Creekside Church Sermon of February 10, 2002 "The Photogenic Future " Matthew 5:1-12	Rev. David Bibbee
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Our gospel raises a vexing question. Each time I hear the beatitudes read, the question comes. The question perplexed me as a child. I never posed the question to anyone. I kept it to myself, though I was sure I wasn't the only one who ever pondered it. As a pastor, the question is very difficult to ask. Preachers are supposed to know such things. It's tough, but I will ask it. How do you pronounce it… is it BLESSed or bless/ED? It's both ways, but which is correct? Blessed or bless/ed? Is there a correct way? Is it just another "tomato/tomatto, potato/potatto" debate that really doesn't matter?

In my home church it was pronounced bless/ed. But as a kid when I heard the word I wondered, "Who's Ed? Ed Sullivan? Eddie Haskell? And why should we bless him?" I don't want to dwell on the question, but I think bless/ed has a certain… something about it. It's a winsome word. Jesus loved it, too. He used it nine times in eleven verses. Hearing the beatitudes as many times as we have, it has a lovely ring. The words look good on bulletins and Sunday school bulletin boards. Grandmothers have needlepoint versions above the mantle in the living room, or in decoupage hanging in the hallway. Imagine how beautiful it would look if Rosanna put the beatitudes to calligraphy. "Blessed" highlighted in nine colors, penned in an airy, elegant style so it seems it might fly off the paper.

What a fine word…blessed. Other words have been used in its place in various translations of the Bible-happy, fortunate, even debonair. But knowing Rosanna she probably would not emphasize "bless/ed." The bold colored emphasis would be upon the words poor, mourn, meek, hunger, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted, reviled. In the beatitudes Jesus gives us a description of the good life. Who but Jesus would say something like this? He didn't ask anyone's opinion of it. He didn't submit the beatitudes for editorial review and revision. Like Walter Cronkite said on the CBS evening news, Jesus said, "That's the way it is."

But how can it be the way it is? Are any of you trying hard to be poor. Have you been practicing your meek and hungry lessons? Making any progress with persecution? I didn't think so. Jesus' words are fine, so long as they are hanging in Grandma's living room or printed on the Sunday bulletin. But they don't feel fine flowing from the picture frame and form at our feet or slip off the bulletin into our laps. We try taking Jesus at his word in other ways. We try to shed a little light, or curtail our judgment of others, or improve our love skills. But Jesus says truly blessed people are those who know first hand about poverty, spiritual bankruptcy, and life at the bottom of the heap.

This is why we send our kids to college… so they will have promising futures, be successful, admired, people of means lacking no material things. We are schooled so well in the workings of the world to the point that the beatitudes sound like the poetry of a dreamer. Take Jesus' prescription for the good life and see how far it gets you. It is not how corporations do business. Being merciful and pure in heart is not how things are done in Washington or at City Hall.

Jesus' cast of characters in the beatitudes are losers. Be merciful and forgiving and you'll become a doormat. Be a peacemaker between people at war and you'll get pounded by both sides. Better scout around for Jesus' other teachings till we find something more reasonable.

But what are we supposed to do with the beatitudes? This is a Brethren question. "Tell us what to do and we'll do it." Brethren feel guilty leaving worship with but notes written in their "Things we must do as Christians" list. But nowhere in the beatitudes does Jesus tell us to "do" anything. The blessed verses are not a set of strict rules. William Willimon says, "If there is one thing we are good at, it's breaking rules. Every rule God gave, we broke. So why would Jesus give us another set of rules to foul up?

Jesus want us to follow him down a road where the scenery is… unusual. He wants us to see what counts and what doesn't. Jesus shows us what only Jesus can…the kingdom of God…life as it is going to be when the people who were last in line for the world's good things will be first in line at the gates of heaven. We are not in that kind of world today…not yet. But there are signs.

Can any of you stand on your head? Some of us used to do it. How does the world look when you're upside down? The earth and sky switch places. Grass grows the opposite direction. People walk upside down like flies on the ceiling. Everything is flipped on end. This is how Jesus asks us to see life and live life.

Richard Licher says that what Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount and especially in the beatitudes are "snap shots of the future,"… photographs of what the future will become.

My wife takes lots of pictures. I dropped off some film the other day to be developed at Meijer. "Last name?" the lady asked me. "Bibbee." She didn't ask my first name. She wrote, "Twig." "How do you know my wife?" I asked. "She's in here a lot." Twig takes pictures at all occasions. And I do mean all, and she doesn't just stick them in a simple photo album. Oh no…she does it with pomp and circumstance. Saturdays she is in Osceola at a place called the Crop Shop. The first time she said she was going cropping I didn't know if she was getting a hair cut or picking corn. Cropping is the art of turning pictures into productions. Colored paper cut in circles, ovals, and triangles, and stick-on stuff make the photographs come alive.

The beatitudes are pictures in Jesus' Gospel album. The pictures bear little resemblance to what we see on CNN. Something great and grand must happen for a transformation like this, and Jesus promises that one day there will be. But if you pay attention, now and then you will get a glimpse of what God has in store for the future-pictures that reject what the world says is so important.

On Christmas Eve afternoon I was with Twig running errands. We stopped for the light at the intersection in front of the Concord Mall. As the light changed I noticed a haggard looking man on the corner. He was dressed in worn coveralls and a stocking cap. The temperature was in the teens and his face was reddish purple from exposure. He was holding a cardboard sign that read, "Have children. No food. Will work for food." I felt that instant stab in the conscience I'm sure many felt, but a cynical thought came to mind that was no doubt thought by many others. "Probably a panhandler preying upon Christmas charity."

Later we stopped at the same intersection. I spotted the man walking back to the corner with a bag of groceries. In the adjacent parking lot a woman was pulling bags from the back seat of her car. He picked up a second load while she set even more groceries beside the car. Maybe she felt compelled to go to Martin's to purchase food for the man. Maybe she was headed to Penneys for last minute Christmas shopping, but decided that food for the man was more important than an obligatory gift for cousin Zelda. Maybe the groceries were intended for her family, but she thought, "What are our needs compared to his?" Maybe she heard Jesus whisper, "I was hungry and you gave me food…I was a stranger and you welcomed me." This was not just a picture of a woman helping a poor man, but a poor man helping a woman see.

There are pictures all around which give us glimpses of what is to come if we see the world upside down. Christians do odd things. The world says "Give it to 'em with both barrels," but for some strange reason, Christians choose to forgive. The world says it's acceptable to kill in the name of patriotism, but some Christians refuse. The world says it is against human nature to confine sex to one's spouse, but there are husbands and wives who remain faithful. These aren't pictures of what "can be," but what "Will be."

The beatitudes aren't much comfort to those who have it made; those who have all the advantages which come from following the script the world provides. But those who see the pictures in Jesus' photo album don't look away from the plight of others, they carry others' hurts in their own hearts. To understand the beatitudes, travel to a poor country. Meet Christians who find comfort in the beattitudes. I've heard people who are indignant over a common sight in Latin America. In the middle of impoverished communities are large, beautifully appointed cathedrals. "How can they justify building ornate churches where there is so much poverty? Think of all the people who could be helped with the money that was put into that church."

People of those communities don't see it that way. To them these grand churches are symbols that say to the world, "It wasn't God who consigned us to live like this." They have a different point of view. They have little by our standards, yet they have so much.

We can't see it unless we're willing to stand on our heads and see life as Jesus wants us to see it. Many times I've heard people who have spent time with Christians in Latin America or Africa say, "They trust God will provide for their needs in ways that put our faith to shame."

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