Feb. 1, 2026

My friends, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus climbs a hillside and begins to speak to the crowd – largely poor, oppressed Galilean farmers and laborers – about something called the kingdom of heaven.

I wonder what comes to mind when we think about the kingdom of heaven? For many of us, it leads us to thoughts of the afterlife. Of a lovely place that our souls will go to when we die.

If you think that way, you’re not alone. But the problem with that line of thinking is that robs Jesus’ message of much of its power. To massively oversimplify Church of England bishop and theologian N.T. Wright in his book Surprised by Hope, contemporary Christianity has lost its understanding of hope because it focuses on the immortality of the soul and heaven, and not the resurrection of the body. As a result, the modern church has formed us to believe that the “kingdom of heaven” is something we experience after death – and so we discount the possibilities for change, rescue, transformation, and newness of life God offers today.

The crowd listening to Jesus didn’t think this way. Having suffered under the Roman Empire’s pagan worship of greed and violence for many years, they were longing for a different way to live. They were longing for a new kind of empire. God’s heavenly kingdom, made real on earth.

Jesus begins each Beatitude the same way: happy, or blessed, are they who …. There’s something important here. Unlike the Ten Commandments or other laws, Jesus isn’t giving us commands or demanding something from us. The Beatitudes are not “thou shalt” or “thou shall not”. They use what my 12th grade English teacher called the “indicative mood”. In other words, the Beatitudes are statements that describe reality. The Beatitudes don’t tell you what to do. They tell you what is.

With the Beatitudes, Jesus opens up the kingdom of heaven for us as a present reality. He doesn’t us tell when or where it is. Instead, he describes its very characteristics. “Happy are the spiritually poor”, Jesus says. Only in recognizing our own limits can be acknowledge our total dependence on God and God’s guidance.

“Happy are those who mourn” is not just comfort for me/my/mine when someone we love dies. We are blessed when we join with Matthew’s community in mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and the persecution of God’s people. We are blessed when we mourn with empathy for our neighbors who are grieving and broken by the ways of the world. We are blessed because we know God will console us – so that we might bring that comfort to others.

Spiritually poor – knowing that we need God. Those who join with others in mourning. Those who are humble. Those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires. Those who are merciful. The pure in heart. Those who work for peace. Those who are persecuted because they do what God requires. Does this sound like anyone you know? It ought to. It ought to sound like Jesus. Because that’s what Jesus is telling us through the Beatitudes. Your commitment as my disciples, he says, is not to a cause or an ideology or a belief in some future promise. Your commitment is to a person. Your commitment is to me and the truth my life reveals.

The kingdom of heaven – where peace and justice reign and where love is the final word – has come near in the person of King Jesus. Where Jesus goes, there the kingdom is.

Contrast this with what the theologians of the kingdom of the world proclaim. Those who argue that empathy and decency are errors. High priests of cruelty who laugh at our pieties and feast on rage. Those who choose a theology of glory that focuses on human strength and achievement over the theology of the cross – the belief God is found in service and suffering – that we find in the Beatitudes. Russell Moore, the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and former Southern Baptist leader, provides a chilling example. Multiple pastors have spoken to him about how they have been criticized by congregants for quoting the Beatitudes in their preaching. And when told that the preacher is quoting Jesus’ words, the reaction is most often something along the lines of “that doesn’t work anymore. It’s too weak.”

And this is the result of the problem N.T. Wright outlines for us. We end up with people who confess their belief in Jesus but behave callously toward strangers and people in need. Anyone who thinks the hope of life after death minimizes the importance of this life and the imperative to go out of one’s way to preserve the dignity of other human beings has distorted Christian faith into something monstrous.

Being weak in the eyes of the world is exactly the point of Jesus’ ministry. At every juncture in his life Jesus – from his temptation by the devil in the wilderness to his hanging for hours on a cross –chooses not to display supernatural power to get his own way.

The Beatitudes assure us that the presence of God – the kingdom of heaven – is not found in brash displays of power. Instead, God’s vulnerability and softness speak more loudly than many would wish.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus calls us to reject the false theology of the kingdom of the world, driven as it is by a lust for power and control. And Jesus calls us to reject the easy path – the one that says that it is only the next life that matters. Instead, Jesus invites into a new way of living. Into Kingdom living. An empire of true hope that is already a reality through the resurrection of Jesus, which conquered sin and death. An empire shaped by the truth Jesus’ life reveals – that love, kindness and generosity are the culture of heaven. An empire shaped by King Jesus’ cross, where God is made known through suffering and weakness.

In a few moments, we’re going to renew our baptismal vows. To remind ourselves what it is to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven – not in some future realm, but in the here and now. So as we go forth today, how will these vows shape your life? What change, or rescue, or transformation, or newness of life are you longing for from God’s kingdom on earth?

Blessed are you who live this life now, even when such a life seems foolish, for your hopefulness will, in the end, be vindicated by God.

Amen.