Be-Attitudes?
This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church last Sunday. The text was Matthew 5:1-12. Have you ever asked someone how they are, and they respond, “I’m blessed!” What often follows is a litany of all the wonderful things happening in their lives. Sometimes it makes us feel that we’re like chopped liver. We see this too when there are disasters, whether because of weather or violence. When survivors are interviewed, they mention that they just kept praying, or it was God’s will to save them, or they’re just “blessed.” What does that say about everyone else? Were those who died any less blessed by God? Didn’t God hear their prayers? Does God only save those who deserve it? Jesus withdraws to a mountain to be alone with his disciples and to teach them. That’s an important characteristic of Jesus in Matthew’s story – he is a teacher, an interpreter of God’s law, meeting with his disciples on the mountain like a new Moses training the twelve disciple...