Whose Sermon are You Following?

"The Sermon on the Mount ought to terrify us"  -  Russell Moore

Jesus sermon on the mount turns our worldly values of success, power, and violence on their head.  We fly by the beatitudes like they are nice attitudes with no world shaping force.  But the beatitudes speak to the poor, the meek and the persecuted inheriting not just heaven but also the earth!  When one looks at the world today, it looks like the billionaires will inherit the earth and supermodels and super athletes are the blessed. 

Rather than following Jesus sermon on the mount, we would rather follow the elites, the rich, the successful, the powerful.  By doing so, we undermine the very message we are to embody.  Are we not more like James and John who wanted to call down fire from heaven on our opponents?  Now we have the technology to do it!

The beatitudes and Jesus sermon on the mount is Jesus's manifesto for a kingdom people.  Jesus wants to rule this world through you.  Not by the wisdom and power like the world rules but in sacrificial love and compassionate justice for all.  Jesus gives us a cosmic vision to transform all of creation into God's kingdom in heaven also on earth.  Unfortunately too many Christians have interpreted Jesus words about giving to Caesar and giving to God as a split reality lifestyle.  The church is to look after people's spiritual destinies while the politicians run the world.

The gospels are not offering Jesus as a magic man or superman figure doing tricks to start a new religion.  Jesus is not a bearded social revolutionary offering utopia by running the world through sheer power or a religious moral ethical teacher whose example we are merely to follow.  Nor is Jesus a spiritual guru who simply wants us to feel good about ourselves because of our poor self esteem.

Bonhoeffer said that Christ calls a man to come and die.  To die in baptism, to die in sin, to die to social and cultural and intellectual and political expectations and to follow instead a new life with the kingdom task of Jesus leading every step of the way (Tom Wright, God in Public, p.174).  The bullies of the world want things to stay the way they are whereas God's kingdom people of the meek, mourners, and merciful are building schools and hospitals, taking care of the elderly, the sick, the prisoner, and the wounded and rescuing the poor and the helpless. 

Politicians don't mind Christians saying their prayers as long as they stay out of "their way" of running the world.  Jesus kingdom on earth is reconciling everything to God's kingdom and that means even the knees of principalities, rulers, and the rich and successful will one day bend their knees one way or the other to Jesus who is the rightful king of the universe.