"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Over the years I have seen numerous cartoons about this habit of the church. I think the reason this habit is made light of is that it is so contrary to our human nature, especially as expressed in America. Football season is now upon us - huge, bulky specimans of the male gender line up to do battle. It is the modern day version of Roman gladiators. Stadiums around the country are filled every Sunday afternoon. People dress up in strange costumes (would you really wear a block of styrofoam that looked like the color and shape of a wedge of cheese to work on Monday morning?) and paint their faces and sometimes their bodies with all kinds of colors. It is the celebration of everything opposite of that which meekness would seem to talk about. "'Blessed are the strong, who can hold their own.' says the world. 'Blessed are the meek,' says Christ." (Alexander McClaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, n.d.)

So what is this meekness which is to be the habit of the church? It is strength of character which comes from submission. The person who is always in rebellion to every authority is a loose canon. This person is out of control. They have little or no self-respect and certainly no respect of others. They are ultimately isolated and sidelined by life. However, the person who understands that life flows from order and that the channeled river that flows over a hydro dam produces more electricity than an out of control river flowing over its banks wrecking havoc wherever it goes; this person understands that meekness is strength under control. How is this submission learned?

Alexander McClaren says it is learned by practicing the first two beatitudes; poverty and mourning. It is through humility and brokenness that we understand that our energies and powers need to be brought under the control of Spirit of God. The Roman soldier who visited Jesus one day to ask for the healing of his son understood this. Jesus was busy and told the soldier that he wouldn't be able to come to his house immediately. The Roman soldier told Jesus, "I am a man under authority; you are a man under authority. Only speak the word and I believe my son will be healed." This soldier understood meekness, living life under the authority of another.

So does meekness mean being a doormat? No, meekness means being a humble, broken person who knows who is in charge. So if others challenge you stand firm under the umbrella of God's strength. He will fight your battles for you. Your confidence is in God not in your wits, arguments, loud shouting. Often as we are aware of our own brokenness we are shown the brokenness of those who are standing in front of us in their demanding manner. So in gentleness, we can show them this habit of the church - living in meekness as Jesus did who said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." (John 5:19)

The First Beatitude:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."

Most Americans I know are not into poverty. In fact, many American followers of Jesus are convinced that the sign of God's approval of a person's life is his or her material and financial success. So this habit of the church is troublesome from the get go.

So some people have emphasized the qualifier in this statement of Jesus. They focus on the words: 'in spirit.' They believe is that our poverty is a matter of spiritual reality not of material or financial reality. So we are to celebrate our poverty of spirit, that is, we recognize we are truly poor in the spiritual dimension of our lives. The point is that having recognized the poverty of our spiritual life, we will truly seek God and find Him.

There is a truth here that needs to be emphasized: poverty of spirit is a place of humility and brokenness. We recognize that there is something intrinsicly wrong with us. We are not whole. We are flawed and fractured and broken. We may even have material goods and saving accounts and the signs of the good life and, yet,we understand that at the core of our beings we are irrevocably broken. We recognize that sometimes our accumulation of things is only a covering for our fractured inner being. On the outside we may be seen as 'put together', as prosperous, as blessed. But inwardly we know we are truly broken people.

This habit of the church connects to another habit of the church: you can't have divided loyalties. You and I cannot love God and the things of this world at the same time. If we love our cars, homes, boats, bank accounts, country, ethnic group, or family we are creating idols which compete with our claimed love for God. God tells us He is a jealous God. He will brook no competition for his worship. You and I either love God or our collection of things and relationships.

So we come back to being 'poor in spirit'. If we really desire the fulness of the kingdom of heaven (a topic of another blog) then we must declare our poverty of spirit - we are broken, empty-handed people. We have nothing to recommend ourselves to a holy, just God. We bow in abject poverty in His presence.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Followers of Jesus are known for their mourning and also for their comforting.

Various interpretations are offered for the meaning of 'mourning'. Some interpret this to mean 'mourning over one's sins'. Some interpret this to mean 'mourning of the death of a loved one'. Some interpret this to mean 'those who share the tears of sadness with the downtrodden, the fatherless, the widow (this would be in keeping with the ancient prophetic tradition of the Old Testament).

I think that 'mourn' here refers to a state of brokenheartedness. I find helpful to think of mourning as the public display of bereavement and grieving as the private display of bereavement. I know people who seem to be incapable of brokenheartedness, that is, they seem to find a way to make light or make a joke in face of all kinds of tragedy. For some reason, these people try to avoid feelings of mourning or at least an open display of mourning. Perhaps they were told that tears were a sign of weakness. Or they cried openly once and were made fun of. Whatever reason, these people cannot openly embrace brokenheartedness in themselves or others.

One of the habits of the church is to be a people who openly share their grief and who openly comfort the grieved. You really are blessed if you mourn (the public display of grief) because then people can reach out and comfort you.

Public grief over sin (James 5:16) leads to public forgiveness of sin. (I don't think this means we have to stand before tens, hundreds or thousands of people and confess our sins - but we need to find one trust person that we can do this with.) I find it interesting that this is one of the habits of Alcoholics Anonymous. Perhaps the reason so many Christians fail to have victory in their lives over patterns of sinful behavior is because they have never mourned over their sins in this way (they have only confessed their sins in their closets to God). Finding a person we trust to share our sorrow over our sin (the breaking of God's law - intentionally or unintentionally) will help us gain victory over these 'besetting sins'.

A few years ago sociologist Robert Bellah and his associates wrote a book called The Habits of The Heart. The book was widely popular with people who were concerned about the state of community in our nation. Many pastors and spiritual leaders read the book and utilized it as a touchstone when talking about Christian Community.

David Augsburger in his book Dissident Spirituality (2006)utilizes Bellah's book in a similar manner. Then he turns his attention to the nature of Christian community. In this section of the book I came across this quote:

"To call a church a community of virtues is to identify the habits of the church. The church is that body which out of habit tells the truth; which out of habit loves enemies, feeds the hungry, forgives sinners; which out of habit praises God for what we have received,...prays and worships." (taken from Harry Huebner and David Schroeder, The Church as Parable, 1993,p. 179)

I don't know about you but I had not thought about the attributes of the Church (or Christian community)as a 'habit'. I find this rather provactive and challenging. What thoughts do you have about 'the habits of the church'? If you made a list of what constituted the 'habits of the church, what might you include in such a list?

"I was raised in a religious home and it was unreasonable and forced religion that turned me off it…I’ve never gotten over that feeling. And I hold a very, very dim view of all the religions…As for God, Why is man unable to find God, or a plumber, on weekends?” Woody Allen

Isn't it sad when people who were raised in religious homes are hindered from finding God because of the memories they have of their negative experience. Woody Allen is only one of many. Of course, we can say that when Woody Allen stands before God excuses wouldn't save his hide. But there is a deeper, more troubling issue here, am I a help or hindrance when it comes to people finding God?

Just a thought.