The Best Inauguration Address Ever

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon on the Mount, Carl Heinrich Bloch 1877

While I cannot say it is the largest inaugural address ever given -based on the information we have at our immediate disposal- 

the data seems to affirm that it was a pretty substantial crowd. 

The data provided in Matthew’s gospel would not only suggest that the crowd was substantial in size but by the time we get to chapter seven the crowd had grown even larger. 

Then, as the real work begins in chapter eight, the crowds had grown even more, and they followed him wherever he went, in awe of the works he did. 

And his work was not focused on healthcare, jobs, immigration, or the environment, 

-At least not exclusively-

But completely turning the entire infrastructure of God’s creation on its ear. 

An infrastructure that had begun eroding and rotting a long, long time ago. 

Not because of the Republicans, the Democrats, the bankers, or CEOs.

Not because of the Romans or the Pharisees. 

But because the whole system had gone awry. 

Not at the hands of any single person, but by the hands of every living person, to include our own today. 

Jesus’ inaugural address, the Sermon on the Mount, is not only one of the most well known of Jesus’ teachings, but it is the longest collection of his teachings. 

They get right to the heart of Jesus' mission, God’s mission. 

And in Matthew, they serve the purpose of laying out the entire mission before, not only the disciples, the people of Galilee, or the people of Israel, but Jesus’ disciples around the world, in every time and place. 

This collection of nine blessings, bestow more than just a blessing, but a title that is bestowed upon the hearer; a judgement that is rendered by Jesus, declaring such a title as….blessed. 

It’s a very different title than the one we use today, far more formal than a response to a sneeze or a more spiritual form of wishing good will on another who has graciously held the door. 

This is a title, an honor bestowed to those who have, will, and are presently in the act of participating in the will of God. 

This portion of the Sermon on the Mount has been described as the most masterful collection of wisdom literature to ever draw ink to paper. 

Philosophers, priests, and spiritual leaders of all sorts have described it as one of the most beautiful sermons ever written. 

Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and activist even claimed its special place in his own life as a Hindu and revered figure in world history. 

So, how on earth could I improve on such a thing today?

In all honesty, I won’t because I can’t. 

In fact, preaching is not an art of improving on Christ’s Word. It is the art of inviting you to immerse yourself into those words.

And that is the very point of this text as an introduction into Jesus’ ministry.

It is to pull you into the poetry of the Beatitudes and to be lost in those words. 

That is the power of the inspired word of God,  to invite us into the impossible task, the task of not only living into those words, but wrestling with them. 

This is not the first time words are presented to the people directly from God. 

And Matthew draws some specific parallels there. 

In Exodus 19, Moses climbs up the mountain to receive the word of God, being called there by God. 

Moses Receives the Ten Commandments from Yahweh
Cosimo Rosselli, 1480

Moses serves as the messenger of that word, the singular solitary messenger and authority of that word. 

But it isn’t a singular figure who is called to the mountain this time. 

Jesus is the one waiting atop the mountain, and it is the disciples who climb it to hear the Word made flesh, face to face. 

But there is debate concerning the size of the crowd that hears Jesus’ inaugural address. 

And it depends on the source of your information to be honest. 

I’m not saying that certain perspectives are wrong or intentionally misleading, although exact numbers cannot be cited, but it may be important to note a simple fact. 

As the word is bestowed upon the disciples, it would certainly seem that his circle of listeners grew as the crowd below is drawn up that mountain to receive this word, not a word imprinted on stone tablets, but a word that is etched on the hearts of all the disciples who hear them. 

Not just to the crowd gathered together then, but to the one gathered together today as well. 

The Beatitudes hold a special place in the Gospels, because they reflect the influence of Judaism on Matthew. 

They are Jewish poetry that can be described as both law and gospel. 

They are often interpreted as imperative orders, commands even, and yet, they are also often interpreted as healing words of grace and mercy. 

Oddly, this poetry stands as both. 

And regardless of how you read them, they are intended to lead us to the same conclusion,.

They lead us to the total upheaval of our accepted natural order. 

A natural order plagued by injustice, despair, arrogance, grief, war, pain, and persecution. 

Blights on their lives and ours that were never meant to be part of this creation, part of our lives. 

As I have already stated this text is more than a story, a speech, or a proclamation.

It is poetry and a riddle of the heart rather than the mind. 

The Eight Beatitudes, Cosimo Rosselli 1480

Versus 3 through 9 make a declaration of what the kingdom of God WILL be. 

So when you see this as an impossible vision, don’t feel alone, because it is. 

It is a vision beyond our reach, well beyond our cognitive grasp. 

Because we cannot envision a world where the roles of the meek and the mighty are reversed. 

And perhaps we don’t always like that vision, because after all, we fall pretty high on the pecking order compared to most places in the world, don’t we?

But certainly we find ourselves in one of these nine categories, at some point in our lives, if not daily. 

So maybe we should ask ourselves, "What would that look like? Are those the people that we truly want to share an eternal kingdom with?"

Because these are not just titles bestowed on those who KNOW God but those who NEED God the most. 

How could we not find ourselves envious of that?!

Especially if THOSE who NEED God more than they KNOW God, find themselves at the front of the line!

How many of us would declare THAT fair or just?!

I must confess, NOT I!

After all, I’m a called and ordained minister of the church of God, aren’t I?

Shouldn’t I be at the FRONT of the line!!!?

Perhaps…. If it were my vision of the Kingdom, my vision of justice.

But it is not, thankfully.

It is God’s. 

And is our place in line what matters the most, or the fact that we should be satisfied receiving the invitation at all?!?

An invitation to live into something fuller, more powerful, more hopeful; God’s vision of the Kingdom.

~

I have to admit I’ve found the past several weeks leading up to this Sunday’s text concerning and most certainly difficult. 

I once thought that due to my diverse experiences I had the most eclectic circle of friends, certainly a diverse collection in social media. 

But as people have become further and further divided, it would seem that more and more social circles have come to mirror my own. 

The divisions in our immediate communities have expanded. 

And as I was working my way through the text this week, I couldn’t help but realize the irony of the text and the tragedy of who we, God’s people, have become. 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness because theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven!”

“Blessed are you when others make you an object of their scorn, persecution, and mockery, when they speak every evil against you through lies for my sake!”

I’m sure many of us have felt scorned over these past few weeks and months, perhaps even years. 

And certainly it has become a bit more tense since the election and the other inaugural address we recently heard. 

But we have to ask ourselves a simple question. 

Who are the persecuted who we have been defending passionately over the past several months, 

several years, 

several decades…?

Is it those who are truly the weakest?

If we ran to the defense of those who are truly our poorest, persecuted, those who hunger for justice, and the one’s who cry out for mercy with that same passion and fervor with which we run to the defense of our nation's presidents *both past AND present*, congressmen, senators, mayors, governors, and political parties…..

What would it look like if we defended the weak with the same passion that we attack one another’s views and candidates, sometimes even severing relationships with those we care for in favor of a candidate we don’t really even know, DO WE?

What would that look like?

Sisters and brothers, one thing that we may be slowly realizing in the midst of these divisions, is that the most powerful are not necessarily the ones who need our defending. 

It doesn’t mean that we do not remember them in our prayers or provide our support to those who lead and guide our nation, but are they the ones that we are called to defend so emotionally and passionately, at the expense of our own immediate relationships?

The beatitudes call us to a vision of a kingdom in which this entire system we know has been overthrown. 

A system where we care for one another with an even greater passion than that in which we defend our own political loyalties. 

A new natural order, in which Christ’s mercy reigns supreme. 

A new Kingdom that breaks into our world through that symbol of earthly power, carried on the frail back of a broken human body that shatters the power of this world, armed with NOTHING, but the redeeming love and grace of God. 

Amen

Christ Carrying the Cross, Titian 1565

The Spaghetti Gospel

Matthew 3:13-17

Baptism of Christ, Pietro Perugino 1481-1483 (PD)

I grew up in a household that savored the film genre of the all American western. 

Especially, those films that starred “The Duke”, John Wayne. 

My father loved John Wayne so much, that a congregation he served gave him a bust of John Wayne that was proudly displayed in our home for many years. 

Being the rebellious soul that I am, I grew to appreciate westerns and even John Wayne, but I came to find that I needed a little bit of twist to that genre of film. 

While still falling under the umbrella of western, I grew enamored with the Italian genre of westerns that has come to be known as “The Spaghetti Western”.

You may be familiar with this cinematic storytelling line through much of Clint Eastwood’s earlier work; The “Dollars Trilogy”

This trilogy included the films “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and of course my favorite western of all time “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

It wasn’t so much the historical time being portrayed that intrigued me, as much as the storytelling technique. 

A technique that director Quentin Tarantino has argued can be applied to a movie shot in any time period, even making a film that he declared to be a World War II Spaghetti Western at one point. 

The director of the “Dollars Trilogy,” Sergio Leone, is usually credited with establishing this style of cinematic storytelling. 

And he introduced a few common elements in the manner he told the stories. 

Firstly, there had to be an unresolved conflict that was already taking place prior to the introduction of the main characters, usually a conflict that they themselves had no part in, but just found themselves in the middle of. 

Secondly, this style of storytelling used irony and tragedy in a Shakespearean comedic sense. 

Thirdly, characters found themselves making uneasy alliances. 

Partnerships with competing characters who were not necessarily evil -although sometimes they were- but characters that were needed to complete the task at hand. 

Finally, my favorite part of the spaghetti western was the introduction of the lead protagonist; 

*Whistling theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”*

Now, for those of you who just envisioned that opening sequence with a sense of nostalgia, I want you to apply those elements, maybe even the soundtrack, to today’s Gospel. 

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

“And just then, Jesus came from Galilee to John’s territory in the Jordan, to be baptized by him”.

*Whistling theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”*

Today’s Gospel proves to us that Sergio Leone may actually not be the originator of the Spaghetti Western at all. 

Saint John the Baptist bearing witness, 
Annabale Carracci, circa 1600 (PD)

It may have been Matthew. 

You see?

Each of our gospel accounts introduce Jesus in specific ways. 

Mark just throws us into the deep end of the gospel, quickly introducing us to John and then beginning with the baptism of Jesus. 

No character development what-so-ever. Just presenting the story in the most brutal straightforward fashion imaginable. 

This is one of the things I most appreciate about Mark. 

Luke, on the other hand, spends a great deal of time developing characters.

Luke is the only gospel that takes the time to account for Jesus’ childhood at all -as Pastor Stephen mentioned last week. 

Luke’s gospel is storytelling in a traditional sense. 

Matthew though, Matthew presents us with the spaghetti gospel. 

Matthew gives us glimpses of Jesus’ background; 

the genealogy, 

how things occurred, 

why they occurred, 

outside influences, 

But NO introduction to the character. 

And John’s announcement as the introductory scene is about to be shot is intimidating, if not downright terrifying

Almost like the introduction by ring announcer Michael Buffer before a fight; 

“Let’s get ready to RUMBLE!!”

And as Jesus steps onto set, I can almost see the tumbleweed blow across his path. 

Jesus, the man from Galilee steps into Matthew’s gospel as a mysterious figure. 

Of course, we don’t see it this way because we know the story but for Matthew’s audience, he has been building up to this. 

In fact, so has John. 

John doesn’t fully know what to expect but it is fairly obvious that John is in awe of Jesus. 

John doesn’t even get a chance to object to Jesus’ request for John to baptize him. Jesus cuts him off at the pass, declaring John’s role in this mission, assuming John is prepared to take up this uneasy alliance with Jesus. 

An alliance that is uneasy, not because Jesus doesn’t trust John, but because John knows he is unworthy to share the task Jesus has come to fulfill. 

This is the most extensive dialogue between the two in any of the gospel accounts, and this is pretty clear in Matthew, when John adamantly declares his unworthiness. 

John knows he is not “the Good.” He can’t be. He is a human being and therefore flawed. 

But John is also not “the Bad,” because he is actively participating in the fulfillment of Jesus’ task, just trying to keep a lid on the rowdy town until Jesus arrives on scene. 

John is just “the Ugly,” because he cannot hide his flawed human nature nor does he try. 

It is why he quite honestly demands that we all repent, because he faces his flawed human nature for what it is, yet this is the very reason Jesus chooses him. 

But there is another uneasy alliance that is made. 

It is an alliance between God and humanity. 

Because baptism for us serves as a means by which we may identify with God, through Jesus. 

But the most powerful part of this alliance is that the Baptism of our Lord becomes the means by which God identifies with humanity, through Jesus. 

Miles up the road, Jesus could have been baptized in the mikveh baths at Qumran, where a monastic order of Jews took part in these spiritual baths multiple times a day before engaging in study of the scriptures.

Some scholars even believe it may have been the community John came from. 

But this is not the place Jesus decides to be baptized. 

A few more miles up the road, lay Herod’s palace fort, Masada, which was home to Roman engineered heated baths. 

If it was good enough for Herod, don’t you think it would have been good enough for God?

But instead, Jesus intentionally seeks out John to be baptized in the same muddy creek as all John’s desperate followers. 

The Jordan river, which in spite of all the movies and storybooks, is just that; a muddy creek in the middle of the desert

Jordan River on the border between
Israel and Jordan in 2014

Full of silt

Full of mud

Full of our own sin. 

There are many reasons that could be cited for Jesus’ baptism at this spot.

But when I read this story and when I knelt beside those waters, I could draw no other conclusion except that God sought out the most lowly place to claim solidarity with us, baptized in the same dirty water, polluted with our own sin. 

Taking on that uneasy alliance with them, with you, with us, with me. 

Entering into a conflict that God did not cause, a life of suffering that was never part of the blueprint for creation, 

Putting on a tin badge in a town -a world- that hasn’t known righteousness in so long, no one even knows what it would look like. 

And there you have it, the spaghetti gospel according to Matthew. 

It’s got all the elements: the introduction of our main character; the mysterious protagonist; an uneasy alliance with a less than trustworthy humanity; the ironic, tragic, and lowly placement of our hero in an entirely unworthy and hostile location.

And finally, a hopeless conflict that is not only impossible to solve but shouldn’t even fall on the shoulders of this dark stranger, who had no part in contributing to this mess in the first place. 

But there is a flaw in the formula that stands out in the gospel for today. 

And it points out something that we can all relate to. 

The flaw is in this alliance. 

John nearly objects to the alliance on grounds of unworthiness, which is a valid concern. 

But John also objects on grounds that we also object to, daily. 

John objects on grounds of lethargy. 

John, his followers, you, me, us, all of us; 

We call out for a savior in our time of need. 

And when that Savior shows up, we lie down and wait for our Savior to do all the heavy lifting for us. 

In our baptisms, we are supposed to take on Christ the way God took on humanity through Jesus. 

So baptism serves as a bridge between us and God, but it seems like we are too busy calling for God to cross that bridge than to see the opportunity that the bridge gives to us. 

Not a bridge into salvation, but a bridge that allows us to be in relationship with God. 

Last week, Pastor Stephen mentioned the heart wrenching irony in the story of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. 

And he mentioned that in spite of the birth of Jesus, even with the reality that is God entering into the world with us, God does not force us to participate in the righteousness of God, and this is why that tragedy and so many others continue to occur. 

But although God does not force us to participate in this righteousness, through our baptisms God INVITES us to participate. 

When John claims to be unworthy, it isn’t just that John sees himself as unworthy, John sees himself as UNABLE. 

John is overjoyed that there is a new sheriff in town but just as John believes himself to be free of the burden, he finds himself being deputized into this mission with Jesus when Jesus proclaims, 

“Lay down your piety, your inability, your unworthiness, because WE will fulfill all that is meant to be made righteous.”

“WE will fulfill.”

Doesn’t sound like John gets to turn in that tin star just yet, does it?

We cry out and cry out, over and over again to God and we always seem to proclaim that God is not listening. 

And while the squeaky wheel may get the oil, all the oil in the world isn’t going to help a flat tire. 

Jesus doesn’t ride into town to take away our responsibility or our accountability, Jesus rides into town to take on our sin and offer God’s grace. 

That is the gift that erases the consequences, but it doesn’t erase the mess we’ve left. 

~

This past New Year’s Eve, my wife and I were planning out our holiday evening. 

She was trying to stay awake on the couch while I was daring myself into taking a Zantac and a NyQuil gel tab at the same time. 

New Year's Eve programming has become distasteful and a bit confusing to us, the older we get. 

So, my most daring move was turning the channel to one of the New Year's Eve programs, 

But I caught it just in time to see a commercial that seemed to sum up everything I had heard from so many about this past year. 

It was a Google commercial that started with footage of a terrorist attack before moving on to the Brexit vote, our past election cycle, the division that has followed, violence in our streets, and that timeless image of the little Syrian boy who had been injured in a bomb blast where his home had collapsed on him this past year.

I didn’t even know it was a commercial for Google, all I knew was that the first 20 seconds of the video that was ushering in the New Year made me feel like EVERYONE claimed they were feeling about 2016; HOPELESS.

But the final 1 minute and 40 seconds of that commercial reminded me of how many wonderful things have happened this year.

As Stephen Colbert proclaimed, “Love does not despair, Love gives us hope that change is possible” and then the 12 year old breakout musician Grace Vanderwaal sang

“You and me, we stand out of the crowd

Cause we are not afraid to let our light out

So trust in me and just have no doubt”

It gave me goosebumps and it has every time I’ve watched it since, with one exception, the ending.

Because at the end the screen went blank white and read,

“Love is out there, Search on”.

As if our faith is grounded in a search engine!

I don’t care what you take away from this sermon today, if you’ve slept through the whole thing, so be it. 

But if you hear one thing today please hear this; 

When Jesus rides into town, the search is over. 

When we are washed in the waters of our baptisms that search ends. 

Because that is when we are called by name, just like John, to stop despairing in the unrighteousness of the world around us and instead live into the task Jesus leads us into. 

Amen

Baptism of Christ, Grigory Gaagarin 1840-1850 (PD)


Sources

Brian Sierzega. “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!!:: Michael Buffer.” YouTube. August 27, 2014. Posted January 3, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgopHWACUXs.

Google. “Google - Year in Search 2016.” YouTube. December 14, 2016. Posted January 3, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIViy7L_lo8.

Leone, Sergio and Luciano Vincenzoni. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Directed by Sergio Leone. Beverly Hills, California: United Artists, 1966. Film.

Schmader, David. “Inglourious Basterds: Tarantino’s Spaghetti-Western War Flick.” 1535. Accessed January 3, 2017. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/inglourious-basterds-tarantinos-spaghetti-western-war-flick/Content?oid=2069921.