover. Then he descended from the mountain top on to the vast prairie of his wife’s long illness, and God made him holy over a lifetime of love and care. 

 

Some Thoughts 

I could tell other stories – including my own, but you get the point. Mountain top experiences are meant to lead to faithful living on the prairies. A changed life lived out over a lifetime tells you what the mountain top was worth. So, a real change of life is necessary, not just a brief experience, but that’s not the whole story. Jesus was preparing Peter, James, and John for the dark days that lay ahead. He tells them not to talk about the transfiguration; they were to wait until he had died and been raised from the dead. He was giving them something to carry them through a darkness greater than any of us have ever known. 

 

Many of us have walked through times of great distress. Jesus’ gift of this experience for his disciples is for us as well. My Uncle once told of his wife’s battle with Hodgkin’s Disease. He woke up one night to find that she was not in bed. He got up to look for her and found her sitting in the living room. She said to him, “Arthur, go back to bed. You can’t do anything.” I don’t know what he did at that moment, but I do know that God came to her in those last weeks of her life. In one of their last conversations, she said to him, “Arthur, 52 is so young to die, but looking back over my life, I wouldn’t change a thing.” God had come to her and reminded her that her life was in God’s hands. God comes to us in our darkness. 

 

A word of caution: Some might hear this word as a burden, as a heavy requirement: “You must feel God’s presence!” No! We cannot manufacture God’s presence, just as we cannot and should not try to create a revival, a mountain top experience. I am suggesting something else entirely. 

 

Peter, James, and John did not know what was coming. They just followed Jesus when he took them out for a walk. John Stackhouse’s grandfather was not expecting to meet God that morning as he sat nursing a hangover, but God showed up! Asbury University held a regular chapel time, and God took over. 

 

You see what happens. If you make having a wonderful experience a new law, it becomes a burden and obstacle. Instead, I am suggesting something else. Relax. Let go. Anticipate. Trust God to give you what you need. 

 

What should we do? What we are already doing: read your Bible; pray; sing hymns or worship songs; join in a care group; go to work; play and laugh with your family. Do so expecting God to come in. 

 

A further word: It may be that the present darkness is so deep that you can’t hear or see God in any way. C.S. Lewis writes of the sense that the doors of Heaven are closed against us, “bolted and double-bolted” as we hammer on the gates of Heaven (in A Grief Observed). He notes that his own loss was so devastating that he was like a drowning man who can’t be saved until he stops fighting. He recalls also that God’s renewed presence was simple and undramatic. It just happened. 

 

That’s what I want us to grasp. Wait for the Lord. Wait expectantly. Wait with anticipation. Don’t try to manufacture something. God knows what we need and will give us what we need. We walk through the prairies knowing that the mountain top is only a moment away, always in God’s timing. 

 

There is no promise here to make life easy. Only the promise of God’s grace to carry us through. Peter, Paul, and Mary used to sing a song about an escaping slave. It goes like this: 

 

One night as I lay on my pillow, Moonlight as bright as the dawn/ I saw a man come a walking, He had a long chain on./ I heard his chains a clankin’, They made a mournful sound,/ Welded around his body, Draggin’ along the ground. 

He had a long chain on ... 

 

He stood beside my window, He looked at me and he said/ “I am so tired and hungry. Give me a bite of your bread”/ He didn’t look like a robber, He didn’t look like a thief/ His voice was as soft as the moonlight, A face full of sorrow and grief. 

He had a long chain on ... 

 

I went into my kitchen, Fetched him a bowl full of meat/ A drink and a pan of cold biscuits, That’s what I gave him to eat/ Though he was tired and hungry A bright light came over his face/ He bowed his head in the moonlight, He said a beautiful grace. 

He had a long chain on ... 

 

I got my hammer and chisel, Offered to set him free/ He looked at me and said softly, “I guess we had best let it be.”/ When he had finished his supper, He thanked me again and again./ Though it’s been years since I’ve seen him, Still hear him draggin’ his chain. 

He had a long chain on ... 

 

We see God’s presence as a bright light came over the escaping slave and he prays “a beautiful grace”, and we see God’s presence as he continues to carry the chain, “I guess we had best let it be.” God does not simply remove the pain, but he walks with us all the way to the cross and into the resurrection that follows. And he gives us grace and an awareness of his overwhelming wonderful presence to carry us through as well. Whether we are students at Asbury, afraid of the hate and polarization engulfing their country. Or an alcoholic weeping in his living room as his family goes to church. Or you or me. God invites us each one to follow him and experience his love and care and grace and peace. Amen. 

 

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

19 February 2023 

 

Texts 

Exodus 24:12-18 NRSV

¹² The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³ So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. ¹⁴ To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 

¹⁵ Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶ The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. ¹⁷ Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the Israelites. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

 

Matthew 17:1-9 NRSV

17 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ² And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. ³ Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵ While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” ⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” ⁸ And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Testing

 Waiting for a test

Echo - cardio - gram

Sound - heart - measure: A sound that tests the heart

At 70+ tests differ from those in my youth

At 17 I took the SAT (or was I 16?)

A door to the college of my choice

If we had stayed in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia then)

Age 16 would have seen the GCE -- 'O' Levels, they called it

I wonder how I would have done

I remember Secondary School -- Hamilton High, the Thistle

General Cambridge Exams (GCE)

Ordinary Level (O Levels )

Five subjects perhaps?

English Composition

English Literature

French (or maybe Latin)

Maths

Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

Would I have gotten the requisite results?

Would I have qualified for university?

No one knows -- nor can know

I do know that I needed another five years to grow up before such a test

Life in Pennsylvania saved me from ignominy, perhaps

Now I wait for another test:

Heart, kidneys, Paul's gently named "those members we think less respectable" and remain covered, eyes, arthritis

Tests and more tests

I wonder if I'll pass?

What’s It All About, Menno?

I feel like I hit the jackpot! When I checked the lectionary for my text, I found that I had drawn the Beatitudes! For a Mennonite preacher, that is like winning the lottery. These verses stand at the centre of our identity as followers of Jesus. They are part of what we call “the Sermon on the Mount”, and this sermon is the centre of Jesus teaching in his earthly ministry. AMBS has a chapel on campus named “The Sermon on the Mount Chapel.” Similarly, the Houston Mennonite Church (part of MCUSA) call themselves, “The Church of the Sermon on the Mount”. 

 

And then I realised I might be in trouble. We have heard the Beatitudes so often that my chances of saying something new are nil. I can only remind you of what you know, and I can only hope that you don’t lose interest because we are travelling well-known paths. 

 

I invite you to listen carefully. Remember that these verses and the sermon they introduce got our forebears in trouble. Swiss Mennonites, for example, were followers of Ulrich Zwingli and his Reformed Church. They got in trouble because Zwingli told them to take Jesus seriously, and they did! They took Jesus so seriously that they refused to fight in the wars that kept Zurich free. Zwingli was so annoyed that he started preaching from the accounts of wars in the Old Testament to stop them following Jesus so single-mindedly. 

 

In the beginnings of our own stream of the Mennonite Church, a basic part of Menno Simons’ formation was his turn away from the violence of Munster. A group of Anabaptists in Munster, Germany tried to establish a Christian city, taking up arms to enforce their decisions. They were defeated by the German authorities, and their violence was put down by violence. Menno was repulsed by violence and embraced the way of peace. The teachings of the Sermon on the Mount were basic to his own embrace of peace. 

 

So these verses are important. If you want to know what being Mennonite – indeed, being Christian – is all about, listen to the beatitudes. 

 

The Setting 

In Matthew 4, Jesus calls his first disciples and begins his ministry, teaching in the synagogues, preaching to the people, and healing many. Soon he had attracted a large following, and so he went up a mountain with his disciples to give them some basic teaching. Evidently, the crowds followed, since the end of the sermon in chapter 7 refers to the response of the crowd: They “were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority”. 

 

The whole sermon is probably Matthew’s compilation from teaching that Jesus did in a variety of settings. By bringing Jesus’ teaching together in this way, Matthew shows us that this is the core of Jesus’ message. If you want to know what Jesus taught, read the Sermon on the Mount. 

 

The Text

Verses 2 to 12 introduce this central teaching and give us a clear picture of what Jesus’ followers look like. These are not commands (like the Ten Commandments); rather they are description combined with promises. There are eight statements following the same form: Blessed is this kind of person. Then the blessing is stated: They will receive this promise. 

 

What does “Blessed” mean? Some translations use the word “Happy”, and the word used in Greek can indeed by translated “happy”. But Jesus means something deeper than a simple smile on your face. More like Paul’s words, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have.” (Ph 4:11) Content. Fulfilled. Full of joy. Something deeper than a simple happiness. 

 

I like the word “fulfilled”. As I get older, I sometimes wonder what my life has been. If I can die feeling fulfilled, I will be happy indeed. So we will use the word “blessed”, and you can supply further words to help clarify the meaning of blessing. 

 

The Blessings 

Blessed are: the poor in spirit; those who mourn; the meek; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; the merciful; the pure in heart; the peacemakers; those who are persecuted. As I said, these are not eight commands, to replace the law of Moses. They are not eight separate descriptions, so that some of us are “poor in spirit”, others are “meek”, and still others are “peacemakers”. Rather, the eight qualities of life go together as a description of what each one of us is to be. These words describe us! 

 

If these descriptions all belong together, then these words are all connected. The beatitudes are like a diamond that you turn this way and that, looking at the different faces of the diamond. Each face lets you see into the soul of the whole; each quality takes you into the heart of God. What then do these words mean? 

 

“The poor in spirit”: Many years ago. I found a definition of the poor that has stayed with me: “The poor are those who need God’s help – and know it.” The rich, then, are those who need God’s help – but they don’t know it. John writes to the church at Laodicea these tragic words: “You say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) 

 

There is no great blessing in poverty. God does not want us to live in poverty; God wants us all to have enough. That is why Jesus says here, “the poor in spirit”. We want to recognize our need of God and turn to God for help. When we do, we receive the kingdom of Heaven. 

 

“Those who mourn”: We may think first of people who are bereaved, and certainly God’s blessing comes to us in our grief. But Jesus is referring to a greater grief even than our personal losses. Think of the problems and dangers that face our world. Those who wrestle with these dangers and weep over our world (like Jesus wept over Jerusalem) are the ones God comforts. 

 

“The meek”: When we hear “meek”, we think “weak”. Our society is so tuned into power and force that we can’t imagine meekness as a virtue, so it is important to understand what is meant by “meek”. The basic idea is that the meek refuse to use their power selfishly. They focus on the other, not on themselves. 

 

These qualities describe Jesus above all, and we know that Jesus could be direct and challenging, for example, clearing out the moneychangers from the temple. But he used his power for others rather than for himself. That absolute commitment led him to the cross for us. When we follow Jesus and become the meek, we “inherit the earth”. This is a paradox our world does not and cannot understand. 

 

“Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”: This quality embraces all that has been said so far. We can pray daily, “Lead me in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.” It means to desire God’s will and God’s way in every situation and to give up our own will in the process. In short, we become poor sin spirit, grieving over the evil in our world, meek in the sense of committed to others, and desiring God’s constant presence in everything. When this becomes our deepest desire, God fills us with the Holy Spirit. 

 

“The merciful”: Those who show mercy, rather than insisting on their own Way. In North America today, we admire those who fight for what we want. The popularity of our politicians depends on this characteristic of our society. Mercy takes another path – looking out for the interests of the person who stands against us. This particular quality highlights the reciprocity of life. In Jesus’ own teaching, he says it most often in terms of forgiving others. So, in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” 

 

“The pure in heart”: We heard this quality in the Psalm read today. Who can ascend God’s holy hill? Who can come into God’s presence? Those who are pure in thought and deed. Which means of course, no one! This particular beatitude stands as a subversive commentary on the whole of the Sermon on the Mount. We will come back to this point. 

 

“The peacemakers”: Our favourite in the Mennonite Church! Also, one of the basic reasons that Menno Simons rejected the violence of Munster we referred to earlier. When we choose the path of peace, we begin to see God clearly. God is always with us, but violence obscures our vision. Work for peace, and God’s presence becomes clear. 

 

“The persecuted”: Paradoxically, choosing the way of Christ and embodying these qualities makes us an object of persecution. These qualities stand in sharp contrast to what the world says is necessary, and those who embrace them are not welcome in the world. The last two verses personalize the eight beatitudes and remind the disciples that the way Jesus walks, as well as the way he calls them to, turns away from society’s standards and therefore brings rejection. 

 

These Strange Attributes and Promised Reward 

I have noted several times already that these qualities – the attributes of a Christian lifestyle – do not fit well with our society. They did not fit well with first century societies either. 

 

John Stott notes the way that those who love power feel about the Sermon on the Mount.

Probably nobody has hated the ‘softness’ of the Sermon on the Mount more that Friedrich Nietzsche. Although the son and the grandson of Lutheran pastors, he rejected Christianity during his student days. His book ‘The anti-Christ’ (a title he had dared to apply to himself in his autobiographical sketch Ecce homo) is his most violent anti-Christian polemic and was written in 1888, the year before he went mad. In it he defines what is ‘good’ as ‘all that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man’, and what is ‘bad’ as ‘all that proceeds from weakness’. Consequently, in answer to his own question, ‘What is more harmful than any vice?’, he replies, ‘Active sympathy for the ill-constituted and week – Christianity.’ He sees Christianity as a religion of pity instead of a religion of power; so ‘nothing in our unhealthy modernity is more unhealthy than Christian pity.’

 

Paul Simon has a similar note in a song titled “Blessed”. The people who are blessed in Jesus’ teaching are the “sat upon, spat upon, ratted on”. Who would want to be like them? And then we turn the diamond of the beatitudes and their beauty shines out again. Blessed are those who seek God and give themselves to live for others. Blessed are those who refuse the lure of wealth and power and weep over the destruction so many powerful people have caused. Blessed are those who give themselves to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world. They receive the reward. 

 

And what a reward! Inherit the earth – Receive the kingdom of Heaven – Be filled with the Spirit of God – Know comfort and joy deeper even than the horrors of war in Ukraine. Sometimes we think that this reward is waiting for us only after we die, but remember how Jesus began his ministry. He came preaching, “The Kingdom of Heaven is near!” This reward is one that we begin to taste already. As we search for peace in this world, we begin to know God’s peace and presence already in this world. The Beatitudes do not just describe future glory; they tell is what we begin to have here and now. 

 

How Do We Get There? 

A bit ago I said: “Who can ascend God’s holy hill? … Those who are pure in thought and deed. Which means of course, no one!” At the end of this chapter, Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Now there’s a council of despair. He tells us what we are to look like, and then he says we have to reach this description perfectly. We can’t do it! We really cannot do it! Does this make the whole sermon on the mount a pipe dream and the beatitudes a waste of time? (That’s what Paul Simon seems to imply in his song.) 

 

We started with Menno Simons. Let’s finish with him too. Menno was a Catholic priest in the 1530s when he began to read the Bible more carefully, especially concerning the issue of adult baptism. In his search for truth in this area of life and in his search for God, he came to a conversion experience that absolutely transformed him. 

 

For a Catholic priest to start teaching Anabaptist doctrines was dangerous. The authorities – both Catholic and Lutheran chased him for many years. One website quotes him thus:"Menno himself wrote in 1544 that he “could not find in all the countries a cabin or hut in which my poor wife and our little children could be put up in safety for a year or even half a year” (Writings, 424). 

 

He spent much of the rest of his life giving leadership to the Dutch Anabaptist community, preaching and teaching as he moved from place to place. I remember a story my theology professor, J.C. Wenger, used to tell of these years. Menno was driving a cart full of people out of a village when he was stopped by the authorities looking for him. They told him they were looking for Menno Simons and asked if Simons was one of his passengers. Menno turned around and asked, “Is Menno Simons back there?” The people in the cart said no, and Menno turned to the authorities and said, “He’s not back there!” True enough. 

 

The writer I quoted above notes of Menno’s preaching: “No single organizing center of Menno’s thought has been identified but there is general agreement that he moved from a stress upon conversion early in his career to a gradually increasing emphasis on the church which, in turn, led to greater emphasis on discipline.” 

 

Conversion – then the visible church. These two points help us with the Sermon on the Mount and with the Beatitudes. We cannot live this life on our own: We need Christ; we need God’s Spirit living in us to make us the pure in heart, those who are becoming like Christ. And we need each other; we need the church, which is the visible body of Christ. 

 

Conclusion 

This sermon has no conclusion. Our efforts to work out what it means living together as God’s people are the only conclusion we have. It’s up to us – and to Christ in us – to work it out.

 

 Psalm 15 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 

 

¹ O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? 

² Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right and speak the truth from their heart; 

³ who do not slander with their tongue and do no evil to their friends nor heap shame upon their neighbors; 

⁴ in whose eyes the wicked are despised but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; 

⁵ who do not lend money at interest and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. 

 

 

Matthew 5:1-12 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

5 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.  ² And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 

⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” 

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

29 January 2023