Cost of Discipleship: Those That Mourn

Last week, Pastor Jill kicked off a series of sermons on the Gospel message of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5 and those thoughts amplified by a German theologian, Dietrich Bonheoffer.  She reflected on the first “Blessed” – those who are poor in spirit and how those of us who deny ourselves of the comfort of this world will find comfort in the world to come.

Pastor Jill asked if I would share some of the preaching during Lent and today it’s my turn.  

The next Beatitude simply states, “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted”.   Mourning – now there’s an upbeat subject for Sunday morning reflection.  I think I drew a short straw, but the Beatitudes are a hand-full of short straws when it comes to preaching, but I will try to find some of that comfort it promises for us.

So, just what is it that we as followers of Christ should mourn - our human condition, the condition of the world around us, the depravity of that world, or our own sin?  Perhaps all of the above.  We lament, sometimes justifiably so, when things don’t go our way.  We should mourn the poverty, hunger, and injustice around the world and not far from our doorsteps.

John the Baptist and Jesus, Himself, said that recognizing our sin and repenting were the keys to forgiveness of those sins. We should mourn the fact that we fall short of the expectations of God.  We should mourn the violence and evil that exists in the world around us, because world deals with its sin by simply ignoring it in the name of “progress”.

Yet the good news is that Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1 when he preached in the synagogue, saying

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted....."

In Psalm 30, King David declares, "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness...." 

The psalmist also said, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."

We stand on those promises, but they do not release us from present circumstances, so we mourn.

It’s easy to see those circumstances negatively and suffer them, but where is the comfort the Beatitude promises?

The answer lies in the Good News that Jesus does not abandon us in our time of difficulty.  His spirit gives the believer the ability to see past the plight and we are comforted that an eternal reward is ours to ultimately claim.

Dietrich Bonheoffer said this:

“By “mourning” Jesus, of course, means doing without what the world calls peace and prosperity: He means refusing to be in tune with the world or to accommodate oneself to its standards. Such men mourn for the world, for its guilt, its fate and its fortune. While the world keeps holiday they stand aside, and while the world sings, “Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,” they mourn . They see that for all the jollity on board, the ship is beginning to sink. The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future. but the disciples meditate on the end, the last judgement, and the coming of the kingdom. To such heights the world cannot rise. And so the disciples are strangers in the world, unwelcome guests and disturbers of the peace. No wonder the world rejects them!”

Friends, no one ever said that when the church confirmed us we were inoculated with a vaccine that warded off evil, disease, and difficult times.  Quite the opposite – we live in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel – a world that persecutes Christians more today, in sheer numbers, than any other time in history.  

Why?  It’s because the work of Satan is still powerful in this world.

Today’s Gospel lesson talks about the wheat and the weeds growing together- to be separated in the final judgment when Jesus returns.  Later in that same chapter of Matthew, Jesus explains the parable to the Disciples, saying:

“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears[g] listen! (Matthew 13:37:43)

Perhaps that means that there are two kingdoms competing for dominance on this earth – the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God.  They are both growing together.  It’s not hard to believe that the world is becoming increasingly evil – you need only to pick up a newspaper, watch the media or the internet.  Each day is filled with more death and more violence where it is as if someone or groups of people are competing to do something even more outrageous.  

But I believe that the Kingdom of God is also growing.  While we may think the spread of Christianity is reversing in Europe and slowing in North America, it is thriving in Africa and Eastern Asia.  For all the badthings increasing, good things are also increasing.

Jesus told the Disciples two more parables about the Kingdom of God – both about planting and growing from humble starts to achieve great things.  Listen further as I read from Matthew 13:

31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with[d] three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Let’s bring that down to a modern day example of the Kingdom of God at work in the world:

It started with an idea.  

The problem was that here, in the cities of America, there were people living in poverty who could not afford safe and reliable housing.  There also existed houses in really poor shape that needed a lot of work if they were to once again be homes.

Nearly forty years ago, a small group of church people in Georgia got together and came up with a plan to help solve that problem.  

Now imagine if these people were explaining what they wanted to do to the panel of investors on that popular TV show, “Shark Tank”.

They would state their business idea and the investors would listen, but I think their comments would go something like this:

Let’s see if we’ve got this right.   You want to do an international project.  You want to build houses for poor people.  You plan to raise money to buy building supplies, and build those houses.  Then you are going to sell those houses to poor people for the cost of the building supplies – long term mortgages, no down payment, at no interest, so poor people who thought they could never have houses, would have in fact houses.  OK, that’s a great humanitarian thing to do, but who’s going to pay for the workers that are going to build these things?  

The group said, “We’re going to get church people to volunteer.”  . . . . .(right)  There’s something about that word “volunteer” that upsets every economic model at work in the world – it simply doesn’t compute.  Sharks won’t bite if there’s nothing to chew on.

39 years later, Habitat for Humanity has globally completed over 800,000 houses! Nearly half of those were built in the last 5 years.  They built 100,000 last year and aim to do 200,000 this year.  And Jesus talked about a mustard seed.

And this is the good news – that amidst all the bad stuff going on in the world, God is at work in this world and through God’s people, incredible things are happening and we have to conclude that God is at work in this world.

In September, 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew through South Florida packing winds up to 165 MPH and practically leveled the city of Homestead, Florida, and the surrounding communities.   Habitat for Humanity had built 27 homes in that area prior to that storm.  The local Habitat regional administrator went to the area to see if anything could be done to help.  Hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst, he entered the ruined city and was astonished that all 27 of the Habitat houses were still standing.  Yes, there were windows blown out and carpets ruined, and even some were shifted on their foundations, but these houses were in far better shape than most of the homes in that community.  

Some reporters had tagged along and they asked him why the Habitat houses had survived.  He told them, “Because when Habitat builds houses, we build them on the Rock”.  And he snickered as he watched the reporters scribble their notes – “Habitat builds on rocks”.  They just didn’t get it. You know the parable about the two foundations – I read from Luke 6:46:

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.[j] 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”

The same storm hit all those houses in Homestead.  The Habitat houses weren’t spared from the storm, but the hand of God – the good hands of those volunteers that built them with a prayer and lots of sweat – saw them through the storm.   As disciplesof Christ, when the storms of life hit us, we can depend on the strength of God to deliver us – not from the storm, but through the storm, to the better days beyond it.

Spiritual implications aside, another possible reason the buildings were still standing is because the Habitat volunteer workers didn’t know what they were doing.  They were just common church folks like us swinging hammers.   An experienced carpenter knows that when you install a beam, you put 5 nails here and 5 nails there.   But the Habitat workers didn’t know that - they would put 20 nails here and 20 nails there.  Sure, their houses are over-built, but it is Biblically correct that we should anchor our lives and our work securely to what the Good Book tells us. The Lord indeed uses the simple to confound the wise.

I believe the Kingdom of God is alive and well and growing in today’s world.  Jesus spoke of the devil sowing weeds in the field of wheat – that was long ago when the world was new.  Satan planted a few weeds in God’s perfect garden.  I believe that when Jesus came to be with us 2000 years ago, a new story began - He turned the tables on Satan and planted wheat (that’s you and me, folks).   Jesus planted wheat – His Church - in the garden of weeds the world had become.

And that’s the lessons for today.

Everyone mourns their losses – be it possessions, dreams, or people near us.  How we cope with them depends on our perspective.

If we mourn with the worldly view where things are measured in profit and loss, wins and defeats, and the gain of power … in the end we find out too late that it’s allmeaningless.  When you die, you’re just as dead as the next guy.

If we view the world through the eyes of Jesus, to whom possessions, power, and winning meant nothing and only people counted – the very people He created and placed on this earth, if you mourn for them and do what Jesus would do to lift them up, then when you die, you will find those treasures you have laid up in heaven.  That cloud of witnesses will be there to testify for you because the only currency of the Kingdom is people.

We can mourn our circumstances or we can seek the community of Christians to help change those circumstances..

We can mourn our sins, or we can confess and repent of them, and move forward in our lives secure in the knowledge that they are forgiven.

We can mourn the sin of the world and sit on the sidelines wringing our hands, or we can put those hands to work for Jesus to expand the Kingdom of God in this world.

Do those things and you find moments of joy along your life’s journey when you have made a difference in the lives of others and you will find comfort when, on that Last Day,you hear God say those beautiful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”   Amen