Providential Typos?

Just thought I'd post my sermon from this morning for those reading this who didn't hear it. I'd love comments on it!

SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 5:1-12
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

INTRODUCTION
I don’t know if you know this, but I’m kind of a spelling and grammar fanatic. I’m the kind of person who cringes at the sight of a misplaced apostrophe or a misspelled word on a sign. No matter what book I’m reading, if I see a typo, I am quick to circle it and correct it in the margin.

And if I ever get tired of being a pastor, I’ve found a company I can work for. The Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading Service spends their days proof reading the Bible in all its versions and translations.[i] Believe it or not, but the Bible has been printed with a few typos here and there.

For example, one Bible was actually printed saying, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Think of what would have happened if no one caught that one! In another typo, Jesus says, “Go and sin on more.” That’s a Bible that maybe more people would want to read. There’s even one Bible that accidentally said, “Let the children first be killed” instead of “Let the children first be FILLED.” Most typos you can write off as being harmless, but some typos need to be corrected immediately! God bless Peachtree Proofreading for catching the important typos.

Now, as I was reading our Scripture passage from Matthew this morning, you may have been thinking that it seems full of typos because, at first, it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Blessed are the poor in spirit? Blessed are those who mourn? Blessed are those who are persecuted? What kind of nonsense is that?


MOVE #1
Now, in the children’s sermon I talked about how the Bible tells us how to be “happy.” When you teach kids, you start out simple, right? You start with what they understand. But now that we’re all grown up, we need to dig down deeper. Remember how last week Lori talked about being like a tree with roots that sink deep into the ground? Well, trying to understand a passage like these “Beatitudes” is one way to get your roots to grow deeper.

What does it mean to be blessed? Anybody have any suggestions? What does it feel like to be blessed? According to one book I read, to be blessed is “to be made privileged or fortunate,” not because of something we do, but because of something God has done.[ii] We don’t EARN blessings—we receive them!

There are a lot of synonyms you can use for the word “blessed.” If you wanted to re-write the Beatitudes, you could say, “How fortunate are the poor in spirit. . .” Another author I read said it could even be translated, “Congratulations to the pure in heart because they will see God.”[iii] Whichever word you like best, to be blessed is to be GIVEN the gift of divine favor—something I think we ALL are hungry for.

So the blessing in the Beatitudes is not about how we feel. Blessing is all about what God has done for his people. And not just what God has done for his people but God WILL do for his people.


MOVE #2
If you look at verses 3 and 10, you will see that they end with the same phrase, kind of like bookends holding a hold stacks of books together. Both verses end with the phrase “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So if this phrase is at the beginning of the section and the end of the section, it seems like maybe this phrase is also tied in with all the other verses too.

So, it would seem that the next logical question is “What is the kingdom of heaven?” So I looked in my dictionary of fancy theological words, and I found that the “kingdom of heaven” is “God’s ultimate Lordship”—a time when there will be no more poverty or injustice or sin. With the birth of Jesus Christ, the “kingdom of heaven” broke through into life on earth. So the kingdom of God—his ultimate Lordship—is here with us now.

And yet, it’s not totally here. You know what I mean? I mean there’s still sin and brokenness all around us, but every once in a while we see the kingdom of heaven break through—some little miracle moment just for us from God. But the kingdom of heaven isn’t here yet. And it won’t be until Jesus comes again. We live in this odd tension of the kingdom being here but not completely.

So the blessings in these Beatitudes do 2 things. First, they are an assurance to those who find themselves “poor in spirit” and persecuted and meek that they belong to the kingdom of heaven despite what their current circumstances are. And second, the Beatitudes tell us that the kingdom of heaven turns life upside down. It’s not “blessed are those with good jobs, a four car garage, and a big 401k.” It means blessed are those who live under the kingdom of heaven and allow it to shape how they live out their gratitude to God.

CONCLUSION
I started out talking about typos in the Bible. One of the other typos someone found in the Bible actually comes from these Beatitudes. Instead of “Blessed are the peacemakers,” it said, “Blessed are the place makers,” which is not to be confused with the line from Monty Python about “Blessed are the cheese-makers.”

And there might be something to that little typo. Blessed are those who make a place for the kingdom of God in their lives. What would that look like? What would it look like to live understanding and acknowledging God’s ultimate Lordship? Just how deep could our roots grow if we said yes to the radical way God wants us to live our lives?

We would make a place to be poor in spirit—finding our true identity and security in God. We would make a place to be meek—humble and yet firm. And we would make a place to mourn—to be grieved by the sin and suffering and brokenness in the world around us.

If we make a place for these things in our lives, we will be ready to receive the place that God is making for us in the kingdom of heaven.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.


[i] Homiletics online, “Blessed are the Placemakers,” http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000045
[ii] Ibid.
[iii]Hare, Interpretation, Matthew, p. 35.