{"id":915,"date":"2020-02-02T23:31:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T23:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2020\/02\/02\/requirements-based-on-micah-61-8-and-matthew\/"},"modified":"2020-02-11T21:41:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T21:41:47","slug":"requirements-based-on-micah-61-8-and-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2020\/02\/02\/requirements-based-on-micah-61-8-and-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRequirements\u201d\tbased on Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5:1-12"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

By
\nmy records, this is the 4th<\/sup> time I’ve preached on the
\nBeatitudes here, and the 7th<\/sup> time overall. \u00a0To be honest,
\nthis makes things a little bit challenging. \u00a0To be a responsible
\npreacher, I think I have to go over the basics each time, but to be
\nan INTERESTING preacher I need to offer you something new. \u00a0The
\nBeatitudes, however, have been around for a while and they aren’t \u2026
\nwell…new.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In
\nfact, they’re so not new to those of us with lifetime exposures to
\nChristianity, that I’m not sure we can hear them anymore. \u00a0Bruce
\nMalina and Richard Rohrbough wrote the \u201cSocial-Science Commentary
\non the Synoptic Gospels\u201d which is one of the most useful books I’ve
\never met. \u00a0They put the Gospels into a social context, and use it to
\nexplain how things would have made sense in the stories and to those
\nfirst hearing the stories.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Their
\ncommentary on the Beatitudes is particularly helpful, as they
\nDISAGREE with the general consensus that \u201cblessed\u201d can be
\ntranslated as \u201cfortunate\u201d or \u201clucky\u201d or \u201chappy.\u201d \u00a0Those
\nare all good translations of the Latin<\/b> version of the text,
\nbut they miss the social context of Jesus’s day. \u00a0Instead, they point
\nout:<\/p>\n

\nThe language used here, i.e. ‘blessed’ is
\nhonorific language. \u2026 Contrary to the dominant social values, these
\n‘blessed are…’ statements ascribe honor to those unable to defend
\ntheir positions or those who refuse to take advantage of or trespass
\non the position of another. \u00a0They are not those normally honored by
\nthe culture. \u00a0Obviously, then, the honor granted comes from God, not
\nfrom the usual social sources.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

The
\nhonor bit of this isn’t simply honor like we understand it today.
\nOne of the primary points of the book is that honor and shame were
\nunderstood as a zero-sum reality in the Mediterranean region at that
\ntime. \u00a0One was born into a certain amount of honor or shame and the
\nonly way one gained honor was by gaining it FROM someone else and
\nthat person then experienced an increase in shame. \u00a0Honor was the
\nFUNDMENTAL value in society, and it was a \u201climited good.\u201d \u00a0In
\nfact, the \u201cpoor\u201d and the \u201crich\u201d in the New Testament are not
\nactually economic terms to begin with. \u00a0Rather, to be \u201cpoor\u201d was
\nto be a person living with less honor than one was born to, and to be
\n\u201crich\u201d was to have gained honor from others. \u00a0Malina and
\nRorhrbough put it this way, \u201cThe ancient Mediterranean attitude was
\nthat every rich person is either unjust or the hair of an unjust
\nperson,\u201d one who had stolen from others what they had.2<\/sup><\/a>
\n They conclude that,\u201dThe terms ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ therefore, are
\nbetter translated ‘greedy,’ and socially unfortunate.’\u201d3<\/sup><\/a>
\n (This isn’t to say poverty wasn’t an issue, it was just such a
\nUNIVERSAL issue that it wasn’t actually the focus.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This
\nunderstanding of honor, and the connection of honor to \u201cblessed
\nare…\u201d, is the key to understanding the Beatitudes in their
\noriginal context. \u00a0The challenge is that sometimes the text has been
\nused to mean the opposite of it’s intention. \u00a0When \u201cBlessed are…\u201d
\nis translated \u201clucky\u201d it can SEEM like the beatitudes are saying:
\n\u201cLucky are the ones who struggle, don’t worry about them, they’re
\nbetter off than you think.\u201d \u00a0Thus the social order of the day,
\nwhatever day it may be, is upheld and people’s suffering is
\njustified.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That
\nsounds sort of like what a STANDARD set of honor and shame statements
\nwould have been \u2013 the ones describing society as it was in Jesus’s
\nday:<\/p>\n

\n

\tHonorable
\nare those born into good families.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who are spoken well of in the town square.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who own large estates.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare the elected officials who make the rules.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who have many servants.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who have the status to control others.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who have the ear of power.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who can enforce their will with violence.<\/p>\n

\tHonorable
\nare those who speak, and others have to listen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

That
\nis, honor belongs to and is used by those are are already powerful,
\nimportant, and wealthy. \u00a0So, shame belongs to the powerless, the
\nunimportant, the poor, and those who lose status. \u00a0This clarifies
\njust how different the statements in Matthew’s gospel really are.
\nBecause those that society shames, God does not.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Given
\nthe information we have, the Beatitudes might be heard as:<\/p>\n

\n

\nHonorable to God are those who have lost the
\nhonor of society, while they do not own the kingdoms of earth, they
\nare part of the kindom of heaven.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are those who are mourn, while
\nthey have lost that which matters, loss is not the final word.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are those who refuse to harm
\nothers, while they may lose out on power and wealth, they will end up
\nwith everything that truly matters.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are those who hunger and thirst
\nfor fairness, righteousness, and justice \u2013 it is coming.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are the merciful \u2013 those who
\ndo not demand what they have a right to and shame others \u2013 they
\nwill also receive mercy when they need it.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are those who are pure in
\nheart, the kind, for when they look in the world, they are able to
\nsee the hand of God at work.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are the peace-able people, the
\nones who reject violence and seek win-win situations, they are like
\nGod.<\/p>\n

\nHonorable to God are the ones who are shamed by
\nsociety for making the right choices, they also are a part of the
\nkindom of heaven.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Jesus
\nis describing an ENTIRELY ALTERNATE values system, one that ignores
\nthe things that society cared about and instead focuses about caring
\nfor each other, building each other up, not being willing to do harm,
\nand inverting the assumptions about how honor and shame work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The
\nwork of Jesus in this Matthew passage tracks well with the questions
\nposed in Micah. \u00a0In this passage God reminds the people what God has
\ndone for them, and they respond with a wish to show appropriate…
\nwell, honor and difference to God. \u00a0This leads to the question, \u201cWith
\nwhat shall I come before the LORD?\u201d and the initial thoughts are
\nthe sorts of gifts one might bring a king to indicate that one
\nunderstands oneself to be a vassal \u2013 that the approval of the king
\nis important to your own continued life. \u00a0 \u00a0But the answer is that
\nGod does NOT work like that. \u00a0God isn’t looking for bribes, like the
\nkings of the world. \u00a0God is looking for something else entirely.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You
\nmay well know this answer: to do justice, and to love kindness, and
\nto walk humbly with your God. \u00a0Sounds a bit like the Beatitudes,
\ndoesn’t it?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I
\nasked a question last week about how we as Christians are supposed to
\nbe in relationship with the world. \u00a0I think, perhaps, this is a large
\npart of the answer. \u00a0We are to exist within an alternative value
\nsystem, one that sees the world with different eyes. \u00a0We are to see
\nthe values of justice, and of kindness, of humility, of peacefulness,
\nof humility, of mercy \u00a0– and let those values guide our lives. \u00a0How
\nwe relate to the world at large is not in rejection or complicity \u2013
\nit is with seeing it with different eyes. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In
\nthe video for the Living the Questions study last week Rev. Winnie
\nVarghese suggests that as Christians we should be dreaming dreams so
\nbig that the world thinks we are CRAZY, and the dreams are
\nimpossible. The reason, she says, is because God dreams of a truly
\njust society, and we’re supposed to be dreamers with God. \u00a0I think
\nthat both Micah and the Beatitudes point us in the direction of God’s
\ndreams \u2013 of value systems that value compassion, collaboration, and
\nkindness. \u00a0May we dream right alongside of God, and act accordingly.
\nAmen\n<\/p>\n

<\/a>1<\/a>Bruce
\n\tJ. Malina and Richard L. Rorhrbough Social-Science Commentary on the
\n\tSynoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) \u201cTextual
\n\tNotes: Matthew 5:1-12\u201d p. 41.<\/p>\n

2<\/a>Malina,
\n\t400.<\/p>\n

3<\/a>Malina,
\n\t401.<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

02-02-2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By my records, this is the 4th time I’ve preached on the Beatitudes here, and the 7th time overall. \u00a0To … Continue reading \u201cRequirements\u201d\tbased on Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5:1-12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,38,28,39,33,67,66,68,70,65,56,69,64],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-alternative-values-system","tag-beatitudes","tag-dreaming-with-god","tag-justice-kindness-mercy","tag-micah-68","tag-schenectady","tag-social-science-commentary-on-the-synoptic-gospels","tag-sorry-about-the-umc-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}