St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

	Sermon of the Week
	12/3/00
	A Declaration of Dependence	Phil 2:5-11

	I thought before we look at the first in this list of attitudes or characteristics of effective Christians it might be good to think about the word 'blessed'. Some people have translated it as 'happy', with the idea that if you do these sorts of things, have these sorts of attitudes, then you'll feel happy. They base this on the idea that these characteristics are those that God intended his creatures to have when he made the world, and so if you adopt them, you'll fit better into God's world, with the result that you'll feel happy. Well, there's obviously some truth to that idea. Nobody knows better than the creator how we can become complete as human beings. Certainly it's through obeying his moral laws that we find fulfilment.
	But there's a danger with translating this word as happy. That's because happiness is a subjective state, subject to all sorts of factors. It's all very well to say blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, but they may not be happy in their mourning. No, what Jesus is doing here is making an objective judgement about people. He isn't saying what they'll feel like. He's declaring what God thinks of them and therefore what they are: blessed; in receipt of God's blessings. What are these blessings? They possess the kingdom of heaven; they inherit the earth; mourners are comforted; the hungry are satisfied; they receive mercy; they see God; they're called the children of God; they receive a great heavenly reward. There's a sense in which the declaration of blessedness is in itself a blessing; that the words convey the state they describe. One translator begins each of these with "God bless". In other words, Jesus is describing the end state that God will bring about in those who have these characteristics. And note that all eight characteristics belong together. Together they constitute the responsibilities and the privileges of being a citizen of God's kingdom.
	As we look at each of them, one question that will arise is whether the blessings described are present or future? What I think we'll find is that the answer is both. These blessings are experienced by the Christian here and now, but will be experienced in all their fullness only in the world to come.
	So let's think about the first of these beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." If you've ever watched a program on the attempts to climb Mt Everest, you'll know that it'd be no good to just start walking and hope to get there eventually. Rather you need to first establish a base camp, or a series of base camps from which to launch the final assault on the mountain. If your preparation isn't right, then you'll never make it. Well, it's a bit like that with the sermon on the mount. For us the spiritual base camp is Matt 5:3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Here we have the solid ground on which me must base every effort to fulfill our responsibility as faithful followers of Christ. You see, as we read through this list, one question that arises over and over again, is whether the attitudes it teaches are simply works we must fulfill in order to receive God's blessing. They sound like it don't they? The merciful will receive mercy. The pure in heart will see God. Is this just another way of expressing the Old Testament Law? Or are they merely a description of the requirements of some future "kingdom age"? Well we might be more confused about this if it weren't for the first beatitude. Here in the very first saying of the sermon on the mount, Jesus sums up the gospel of grace for us. Here we're told that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit. That is, to those who are so spiritually poverty-stricken that they have nothing to offer by way of merit. To develop the sorts of attitudes that he describes here, requires an enormous amount of spirit, yet, paradoxically, it's those who feel their real personal failure of spirituality who are first to receive God's blessing. It's the spiritually inadequate who receive Christ's blessing. Jesus once said: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; ³² I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance."
	In our spiritual climb to the heights of godliness, this attitude of poverty of spirit becomes the source of supply for every stage of our climb. When we find we're flagging, we need to look to God to supply all our needs, all our energy. When we find ourselves doing well, we need to look back and remember that what we have comes from God, not from our own efforts.
	You see, there's an upside down aspect to the kingdom of God that's important to remember. So often in the Christian life God's way up is down. (Luke 14:11 NRSV) "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Mat 18:3 NRSV) "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mat 20:26-27 NRSV) "whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave." This is so different from the way the world operates isn't it? We're taught to be assertive; to be self-sufficient; to treat each encounter as an opportunity to advance our cause; to concentrate on self-awareness and self-fulfilment. But God's way up is down. The path to fulfilment for the Christian, the path to success, is to learn the lesson of poverty of spirit. To understand the meaning of emptiness. God promises through the prophet Isaiah: "I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring." (Isa 44:3 NRSV) Later he says: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." (Isa 55:1 NRSV) Jesus promised the same thing in John 7: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-39 NRSV)
	Do you long to be filled with God's spirit? Then the place to begin is with an acknowledgement of your own emptiness, your total dependence on God for everything you need. It's to realise that all you've achieved, as good as it may be, will never be enough without God's help. It's to come to God with our hands empty, to get from him what he wants us to have.
	Think about the example that Jesus gave us. Have a look at that passage from Philippians 2 that we read a moment ago. Jesus example to us is this: He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Then he humbled himself further, becoming obedient to death on a cross. His very last words on the cross were these: "Father into your hands I commit my spirit." What poverty of spirit those words express. There was nothing he could do for himself at that point. All he could do was to trust God to watch over him, to see him through the valley of death.
	Yet how does that passage finish? (Phil 2:9-11 NRSV) "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The reverse side of this poverty of spirit, this emptying of himself, was that God highly exalted him. His trust in God was vindicated. We too, can trust God to do what he says he'll do, to give us the kingdom of heaven, if we trust him for our spiritual life.
	There are two more things I want to say that come out of all this.
	The first is that we need to be careful that in our search for spirituality, we don't forget our dependence on God and go seeking it by human means. This is a particular danger for us today, because spirituality is very much on the agenda in a whole range of areas. It's there in New Age mysticism, meditation groups, self help groups of various sorts; you'll find it in leadership seminars, personal health and wholeness groups, environmental action groups; whether it's using crystals or candles, or Gregorian chants, or just silence, it all amounts to the same thing: a desire to overcome our spiritual poverty by creating our own sources of spirituality. But the way to come into God's kingdom is to acknowledge our dependence on God, to look to him alone for what we need. So if you're going to use silence or mediation or beautiful music as an aid to spirituality, make sure your focus is on letting God draw you closer to himself, or on God filling you with His Spirit, not on the significance or the wonder of the experience itself.
	The second thing we need to say, though, is that this is only the first step. The result of acknowledging our poverty of spirit is that we receive the Kingdom of God. This isn't a passive thing, it's an active thing. If you've become a member of God's kingdom, you don't just sit around waiting for things to happen, you work while there's still light. Our awareness of our spiritual poverty is one side of a double sided coin. The other side is our awareness of God's ability to do far more through us than we could ever think or ask. I'm reminded of the story of Caleb, who was one of the 12 spies sent into the promised land to check it out before the Israelites entered it during the Exodus. He and Joshua were the only 2 out of that 12 who believed they could take the land. The rest thought they could never overcome their opposition. The reason Joshua and Caleb believed they would, wasn't their superior strength. The people of the land were clearly more powerful than they were. No. They believed they could do it because God was with them. Here's what God said about Caleb when the people refused to go in and so were banned from ever entering. "But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it." (Num 14:24 NRSV)
	He believed that despite their weakness, God would give them the strength they needed to overcome their enemies. So when he got there he took his followers with him and in God's strength they drove out the giants who lived in his part of the land.
	Moses is a great example of one who knew his limitations but, at least in the end, trusted God to provide him with what was needed. When God called him, he almost begged God to send someone else. He wasn't a leader, he wasn't a good public speaker, the people would never follow him. But when he put God to the test, everything seemed to work out. He warned Pharaoh of the plagues and they came about. He stretched out his staff over the Red Sea and God divided it. He struck the rock and water came forth. He asked God and food came down from heaven. An awareness of our own limitations doesn't have to be a limitation on our effectiveness. Rather it leads us to do great things in God's power. "I can do all things through God who strengthens me."
	Hymn writer, A.M. Toplady was caught in a violent storm one day, and realised he would never survive if he was out in the open. So he looked around for somewhere to shelter and eventually found a rock with a great split in it. He climbed inside and was able to escape from the howling wind and the driving rain. Unable to protect himself from the storm, he'd found security in the shelter of this rock. As he thought about his situation and realised what a parallel this was to his Christian life, he took out a scrap of paper and penned these well-known words:
	Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling; Naked come to thee for dress; Helpless look to thee for Grace Foul I to the fountain fly; Wash me Saviour or I die.
	This is the eternal secret of success in God's kingdom. As C.H Spurgeon once said, the way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in ourselves. Not independence, but dependence is the foundation for all that comes after.


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