Well this is my second attempt at this. My first turned into a long blog that does not follow our rules of engagement here. So while you weren't looking, I withdrew it and began again. I think I'll clarify it and take to my blog.
I have swung from one end of the pendulum to the other since I read this chapter. One side deals with tons of baggage from my own life and attitude.
So here is my sub-par-as-usual question.
So the "blesseds'" meaning is obvious to all the poor, meek, lowly spirits around the mount at the time. Less obvious to the better-offs. What if the popular misunderstanding that led us to put a human "becoming" spin on them had fallen short and merely caused the "better-offs" to realize that they weren't any more qualified than anyone else? In other words, if the message is that the kingdom is for all, then as it is an encouragement to those on the list, isn't it also a wake up call to those "better-offs?" If we realize that we can't become qualified, can't we still be made to realize that we're not already qualified because of position, or personality, or intellectual, spiritual insight? Isn't this bound to produce humility and reliance in a serious but misguided seeker who thought he was ok?
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God's kingdom is available to all, good. that's what i thought. and we're not supposed to "attain" bee altitude. good, i didn't think so, but it's good to be reminded on how to interpret the passages. it's easy to fall into trying to
acquire poorness when that's not even what Jesus is talking about. now then, here's a quote from pg. 116.
"We have already indicated the key to understanding the Beatitudes. They serve to clarify Jesus' fundamental message: the free availability of God's rule and righteousness to all of humanity through reliance upon Jesus himself, the person now loose in the world among us."
my vex: what does "reliance" here mean? is the act of "relying" not a work in itself?
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Gentlemen, I want to respond to something that was implied in this chapter that is dear to my heart. Willard has once again written a chapter that resonates deeply within, but that leaves me speechless. Speechless not because I am flabbergasted, but because I am nodding in agreement and wondering why we have never heard this stuff before. I always surmised it, but never questioned it. However, my muse from this chapter is this....
Willard has taken great pains to pick apart the scriptural text [even giving us much Greek terminology along the way :)]. From all his searching for the deeper meaning I wonder if that is trying to glean too much "fresh insight". I read these "blesseds" as Jesus sitting on a mountain top looking over the collection of "God's grubby people" [125] and just pointing out to everyone the obvious truth. "look at the lives that I have just touched people", don't you realize? Its not just the religious few that get blessed. Look around you....The poor in spirit are blessed, the meek are blessed"..... the kingdom of God is available to all of you.
I may not have specific question here, but this is my thought from the chapter. Does anyone else read it this way?
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In hopes that the chit-chat will resume, I surge on.
I really liked Willard's 4th chapter, and I'm eager to commence with the 5th. I am also strolling through Hauerwas'
Resident Aliens book, and HIS 4th chapter is a true jewel - also about The Sermon on the Mount. I spent the last 2 days trying to commit to only one or two quotes that would provide good leverage here. At the risk of crying wolf, I think each of the willardites would receive elation from checking out the whole chapter some time. Now here's my selection:
The Sermon on the Mount begins as an announcement of something that God has done to change the history of the world. In the Sermon we see the end of history, an ending made most explicit and visible in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. There, Christians begin our ethics, not with anxious, self-serving questions of what we ought to do as individuals to make history come out right. The Sermon is the inauguration manifesto of how the world looks now that God in Christ has taken matters in hand. And essential to the way that God has taken matters in hand is an invitation to all people to become citizens of a new Kingdom, a messianic community where the world God is creating takes visible, practical form.
My question, then, is "how would you describe this 'visible, practical form'?"
In light of the first wave of comments, I shall arrogantly parade an additional quote in the hopes of adding some more context:
For us, the world has ended. We may have thought that Jesus came to make nice people even nicer, that Jesus hoped to make a democratic Ceasar just a bit more democratic, to make the world a bit better place for the poor. The Sermon, however, collides with such accomodationist thinking. It drives us back to a completely new conception of what it means for people to live with one another. That completely new conception is the church. All that we had heard said of old is thrown up for grabs, demands to be reexamined, and pushed back to square one. Square one is that colony made up of those who are special, different, alien, and distinctive only in the sense that they are those who have heard Jesus say "Follow me" and have come forth to be part of a new people, a colony formed by hearing his invitation and saying yes.
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