Sermon on the Mount/Plain October 5 2008

Hi Everyone!

Blessings to you all & hope your Monday is a good beginning for a great week.

Here's what we did Sunday, October 5 in 'New Testament Made Easy':

Welcome to first time folks, Willa, Dave, Carolee, Mary, Laura, and Greg. We missed some of you -- Steve & Melanie (thanks for serving in the nursery!), Mark & Melanie (thinking of you visiting your church family in Tri-cities), Dan & Melinda (crashing from college tour!), and Eric & Angela (in the midst of moving).

The subject for today, and next week, is Jesus' wonderful sermon. This is most often referred to as "The Sermon on the Mount". This is Matthew's version, who places Jesus on a hillside as he preaches to his disciples. Most scholars believe this is a deliberate association with Moses, who brought the gift of God's law from the mountain. Jesus' sermon in Matthew covers three whole chapters, 5, 6, and 7. In Luke the sermon is commonly known as "The Sermon on the Plain", because there Jesus comes down to a level place among his disciples and many people gathered to hear and to be healed. Luke's version is also shorter, taking place in chapter 6 of that book.

We noted some of these differences, and others. In Matthew ('The Rabbi') Jesus is portrayed in the primary role of teacher (Rabbi!) in the tradition of Moses, the most revered teacher of the Israelites and Jews. The focus in Matthew is the meat of the message. He is speaking to the disciples, but in such a way as anyone would overhear. In Luke ('The Chronicler') Jesus is portrayed as someone who positions himself to be more in touch with common people, as he stands not above them but in their midst, and speaks directly to them. In the landscape of Luke, Jesus' presence is the ultimate 'leveler', challenging the class system and oppression of the poor in his day.

These profiles in Matthew and Luke are not contradictory, but do present Jesus seen through different lenses of interpretation.

It is possible that these two sermons represent two different occasions; or that they are constructions by the authors, based on source material at their disposal and written to emphasize their respective understandings of Jesus.

We noted that these sermons are powerful, and hard to digest all at once. As we move toward not only understanding Jesus' message, but putting it into practice, we will have much to think about and some definite challenges.

We moved into studying one portion of the sermons, known commonly as "The Beatitudes", which we think means "blessings". Next week we'll do a bit more comparison/contrast and move into small groups where we can ponder our four questions: 1) What does the passage tell me about me 2) What does the passage tell me about God 3) What does the passage tell me about my relationship with God 4) What will I do?

God bless you all; we love our class and look forward to seeing you every Sunday.

Pastor Dan & Laura