Sermon: "May Your Life Be a Blessing", Matthew 5:1-20

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Ah, the Beatitudes. Although Matthew’s gospel technically begins Jesus’ ministry at very end of chapter 4, the Sermon on the Mount is the first of Jesus’ teachings that Matthew reports in full, and the Beatitudes are the very first words of it that he speaks. We’re all familiar with the formula, although we may recall different words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful.”

Liturgy: The Beatitudes - Matthew 5:1-20 (January 22, 2023)

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Call to Worship

Leader: You are the salt of the earth!
People: We are called to season the earth with the love of God.

Sermon: "Clear the Fog", Psalm 112:1-9/Matthew 5:13-20 (February 9, 2020)

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Today’s gospel reading, from the so-called “Sermon on the Mount”, is an important one. In it, Jesus offers a job description to all those who would call themselves his followers. As usual, his sermon is peppered with metaphors pulled from everyday life in the first century C.E., and given that he explicitly interprets those metaphors in verse 16, we can probably assume that Jesus expects all of his listeners to get what he’s trying to say.