{"id":16391,"date":"2018-01-30T09:23:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T14:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16391"},"modified":"2018-01-30T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T14:32:53","slug":"blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16391","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Sermon on the Mount: Week 1<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/blessed-poor-spirit-2018-01-30\/\"><strong>Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, January 30, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLj2tZCs6Ms\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe Sermon on the Mount is the very blueprint for Christian lifestyle, and most scholars see it as the best summary of Jesus\u2019 teaching. But we can\u2019t understand this wisdom with the rational, dualistic mind; in fact, we will largely misunderstand it while convinced that we got it on the first try. As we saw last week, Jesus taught an alternative wisdom\u2014the Reign of God\u2014which overturns the conventional and common trust in power, possessions, and personal prestige. To understand the Sermon on the Mount, we must approach it with an open heart and a beginner\u2019s mind, ready to have these normal cultural beliefs and preferences changed. Most people were never told this and tried to fit the Gospel into their existing cultural agenda.<\/p>\n<p>The Gospel of Matthew sets the stage for the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus sees the crowds following him and heads to \u201cthe mountain\u201d (symbolic for the new Moses giving a new \u201claw\u201d) with his disciples. This is his opening line, which necessarily must be central to his entire message; it is a key to everything else:<\/p>\n<p><em>How blessed (or \u201chappy\u201d) are the poor in spirit; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. <\/em>\u2014Matthew 5:3<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPoor in spirit\u201d means an inner emptiness and humility, a beginner\u2019s mind, and to live without a need for personal righteousness or reputation. It is the \u201cpowerlessness\u201d of Alcoholics Anonymous\u2019 First Step. The Greek word Matthew uses for \u201cpoor\u201d is <em>ptochoi<\/em>, which literally means, \u201cthe very empty ones, those who are crouching.\u201d They are the bent-over beggars, the little nobodies of this world who have nothing left, who aren\u2019t self-preoccupied or full of themselves in any way. Jesus is saying: \u201cHappy are you, you\u2019re the freest of all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The higher and more visible you are in any system, the more trapped you are inside it. The freest position is the one I call \u201con the edge of the inside\u201d\u2014neither a \u201ccompany man\u201d nor a rebel or iconoclast. The price of both holding power and speaking truth to power can be very great. You ricochet between being offensive and being defensive, neither of which is a contemplative or solid position. Further, you are forced to either defend and maintain the status quo to protect yourself and the group or to waste time reacting against it. My fellow teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, calls this \u201cpouring empty into empty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cpoor in spirit\u201d don\u2019t have to play any competitive games; they are not preoccupied with <em>winning<\/em>, which is the primary philosophy in the United States today. Jesus is recommending a social reordering, quite different from common practice. Notice also how he uses present tense: \u201cthe Kingdom of God <em>is<\/em> theirs.\u201d He doesn\u2019t say \u201c<em>will<\/em> be theirs.\u201d That tells us that God\u2019s Reign isn\u2019t later; it\u2019s now. You are only free when you have nothing to protect and nothing you need to prove or defend. Trapped people <em>have<\/em> to do what they want to do. Free people <em>want <\/em>to do what they know they have to do. Admittedly, it takes a while to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Eknath Easwaran writes that \u201cthe joy we experience in these moments of self-forgetting is our true nature, our native state. To regain it, we have simply to empty ourselves of what hides this joy: that is, to stop dwelling on ourselves.\u201d [1] As we forget our false, floating self, we rediscover our substantial and anchored self\u2014which is not very needy at all.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">The Dilemma of Obedience<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=1+Samuel+3%3A15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1 Samuel 3:15<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">God never speaks to us in dramatic ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand. Then we say, \u201cI wonder if that is God\u2019s voice?\u201d Isaiah said that the Lord spoke to him \u201cwith a strong hand,\u201d that is, by the pressure of his circumstances (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Isaiah+8:11\">Isaiah 8:11<\/a>). Without the sovereign hand of God Himself, nothing touches our lives. Do we discern His hand at work, or do we see things as mere occurrences?<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Get into the habit of saying, \u201cSpeak, Lord,\u201d and life will become a romance (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Samuel+3:9\">1 Samuel 3:9<\/a>). Every time circumstances press in on you, say, \u201cSpeak, Lord,\u201d and make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline\u2014 it is meant to bring me to the point of saying, \u201cSpeak, Lord.\u201d Think back to a time when God spoke to you. Do you remember what He said? Was it\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+11:13\">Luke 11:13<\/a>, or was it\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Thessalonians+5:23\">1 Thessalonians 5:23<\/a>? As we listen, our ears become more sensitive, and like Jesus, we will hear God all the time.<\/p>\n<p>Should I tell my \u201cEli\u201d what God has shown to me? This is where the dilemma of obedience hits us. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences and thinking, \u201cI must shield \u2018Eli,\u2019 \u201d who represents the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli\u2014 he had to decide that for himself. God\u2019s message to you may hurt your \u201cEli,\u201d but trying to prevent suffering in another\u2019s life will prove to be an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own risk that you prevent someone\u2019s right hand being cut off or right eye being plucked out (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5:29-30\">Matthew 5:29-30<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Never ask another person\u2019s advice about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will almost always side with Satan. \u201c\u2026I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Galatians+1:16\">Galatians 1:16<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sermon on the Mount: Week 1 Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit Tuesday, January 30, 2018 The Sermon on the Mount is the very blueprint for Christian lifestyle, and most scholars see it as the best summary of Jesus\u2019 teaching. But we can\u2019t understand this wisdom with the rational, dualistic mind; in fact, we will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16391"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16396,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16391\/revisions\/16396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}