We Need More Sermon on the Mount

 

                                                       Sermon on the Mount -- Jorge Cocco

Jesus bids us shine, with a clear, pure light,

Like a little candle burning in the night;

In this world is darkness, so let us shine

You in your small corner, and I in mine. 

I've wondered along the way what my "emergency pack" of scripture would be if I wasn't allowed to take a New Testament with me to the wilderness cabin where I'd be spending the next year. I would certainly include a passage which included the crucifixion and the version of the resurrection story from John's gospel. Philippians 4 and the "be anxious for nothing" verses. The fruits of the Spirit verses in Galatians 5,  and Ephesians 3:28 about freedom in Christ, especially if there were going to be others in the cabin.

All of these passages would be a page or two in total, but I would definitely include all three chapters from Matthew's gospel which are what we call the Sermon on the Mount. They are the Christian Manifesto and Monty Python aside (blessed are the cheesmakers) these teachings would be transformative if we took them to heart as Jesus followers. 

We're getting a smattering or maybe a dabble of the Sermon on the Mount in the Common Lectionary right now, three weeks in chapter 5 of Matthew, beginning with the Beatitudes last Sunday. Today we're invited to be salt and light, whatever our modest sphere might be. We are to flavour our societies and illuminate the dark places. 

This is such an important reminder in a time when religion is toxic just about everywhere we look. At times I am deeply disheartened by self-serving religiosity and understand why so many are leaving institutions behind. I could make a list regarding the abuses in God's name and by Christian false teachers but it would be too lengthy. In ancient times conquering armies would sometimes salt the fields of those they overran and there is a sense that we have actually managed to poison ourselves and the world around us rather than enhance. . 

I was heartened last year when a lively and thoughtful group of people from several congregations joined me to study Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven by the ever-insightful Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish New Testament scholar. 

We need a lot more Sermon on the Mount it seems to me, so that Jesus can speak to our hearts and minds for the turbulent time in which we live. I suppose we are alway beginners.