Explore and respond

Ideas for a sermon or interactive talk

See also ‘Thought for the week’ to read out in place of a sermon; and 'The week in focus', linking the readings to the news. 

• What ideas do you associate with the word powerful? Or meek? Is one positive and the other negative? Or do they both have  downsides? The powerful do not get a mention in the Beatitudes, though people who are strong enough to be peacemakers, to hunger  and thirst for goodness and to endure persecution, do. The word translated as ‘meek’ suggests the quality of not being overly impressed  by a sense of one’s own importance. Far from being timid and intimidated, being meek is the proactive quality of being gentle, humble and courteous. This challenges our world of power-dressing and put-downs, but it is truly the way to inherit the earth.
  
  
• The Micah passage suggests a trio of attitudes that would lead to daily faithful actions. The Beatitudes mention eight qualities or  commitments that overlap with these three and expand upon them. If we look at contemporary events – e.g. through a trawl of the  week’s newspapers – can we find outstanding examples of people living out these positive qualities. (If you have time to do the trawling, you could perhaps explore each beatitude though such a story.)
  
  
• The Beatitudes offer optimism, both for life now and for our eternal future, with blessings related to right actions, attitudes and  responses in dealing with whatever comes our way. Jesus’ words link our behaviour towards others and our relationship with God.  Indeed, within all of this week’s readings there are positive affirmations of the value of seeking to grow towards God’s holiness. Our goal is to be the sort of person described in Micah 6.8. In a church where a funeral was being held there were three banners on the wall,  saying in turn: ‘Do justice’, ‘Love kindness’, and ‘Walk humbly with your God’. The friends of the man whose life was being celebrated  that day knew, even before they heard any address, that those words described his life very well. Might the same be said of us?
  
  
• ‘Blessed are those who ...’, says Jesus to his disciples – and to us. How are we blessed? Does God bless us by a wave of his divine hand?  ‘To bless’ is sometimes seen as a wish for something good, a favour, happiness for another. But blessing in the Beatitudes is  something present, something ‘now’ – blessed are, not blessed will be. We are blessed as we live with each other, in and through all of  life’s challenges, striving always to be a blessing to others. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the many hymns and songs in which  we ‘bless the Lord’. The Lord already has all he needs! We live in blessing when our lives are pleasing to God.

Thought for the week

Read out in place of a sermon if you wish

A month into a new year, what are our expectations for the year ahead and, indeed, the years beyond that? We know from recent experience that events beyond our control can change all our plans. 

The words of Jesus that we call ‘the Beatitudes’ offer us optimism, both for the long-term and more immediately, with blessings related to right actions, attitudes and responses in dealing with whatever comes our way in this world. Jesus’ words link our behaviour towards others and our relationship with God. Indeed, within all of this week’s readings there are positive affirmations of the value of our seeking to grow towards God’s holiness, and towards a goal of being the sort of person described by Micah. In a church where a funeral was being held there were three banners on the walls, with these simple statements: ‘Do justice’, ‘Love kindness’ and ‘Walk humbly with your God’. The friends of the man whose life was being celebrated that day knew that even before they heard any homily these words described his life very well. 

In the Gospel passage are several words for which we probably know the meaning more instinctively than by definition, or where modern usage is a little different. How would you explain to someone outside a church context the meaning of mercy, meekness, humility or sacrifice? In many contemporary circumstances these would all be seen as weaknesses. And yet, if we look, we will find examples where (for example) an athlete risks their own victory to help a colleague – a competitor – across the finish line. The question, or rather the challenge, is whether we live such values or qualities in our lives, every day, in every situation where they are called for. 

Of course, Jesus’ list of blessings is a set of examples not a definitive list. Jesus’ teaching as a whole takes us a bit closer; and his sacrificial life and example closer still. All of it is an unpacking of the new commandment he gave us: love as I have loved you.