Previous Post – Weekend Linkage #8
With the summer behind us, Little Flowers Community has decided to spend the next few months exploring The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). As a Mennonite missional community that follows a Franciscan way, an emphasis on this Sermon is fitting, as Anabaptist and Franciscan traditions both attempted to live life around this set of teachings. We are all excited to see where it leads us as a community. Before we started into the Sermon itself, however, I decided it might be a good idea for us to explore what preceded it for Jesus. And so, together we dived into Matthew 4. Here are a few of our thoughts on it.
- The chapter opens with Jesus facing temptation (which we explored in detail in another sermon). We reflected that Jesus faced His temptation alone in the wilderness. Sometimes we can view resisting temptation as a social pressure or public witness. That is, we resist because we fear consequence from our peers and/or to maintain credibility of witness to a watching world. While these two aspects have their place, Jesus’ solitude in the face of His temptation teaches us that the temptations of in our hearts and in our private moments are most critical.
- Soon after his temptation, Jesus goes out and, in the midst of his preaching of repentance, He calls His disciples to Him. Here we see that being a community of faith is no small part of the work of the Gospel. It is not incidental or a casual analogy that we are called the Body of Christ. As we die to the sins of our individual hearts, we are resurrected together as one, as His Body. To truly be an authentic community of Christ, we must be intentionally and consistently committed to submission- both to the Holy Spirit and to one another- not because we must, but because we love God and each other.
- Jesus then continues on with His disciples and begins to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed, moving powerfully and miraculously in the Spirit. Through the authority of our righteous & humble lives, out of the context of a mutually submitted community, ministry is born. Each factor contributed to leading Jesus to preaching this significantly important Sermon, calling His people to a specific way of life together.
So, it is on this foundation that we are getting ready to dive into the Beatitudes this week. I am really excited about this series and feel as though the above ideas have really prepared us to move into it.
What do you think?
Tags: Missional, sermon on the mount
Funny, I’m studying the same this week in preparation to speak to our young adults on Sunday. What I found most interesting was what preceded this time in the wilderness. Jesus kicks off his ministry by first receiving power from the Holy Spirit at his baptism, then spending time in the wilderness (where he was led by the HS), and THEN began his ministry. It was a reminder to me that after we receive Christ and his power through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, we should not stop at resisting temptation in the wilderness but should also move on to fulfilling our mission. Go, be Jesus to the world.
Grace, peace, and rock-n-roll,
Jeremy Anderson
Great thoughts, Jeremy. Thanks!
Peace,
Jamie
My thoughts?
1. That picture is freaking awesome. Reminds me of a U2 lyric, “He took the poison, from the poison stream and he floated out of here…”
2. It strikes me as a happy coincidence that our new community is 23 days into a 50 day journey through the sermon…AND we started with Matt 4 too!
3. I like your observations. We’ve come to some of the same – particularly #3. Demonstration of the gospel through an embodied apologetic.
4. We noticed the parallels between Jesus desert experience and Israel’s time in the wilderness. Hence, Jesus is the true Israel, the Kingdom is the true promised-land, and God is the true blessing.
Hey Jason,
Very cool that we are both exploring this. Also great thoughts on the wilderness parallel. Thanks!
Peace,
Jamie
“Through the authority of our righteous & humble lives, out of the context of a mutually submitted community, ministry is born.” Wow – really helpful synthesis (and Tweet-able to boot!).
This past Sunday, our community was exploring Col 3 and the notable instruction to “submit” (with reference to Eph 5 and the instruction to “mutually submit”). What you write about submission is so crucial to community and body-life — intentionally and consistently and from a starting-point of love.
Thanks for the look into what Little Flowers is up to – wish I could pop in for the upcoming teachings!
Thanks Wayne. You would, of course, always be welcome to join us should you find yourself in the neighbourhood!
Peace,
Jamie
I’ve so much appreciated Dallas Willard’s take on the SOM: first, that it’s a unity; second, that it’s not another set of rules, but rather snapshots of how Kingdom of God people will be acting; third, that the Beatitudes are describing people upstanding religious folk of Jesus’ day would *not* consider to be blessed (If you’re mourning, something terrible must have happened to you- therefore how could you be blessed? etc.)- but Jesus’ message is, God is active and working in these lives, and calling *them too*- the Kingdom is open to everyone, not just those who “look good”. Certainly pertains how you are serving.
Dana
Thanks Dana. I agree with Willard. The blessings comes in the midst, not as a reward. I will be posting on the series as we go through them. Great to see your name popping up again!
Peace,
Jamie
I’m still around
D.
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