Be Still And Know

Matthew 5:14 One of the most famous of Jesus’ I am sayings was: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Those words don’t come as any surprise to us. He was the Son of God and was without sin. He was clearly able to claim that his perfect life radiated light for all to see. But in today’s verse we are told that we are the light of the world, despite being far from perfect. Jesus’ challenging words have some very practical implications. First of all, to be of any use, light must be put in a prominent position. Just as you cannot hide a city on a hilltop so too Christians need to shine their light for all to see. These days you will often hear people say that religious faith is a private matter, as if it is something that you can do quietly at home without affecting anyone else. That is precisely not the case with Christian faith. It must be shared. Most of the time the influence we will have will not be with our words but with our actions. As people see the sacrificial love of Christians for one ano

Matthew 5:13 I love it when I hear people being described as the salt of the earth. I wonder who you think about when that expression is used. Let me tell you about three people who spring to my mind. Some years ago I went to stay with an elderly couple who lived in a small community and on my first morning with them they invited me to go for a walk with them. They lived in the middle of the town and within moments the wife popped into the butcher’s shop to hand in a birthday card for one of the staff. And then every few yards they stopped to catch up on the news of different people, asking about how job interviews and hospital visits had gone. They kept apologising to me for bumping in to so many people, but I was being given a stunning picture of the salty influence that they had on their community. I also think of an aunt of mine who had a senior role in social services. She then retired but her caring continued. She was forever trying to spot the vulnerable and needy people in her community. It wa

Matthew 5:10-12 This is the last of Jesus’ Beatitudes. They are all amazing statements, and they give us the best possible introduction to Jesus’ teaching. He was introducing his disciples to an upside-down kingdom. When you see things from Jesus’ point of view, everything looks different; this final Beatitude makes that clearest of all. In these few words Jesus sums up what all of us would try very carefully to avoid. Being mocked, persecuted, lied about and having all sorts of evil things said about you is surely as bad as life gets. But Jesus affirms that the person who experiences these things should be incredibly happy. This sounds so completely contrary to normal thinking that we need to handle Jesus’ words very carefully. Jesus was clearly saying that living in tune with God’s will is the best that life can be, however fierce the opposition. To be part of God’s eternal kingdom of love, joy and peace is better in every way than anything that this world can offer. What Jesus was doing was equippi

Matthew 5:9 There is apparently an unofficial United Nations motto that says: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will take flak from both sides.” Any suggestion that the making of peace is easy will only come from those who haven’t started making any. Making peace involves getting alongside people who are angry and hurt. It involves bringing people together who hate and mistrust one another. It calls us to step courageously into the middle of disputes with the hope that we can bring peace. It’s not surprising that Jesus said that peacemakers are called the children of God, because God is the supreme peacemaker. That is precisely why he sent his son Jesus into the world. The apostle Paul wrote: “Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us” (Ephesians 2:14). The hatred that existed between Jews and Gentiles was so intense that any thought of peace seemed impossible. But Je

Matthew 5:8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. One of the greatest privileges of my life in recent years has been to spend a good deal of time with people who are blind or partially sighted. I am constantly blessed by them and am conscious that they are often far more aware of what is going on than those of us with sight. We get distracted by the visual clues and don’t listen nearly as hard as they do. This Beatitude naturally causes me to think of my blind friends and forces me to ask what Jesus meant when he talked about seeing God. In his Gospel, John makes it clear that no one has seen God. So what did Jesus mean? I believe that Jesus is saying that the person whose heart is purely focused on him has uninterrupted closeness to God. There is nothing in the way. It is describing life at its best, when we have a complete awareness of God. Having a pure heart is an important theme in the psalms. In Psalm 24, David asks the question: “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Wh

Matthew 5:7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. The simple fact is that we rely totally on the truth that God is merciful. We have sinned against him and those around us and if he were to insist on being just then we wouldn’t stand a chance. However, God is ‘rich in mercy’, to use Paul’s wonderful expression in Ephesians 2:4. God has chosen to set us free from our sin because of his love for us. That all sounds wonderful, but we need to realise that God doesn’t merely ask us to show mercy but demands that we do. Receiving his mercy and hugging it to ourselves is not an option. Since we have received mercy, we are required to be merciful to others. Showing mercy sounds easy and straightforward right up to the moment when we need to put it into practice. When people have been rude to us or gone out of their way to hurt us, we all instinctively want to hit back. We want justice because we shouldn’t be treated like this. It isn’t right. Jesus isn’t denying the reality of our suffe

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. For us, hunger and thirst will normally be very brief experiences, easily satiated by going to the fridge or turning on a tap. But many Jesus was speaking to originally would have had a very different experience because they were poor and therefore extremely vulnerable. If they had a bad harvest they would most likely go hungry. And because water would often be drawn from a well or a river they might have had a long journey to get more of it. Hungering and thirsting would have been common experiences. Let’s remind ourselves too that our New Testament is a translation from Greek. In our verse today the translators have chosen to use the word ‘justice’ as being the thing for which people hunger and thirst. Justice is certainly part of it, but the Greek word has a much broader meaning than that. It is basically everything good and right that characterises the kingdom of God. The word is often translated by the word ‘righteousness’

Matthew 5:5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. It’s impossible to exaggerate the revolutionary nature of Jesus’ words. He was introducing his disciples to a totally new upside-down kingdom. This Beatitude reminds me of the words of Mary’s song of praise when she was pregnant with Jesus. She sang: “His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.” (Luke 1:51-52) The kingdom of God that Jesus ushered in was going to be shaped by obedience to God’s will, not by earthly power, prestige and influence. The key to God’s kingdom is humility. Martin Luther wrote: “Until a man is nothing, God can make nothing of him.” It is when we recognise our frailty and weakness that God is able to make something of us. Humility is a vital quality in every part of life. For example, the person who pretends that they know everything is unteachable. But the person who recognises that t

Matthew 5:4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. If you listen to the news regularly you will be well aware that a lot of mourning goes on in our world. It always has. Today there will be people experiencing the agony of losing a loved one. Their world has suddenly been turned upside down. There are also millions of people mourning because they have been forced to leave their homeland. There are said to be nearly 300 million migrants across our world, forced to leave their homes because of war, famine or persecution. I cannot begin to imagine how horrifying it must be to live with such complete insecurity. This Beatitude does not claim that God will suddenly make all sadness disappear. But he is the God who meets with us and transforms all our experiences. Through the years I have visited many homes just after a terrible accident has happened or a relative has suddenly died. It’s very difficult to find words to say on such occasions, but I have always found incredible peace in being abl

Matthew 5:3 Jesus said: “God blesses those who are poor and realise their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” This is the first of Jesus’ famous sayings at the start of his Sermon on the Mount, popularly known as the Beatitudes. It takes us right to heart of Jesus’ Good News. It’s vital that we understand what Jesus was actually saying, and also what he was not saying. He was definitely not saying that poverty is a wonderful thing, because it isn’t. Poverty is a tragic state that limits life and opportunity and causes real suffering to those who experience it. Jesus was talking about people who realise that they are unable to cope without God. They recognise that they can only be helped by God reaching out to and blessing them. The truth is that God longs to bless everyone, but he is unable to do so until we realise our need. All the time we imagine that we can cope by ourselves, God cannot get close to us. The wonderful thing about this saying of Jesus is that he is not promising his ble

Deuteronomy 31:7-8 Moses said to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous!...Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Forty years before Moses spoke these words, Joshua had been one of twelve spies who had been sent into the promised land. Moses had asked them to make an assessment of Canaan and ten of the spies brought back an overwhelmingly negative report. They drew attention to the great height of the people who lived in the land and the size of their walls which, they claimed, even reached up to the sky! The people were, not surprisingly, thoroughly demoralised and concluded that the best thing to do would be to race back to slavery in Egypt. Only two of the spies brought a positive report - Joshua and Caleb. As a result, the people were condemned to 40 years in the desert and only Joshua and Caleb were eventually allowed to enter the promised land. Although Joshua had 40 years to prepare for this moment, i

Deuteronomy 30:11-12, 14 Moses said: “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.” We are all sinners and are very conscious of our failings. So it is very easy for us to feel overwhelmed by the invitation to live for God. Just like Isaiah, we feel utterly unqualified for such a role. But here Moses encourages the people to believe that they could do it. It wasn’t too difficult for them. God’s commands were not out of reach. They wouldn’t need to make a special visit to heaven or cross the seas to discover it. It was immediately available to them. This is a really important message. So often, people put off the challenge to obey God today because they feel it’s too difficult to take on at the moment. They want to give it more t

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 Moses declared: “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honoured—and eat it there in his presence.” Giving one tenth of your income to the Lord was a principle established from the earliest days. In Genesis 14:20, Abram offers a tithe to Melchizedek, the king of Salem. Moses was concerned that this should now be the basis of the people of Israel’s life in the promised land. There are two main reasons why it was important. Firstly, it was a fundamental part of their worship. As they brought a tithe of their corn, wine, oil, cattle or sheep to God, they were recognising that everything had come from his hands in the first place. Secondly, the tithe was intensely practical. The Levites were not to be given land because their responsibilities were to serve the Lord. So they were completely dependent on the support of others, and the

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 Moses declared: “Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before— do not listen to them.” As Moses prepared the people of Israel to enter the promised land, he was deeply concerned that they might be led astray from God. He knew their security and prosperity depended on them staying faithful to the God who had brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness. But he also knew they would hear other voices. There would be people who would set themselves up as prophets and who would try to lure the people away to worship other gods. He wasn’t wrong! The Old Testament tells us about frequent occasions when the people were persuaded to follow other gods. They lurched from one god to another with sickening regularity. The situation wasn’t so very different in the New Testament. The gods might h

Deuteronomy 14:2 Moses declared: “You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.” The word ‘holy’ means something that is special. Moses wanted the people of Israel to know they were so special to God that they needed to live a life that was distinct from the people around them. They were to ensure that all that they did was pleasing to him. They followed strict dietary rules and ensured that they did everything possible to avoid getting mixed up in other religions. They belonged to the God of Israel and only to him. They were his own special treasure. When Peter wrote his first letter, he used very similar language to describe the Church. In 1 Peter 2:9, he wrote: “You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” The Church has not been called to offer t

Deuteronomy 11:26 Moses declared, “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!” The book of Deuteronomy gives us the sermon that Moses preached as the people gazed at the promised land. God had told Moses that he would not enter into Canaan and, so, he stood on Mount Nebo looking at the land which God had promised to give to his people. He knew God well enough to know he longed to bless them. He wanted this new chapter in the life of the people of Israel to be full of blessing and happiness, but he also knew it was down to the choices they would make. They had the power to choose a blessing or a curse. This is a stark message, and it is precisely the one that we face today. We can choose God’s blessing, but we are not forced to. We have free will. If we choose to go our own way, that’s up to us. It might seem as if we are not making any particular decisions sometimes. However, stand back from your life for a moment. Everything you do, from the moment you wake up, is guided by

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 “God ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him.” I’ve never been a widow or an orphan but, for two years, I was a foreigner, living in India. It was the most amazing experience. Everything felt different. The language, constantly warm weather and hot curries were just the start of it. Indian customs and attitudes to life were totally unfamiliar. I was surrounded by the love and generosity of the Indian family I lived with, but there was no disguising the fact that I was a foreigner. I belonged to another country. And I can easily understand how foreigners can feel vulnerable and threatened. Moses reminded the people of Israel that they had once been foreigners themselves. They lived in Egypt for 400 years and, although that was an

Deuteronomy 8:10-11 “When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.” Moses preached this sermon just before the people of Israel crossed into the promised land. An exciting new life awaited them, but it was going to be different from anything they had ever known. For a generation they had been wandering in the wilderness, and so their new settled life in Canaan would present lots of entirely new challenges. Firstly, it would be easy for them to forget about the Lord. They would be so busy setting up home, establishing their farms and bringing up their families that they would simply neglect the God who had brought them to the promised land. And in forgetting about the Lord, they would then neglect to obey all the loving regulations that he had given them to ensure their happi

Deuteronomy 8:10-11 Moses preached this sermon just before the people of Israel crossed into the promised land. An exciting new life awaited them, but it was going to be different from anything they had ever known. For a generation they had been wandering in the wilderness, and so their new settled life in Canaan would present lots of entirely new challenges. Firstly, it would be easy for them to forget about the Lord. They would be so busy setting up home, establishing their farms and bringing up their families that they would simply neglect the God who had brought them to the promised land. And in forgetting about the Lord, they would then neglect to obey all the loving regulations that he had given them to ensure their happiness, peace and security. It’s no different today. It is incredibly easy to forget about the Lord, not through any deliberate intention to do so, but simply because life gets busy. Perhaps we get a new job, move to a different area, have an illness or take up a new hobby and, su

Deuteronomy 7:7 The people of Israel were very special to God. But it is only natural to ask the question: “Why?” Why should God favour one particular nation over all the rest? In his sermon, Moses considers this question and concludes that the only possible explanation was love. The Israelites were not powerful and strong. Far from it, they formed a little nation that had spent much of its life in slavery. But God decided to show them his love. The verb that Moses used in Hebrew is really interesting, because it’s not a typical religious word. It literally means ‘to hang on to’ someone. God decided to hang on to the people of Israel through thick and thin. He had made a commitment to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he wasn’t going to let them down. Love is always a miraculous gift. You can’t buy love or force it to happen. That’s true of all our human relationships and supremely true of God’s relationship with us. God loves you and me and there is nothing we can do to change that fact. He is determined