| By Esther C. Baird, as written for the Silver Bay Spiritual Life Center, Silver Bay, NY. To subscribe to the mailing please email: pastoralrespite@silverbay.org Good Morning, It was a perfect summer day (like most days were this last summer). I sat on our family dock looking south to Silver Bay’s Slim Point two coves away. I could see the lake dotted with sunnies, canoes, and kayaks. And that’s when I got the call. “I’m at Diver’s Rock, a canoe capsized, and when I went to help, the jet ski stopped working and now we’re all just floating out here.” It was my husband who had been out joy riding. I quickly jumped on the other jet ski and took off to Diver’s Rock, the big jumping rock directly across the lake from Silver Bay. Sure enough a canoe had capsized, throwing both the people and their stuff into the water. But, in the attempt to take the bobbing passengers (they all wore life jackets) over to shore, my husband’s jet ski sucked something up the intake creating an automatic engine shut down. Thankfully, the hot sun made for warm water, and while it was annoying for the canoers to find themselves fully clothed in the water minus a few of their possessions (not the least of which was the baseball hat we ultimately pulled from the jet ski intake) it wasn’t an actual emergency. But there was still an unsettling moment when they realized there was nothing they could do besides float in the lake. Float and wait for help outside of themselves. The first of the Beatitudes is a bit like that. If you read the devotional last month, you’ll remember that the Beatitudes are instructions for people who belonged to this kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God) – instructions that start with following Jesus. Each one begins with the word ‘blessed’ not in a cheesy refrigerator-magnet sort of way, but in a way that means a deep, soul-level peace that can only come from the King of this kingdom. So, it makes sense that the first Beatitude Jesus gave was to make sure everyone understood that they truly were helpless to produce this blessedness, or sense of peace, on their own. The first Beatitude says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Because of how we understand the word ‘poor’ today, we may immediately think of people who are broken down by poverty or socio-economic factors outside of their control. It’s true that Jesus certainly has a heart for the poor – and some strong things to say about the treatment of them. He ate with, loved, healed, and encouraged those on the fringe, the marginalized and looked down upon. But in this Beatitude, he expands the definition to mean something even bigger than earthly poverty. The poor in spirit are people who understand that belonging to this kingdom of heaven is totally beyond their own power. No education or degree or big donation check or acts of amazing generosity can get someone into this kingdom then, or now. No matter what you’ve done in this life, you and I do not have what it takes to get into this kingdom. Being poor in spirit means a spiritual sort of poverty that comes from knowing how unable we are to ever get there on our own. Remember where Jesus was teaching? He was on a mountain. And remember what people were saying? That he was the Messiah, the Son of God. But the last time God talked to his people on a mountain it was back in the Old Testament book of Exodus, when he gave Moses the ten commandments. And then, if they even touched the mountain they died, because God was holy, and people just aren’t. Not even close. People are helpless to approach the mountain. Helpless to save themselves. But Jesus, God in human form, invited people onto the mountain with him, to sit near him in the grass, among the boulders, on the same ground he was on. Jesus said there was a new way to be in God’s kingdom, a way only Jesus could make possible. And it started with acknowledging you couldn’t get there on your own, nothing in your spirit was rich enough to get in. Only by allowing Jesus to give you his spirit, his heart and his forever peace, can anyone enter the kingdom. This is great news! Because if we acknowledge it, if we ask the King of this kingdom for help, he will give it to us! He will give us entrance into this kingdom. He will call us blessed. We are spiritually poor, but when the King of the kingdom of heaven welcomes us in, all that he has becomes ours. Only when we are poor in spirit, can we truly be rich. Do you know that you are helpless today? Spiritually poor? Accept the invitation of the King and allow him to call you blessed. -Esther Baird, esther.baird@gmail.com |
| Reading Along Sometimes reading the Bible in a variety of translations helps us get at the deeper meaning. While you may own a Bible at home, you can also use websites like www.biblegateway.com to look up Matthew 5 and read the Beatitudes in many different versions. Some translations such as the English Standard Version (ESV) or Revised Standard Version (RSV) are focused on bringing the Bible to you as faithfully as possible to the original language it was written in. Others such as the New International Version (NIV) or even the Message (MSG) are focused on making the meaning of the text come across in plain English that’s easier to understand. By reading a variety of translations you may find one that helps you read the Bible in a way the you understand best! |
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