Readings: 1 Cor 1: 18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
We heard some rather important speeches on Tuesday last (25 January 2011) when there was an announcement by the Prime Minister of the awards for The Australian of The Year and other leading citizens.

The Australian of the Year is Simon McKeon who is a top business-man, a strong social justice advocate and philanthropist. The junior Australian is Jessica Watson who sailed lone around the world last year. The Senior Australian, Donald Ritchie, is a rather stooped old man who lives near The Gap in Sydney and has reputedly befriended hundreds of people who threatened to commit suicide over those cliffs. These all made speeches of acceptance.

Did you ever make a speech on an important day – a wedding, or the day you left the office, or did you preach a sermon some time.

Perhaps you have seen the movie, The King’s Speech! Wonderful wasn’t it! Do go and see it. It is all about how an Aussie called Lionel Logue provided therapy to the Duke of York as he prepared himself to take on the British crown after the abdication of Edward VIII. He would have to make a speech to the country.

I remember the day of 18th March 2003. It was the day before John Howard’s declaration of war on Iraq. I had agreed to speak to a crowd in Forrest Place at 5.30 as people made their way home from work. I was extremely nervous but had it all prepared. The crowded square was quiet and sombre in its awful expectations.

I spoke of the lament and sorrow arising across the land at the prospect of war. Then I declared it to be a time to outlaw war as we had done with slavery and other social ills. I said that peace is a sign that we have been victorious. It was the eleventh hour.

Maybe this speech was of small notice compared to the enduring forty-day fast of another of our own on the steps of parliament house at the same time.

Speeches?!

I have a book of famous speeches. Words that define our times and the deepest longings and tenets of humanity! There’s LIncoln’s speech defining democracy as, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’.

There’s Kennedy’s speech, ‘Ask not what America can do for you but what you can do for America.’

The book of speeches includes, ‘The Beatitudes of Jesus’. Indeed we might call this ‘The King’s Speech.’

So here is the ‘King’s Speech’ right at the beginning of his ministry. What had brought Jesus to this point? Not long before, Jesus had engaged in a great struggle during a wilderness retreat. There Jesus had doggedly resisted the temptations to have all things, to do all things and to control all things – the great ethical tug-of-war of every person in every age.

Soon after his return from the desert, Jesus made a speech to crowds, saying that the Kingdom of God’s good news was near! Then soon after, he called the disciples Andrew and Peter, James and John to ‘Come follow!’

Now was the opportune time for the speech of the Kingdom. Putting it simply, The Beatitudes of Jesus are like a creed for action, a design or master plan for the kingdom of God. It was written by Matthew about 80AD, as a prologue to all that would follow; wise sayings that would be echoed through the next 23 chapters. So what would this guiding code have to say about the Kingdom that Jesus announced, whether on the shores of Galilee, or in the writings of Matthew’s church 50 years later, or today? So began Jesus Sermon on the Mount.

From the very beginning it was counter-cultural. It turned the world up-side down. It was very non-status quo. It sounded like foolishness to anyone who really thought they mattered - the powerful, those who laughed at the one’s they stepped over in the street, those who thought they were the only ones of any value. To them such a sermon was so outside the square, so off-beat, so unconventional. It jarred with all the strivings for self-interest and status and material wealth that were evident in those days as in our own. And those who came to live this alternative way were often considered odd! And still are! But this was the King’s Speech.

There’s a strange parallel with the story in the movie of that name. When Logue agreed to help the future king of England he would only do so on the understanding that they be friends and that Logue would not address the Duke of York as ‘Your Majesty’ but as ‘Bertie’! How dare he! A commoner! From the colonies! We will never know what this did for British Royalty!

But of course this King, Jesus, was already sitting down on the hillside like a friendly Rabbi, speaking these most profound words to fishermen and tax collectors and maybe some women. Not on a grand podium surrounded by security staff. It was all up-side-down right from the start. The status quo was being challenged and all should know it! This King would be like a friend from day one!

But this introductory speech was not like a list of commandments as given by Moses. In fact Jesus was greater than Moses. Rather this speech was all about peculiar blessings or promises. These blessings would flow to:

The poor in spirit – life’s un-rich;
Those on the edge where life is lost or always under threat;
The meek or powerless or un-winners in life;
Those who hunger for justice;
Those who engage in acts of mercy;
The ‘pure in heart’ or the truth-seekers;
The peacemakers;
The persecuted!

It seems that Jesus was addressing the conventional wisdom and culture of the age; of any age. I made an attempt to define that culture of thought and attitude in what we read earlier. He was challenging the age-old grasping for possession, power and status.

Sometimes sermons on these scriptures start to sound like some sort of ‘guilt gospel’. I remember seeing my GP just before Easter three years ago, and him saying to me, ’Well it’s Easter and I might go to Church! Though I suppose I would just get another dose of ‘guilt’! What was the church saying to a noble man in his profession, full of integrity and compassion?

So today I don’t want this speech (sermon) to sound like Jesus was only interested in the poor and the marginalised. He did care for those. However this grand creed or master plan for the Kingdom of ‘good news’ shows there is blessing for all manner of people with all different sorts of human attributes, or status in life, or calling from God. Yes there is blessing for the poor, the lost and grieving and the powerless. But there is also blessing for those who act for justice and truth; who show acts of mercy and are peacemakers. And many do so with a great deal of sacrifice.

This gospel was an affirmation about the Godly-life to all in the church, to the most disadvantaged, and to those who carried most responsibility. All would receive ‘blessing’. This is not to blunt the speech’s important cutting edge as a creed for social reform or a strong ethical life. The way ahead was clear. The definition of Kingdom life was clear.

However there is another important question: ‘What is the meaning of this word `blessed`?’ Firstly I want to say that the translation `happy’ doesn’t seem to fit, certainly given what we mean by ‘happy’. In fact many of these beatitudes imply considerable struggle and worry in life, and ‘happiness’ then might seem very elusive.

Neither do I believe that these sayings suggest some sort of system of rewards, as though being poor or powerless brings a prized place in heaven. By the same reasoning others would get a reward for being peacemakers. But in our search for the ethical life (the way of right living) do we do the right thing just because we get a prize at the end (like a box of Smarties for a child who keeps the room clean), or do we do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do?
What I believe these beatitudes are saying is that living the ethical life, or doing the right thing, actually of itself takes us close to the heart of God, since that’s where God is or that’s where Jesus is! Or doing the right thing brings its own inner sense of what is worthwhile and deeply beneficial in life.

But what do we mean by this word `blessed` or `blessings`. We must go to the very first story of the patriarchs of Israel, Abram.

Read Gen.12:1-3.

There God made an eternal promise to Abram. It was in the form of blessing. There the blessing meant ‘the bestowal of life-force as energy and well-being, prosperity and abundance’ (Bruggemann 168). Blessing was about new life that was to be transmitted, via Israel, to the nations. They would receive God’s blessing and then give blessing to others.

So ‘blessing’ is about the flow of divine life-force or energy which comes to those who live out the truths given in his speech. And the blessing also means that where this happens the Kingdom of God’s good news has come near.

But we must not be left in any doubt about the radical nature of this message.

It is echoed when Paul wrote, ‘God chose what is foolish in this world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the mighty. God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are.’

And it is echoed when a nation appoints as leading citizens an advocate and philanthropist and an old man who rescues the distressed and troubled of his city.