A PRAYER TO START
This prayer of confession and supplication was inspired by Psalm 25. Pray it 3xs…
To you Father does my soul cry out. You Father are the one I trust. Please do not let my trusting put me to shame. I know it will not, but it feels like it might. Your way is different, help me to see it, teach me the way you go, grab my hand and walk with me. I know your way is salvation, and it is worth the slow start to ensure the right path. You are good and fair God! You correct my missteps and redirect me along your way. You walk with the awkward ones, the ones the world has shamed, leading us step-by-step. Because of Jesus, Father I know (!), every road I travel will certainly lead to you. Grant me grace to recognize your covenant signs and grace to recognize your soft whispers guiding the way. Amen.
GETTING THOUGHTFUL
What does life in the kingdom of God look like? Different! It may be a funny way to say it, yet it is probably the most accurate way to describe the life of those who follow Jesus. Think about it. After proclaiming that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand”, Jesus sits down, as all rabbi’s do to teach, and unpacks his understanding of the kingdom of God. We call Jesus’ kingdom teaching, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). To kick things off, Jesus begins with a declaration to those who followed him of a very different value system for navigating their everyday world. These “beatitudes” (5:3-10) as we call them are Jesus’ introduction to the kingdom come life. So, what is so different about them?
First, he honors attitudes that most of us would probably not include on our online profile or in our resume. Honestly, do you want to be one who is mournful, a ‘Debbie downer” of sorts? What about a meek person? Do you think that would get you very far in your career? How about always being a bit unsatisfied with life as it is? Who wants to be around that person? Or, wouldn't we rather be called "full of" spirit instead of “poor” in spirit? Yet Jesus says these are the very attitudes that mark the “blessed” in God’s kingdom. They are not marks of shame, but a disposition in the world that is honored by God.
In turn, Jesus suggests that such attitudes produce actions that while noble in theory will inevitably produce lose of relationships, being disowned by family and friends and the economy (that’s what the word we translate “persecuted” in 5:10 captures). Feeling and acting compassionately, having one singular motive while harboring no hidden agendas (i.e. "pure in heart"), seeking to end conflict by taking on other people’s problems; such actions will do great good but always at a cost. The reward for such a life: receiving the same compassionate feeling actions from God, being able to see God, hearing your Father speak your name, and possession of the kingdom (which is another way of saying one is nobility or royalty).
Those who would live differently, certainly will find themselves in a long line of others in God’s kingdom history whose difference was not always something appreciated by the more outspoken of any day,
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(5:11-12)
REFLECTION
Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom would astonish the crowds which included the religious, the irreligious, poor, rich, honorable and shameful alike. What was so astonishing? Perhaps it was the very different nature of Jesus’ description of the kingdom of God, and kingdom life, than they had expected. Slowly read again through Jesus’ initial description of the kingdom that is at hand:
BLESSED ARE...
- the poor in spirit
- those who mourn
- the meek
- those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
- the merciful
- the pure in heart
- the peacemakers
- the persecuted
FOR THEY SHALL…
- have the kingdom
- be comforted
- inherit the earth
- be satisfied
- receive mercy
- the pure in heart
- see God
- the peacemakers
- be called children of God
- have the kingdom
Use these questions to help you prayerfully reflect individually and/or discuss as a DNA group
- In 2-3 sentences, describe the kingdom of God as if your friend, co-worker or child asked you?
- If someone asked you to share the four attitudes and four actions that shape the life of a person following Jesus, what words would you use?
- How would you describe the rewards of following Jesus?
- In what ways are your descriptions reflections of Jesus’? In what ways do they differ?
- Would those who know you best describe your way of life as “different”, even a little so? Explain.
- Could your life as a Gospel Community be described by neighbors and friends as “different”? Why or why not?
ECHO
Robert Frost’s famous poem, The Road Not Taken, captures our common experience of life on the way with Jesus. The often subtle, seemingly neutral, yet drastically impactful choices on which path to follow even today. May his exhortation echo in your mind, in your heart, and into your actions this week.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.