Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Who wants to be blessed if it means being reviled, persecuted, hungry and powerless? Blessed a word used to describe those whom God favoured. Micah 6:1-8 describes a people who are desperate to get God’s blessing. But, because they understand blessing to be about stuff, they give God stuff in the hope that he will give them more in return.
Micah disappoints them: God does not want your thousands of rams or your rivers of oil. Instead, God wants you to live lives of justice and mercy. God, it turns out is not transactional. God is relational: Yet we persist in thinking of God as some divine balancer of the books.
So, when it comes to the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12, where the blessed are described as the poor, the meek and those who suffer, we tend to read them in a spiritual way: blessed are those who suffer in this life because God will compensate them in the next life. Nope! The beatitudes too are about relationship: that between those who mourn and those who comfort them; those who are hungry and those who feed them; those who suffer injustice and those who fight for justice. None of us are ever on one side or the other: at times we will need comfort, at times we will be able to offer it. The beatitudes tell us not that suffering is good but that relationship is good, community is good, connectedness is good. What do we need to be blessed? We need one another.
Hymns
721ii Love divine all loves excelling (Blaenwern)
478 Go forth for God (alt tune 394: Woodlands)
806 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (Corvedale)
FIRST READING
Micah 6:1-8
The Lord’s case against Israel
Listen to what the Lord says:
‘Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
‘Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
‘My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.’
With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
GOSPEL
Matthew 5:1-12
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
