| For sports fans, today means football. Is there really anyone
who doesn’t know that today is Super Bowl Sunday?
Tonight New England and St. Louis will be pitted against
each other for the championship of professional football
in Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, Louisiana.
This contest is regarded with such awe and reverence
by so many that today can well be called
a veritable holy day of American sport!
I have even heard of several Presbyterian Churches
that are planning Super Bowl parties.
Yet how odd it seems to me to have the Gospel Lesson for Super Bowl Sunday be the passage known as the Beatitudes- Jesus’s promises of blessing for those imbued with qualities characteristic of the people of God, qualities toward which the power of the Holy Spirit is at work transforming us. For the qualities of the Beatitudes are very, very different from the qualities of a championship football team, even if St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner is a born- again Christian and even if his Ram teammates are supposedly “the most spiritual team in football.” Yes, the qualities of the Beatitudes are very, very different. I mean, have you ever heard a winning football team described as "poor in spirit,” “mournful,” “meek,” or “merciful,” or even “righteous,” “pure in heart,” “peace-loving,” or “good at losing”? No, every championship football team, whether it’s the Patriots or the Rams, is “cocky,” “boisterous,” “aggressive,” “ferocious,” “mean,” “combative,” and maybe even “dirty” + “violent.” And the sport is filled with such terms as “attack,” “pursuit,” “combat,” “offensive weapons,” “explosiveness,” “bomb,” “domination,” “sack.” Yes, the contrast between the qualities desirable in an exemplary football team + the qualities desirable in an exemplary community of faith is pretty stark. Moreover, whereas a mere mortal, such as New England’s coach, Bill Belichick, or St. Louis’s coach, Mike Martz, is able to shape + mold an exemplary football team, no mere mortal, not even a preacher, can shape + mold an exemplary community of faith. Only God’s Holy Spirit is capable of doing that. So every congregation needs to take God as its coach and to open itself to the transforming power of God’s Holy Spirit. That’s my main point this morning, so let me say it again. Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can shape and mold an exemplary community of faith. So all of us, both preacher and congregation alike, need to put ourselves in the hands of God. Now, what are the qualities of the people of God that Jesus highlights in the Beatitudes and that God is transforming us toward? What are these qualities? First, the people of God are those who are “poor in spirit.” Interestingly, the Bible equates poverty with piety. It thinks of the poor as those who are truly righteous and godly, and it thinks of the rich as those who are worldly and sinful. Our modern American mindset reverses that image, doesn't it. We tend to stereotype the poor as lazy, shiftless, prone to violence. But hear what Jesus says, he who himself was poor: the people of God are those who are “poor in spirit,” not those who are dependent on wealth or who are ruggedly self-reliant. You see, the “poor in spirit” are those who know that well-being comes only from God, who know that people can’t make it on their own and rejoice that people don’t need to make it on their own. And Jesus promises to those who are “poor in spirit” that God is, and always will be, their rock and their redeemer. Second, the people of God are those who “mourn.” Like the prophets of Israel, they mourn the evils of society, mourn the injustice in the world, mourn the chasm between what the world has become and what it was created to be. Like Jesus, the people of God weep over the city. And to all those who lift up a prophetic voice to mourn injustice, Jesus offers the comforting promise that someday goodness and justice will prevail. Third, the people of God are those who are “meek”- or, to use the words of the prophet Micah in today’s First Lesson, those who “walk humbly with God.” Today’s culture is enthralled with aggression, anger, conflict, brute strength-as we will see again tonight, in the game. But in contrast, God is a coach who is at work to transform the community of faith into a congregation of the meek, the humble, and the gentle. And Jesus promises that in God’s own good time it will be this community-the meek- that shall be the strongest on the earth. Fourth, the people of God are those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness”- or, to use the words of the prophet Micah, those who “do justice.” God is at work among those who hunger and thirst for righteousness so that God’s will may come to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Jesus promises that in the fullness of God’s plan the hungering community of faith will come to feel full and satisfied, as after a great feast. For God’s will shall be done on earth as in heaven. Fifth, the people of God are those who are “merciful.” Ours is a culture with loud + insistent voices calling for recrimination, retribution, and revenge, and ours is a society committed to building prisons and imposing death sentences. Yet over against this culture of retribution, our merciful God is at work to shape and form each community of faith into a counterculture of mercy. And Jesus promises that those who have received God’s mercy and have given mercy to others shall continue to receive God’s mercy. Sixth, the people of God are those who are “pure in heart.” God is at work to transform human hearts so that they grow to be undivided in loyalty to God. God is at work to form the community of faith so that, to use the words of the prophet Micah, our hearts may grow to “love loyalty to God.” And Jesus promises to those who are pure in heart, who give God the whole of their love and loyalty, that they shall see and enjoy God forever. Seventh, the people of God are those who are “peacemakers.” The people of God are those actively at work to bring reconciliation among all and well-being for all- among and for the members of this church, among and for the racial + ethnic groups of New York City, among and for the peoples of the Middle East, among and for the peoples of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. And Jesus promises to all who are peacemakers that they are the ones who shall be known as children of God. Eighth, the people of God are those who are “willing even to endure persecution for the sake of righteousness.” In this troubled and brutal world of ours, being good certainly does not guarantee being popular. Faithfulness to God is often costly. Yet God is at work within the community of faith to give it the strength to persevere in the name of God, whatever the cost. And Jesus promises to all who persevere in this way the joy of everlasting life with God. Well, there you have it! It’s tough to preach on a list of so many things! But one way to try to make such a list of qualities come to life is to call to mind persons who exemplify these qualities. So at breakfast one morning, my wife Margaret and I sat down to nominate some modern Christians who embody the Beatitudes- a kind of dream team, if you will, for Super Bowl Sunday, a group truly worthy of Super Sunday blessings. After we finished our list, we noticed, apropos of Black History Month, that two of the eight are African-American and one is African. We share our list of nominees with you both in the hope that this will help make the Beatitudes more vivid for you and in the hope that you will be inspired to compile your own list of nominees.
As I said, I have the hope that all of you will now go home and think up your own list of persons whom you believe to embody one or more of the Beatitudes. Margaret and I felt that for the most part our list should feature well-known people, so that when you heard their names you would be able to call them to mind. But your private list can, of course, name anyone: not just the famous, but also your neighbor, your friend, your relative, your co-worker. And if you do put on your list people whom you know well, I hope that you will find time this week to speak to those persons and to say something like this: “Last Sunday, the preacher talked about the Beatitudes, and you know, when I think about someone who is ‘pure in heart’ I think of you, and I want to tell you why.” What wonderful conversations that would make for! The Beatitudes-an important list to know and even to memorize. Jesus did not give us the Beatitudes as the goals of a self-improvement program. Jesus did not give us the Beatitudes as commandments to be obeyed. No, Jesus gave the Beatitudes as promises made to all those who surrender to the Holy Spirit and put themselves in the hands of God as their coach. Jesus gave the Beatitudes as promises, promises that God will surely keep. Again, the Beatitudes are not good works to be performed. Rather, they are Good News to be savored. God will form in us these qualities + will fulfill in us these blessings if we but open ourselves to God’s Holy Spirit and let that Spirit work within us. God wants all of us in the Rutgers Presbyterian Church to receive the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and to enjoy the blessings Jesus has promised. Super Sunday blessings-the Beatitudes. Whenever folks in the neighborhood hear this key list, I hope they will think of Rutgers Presbyterian congregation. I hope they will think of us as a group for whom God is the coach, a group in which God’s transforming power is at work and God’s blessings are being received. So with God as our coach, let’s go out on the field of life and claim God’s Super Sunday blessings. Let us pray: Come to us, O God, and work within us that we may embody Your Beatitudes and proclaim them to all. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. |
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