The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

© 2023, Dr. Tamilio

 I remember reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie when it was a bestseller years ago.  It is the true story of sportswriter Mitch Albom spending time with his former college professor Morrie Schwartz as the latter was in the process of dying.  It was, in Albom’s words, as if he was attending the last lecture of an old sage.  What he learned were lessons about seizing the day, carpe diem, getting the most out of life, and savoring every experience and opportunity.  Imagine going back and having one last conversation (or a series of conversations) with someone who was a mentor to you.  Mine would be with Bob Dunn who was my English teacher during my senior year in high school.  That man changed my life, much like Morrie changed Albom’s life.  Albom has since become more of a motivational writer, penning other best sellers such as The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

I love the Gospel of Matthew.  It is probably my favorite of the four.  I like its clarity and the lessons it offers, as well as the window it provides into Jesus’ life and teachings.  This past Advent, we began Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary cycle, which means we will be spending a lot of time over the next twelve months emersed in Matthew.

After Matthew details Jesus’ genealogy and tells us about his Birth, particularly the visit of the Magi, we hear about his Baptism by his cousin John and his Temptation by Satan in the wilderness.  Jesus then calls his first disciples beginning his public ministry.  The first thing that we witness after that is the Sermon on the Mount.  This homily, delivered on a hillside in Galilee in front of crowds of people — Matthew uses the word “crowds” (plural) as opposed to “crowd” (singular), which suggests a huge gathering — these teachings contain some of Jesus’ most memorable lessons.  Unlike Morrie, from whom we learn crucial lessons about living life to its fullest at the end of his life, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount comes at the start of his ministry.  It opens with the Beatitudes.  These are the nine proverbial blessings that Jesus proclaims to his listeners.

Some of these you may know, in part because they have become part of contemporary idiomatic language.  For example, if I were to say, “Blessed are the meek,” you would finish this by saying…“for they shall inherit the earth.”  I mentioned how these sayings are proverbial, meaning that, like many of the Proverbs, they show a reversal of order.

• Those that are meek become mighty.
• Those who mourn will be comforted.
• Those who long for justice will find it.

The reason why can be found in the first of the Beatitudes in which Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  This notion of the kingdom of heaven comes up quite a bit in Jesus’ teaching.  It appears throughout Matthew’s Gospel.  In chapter ten when Jesus sends out the twelve disciples, one of their instructions is to proclaim that “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  And Jesus is not the only one who uses this expression.  Two chapters earlier, it is John the Baptist who says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “at hand” is an idiom that means “near in time or position.”  According to one source, “The people understood it as a proclamation that the Messianic kingdom was about to be established.”[1]  But the biblical concept of this “idiom” can mean past, present, and future.  God already established his kingdom (or at least a taste of it) when he created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo).  It was at hand (meaning literally here) when God came to the earth as Jesus, and it is still manifest in the Church, which is the Body of Christ.  Finally, the kingdom will come in its full, ultimate form when Jesus returns at the end of time.  Revelation 15:11 tells us that, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.”

Biblical time is funny like that.  It seems more circular than linear.  It is the now and the not yet, the was and is and will be.

We think of the Kingdom of God as Heaven (the place where we go when we die), and it is, but it is also much more than that.  I believe we get a taste of it whenever we truly live the Gospel.  The Old Testament reading from the minor prophet Micah that we also read today gives us some insight into this.  The often-quoted eighth verse reads, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Being a Christian isn’t just doing all the right things in order to win some prize when you die: i.e., Heaven.  It is a reorientation of your life in the here and now.  God wants to change our hearts.  He wants us to embrace an ethic of grace, meaning we know we are sinners, but we are forgiven, sinners.  Our good deeds do not bring us salvation.  Remember, as Paul told the believers in Ephesus, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (2:8-9).  Let me break this salvation conundrum down as simply as I can.  Your good deeds do not earn you salvation.  Rather, they are a result of it.  I just quoted Ephesians 2:8-9.  The very next verse (2:10) ties all of this together: “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (NRSV).  The kingdom of God is in our midst (at hand) whenever we lead a kingdom life.  We make it manifest whenever we minister in Jesus’ name and live our lives as if he is standing right in front of us.

The Beatitudes give a glimpse of the kingdom of Heaven.  Are they a reversal of how things were on earth for many people?  Absolutely.  They give a kingdom view of everything.  The kingdom view is one in which we are one with one another.  I do not mean one the way Buddhists talk about everything is one.  I mean we will be one in the Spirit of God, united as a people with a single purpose.  That purpose is simple.  It can be found in the very first question of the Westminster Catechism: “What is the chief and highest end of man?”  Answer?  “Man’s chief and highest end are to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”  We may not be Presbyterians, but their answer that begins this Catechism is one we fully agree with.  Our chief purpose in life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.  The writer Norman Maclean called this “such a beautiful answer.”  It is a beautiful answer.

When we enjoy God, praise God, worship God, and serve God — when we do all this — the kingdom is in our midst, and we are truly a kingdom people.  The Lord’s Prayer ends with us saying, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.”  Indeed, it is — and we make that kingdom which is to come to a reality in our midst whenever we fully embrace it and live it.  This was Jesus’ first lesson.  May it guide us throughout the year, and through all of our tomorrows.  Amen.

[1] Bible Ask (online): June 20, 2022.