Here is the link to today’s worship service from Glasgow Road Church as well as the written sermon.
Matthew 5 (2026)
Holy God, your people turn to your Word for truth and guidance in every age. Send your Holy Spirit to inspire our understanding of your Scripture, read and interpreted today. Help us hear the truth for our lives and our times through Christ, your Living Word. Amen.
What is it that is on our minds today?
When we come into church each Sunday, we are talking about what has
Happened Sometimes we talk about the news
Sometimes we talk about our friends and relative
Those who are sick Those who have done well in sports
Those who are going on to study We may be rejoicing, or worried
We may be concerned about actions taken by world leaders
We may be concerned about economic policies that we did not influence, but which affect us And then we sit down together and read from the Bible, which is thousands of years old And we hope to find a way that the words of scripture speak to the life we are now living
I think that the desire to find a connection between scripture and life has been a desire of people for as long as we have lived on this earth.
Today’s gospel is the Beatitudes Part of the Sermon on the Mount
Well known and loved words Words of blessing for those identified as merciful, who are poor in spirit, who are meek and so on
Whether these words were helpful to the early believers or not probably depended upon what they did with them They, like us, would have had a desire to find a connection between the words of Jesus and the lives they were living When these words were passed on to them they may have said
“Those words are fine for Jesus, he is after all the Messiah
He can look beyond what is happening right here and right now easily enough
He knows what is to come, but we are ordinary people
We have limitations in what we can believe or imagine
We also have jobs to do; we have families that need our care
And we do not have the ability to turn water into wine, or to make 5 loaves and 2 fish feed an entire crowd
We need something that can be experienced firsthand”
Maybe these folks didn’t find that beatitudes had a firsthand practical application
Maybe they made them into spiritual sayings that were not meant to be anything other than heavenly thoughts
Their understanding may have been along the lines of “One day we will be in the kingdom of God and then life will be good.
We just need to keep hoping”
As well as those who thought the beatitudes were promises of a future hope, there may have been those who thought the beatitudes were trite
Like “when life sends you lemons make lemonade”
I’ve been known to say this myself from time to time But you have to be careful with such sayings
It can sound as if you are making light of things that are deeply troubling, and thereby hurt or offend others
I think that some might be rather angry at a first hearing of such words
Let me tell you, when I am in the depths of despair having someone spout stale words that sound like they come off a bumper sticker is about as helpful as a pitchfork in a snowstorm
However, the value and comfort of these words of Jesus come from something much deeper than easily flung out advice
Jesus never intended to brush people off He knew what it was to be sad, and to have deep concerns to bring to God Jesus would spend hours in prayer
He brought to God the deep concerns of his heart
He was the one who touched the ill, who listened to the ones who searched for truth In spite of the example Jesus set, we know that it is possible to treat profound truth as if it is nothing more than a moral
I am quite sure that Jesus meant something more than a simple moral when he shared the beatitudes
The beatitudes are not meant to be platitudes They seem to be in the tradition of wisdom sayings Wisdom sayings can be found in the book of Proverbs
When a rabbi shared a proverb, it was intended that the group of learners would take the word of the rabbi and reflect upon it To take that word and examine it from many angles To ponder and discuss and to make it their own
We might say they took the teaching a put it in their hearts
As I prepared this sermon I thought of some of the words found in Psalm 119
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (vs 11)
And Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (vs 105)
This psalm shares the experience of one who has sat with and prayed with the word of God so that it has become part of that one’s life Part of how the believer lives and moves and has being It is my belief that we can cherish, pray over and assimilate the beatitudes in the same way
At the very beginning these beatitudes were given to the disciples, not to the whole crowd We read in Matthew that Jesus drew away from the crowd that was following him And he sat down to talk to his disciples
The disciples, the ones who lived with Jesus and had the chance to talk with him daily were the ones who were first given the beatitudes
They would be able to reflect on the beatitudes and bring them into their hearts, and they would be able to share this with others who sought to be disciples
Jesus was a rabbi
He would have followed the rabbinical school of teaching A rabbi would give a small amount of information, and it would be discussed, examined and cherished by the learners This was a method that involved discussion on the part of the learners The rabbi would introduce a topic The students would talk about what the rabbi said They would question what the rabbi said
They would wrestle with the truth they were given until the understanding of truth reached became their own There would be questions and discussion and more questions
Some of the questions would come from the rabbi as he encouraged the students to think This was the tradition of teaching into which Jesus was breaking And he was teaching a group of people who were used to wrestling with proverbs when they were spoken The disciples would be likely to take a statement like
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom”
And they would start What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
Is one poor in spirit if one is sad or confused?
Well, no, it is not unusual to be sad if something bad has happened
And if there is something new before you, you may be confused until you get it straightened out To be poor in spirit is maybe to melancholy To be like King David in the psalms where he said “Have mercy on me O God”
To know you are unable to fix yourself To know that as a person you are helpless When you are poor in spirit, that is when you turn to God
When you know that you are not able to fix your life on your own
Then you turn to God and trust God to carry you in the arms of everlasting strength
The first disciples of Jesus could think of people like King David and Job who learned to rest upon God because they knew they couldn’t do it on their own
The disciples likely sat down more than once to hear the wisdom Jesus had to share with them And when it was written down, the sayings were all written together
Later Jesus would tell the adults that the kingdom of heaven belonged to those who were like children Those who trusted, those who knew they needed help, Those who were spontaneous in their expression
Such humility reminds me of a story I heard some time ago about Johnny Cash
There are those who think of Cash as a hardened, dark souled man who was an addict and deserved little respect There was more to him than that
He was a man of faith who knew that it was not easy to be good
He called himself a C+ Christian
There was a time in his life when he realized that he was helpless to fix himself
He knew that he battled an addiction, that the addiction seemed to be winning, and that his marriage had fallen apart Sometimes people describe such a feeling as feeling as if they are in a deep dark place
Johnny didn’t just feel that way inside of himself, he literally crawled into the deepest, darkest cave he could find He felt worthless
He passed out, and when he came back to consciousness, he saw a light and felt a breeze and he believed that this was God speaking to him
That this was God calling him out of that dark place and calling Johnny to follow God He crawled out of that deep dark cave
And like a child he put his trust in God
This is how we can know the kingdom of heaven When we place our trust in God and God alone. There are a lot of good things that God gives to us
Family, jobs, homes, toys, but these things are not our life If any of those things are taken away We may be sad or angry, or a number of other feelings
But if we can turn to God in the feeling of being poor in spirit
We have the kingdom We have a place with God
These are important teachings for us to hold in our hearts as we find ourselves facing the news and world events that we didn’t cause but that affect us
The beatitudes are a way of drawing attention to things that we encounter as we walk with God Jesus was giving his disciples a taste of what life with him would be like They would encounter joys and sorrows on their walk with him
And as they wrestled with the circumstance of life
There would be a kingdom to which they belonged, there would be fulfillment, a place in God’s family, inheritance and mercy Similarly, as we live our lives hearing news that may distress, feeling concern for those who suffer, looking for wisdom as we make choices, we can be assured that God is with us
When we bring God’s word into our hearts it gives a lamp to our feet
As we walk the road of life with God There is a kingdom to which we belong, fulfillment, a place in God’s family and mercy
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Blessed are you, holy God, for you give release to the captives and food to the hungry. Bless us as we hunger and thirst for your justice and righteousness. May all who are needy find their hope in you.
Compassionate God, we thank you for your mercy. You give pardon for our sin and call us to forgive others. Embrace with your renewing grace those who are resentful or discouraged. Help us serve as instruments of reconciliation when discord or conflict arises.
Righteous God, we thank you for your justice. You watch over all who suffer and empower your people to act for good. Bless the work of your church and its partners to advocate for justice and dignity in our communities and in your world. Keep safe all who live under threat of violence or struggle for life’s necessities.
Caring God, we thank you for your comfort. You strengthen us when we are weak and pick us up when we fall. Bless us as we support and care for one another in this community. Surround all who mourn with the warmth of your love and the light of our hope in Christ Jesus.
God of new life, we give you thanks for your enlivening Spirit. You give courage to the persecuted and inspire the weary. Bless us as we strive to make a difference as a community in Christ’s name. Unite your Church by the power of your Holy Spirit, and strengthen our common witness with the gifts you offer us through Jesus Christ. And now we gather our prayers into one voice and pray in Jesus’ name,
Amen
Commission and Benediction
May the God of justice strengthen your will to serve.
May the Christ of compassion inspire your heart to love.
May the Holy Spirit walk with you in wisdom this day and always.