What's Going On? Mountainview Viewing A Mountain
Most Bibles label Matthew 5 through 7 as “the Sermon on the Mount.” And we call ourselves as a church community “Mountainview”. It is worth pointing out that neither is making reference to a physical landscape even hinting at the magnitude of the Rockies. This fall, we as an escarpment-viewing community are going to dig into the monumental teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5 to 7. Perhaps “Mountainview” can take on a whole new meaning in the process.
Whether Jesus delivered all three chapters in one sitting or it is a finely crafted collection of his regular teachings, there is little doubt that the material in these chapter capture the heart of what Jesus taught. For many longtime followers of Jesus, many of the words of this section of the Bible are very familiar. It includes the beatitudes, the Lord’s prayer, love your enemies, do not worry, do not judge, and the wise man built his house upon the rock. As often happens with familiarity, we may have lost the power of some of these teachings. It is also true, as always, that these words are best understood with some knowledge of the time and place that Jesus was speaking. All that to say, we need to take a fresh look at these teachings and allow the Holy Spirit to open them to us anew.
Decades ago already, I read “The Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard. He spends an incredible number of pages unpacking the sermon on the mount. In recent years I have heard sermon series on these passages. Add to the mix my regular conversation partners, BEMA and The Bible Project, and what comes out is a whole array of ways of understanding this material. It might just be that the brilliance of Jesus’ teaching is a bottomless depth of teaching. This should likely come as no surprise. We will seek to appreciate some of the breadth and depth of Jesus’ words.
While we as Mountainview view this mountain, here are a few tasks you may take on. First, as usual, there will be small group questions that can guide your conversations. Second, I propose that just as we wrote Psalms in our own words over the summer, we could do well to have some of us write say our own beatitudes or our own section starting with “you have heard that it was said….” Third, we need some new labels. This teaching is not most significant because of where it was said. So, what might be a better name for the whole section. And, what actually does “beatitude” mean and what do those sayings do? Perhaps we need to give these a new name too. You get the idea. Finally, some of us will be gathering to work together and present some memorized parts of these scriptures. You are encouraged, even if you don’t join the group or present what you memorize, to also take some time to work more in depth just with the Biblical words. Read them slowly, over and over, meditate on them, memorize them, and internalize them. Start with reading a few times and see where it takes you. You can do this on your own.
So Mountainview, let’s take a long hard look at this mountainous teaching of Jesus and let it shape who we are as his followers.
Pastor Erick Schuringa
