Sermon on the Mount – Spiritual Life @ Bucknell

2/24/19
Rooke Chapel Congregation

We’ve been wrestling with Matthew’s sermon on the mount,
For a couple of weeks now.
Thinking about perfection, and turning the other cheek.
And Salt and light.
We skipped, you may have noticed,
Matthew’s long and beautiful list of blessings –
Blessed are the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek, hungry, merciful, peacemakers.
It is a lovely text,
If perhaps,
A little dulled by overuse
on mugs and inspirational Christian Instagram.

But instead, this morning,
We’ve jumped to Luke’s version.
Now, I’m a Luke guy through and through.
If all of a sudden,
the bible ship started to sink,
and I only had time to save one book.
It would definitely be Luke’s Gospel.
Luke’s version of Jesus is especially pointed,
especially concerned with justice,
and poverty,
and he connects especially,
God’s coming reign,
with the lived, earthly experience.
But I must admit,
that when it comes to the sermon on the mount,
I prefer Matthew’s version (Matthew 5) Continue reading “A Level Place”

Kurt Nelson
2/10/19
Rooke Chapel Congregation

Matthew 5: 13-20

We spent our first two weeks together,
with the Gospel of John.
The first systemic attempt,
to author the meaning
of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection.
A story meant to help us feel what abundant life might look like,
and help us notice, as we discussed last week,
where that abundance,
that grace – might call us out into the world,
to get to work
and sometimes to get into trouble.

for the next three weeks
(maybe 4.
I don’t know yet.
I’m still figuring a lot of things out here.
And we don’t know each other that well yet.)
I’d like us to look together at the sermon on the mount.
Which is the most sustained, significant,
teaching from Jesus,
(rather than about Jesus)
that we have.

If you’re curious about its compilation,
or history,
or about comparative study between various version
I’d be delighted to talk about a bible study time,
but for worship,
I think we’ll focus more on its substance,
dig in, and muck around a little.
Because it is world changing stuff,
and life changing stuff,
even as the words have become blunted for many of us,
from overuse.

And we’re starting today,
a little bit in the middle of the sermon.

Because it’s here,
here that Jesus takes up the implicit, essential question:
Who are we?

And we should first note, Continue reading “Salt and Light”