you are blessed

What does it mean for us as ordinary people and Christians to live righteously and faithfully as a person of God? All our readings have God asking things of us, but arguable, they are ordinary things. We are not asked to be heroes, but good common people. In many ways it is looking only to heroes for these things that leaves us ordinary people feeling that ‘goodness’ is just out of our grasp. Yet you are good people. The beatitudes are not aimed at extraordinary people. They describe ordinary people.

We are the poor in Spirit, we are the ones who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and peace. We are the ones who can show mercy and even purity. When Jesus spoke from the mountain, he chose to speak in a public place, not the synagogue where he might get the intellectuals or the righteous, but in a place where the ordinary people came to him. Jesus was speaking to ordinary people, not heroes, just us.

And isn’t his message so different to that of John the Baptist. John screams out “Repent! You bunch of no-hopers , or you’ll rot in hell.” And Jesus begins his ministry by saying “you are blessed”.

be ordinarily good

Micah 6:1-8 ....it is good to read this famous verse from the prophet Micah in its larger context, which is a pain-filled exchange between Yahweh and Israel. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you?” Sounds like a hurting parent trying to figure out an angry teenager. The relationship is broken. In verses 6-7 Israel responds, sounding very much like a surly teenager: “What is it you want from me?” “Burnt offerings . . . calves a year old . . . thousands of ram . . . ten thousands of rivers of oil???” Note that the amounts increase to the point of the ridiculous and that Israel seems to think God wants quantifiable stuff. No, answers God, it’s not about piles of stuff, it is about the direction and qualities of your life: to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. None of these can be reduced to specifiable quantities because it’s not about specific sacrifices; it’s about right relationship, with God, self and others. And it is not an extraordinary request. “This is all I ask of you! Be ordinarily good!”
This week, as people ponder about the horror of the murders in central Melbourne, it has been heartening to hear about the ordinary goodness of people just caring for each other in the midst of tragedy. 

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) once expressed his deep gratitude to Mary King, a simple cook by trade:

I do believe that I learnt more from her than I should have learned from any six doctors of divinity of the sort we have nowadays...There are some Christian people who taste, and see, and enjoy religion in their souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days. 

We are the poor in spirit

 What does it mean for us as ordinary people and Christians to live righteously and faithfully as a person of God? All our readings have god asking things of us, but arguable, they are ordinary things. We are not asked to be heroes, but good common people. In many ways it is looking only to heroes for these things that leaves us ordinary people feeling that ‘goodness’ is just out of our grasp. Yet you are good people. The beatitudes are not aimed at extraordinary people. They describe ordinary people.

We are the poor in Spirit, we are the ones who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and peace. We are the ones who can show mercy and even purity. When Jesus spoke from the mountain, he chose to speak in a public place, not the synagogue where he might get the intellectuals or the righteous, but in a place where the ordinary people came to him. Jesus was speaking to ordinary people, not heroes, just us.

And isn’t his message so different to that of John the Baptist. John screams out “Repent! You bunch of no-hopers , or you’ll rot in hell.” And Jesus begins his ministry by saying “you are blessed”.
It is an interesting exercise to read the beatitudes from the first person. We are the poor in spirit, I am the poor in spirit. We presume it is others, the somehow perfect, but see how it feels to say it and own it.