February 2, 2020
Matthew 5:1-12
Some of you may not know this, but I taught college courses for about eight years. I taught mostly at Guilford Technical Community College in their paralegal program - classes in real estate law, wills, trusts and estate law and business law. I also taught a class at Elon University. That class was what those in higher education call a survey course which was focused on students who believed they had an interest in furthering their studies in law school.
I loved teaching and based on feedback I received, was pretty good at it. If you knew about all of the teachers and educators on my mom’s side of the family, you would say I obtained the teaching gene naturally, and maybe I did. I especially loved teaching those students who had a passion for learning. I didn’t really care about grades, I cared about learning. I even told students on the very first day of class not to ask me about their grades because that was not my focus and I didn’t want it to be theirs. My focus was learning, and I hoped theirs would become the same.
Now some students resisted my approach, and I understood their resistance. For them I’m sure my approach was new. The system they had grown up in was a system of grades, not a system of learning. The grade-based system has done a tremendous job of convincing everyone that good grades is all the evidence needed to show good learning, but reality, I believe, indicated otherwise. For those students who trusted me and focused only on learning the new information being taught, our time together ended with them gaining lasting knowledge instead of memorization to takes tests. That lasting knowledge, I believed was significantly more valuable than a grade, although our time ended with good grades for them too. They left my classroom with something they could use for the rest of their lives… knowledge.
Before I started teaching in college classrooms, I taught, or lead, the group discussions in young adult Sunday school classrooms. While the subject may have been different, teaching lessons on Sundays is generally the same. A good number of the people are there just to pass the time – few, if any, have read the lesson and prepared before showing up that day – But if handled properly, everyone there will leave having learned something.
Unlike those weekday classrooms, inside the four walls of those Sunday morning classrooms, everyone seemed to think they knew a lot about the topic, especially if they had grown up going to church. Evidently, religion and faith can do that to people. From my experience, people are rarely lukewarm, when it comes to their religion and their faith. Opinions about what things mean, and what they don’t mean are strongly held in those type situations, especially if the topic is a topic everyone thinks they should know – like the Beatitudes.
Now, maybe people don’t really think they already know everything about the Beatitudes, but I suspect if they grew up in the western Christian church, they are at least familiar with the word. It is that familiarity, and the appearance others give of knowing about the topic, that makes people act like they know. It also makes talking, or teaching about the topic a difficult task, one that can leave the teacher, feeling ill equipped to teach.
*******************************
It is interesting though to think about the art and skill of teaching when thinking about today’s scripture. It is interesting because each of the four gospel writers have a particular thing, a particular aspect of Jesus, that they focus on in their telling of his story. For Mark, Jesus is the ultimate boundary crosser. Luke wants you to learn about Jesus the savior of the marginalized and the outcast. And John – well his focus is abundance and more specifically, Jesus’ embodiment of God’s abundant grace.
Our scripture today comes from the book of Matthew, so it feels important that at the outset we ask who Jesus is for Matthew. What we will discover is that Jesus is the teacher to his disciples. So, for Matthew Jesus the teacher is of primary importance. And whenever there is a teacher, there must also be a student or students – those who offer themselves to the scene as learners – the disciples.
It is important to start our approach to this text in this way because it allows us to ask necessary questions, if we are willing. Questions like why did Jesus choose a sermon to deliver this lesson? Why did he choose that particular time and place? Why did he go off, away from the crowds, to teach this lesson to the disciples?
The thing is, questions like these are not being asked in an effort to prove or disprove the truthfulness of the story, these questions can help us today experience the story. They can help place us inside the story, or maybe in the audience of the story, so that we can join the disciples and better share their experience. And what experience should we hope to share, the experience of feeling we are blessed.
Those first disciples aren’t passive participants in the Jesus story of God’s reconciling love. They aren’t afforded the luxury of sitting in the stands and watching the game unfold. They are active players in the game, but in order the be at their best, they must first learn something about themselves – they must first learn they are blessed and that the blessing comes from God who chose them and who loves them. For Matthew those first disciples are students. They are learners, who like all learners, learn best within a framework of promise and the promise Jesus provides is a promise of blessedness. “You are blessed. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. Only with these claims of identity in place can the disciples, …, live out what Jesus will ask [them] to do.”[1] The same, I believe, goes for us.
This promise of blessedness on the front-end is the reason Jesus has to preach this sermon to the disciples now. They have to know who they are now – on the front end of their journey – in order to carry the load they will later carry. The thing is this teaching applies to us too, and that is Good News. We are blessed and it seems we don’t always remember that fact. We are blessed, but don’t mistake this promise as a promise of constant happiness or joy. The promises of the Beatitudes, or God’s Blessings, are promises you carry in the joyful times and promises that help carry you through difficult times. We are blessed.
We are blessed when we mourn.
We are blessed when we are meek.
We are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We are blessed when we are merciful.
We are blessed when we are pure in heart.
We are blessed when we are the peacemakers.
We are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
We are blessed when people revile us and persecute us and utter all kinds of evil against us falsely on his account.
WE ARE BLESSED!
***********************************
Teaching is such an important role in the life of our world. So is learning. Matthew wants to highlight the teacher in Jesus and it is important to know that as we read Matthew’s account of his life.
The hope is that those of us who fulfill the role of student to Jesus’ teaching, do so for the sake of learning, not for the sake of grades!
[Prayer]
Amen!
[1] Lewis, Karoline, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3155
Matthew 5:1-12
Some of you may not know this, but I taught college courses for about eight years. I taught mostly at Guilford Technical Community College in their paralegal program - classes in real estate law, wills, trusts and estate law and business law. I also taught a class at Elon University. That class was what those in higher education call a survey course which was focused on students who believed they had an interest in furthering their studies in law school.
I loved teaching and based on feedback I received, was pretty good at it. If you knew about all of the teachers and educators on my mom’s side of the family, you would say I obtained the teaching gene naturally, and maybe I did. I especially loved teaching those students who had a passion for learning. I didn’t really care about grades, I cared about learning. I even told students on the very first day of class not to ask me about their grades because that was not my focus and I didn’t want it to be theirs. My focus was learning, and I hoped theirs would become the same.
Now some students resisted my approach, and I understood their resistance. For them I’m sure my approach was new. The system they had grown up in was a system of grades, not a system of learning. The grade-based system has done a tremendous job of convincing everyone that good grades is all the evidence needed to show good learning, but reality, I believe, indicated otherwise. For those students who trusted me and focused only on learning the new information being taught, our time together ended with them gaining lasting knowledge instead of memorization to takes tests. That lasting knowledge, I believed was significantly more valuable than a grade, although our time ended with good grades for them too. They left my classroom with something they could use for the rest of their lives… knowledge.
Before I started teaching in college classrooms, I taught, or lead, the group discussions in young adult Sunday school classrooms. While the subject may have been different, teaching lessons on Sundays is generally the same. A good number of the people are there just to pass the time – few, if any, have read the lesson and prepared before showing up that day – But if handled properly, everyone there will leave having learned something.
Unlike those weekday classrooms, inside the four walls of those Sunday morning classrooms, everyone seemed to think they knew a lot about the topic, especially if they had grown up going to church. Evidently, religion and faith can do that to people. From my experience, people are rarely lukewarm, when it comes to their religion and their faith. Opinions about what things mean, and what they don’t mean are strongly held in those type situations, especially if the topic is a topic everyone thinks they should know – like the Beatitudes.
Now, maybe people don’t really think they already know everything about the Beatitudes, but I suspect if they grew up in the western Christian church, they are at least familiar with the word. It is that familiarity, and the appearance others give of knowing about the topic, that makes people act like they know. It also makes talking, or teaching about the topic a difficult task, one that can leave the teacher, feeling ill equipped to teach.
*******************************
It is interesting though to think about the art and skill of teaching when thinking about today’s scripture. It is interesting because each of the four gospel writers have a particular thing, a particular aspect of Jesus, that they focus on in their telling of his story. For Mark, Jesus is the ultimate boundary crosser. Luke wants you to learn about Jesus the savior of the marginalized and the outcast. And John – well his focus is abundance and more specifically, Jesus’ embodiment of God’s abundant grace.
Our scripture today comes from the book of Matthew, so it feels important that at the outset we ask who Jesus is for Matthew. What we will discover is that Jesus is the teacher to his disciples. So, for Matthew Jesus the teacher is of primary importance. And whenever there is a teacher, there must also be a student or students – those who offer themselves to the scene as learners – the disciples.
It is important to start our approach to this text in this way because it allows us to ask necessary questions, if we are willing. Questions like why did Jesus choose a sermon to deliver this lesson? Why did he choose that particular time and place? Why did he go off, away from the crowds, to teach this lesson to the disciples?
The thing is, questions like these are not being asked in an effort to prove or disprove the truthfulness of the story, these questions can help us today experience the story. They can help place us inside the story, or maybe in the audience of the story, so that we can join the disciples and better share their experience. And what experience should we hope to share, the experience of feeling we are blessed.
Those first disciples aren’t passive participants in the Jesus story of God’s reconciling love. They aren’t afforded the luxury of sitting in the stands and watching the game unfold. They are active players in the game, but in order the be at their best, they must first learn something about themselves – they must first learn they are blessed and that the blessing comes from God who chose them and who loves them. For Matthew those first disciples are students. They are learners, who like all learners, learn best within a framework of promise and the promise Jesus provides is a promise of blessedness. “You are blessed. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. Only with these claims of identity in place can the disciples, …, live out what Jesus will ask [them] to do.”[1] The same, I believe, goes for us.
This promise of blessedness on the front-end is the reason Jesus has to preach this sermon to the disciples now. They have to know who they are now – on the front end of their journey – in order to carry the load they will later carry. The thing is this teaching applies to us too, and that is Good News. We are blessed and it seems we don’t always remember that fact. We are blessed, but don’t mistake this promise as a promise of constant happiness or joy. The promises of the Beatitudes, or God’s Blessings, are promises you carry in the joyful times and promises that help carry you through difficult times. We are blessed.
We are blessed when we mourn.
We are blessed when we are meek.
We are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We are blessed when we are merciful.
We are blessed when we are pure in heart.
We are blessed when we are the peacemakers.
We are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
We are blessed when people revile us and persecute us and utter all kinds of evil against us falsely on his account.
WE ARE BLESSED!
***********************************
Teaching is such an important role in the life of our world. So is learning. Matthew wants to highlight the teacher in Jesus and it is important to know that as we read Matthew’s account of his life.
The hope is that those of us who fulfill the role of student to Jesus’ teaching, do so for the sake of learning, not for the sake of grades!
[Prayer]
Amen!
[1] Lewis, Karoline, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3155
