Sermon 4th epiphany, yr A, 2026

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them,:

 

            If you attend our bible study there is one word you will hear me say over and over again…context! Context! Context!  It’s important because when you write a sermon you write it with a particular context in mind.  As the priest you know the struggles your church is facing, the challenges of individual congregants and you try to keep abreast of the larger social and political context of the city and the world.  A good sermon reflects this and helps people in this particular time and in this particular place.  Context!

 

            Yet, when we read scripture we get chunks at a time, pericopes they are called, and we often get them out of context.  So, we read our gospel today and jump straight to the meat of the matter, the beatitudes themselves, we are missing the context.  We read blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful…and we imagine Jesus speaking to us.

And in our understanding of how biblical truth is eternal, yes Jesus is speaking to us, but that isn’t the context.

The gospel reading today would better serve us if it began in Chapter 4, verse 23 which is right before and reads as follows.

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,[g] Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.    

 

 

These are the ‘crowds’ to which Jesus spoke.  People from all over Jerusalem, from Galilee in the north and Judea in the south; people from across the Jordan River and even from way up north in country of Syria.  People came from all over to meet and heard of Jesus …but they did not come on their own.  We read: people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed;. 

So, the crowd gathered to hear the Jesus speak and the people he spoke to were those who were, in essence, beyond help and beyond hope. Those whose lives were rooted in suffering, those who were cast out, those who society avoided…. And those who cared for them, family who still had a shred of hope that maybe this man could work miracles.

So, perhaps it would have been you there that day… but if your life is going relatively well…chances are you would not have showed up that day.

So, Jesus sat down and he spoke to the suffering, the hopeless, the shunned and the desperate and he told them. 

You are blessed, because God is with you. 

You are blessed, because you will receive mercy. 

You are blessed, not because society is against you, but because you are children of God and God’s kingdom is reserved for you. 

Jesus told them You. Are. Blessed.

Absolute foolishness!  By any normal social standard all those who gathered; the grieving, the ill, the poor, the persecuted…would not be considered people who are to be admired or considered blessed.  In fact, by what society has always told us, it is the rich, the powerful, the famous, the 1% who are considered blessed.  All those who would have been in the minority of Christ’s crowds, if there at all. 

Because as we hear in Corinthians Christ’s message is utter foolishness according to the common sense of this world.  A world whose context and technology has changed significantly, but whose inhabitants have not changed that much since Christ walked the earth.

The letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian church was not one that commended them, but rather sought to correct them.  There were many divisions among the churches and some Christians were claiming superior status because of who had baptised them.  We read that the rich ate sumptuous meals during church feasts and made the poorer members of the congregation sit at their feet and go hungry.  Paul tells us that some of the people were licentious, became drunk at the Eucharist, and that they thought that being Christians meant they could do what ever they wished because Christ had saved them.  So, Paul wrote to correct them.

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 

 

Foolish indeed.  Christians easily fall into the trap of conforming to the wisdom of this world, erroneously relating God’s blessings to wealth and power.  Equating worldly success with blessings from God.  We see this so often in the stereotype of how Christians are presented in society, especially in the news as our neighbours to the south engage in what has become in essence a civil war.

The foolishness that Christ proclaims is in direct contrast to the wisdom of this world, a world that worships wealth, power, celebrity and whiteness.  The wisdom this broken world tells us to look after #1, to climb the ladder and to stop at nothing to achieve your goals.  The wisdom of this world teaches how to suppress your own pain by hurting others and how to feed your ego by crushing others.

But always we must remember God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

And thanks be to God, we are beginning to see an increase in foolishness and weakness in this broken world.

In the horrific and heartbreaking news of late, alongside the scenes of wealth, power and whiteness being used to build up hate, violence and despair.  We have also seen Godly foolishness and righteous weakness being taken up to great benefit of the other.

Christians and non Christians together, clergy of all faiths and people from all walks of life kneeling, singing, witnessing and even loosing their lives to save their neighbours.  To protect and serve those same people who would have crowded to Christ’s teachings. 

Those who’ve lost hope; those who grieve; the vulnerable; those thirsting for justice; those who are kind, innocent and those who are being persecuted.

What does it look like to have faith in these days?  The same as it did when Christ walked the earth.  What does it take to be righteous?…to be in good relationship with God?  The same as it did in the 8th C BCE.

 

 

The prophet Micah preached in the 8th century and his words echo many prophets before and since, but he presented it in a slightly different way.  In Micah God has taken his people to court for breach of contract.  Remember we have a covenant with God that dates back to Abraham, a collective agreement, a treaty between God and the people of God.  It has been broken and Micah has served the people of God.

Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

 

They have forgotten not only what their part of the deal has been, but the many ways God has held up his side of the treaty.  Now, the people in their infinite wisdom, an erroneously wisdom still followed millennia later, are trying to buy their way out and Micah mocks their pathetic attempts to purchase what God has already given and bribe away their sins.

With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’

 

Nothing has changed!  People still try to buy their way out of sin, knowing full well God has always told us this won’t do!  Offering what God has given us back to God in a mockery of repentance. 

That is the world’s broken way of doing things, the way of the privileged and self righteous…and the way that has reigned too long.  That those who are wealthy, powerful, celebrated and white can buy their way out of justice. 

However, the prophets have spoken, like Micah.  The Apostles have taught, like Paul.  Christ has shown us and God has always maintained that God walks with those who are in need, those who society has cast aside, with the protester and those in fear of deportation.

It has never been power or wealth…either of politics or tens of thousands of rivers of oil that God has wanted from us.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

 

We know this, we have always known this…but the world tries to forget it and pass of self righteousness for Godly righteousness.  However, the Word has always been there and the rules of faith have always held true.

Who is righteous in God’s sight?  What does it mean to be a person of faith? Who is blessed by God? 

Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? *

            who may abide upon your holy hill?

Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, *

            who speaks the truth from his heart.

There is no guile upon his tongue; he does no evil to his friend; *

            he does not heap contempt upon his neighbour.

In his sight the wicked is rejected, *

            but he honours those who fear the Lord.

He has sworn to do no wrong *

            and does not take back his word.

He does not give his money in hope of gain, *

            nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things *

            shall never be overthrown.

amen