Be Distinct Not Extinct Series

When was the last time you took someone up on a challenge? Not too long ago, it was the “cool” thing to do among the younger generations to challenge others to some kind of difficult venture or unheard-of activity. This was supposed to be fun.

At our senior adult stage in life, I doubt that any of us feel up to such challenges for fun but we never outlive the spiritual challenge Jesus put to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount.

With our world being topsy-turvy the way it is - crises popping up all over, not the least of which are threats facing Christians – our Christian challenge is to reexamine our core beliefs and renew our commitment to Christ. While it is the goal of fanatical religions to render Christianity helpless and even extinct, it is the goal of true disciples of Christ to become as distinct as Christ challenged us to become. Christian “becoming” is a never-ending process! Someone protested to me: “There is no way I can live up to the red-letter edition of the Bible! Christ’s teachings are too hard to live by! His expectations are too high!” My response: “I know. So, get on with it, live it as best you can, and be happy.”

A Quaker minister (Stephen Grillet) put it this way: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to my fellow human beings, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

In a world filled with attitudes and actions reflective of the opposite of good . . . lulled into sinful living by the lack of a moral conscience . . . whose senses have been dulled by little conviction of “right versus wrong” . . . led astray by a lack of a “spiritual compass”, the need for “spiritual awakening” is as great as ever!

When people long ago were searching for right answers . . . looking for the right person to follow . . . asking for a powerful spokesperson, God sent His Son - whose ministry attracted huge crowds, many of whom became His disciples, the number of them multiplying greatly right after the Resurrection . . . continuing to multiply to this day . . . to continue increasing until the consummation of this age! In times like these, our Christian Challenge “to become” is the same as it was when Jesus saw the multitudes, and taught them – Matthew 5:1-12 . . . “To be or not to be . . . That IS the question.” Shakespeare did not exactly have Christians in mind when he penned this concise statement of life’s objective, but it perfectly fits the crescendo of Beatitudes which Jesus used to describe what every follower of His ought to strive to become.

Since it is true that, “as we think in our hearts, so are we”, these sayings of Jesus are often thought of as “Be Attitudes” – positive attitudes “to be” translated into actions. “Be this . . . be that . . . be blessed.” Motto: “Be a Blessing and Be Blessed.”

In giving these eight Beatitudes, Jesus was not describing eight different categories or eight distinct groups that make up the Christian fellowship. Rather, He gave eight qualities of the same group, with a progression from first to eighth, with a crescendo of Christian distinctiveness!

(1) We enter into the Fellowship of Believers by first acknowledging that we are poor in spirit. Just as folks who are poor in material goods admit that there is something they need but cannot provide for themselves, the Bible insists that all must admit spiritual poverty in order to position themselves to be blessed of God. When we confessed our sinful condition we gained access to the kingdom of heaven: a “state of being” under the rule and reign of the LORD God . . . ours in the present yet living in anticipation of the ultimate fulfillment of His kingdom.

(2)Those who admit their spiritual poverty mourn; they lament their losses caused by sin . . . Such “mourning” occurs in connection with repentance – which is why the prophet Joel and John the Baptist pled with a sinful nation to repent: “Even now”, says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with weeping and with mourning.” “Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand!”

(3) To mourn over loss caused by sin is to be comforted - which literally means “to have someone come along beside you”. How fortunate Christians are to have the Holy Spirit of God come alongside us as divine comforter and spiritual guide

(4) With God as our Father . . . Christ as our Savior. . . and the Holy Spirit of God “by our side” we are empowered to be meek - the opposite of weak! In ancient literature, meekness was thought of as an ethic or a virtue . . . as striking a balance between opposite extremes – for example, “Blessed is a Christian who is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time”. “Blessed is a Christian who is neither a spendthrift nor a miser but a wise, though generous, giver”.