st Century WesleyanLive Course Robert Jewett Instructor Mel Luetchens Coordinator mluetchenebrwesleyanedu Session 1 Unconditional Welcome into the Kingdom of God Matthew ID: 385166
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Slide1
The Sermon on the Mount for the 21
st
Century
WesleyanLive
Course
Robert Jewett, Instructor
Mel
Luetchens
, Coordinator
(
mluetche@nebrwesleyan.edu
)Slide2
Session 1
Unconditional Welcome into the Kingdom of God(Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-26)
Introduction
The context of moving toward a fatal conflict with Rome
World peace would be achieved by holy violence
R
esources to counter the religiously motivated violence in our current worldSlide3
I.
“Blessed” in Relation to the Kingdom of GodThe Beatitudes express welcome into the “kingdom of God.”Luke has no entrance requirements
T
hose
who
lack
qualifications are
welcomed
T
he idea
in the Beatitudes
is pure
“
grace”
Jesus turns the ordinary sequence upside
down
T
he
original
Beatitudes assaulted the religion of divine favoritism
Jesus
began celebrating the banquet
before
enemies were vanquished or evil was overcome.Slide4
II. The Revision of Popular Religion in Luke 6
Indications that Luke’s form of the Beatitudes is more originalWell-developed poetic form“But” in Luke 6:24 indicates antithetical parallelism“You” is more direct than “they” in Matthew
If you faithfully obey the commands I’m giving you. . . then I will send rain on your land. . . so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil” (
Deut
11:13-14). But if you “turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them, then the Lord’s anger will burn against you and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce and you will soon perish. . .” (
Deut
11:16-17).
[The
Lord] will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made. . . (
Deut
26:16-19)Slide5
II.
ContinuedThe Lord does not let the righteous go hungry. . . Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. (Proverbs 10:3-4)The very ones whom society holds in contempt as damned by God are welcomed“Blessed is the man will eat the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:15
)
“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” refers to those who believed that
they
had earned the right to enter the banquet
.
T
hose
who claim to be first will end up last and the only ones accepted into the messianic banquet are those who claim no qualifications at allSlide6
III. The Problem of the Beatitudes in Matthew
You’ve got to be humble to enter the kingdom, as far as Matthew is concernedMisinterpretion that poor people are morally superior to rich peopleMatthew 5:5 describes a condition that must be fulfilled before one is welcomed into God’s kingdomMatthew 5:8 would have excluded most of Jesus’s original audienceEach side thinks of themselves as peacemakers while their opponents are troublemakersSlide7
IV. Reinterpreting Matthew’s Beatitudes in the Light of Luke
Each beatitude that sets conditions for admission to the kingdom of God needs to be reinterpreted by the generous welcome that Jesus extended to the entire human raceBy abandoning superiority claims, “peacemakers” gain the impartiality required for making peaceAcceptance results solely from God’s action in opening the kingdom of God to the meek who lack any
qualification
Being merciful therefore is the transformed outlook of those who know that their place in the banquet is entirely undeservedSlide8
Conclusion
Each person on earth has equal value and has an equal right to the preservation of lifeArticle 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhoodArticle 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. . . .
Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person
.Slide9
These United Nations agreements comprise the International Bill of Human Rights that can be enforced through
the world courts.The agreements related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights tend to be forgotten in times of conflict when all sides are inclined to think that their opponents have forfeited the right to life.Rather than considering how we should act in behalf of the principles of international law, we are drifting into open-ended partisanship that violates the religious and constitutional principles that have evolved out of the Sermon on the Mount.If you think this is worth discussing, I’d like to invite you to join
in.