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Posted on Mon Jun 15 2009
Mel Williams
Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
Matthew 5:1-10
A sermon by
June 14, 2009 (first in series on the Beatitudes)
Today we begin a summer series on the Beatitudes, the initial teaching of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. While this is called a sermon, I think it could also be called “The Lesson on the Mount.”
Jesus starts the sermon/lesson by tossing blessings into the room. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they who mourn, blessed are the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. These blessings are tossed upon people who orient their lives to the
We stated last Sunday that the core values of the Kingdom include love, forgiveness, restoration to fullness of life, and inclusive community (bringing people back into community). The Beatitudes are steps, stair steps, into this Kingdom, the Beloved Community of love, forgiveness, and fullness of life. Clarence Jordan calls the Kingdom “The God Movement.”
We might be tempted to view the Beatitudes as commandments, imperatives. But they’re not “shoulds’ and “oughts.” They are blessings, affirmations, for those who long for the Kingdom. We might be tempted to call them attitudes. I remember my mother saying to her Sunday school class years ago, “It’s not the A Attitudes; it’s the B-attitudes.” But these are more than attitudes; they are actions, which we might also call habits or practices.
The first Beatitude is the first action, the first step, toward the Kingdom. One commentator says that the first Beatitude “stands at the threshold of the
There are beatitudes in both Matthew and Luke. Luke states, “Blessed are the poor,” and Matthew says “the poor in spirit.” Which is it? We might ask: Is Jesus blessing the materially poor or the poor in spirit? We might be tempted to think that “poor in spirit” means those who are downcast, depressed, unsettled, emotionally flat, and joyless. If we settle on that interpretation, we’ll say, “Oh, we all go through ‘poor in spirit’ times, so it must refer to all of us.” Does that mean that Jesus blesses us only when we’re down in the dumps?
It is more likely that Jesus is blessing the materially poor, which comprised the great majority of his audience. But there is also the likelihood that the poor are more likely to be the poor in spirit. (from Sr. Evelyn Mattern, Blessed Are You: The Beatitudes and Our Survival)
How can that be? The poor lack resources to provide for their basic needs. They could be beggars in Jesus’ day or homeless people in our day. In Jewish tradition, poverty and dependence on God are synonymous. To be poor and poor in spirit means that we are dependent on God alone. The Psalmist says, “For God alone my soul waits.” (Psalm 62:1) The people of
That reminds me of the story of the country preacher who was in his church when a huge flood raced through the valley and quickly covered the church. The man scrambled out on the roof. The water was rising, and he began to pray: “God, please save me.” The water kept rising, so he climbed up on the steeple, hanging on precariously. He kept praying, “God, please save me.” Shortly after that, a boat came motoring up to the steeple, and the driver said, “Get in. You’re going to drown.” The preacher said, “No, no, the Lord is going to save me.” The boat left. A little later, a helicopter hovered overhead, with a rope dangling down. The pilot said, “Grab the rope.” “No, no,” the preacher said. “The Lord will save me.” Shortly afterward, the flood waters kept rising, and the man was swept away and drowned. He soon entered heaven, and he spoke to the Good Lord. “I kept praying for you to save me. Why didn’t you?” The Lord said, “I sent a boat and a helicopter.”
Even in his desperate situation, I don’t think the country preacher quite learned to be poor in spirit. He stubbornly expected some supernatural rescue; but to depend on God is to depend on the resources that God sends.
The opposite of poverty of spirit is to rely totally on the people, places and things that are not God. (E. Mattern, p. 30) In our culture we rely primarily on ourselves. We may think that we can buy all we need at the shopping mall. I have a friend who was reflecting on her mother’s religious life, and she said, “Her religion was shopping.” For some, that’s true. If we can get one more clothing item, one more gadget, one more computer or Ipod or Blackberry, we’ll be saved.
But will gadgets save us? To be poor in spirit is contrary to American values. Our society teaches us that possessions will give us security, that wealth will save us. We can easily think that we are independent, with all the resources we need; but when we go up against a crisis of health or a crisis of loss and grief or a crisis of meaning, where do we turn?
I believe we have much to learn from the poor. Their goal is survival. Some of us have visited countries where the poverty rate is high. When a group of us visited
An American church official went to Haiti to visit a woman named Evangeline. She had been given chickens to raise, a gift from American churches, so she could have an income. The name “Evangeline,” by the way means “good news.” In talking with Evangeline, the chuchman said, “I will keep praying for you, that you will have enough.” And she said, “Thank you, and I will pray for you too, because I know it is more dangerous to have too much than to have too little.”
How can we depend on God when we have too much? How can we affirm “In God we trust” when money is really our god? A clear image for poverty of spirit—dependence of God—is the begging bowl. Throughout the ages, monks have taken a vow of poverty. In former times monks would survive by carrying their begging bowl, waiting for people to place food in the bowl so they could survive. This may seem odd to us, and perhaps as disconcerting as the beggars who sit at the stop light with a sign saying “Hungry, homeless. Please help.” We have mixed feelings about them; we want to help, but we don’t want our doled out dollars to go for drugs or alcohol.
But could we imagine ourselves sitting by the wayside with a begging bowl? In early manuals of prayer, the Christian was urged to pray from the posture of the poor. “When we are at prayer,” the manual said, “we should think and act as do the poor. When they knock at a door, they wait patiently until something is brought to them. If nothing comes, they keep knocking.” (E. Mattern, p. 30)
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” One writer says that a good translation of this beatitude is “Blessed are the beggars in spirit.” (from
So what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? It means to place our trust not in ourselves, but in God. “For God alone my soul waits.” As the Rule of the Camaldoli Monastery states, “Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.” (from St. Romuald’s Brief Rule for Camaldolese Monks)
Blessed are the poor in spirit—they who depend on God—for theirs is the Kingdom, the Beloved Community.
Amen.
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