The Robust Reign of Jesus

So, we come to the Sermon on Mount. As John Stott says of this portion of Jesus teaching, “The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, life-style, and network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with those of the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out.” (John Stott, Sermon on the Mount) We turn here because during the season of Eastertide we are talking about “A City on A Hill.” That is what Jesus has in mind, that his people will be in the Kingdom he will create by his life, death, and resurrection.As a pastor, I have mixed feeling about preaching this and I realized why when Tim Keller put his finger on the rub. He says, “... when you read the Sermon on the Mount, you know this is exactly how you want the people who live around you to be. You suddenly realize that all of your life you have been demanding the people around you live like this... You’ve been demanding it of everybody else, yet you know you fall infinitely short of it. You can’t even come close to what you’ve been demanding of other people, and it condemns you and exposes you and disgusts you.” Ouch! Those words “plow too close the to corn,” as my grandfather used to say.And yet... ”truth sets of free.” I want that. I want to live in freedom and not by lies. I want the robust life that Jesus talks about. I want the “blessedness” that the Beatitudes are talking about. It is, however, costly and without Jesus utterly impossible! So join us Sunday as we seek to discover that all the joy in the world, all the deep satisfaction, and that being fully alive all starts with seeing how poor we really are—“blessed are the poor in Spirit.”It will be a big day at St. Patrick as we have several new families making professions and a couple of our children who have made professions of faith being baptized. So join me as we are knocked in the head again and reminded of how glorious Jesus is and rehearse again the promises of God!Blessings,Jim