Sunday, February 2, 2014

Blessed is Mountain View when..., by Rev Steven R Mitchell 2/2/2014 based on Matt 5:1-12


Blessed is Mountain View When…

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/2/2014

Based on Matthew 5:1-12

 

        Each week we sing a thank you, an exhortation to God as we bring up our financial offerings and the very first line of that song is “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.   It is easy to think of “blessings” as those things we perceive to be the “special and good” in our lives, like sugar on our cereal or the frosting on the cake, and conversely think of those negative things in our lives as “trials and tribulations.”  Yet what if the word “blessed” doesn’t mean just the “good things?”  What would you think if receiving a blessing meant living a life that is not necessarily filled with the “good” that popular culture has assigned to the word “blessing”, or “Blessed”?

        The Gospel written by Matthew tells us that Jesus starts off his ministry by delivering nine “Blessed are you…” declaratives to his disciples and a crowd that had gathered.  These nine statements are then expanded throughout the story of Jesus’ ministry with stories of giving to the needy, prayer, fasting, treasures in heaven, do not worry, judging others, ask – seek – knock, narrow and wide gates, wise and foolish builders, cost of following Jesus, healing, and restoration of possessed men, all of these are the subject labels given in my bible in chapters 6-8. 

        We read stories found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures of fathers passing on his blessing to the eldest son.  It is in receiving that blessing that one receives the inheritance.  We still pass on blessings today.  When someone is baptized we include a blessing, when a building becomes occupied with a faith community, we bless that building, when we commission our Sunday School teachers and other church leaders, or in the ordination or installation of a new pastor we give a blessing.  In that blessing we are passing on the inheritance of God’s will, of God’s desires.

        These past few months have been especially tough months for us as a congregation as we entered into some very tough discussions centered on financial realities and how this will affect the ministry of Mountain View.   These discussions culminated in last Sunday’s Annual meeting with a vote to make some very dramatic adjustments in staffing and the call for a stronger lay involvement.  To some it may feel as if we are moving backwards instead of forward, to others it may seem that the health of the congregation isn’t what we have envisioned, all these giving a lot of emotional pain to many. 

        What better opportunity for us then to hear the words that Jesus delivered in what we call The Sermon on the Mount!   The other evening the Design Team met to discuss “where does Mt View laugh and play” or another way of asking this question is “where do we find our energy” or “Where do we see the Spirit of God at work in our congregational life?”  For clarification, the Design Team has been doing a study of the church using the Appreciative Inquiry model, which looks at where our strengths lay and how we can use those strengths in developing short-term and long-term goals and strategies for growth.

        As we began our meeting, it was evident that last Sunday’s vote was still looming over us, clouding our ability to recognize the question at hand.  Yet it was specifically that question of what gives us our energy, where do we laugh and play, and where do we see the Spirit within our congregational life that allowed us to realize the blessings that we have.  By the end of that meeting, everyone present was making the observation that in asking this question helped bring us back into reality of just how Blessed we are at Mountain View, even if we don’t have any money.  “Blessed are the poor” is the way the Gospel of Luke states it.

        Honestly, if we look to the Beatitudes as a list of things that we have to do to get into Heaven, we are truly missing the point of what Jesus was saying and what Jesus’ message to the world was about.  Remember the phrase, “on earth as it is in heaven” in the Lord’s Prayer?    Jesus was asking that the life in God’s kingdom be reflected here on earth as well.  A Beatitude, then is a description as to the way we live out God’s kingdom here on earth.  A summation of the Sermon on the Mount can be found in Micah 6:8 that touch three areas of life, “and what does God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

        The Design Team was able to identified 15 specific areas that we see the Spirit of God moving in our congregational life, 15 ways in which we find energy at Mountain View, 15 ways where we laugh and play.  So fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, as Betty Davis once said in the movie, All about Eve.  This list is not in order of importance:

The Spirit, the energy, the laughter and play is found when we are making breakfast burritos, in post worship communion, through our Harambee circle, our music “the specials” as well as congregational singing, in the children’s time of worship, our congregational time of prayer, the closing circle, our fellowship through special gatherings such as the auction dinners, the pumpkin patch, the combined garden diners, those gatherings that are not focused on spiritual growth per say, special projects like the women’s group making scarves for those who are marginalized, there is energy and joy in the community garden, in the Friday group and in choir practice with Ruth Leadership and Mary’s dedication at the piano, hot cakes and hot topics has expanded it’s reach beyond our original goals, underground youth as it works through S.A.L (our own youth program), in our children and the joy they give us during worship, and in the way we as a congregation support our members in their social activities, such as attending school programs of our youth or in the going to community concerts that our young adults perform in.

        So you see my brothers and sisters, we at Mountain View are truly blessed.  We are blessed with ministries that too often we forget in how they reflect Jesus’ teachings.  I am sure that there are many more areas that are not mentioned and I invite you at this time to speak aloud ministries that give you energy, space to laugh and play, and feel the Spirit move within Mountain View.

        Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers , blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, blessed are you when people revile you on my account.  Beloved, Mountain View is Blessed because we as a congregation are living out the Sermon on the Mount.  Just like our walking in the Marade last week was an act of Repentance, so are we living the message of Jesus.  We have so much to rejoice about and to continue to grow into the Blessings that Jesus speaks about because over all, we are moving forward and helping bring about the kingdom of God here and now. 

Blessed is Mountain View as we continue to lift God up first in our lives, when we do justice, and when we love kindness.  This is the year my friends to Celebrate who we are – a people of God.  To celebrate our living into the Beatitudes that help build the kingdom of God.  Amen

No comments:

Post a Comment