The Beatitudes and 'what's up with us'
Sermon on the Mount pt. 1
1Personal notes moved to footnote 1.
I ran into a couple of substacks focused on Biblical poetry here,
and here,
( and they inspired me to make a fool of myself) so my insights on the Beatitudes have been distilled into what may be the worst poetry ever written.
Technical note: The footnotes and the poetry blocks are not playing together nicely. The footnotes are kinda hanging in space. If the poetry doesn’t display right in your email click the ‘online’ link at the top of the email.
Artistic note: My poetry is legit terrible. Also my first attempt at anything ‘visually poetic’ so it’s rather childish. Still working on the last three beatitudes. Surprisingly I know absolutely nothing about peacemakers, so I am stalled there. If you like the poetry let me know. If you hate the poetry definitely let me know so that I don’t waste more time doing. It was neat but makes my head hurt. Definitely hoping to be able to deliver some good material on the Sermon on the Mount.
The first theme is that the things that are blessed, are not virtuous things or things to which we should aspire, but rather failures, weaknesses, and sins. The Beatitudes are about Christ providing for sinners, not a recipe for the kind of person that you should be but a blessing on the person that you are.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Well, what does that mean?
What does spiritual richness mean?
Spiritual richness is to be ‘like Christ’
a ‘mature Christian’
a Saint.
So, He blesses the opposite of that? Christ’s sermon's very first words are Grace.
He gives all that He has, His kingdom,
to the Last,
to the Least,
to the Little,
to the Lost.
'My trembling little flock Fear Not,
for your Father delights to give you
the whole kingdom.'To the believer who has no gift to bring,
whose sanctification is going nowhere,
stuck in sin for so long,
Christ gives His first and best blessing.
Spiritually poor,
impoverished,
needy,
That is me.
If that is you then hear this,
All that He has is yours.
Brook no demands that you jump hoops
or do works.
Have nothing to do with those who say
‘do not eat,
do not taste,
do not touch’.
His mercy is drawn to our poverty,
to the impossibility of ever getting
a 'return on investment’ from us.
Christ calls the sin addict His heir.
Shocking to Greeks,
Offensive to Jews,
Lovely to Sinners,
All that follows, flows from this.4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
What seems less blessed than sorrow?
To mourn is to be so overcome with sorrow
that you can’t hide it,
that you can’t function anymore.
It is not merely to suffer but to be
made weak by your suffering.
Christ doesn’t judge our mourning, if we
mourn rationally or
mourn rightly or
mourn foolishly or
mourn wrongly or
mourn measuredly or
mourn immoderately, but
blesses all who mourn.
Broken fallen world causes many tears.
Broken fallen world causes constant grief.
Mourning,
Depression,
Broke brain,
Paging Dr. Eliphaz,
Need a sweet Serotonin Script,
Bildad bring me a joint,
Zophar talk to me,
Til I am better.
Selah.
Two thousand and ten Lorraine left,
Granny to Chris, Scott, me,
Mama to Papa Andy,
He'll never be the same.
Loss left him ever lame.
To the slaves of time this is shame.
To the children of eternity this is fame.
Hurt is not healed by passing time,
Grief does not stop at clocks' chime.
Sin and loss in themselves sour,
in Him become perfect power.
Keep the pain until it is healed,
until the Great Physician is revealed.The great Physician now is near,
the sympathizing Jesus;
He speaks the drooping heart to cheer,
oh! hear the voice of Jesus.
His name dispels my guilt and fear,
no other name but Jesus;
oh! how my soul delights to hear
the charming name of Jesus.
Sweetest note in seraph song,
sweetest name on mortal tongue;
sweetest carol ever sung,
Jesus, blessed Jesus.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
To the Wild Mustang by Bronc Rider meeked Wildness taken Independence fakin Spirit breakin: Take the shot Keep your job Take the shit Keep your kid Pull the plow You stupid cow To the one who has no share: Christ has named you His heir. A place is prepared for you, Not because you love Him, But because He loves you. Low T World runs over me I'll never be a gym-bro Current thing tosses me to and fro Meek and mild, broken and tame, He loves me just the same. I serve on Uncle Sam's plantation, Though destined for glorification.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessing is not
promised for
what you are or
what you have but for what you lack.
Those with food do not hunger
those with drink
do not thirst
Those with
righteousness
are not blessed
will not be
filled.
Pant, long for righteousness
Beg scraps like a dog
Accept your emptiness
Embrace your desperation
Til we become empty of each
and every scrap of righteousness
every single hope of improvement
we are not able to hunger and thirst
we cannot be able to pant and cry for
the righteousness that comes as a gift.
When we have no goodness of our own
not one good work on which to hang our hat,
we shall receive fully and freely
the righteousness of Christ.I know I haven’t posted anything in awhile and we have some new subscribers so I wanted to drop you guys a line. Our little circus is looking forward to 4 birthdays in May so Chey has her hair on fire a bit trying to get everything ready. Josy is almost 8 months now, he can crawl, he can eat regular food, he has teeth and will bite the crap out of you, he can stand up. Basically he can do everything I can do except less sarcastically. The pic is taken at Brenau a few weeks ago. Susannah won a coloring contest that got us tickets to the Gainesville Ballet there. The girls loved it obviously.
We figured out how to finish paying for the book and the publisher will probably start editing the end of this week or the start of next. The official title is gonna be Another Book: Jesus in John’s Apocalypse and I think it will be released early fall. It looks at the book of Revelation and the endtimes in general through the lens of the Gospel, rather than the typical antichrist fan fiction I focus on the fact that Jesus of Nazareth hasn’t changed, that His actions at the end are just like the things that He did when He walked the Earth and examine the end through the lens of the Cross. Ch. 2 is open for all subscribers to read here
this is the original preached version the book has light editing), the whole book is available prepublication to paying subscribers here.
We are starting to get ready for the summer, and have been thinking about the lack of any teaching on Christian ethics available. The church has basically gotten out of the teaching business and just shows videos all of the time. Anyway, we are looking into ways to teach ethics from the Sermon on the Mount. What is below is the beginning of that. We are still plugging away teaching the Heidelberg Catechism I will write something up on it soon but no more fireworks like Lily screaming how much she hates the parts that call her a sinner and tell her she can never fulfill the Law.
Luke 12:32
The great Physician now is here Author: William Hunter
Tune: [The great Physician now is near] (Stockton)
The comments that were here accidentally got deleted while I am working on publishing this with some of the other material that goes along with it. Very sorry.