Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The reading from Matthew is more commonly called the Sermon on the Mount and more specifically the Beatitudes. This occurs at the high point of Jesus' Galilean ministry. Jesus has selected the twelve disciples. He has also taught in synagogues in Galilee, healed the sick, and cast out demons. His fame was steadily growing. Crowds were following Him from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, and the Decapolis.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down to teach His disciples and the crowd that followed. As with many locations mentioned in scripture there is debate about where this mountain actually is. The Roman Catholic Church built the Church of the Beatitudes on a hill near where Capernaum was located on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Many scholars believe this is the likely area of the event but there are no mountains so to speak. It's thought that the wording is a reference to Moses going up on the mountain to speak to the Israelites.

Like the Ten Commandments the Beatitudes are grouped by our relationship with God and our relationship with others, although their meaning may not be absolute in that regard. Verses three through six have a strong tendency toward our relationship with God, while seven through nine tend to address how we relate to others. In an interesting twist verses ten and eleven are about how others relate to Christians.

The crowds heard Jesus proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was near. I'm sure most would have been asking what I have to do to get into heaven. Whether the Sermon on the Mount was a response to that concern no one can say but it certainly gave people pause. The beatitudes clash with the way they saw the world. Blessed are is better stated as how fortunate for those who are part of God's Kingdom. What would the beatitudes look like if we concentrated on the worldly view?

How unfortunate are those who are prideful and seek worldly possessions.

How unfortunate are those who seek happiness at any cost.

How unfortunate are those who seek power at any cost.

How unfortunate are those who seek only personal needs.

How unfortunate are those who exhibit strength without feeling.

How unfortunate are those who find deception acceptable.

How unfortunate are those who seek personal peace without concern for others.

How unfortunate are those who are weak in their commitments.

When we look at the beatitudes from a worldly perspective it makes us just a bit uneasy. We are all guilty to some extent of one if not all of the worldly views.

In verses three through six of the reading the focus is on our relationship with God. Jesus starts out with the poor in spirit. He is literally talking about the poor but not because they have no wealth per se but because there is an absence of greed and trust in worldly wealth. For the poor in spirit things aren't taking place of the God of all creation.

Jesus then mentions those who mourn. They mourn because of sin and its consequences, both their own and that of others. Not the mourning of despair and rebellion but the honest recognition of things as they are in this broken world. This kind of mourning leads to true life changing repentance.

Verse five raises up the meek those who are courageously meek. The meek remain calm and unruffled when others are easily provoked, they do not seek revenge, but forgive from a loving heart. They show the very same forgiveness shown by God through Jesus Christ.

Finally in our relationship with God Jesus encourages us that anyone who hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of faith and of life will be filled. By putting on the clothes of Baptism, Jesus Christ through the power of Father perfects our weakness. We know that on our own we are weak and imperfect and it can be distressing to realize our failings in our service to God. He recognizes our failings in actions and focuses on the attitudes of our hearts.

Verses seven through nine describe the Christian's attitudes and dealings with other people. Verse seven tells us to be merciful as God has been merciful to us. He makes us merciful through the Holy Spirit and then blesses us for showing the mercy He has worked in our hearts.

In our hearts God looks for purity as Jesus states in verse eight. Purity in heart must be a single virtue, the honesty which has no hidden motive, no selfish interest, and is true and open in all things. In the faces of others we see His creation in His own image. How much better it will be as we see Him face to face for eternity. Jesus didn't have to look far to find the contrast to this beatitude. The hypocrisy in the Jewish authorities and their administration of the laws was clearly contrary to this teaching.

The final verse on our relations to others encourages us to strive for peace with others. Christians are encouraged to live peaceably with all people as they are able without giving up principle. Unfortunately too many fail here not because they fail to seek peace but because they do so at the expense of Christian principle. It's easier to look the other way than to take a stand.

Verses ten and eleven show us we can expect from our efforts to follow Jesus. In this world we may meet resistance. In other lands people are tortured and die for their Christian beliefs. The truly wondrous revelation is in the last verse. When we persevere in the name of Christ, we rejoice because great is our reward in heaven.

Jesus is telling us to do what He has written in our hearts. We know what the right thing to do is. It's to share the message with as many as possible. We shouldn't be discouraged by resistance but rejoice that the message was noticed otherwise it would not be meet some resistance.

Jesus knows our hearts and our abilities. We only fail when we think our contribution is too little to make a difference and thus don't act at all.

God has laid before us an important message to share with all people. Through Jesus He has provided us mercy for our failings and a way to eternal rest. Jesus in a sense shared again the Ten Commandments in the forms of Law and Gospel to guide us home. He also leaves us with an important question, are we in or out? Do we believe or not? Do we recognize His teaching as the truth that guides us to a right relationship to Him and others?

In the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.