Since my sabbatical this past summer I have been blessed by reading from the lectionary. If you don’t know, the lectionary is a collection of appointed Bible readings or references to be read on certain days of the year.

I don’t do this everyday. At some point during the week I read the texts for each upcoming Sunday. In my reading I try to let the passages speak through and for one another.

I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. This is all new to me. I grew up in a baptist church that had its own form of liturgy. I never really heard of the “church calendar” or “The Book of Common Prayer” or seasons like Epiphany, Lent or Pentecost. Advent was a term I remember, but in my recollection it seemed to be used as another word for Christmas.

The bottom line is that I’ve been enriched beyond measure when I engage the scriptures this way.

Below are my thoughts for this Sunday’s texts. If you are interested in reading, it might be helpful to open up the passages themselves and have them sitting alongside my observations. What I write captures movements from the various texts, using the beatitudes as a central theme. If you don’t know what the scriptures say, my observations might sound like nonsense. For that matter, they might sound that way anyway. I’ll let you form your own conclusions.

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – Jan 29, 2023

Micah 6:1-8 / Psalm 15 / 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 / Matthew 5:1-12

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain…” Matthew 5:1

The gospel text (Matthew 5:1-12) is one of the more familiar texts in scripture. But its familiarity can blur our receptivity to it. The beatitudes aren’t just a poetic introduction to Jesus’ sermon on the mount, they are the foundation of an upside-down, alternate reality for the inhabitants of God’s kingdom. 

A blurred, plain reading of the beatitudes is bumper sticker material. Who doesn’t love the thoughtful sayings and proverbial themes? But, when we peel back the plain reading and rub out our blurred vision we will see the depth of their power and the height of their foolishness.

The wisdom of this world is the foolishness of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). Worldly wisdom adores proverbial sayings but despises the power of the cross. Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with proverbs. Wisdom will be found in them when they are carefully mined. But, reading the beatitudes rightly will make foolish the wisdom of this world because the beatitudes are shaped by the cross of Christ.

Those who take up that cross understand that the beatitudes are the foolishness of God. As he begins his sermon, Jesus words eliminate boasting in oneself and celebrate the poverty of one’s soul. Instead of honoring the achievements of man’s strength, they bless the man who receives God’s weakness. The beatitudes do not fear rejection or reject death because with God the lowest point can be the fullest place. Until the world hears the beatitudes as the foolish goodness of God rather than the wisdom of this world, our proclamations of them will only be the quiet shouts of human strength rather than the whispering roars of God’s weakness.

The foolishness of God is our wisdom. The foolishness of the beatitudes is the blessed way of salvation in which we walk. It is the path of our truest self and the goal of our humanity. Living them is the living sacrifice God is looking for. Like the prophet (Micah 6:1-8), we can suggest other options to honor the Lord. Burnt offerings, a young calf, a thousand rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, even our firstborn son? No! These extreme exaggerations reveal what the Lord does not desire from us in our worship. What is good to God is the doing of justice, the loving of mercy and the walking in humility. The original meaning of that phrase is likely, “to walk wisely with God.” Of course, by now we know that this type of beatitude traveling is foolishness to this world.

As beatitude travelers who walk wisely in the foolishness of God, we boast in the Lord’s presence rather than duck away. He is the source of our life and the place in which we abide (Psalm 15:1-7). We boast in the Lord’s hospitality rather than our own independence – and in this boasting we humbly dwell. In Christ, we are the answer to the question, “Who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill?” because HE is the answer to the question.

Jesus is the beatitude traveler. He is the one who goes up the mountain, abiding upon the holy hill as the power and wisdom of God. And because Jesus has lived the blessed life of truth and goodness, the foolishness of God has the final say.

Those who travel with him might be seen as foolish, but they shall never be shaken.