SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE 2nd September, 2001.

Over the next few weeks we will look at the Beatitudes of Jesus
those great Blessings, 'happy thoughts' Beautiful Attitudes'
with which he began the sermon on the mount.
A good preparation for the autumn season of work and activity
we cannot serve God unless we know God's blessing.

Matthew 5: 1 -10

This is a favourite time of year for me because of the blackberries;
I love picking them on a sunny afternoon
and I love eating them stewed with a little sugar poured over cereal.
And they freeze well so that I can have a Christmas treat. Bliss!
And sometimes I remember to thank God for the blessing of blackberries.
But out of the freezer they go off.
We left a pot of stewed blackberries out this week and they went rancid
and had to be thrown out.
That reminds me that I can't hold on to God's blessings
I can't store them up and say I'm rich, I control them
If I try to bottle up his blessing, it goes off it goes sour, gives a bad taste
God's blessings are there to be asked for and enjoyed
on a day by day basis
He is constantly giving, we are always in his debt.

Of course we don't naturally see it that way.
Our instinct is that it is the rich in spirit who are blessed.
Perhaps we have even wondered if it isn't a mistake when it says 'poor in spirit'.
Surely Jesus meant rich in spirit, spiritually deep people
people with a good record of church attendance
people who know their bibles, people who pray regularly and fervently
people who are known for being religious
good living, good church workers
people who have attained some level of spiritual competence ...
No! There is a special danger in being spiritual:
the danger of pride and complacency.
Remember what Jesus says to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3?
'17 You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'
But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire,
so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear,
so you can cover your shameful nakedness;
and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.'
Here was a church of professing Christians well off in material things
and supposedly prospering spiritually
but they needed to get back to basics and repent
They were so tepid in their walk with the Lord it really made him sick
he wanted to spit them out of his mouth like lukewarm water

It's the same with the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican
in Luke 18:9-14
Who was giving the bad smell?
Whose blessing had gone stale and sour?
Who knew he needed God and found him?
Which one would we instinctively throw out of the Big Brother House
Story spoilt because we know the ending
We regard Pharisees as "bad guys", always getting it wrong
but they were respected disciplined, generous, even humble,
they did not congratulate themselves
they gave God thanks that they were different.
The point is
that there is a great gulf between being religious and being Christian.
The difference is whether you think you have some credit with God
or are you willing to declare yourself bankrupt?
Who claimed credit in this story and who claimed nothing?
It was the spiritually and morally bankrupt person who begged and received.
as v 11 suggests the Pharisee who kept a score of how well he was doing
was really talking with himself

What were the publicans like?
(privatised tax collectors who had the backing of the Roman authorities
to collect their tax take for the government
and whatever profit they thought they could exact for themselves.)
Think of somebody who makes us mad
because he has got rich on the misery of others,
drug dealer, pornographer, corrupt politician
Publicans aroused similar feelings
among decent holy good living respectable folk.
Imagine drug dealer repenting asking God for mercy! Would you be merciful?
Wouldn't we all tend to cast vote for someone with a good track record?

Jesus tells us that those who have nothing to offer to God
those who are bankrupt beggars are the ones who are welcome in his kingdom
but those who keep a score of how well they are doing
might as well be talking to themselves; God's not impressed.
Is there no point, then, to leading a good life?
Of course it's good and right
not to extort taxes, deal in drugs, spread pornography
It is good when people can be disciplined and generous as the Pharisee was
just so long as we understand that in the eyes of the totally holy and just God
none of us is any better than the crook;
the same totally just and holy God has utter love, forgiveness and acceptance
for whoever it is, scoundrel or religious man, who begs
'God have mercy on me a sinner!'
It's the basic position summed up in the hymn 'Rock of Ages'
'Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your cross I cling
naked come to you for dress, helpless look to you for grace
foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me Saviour, or I die.'

Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'
'You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.
With less of you there is more of God and his rule.' (Peterson)
Truly happy are those who know they need God.
They are his people. He looks after them. They do what he says

To be truly happy as a subject in God's kingdom
we need that sense of ongoing spiritual dependence.
Not least when we have walked with Christ for some years
and am be beginning to congratulate ourselves we are doing well.
Very shortly after I was ordained I made the Pharisee's mistake:
I congratulated myself that I had arrived.
I was a recognised Christian leader. I was OK!
It didn't take long for God in his mercy to show me some pastoral situations
where I found I was not OK, I couldn't cope on my own.
Some months of guilt and struggle followed
until I came to understand the gospel in a deeper way
and prayed again the publican's, bankrupt prayer
'God be merciful to me a sinner.'
More recently it has been a different a sort of temptation
not pride and complacency that I'm OK
but despair and depression at my sense of failure
not t mention jealousy and bitterness
about other ministers who seem to be more successful.
That is still a mistake and a sin.
It is the sin of writing myself off
of measuring myself by other people's achievements
which is not better than congratulating myself for doing well
But isn't this the paradox of the good news?
When we think we are managing , we aren't
and when think we've blown it, there is still a way out.
So this is still one of my favourite prayers
and I sense I may not even so have got to the bottom of its depths
neither of my own sinfulness nor of God's deeper mercy,
But isn't it wonderful? It is the spiritual failure,
the person who has come to an end of his own resources
who finds the blessing of God, the security of his kingdom.

It's not about me, it's about him.
You and I have nothing
yet depending on Jesus we can have everything!

Lord, though you are high
yet you have regard for the lowly, the poor in spirit,
but the proud, those who think they are doing well,
those who keep thinking about themselves
you keep at a distance.
Have mercy on us sinners
and keep us in a relationship with you
which is repentant, open, dependent on Christ and truly happy.

May God's blessing surround you today
as you trust him and walk in his way
May his blessing within guard and keep you from sin
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love