Sermon from February 1, 2026, based on Micah 6:1-8, I Corinthians 1: 18-31, and Matthew 5:1-12

Some weeks, the assigned readings from our Revised Common Lectionary give us so little to say, so little that relates to the world around us, and a preacher might struggle to find a point that people can hold onto. Not this week, though. If Jesus himself could have picked reading to go along with this tumultuous times we are in, it seems like these three readings are exactly the right choices.

“He has told you, O Mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish the things that are” 1 Corinthians 1:28

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” Matthew 5:11

These readings are an embarrassment of riches and I starting writing at least 3 different sermons this week before settling on two things. 

The first comes from the Beatitudes, our gospel lesson from today. These words are familiar, but even when we have heard them thousands of times, they don’t make any more sense. Blessed are the poor in spirit? Blessed are those who mourn? Who are meek? Who hunger and thirst for righteousness? Who are merciful and pure in heart and peacemakers and persecuted?

Man I feel at least 5 of those things this week, but you know what I don’t really feel? Blessed. Do you know what I mean? Blessed should feel happy, and peaceful and hopeful, right? That’s what we assume, that’s how we use the word most of the time. So I needed the reminder from my colleague in Beloit, Rev. Dr. Dan Gonzalez-Ortega that the word blessed in scripture does not equate to happy.

 As Dan says,”that translation falls short. Painfully short. That translation lies to us because it makes us think of a passing emotion, a mood that rises and falls with the weather or the balance in a bank account. When we read thinkers like Karoline Lewis or Stanley Hauerwas, it becomes clear: Jesus isn’t talking about the kind of happiness sold in commercials, the kind that promises everything will be fine if you just buy the new car or land the perfect American job. No. Makarioi isn’t a feeling. It is a verdict.

It is a public declaration. A ruling from the highest authority. It’s as if the Supreme Judge of the universe strikes the gavel and announces a decision that cannot be appealed: Fortunate. Blessed. Honored in the sight of God.

This isn’t cheap optimism. It is an objective reality. And here is the shock that shakes the foundations: Jesus speaks this word over the very people the world looks down on—people the system treats as disposable, invisible, or already defeated.”

As Scripture so often does, the Beatitudes offer an alternative vision of reality than the one the rulers of this world want us to see. The Beatitudes offer us a Christ-eye view of things, asking us to adjust our vision to see things as he does. This is not only a promised someday future where all will be made right, it is an alternate reality that lives alongside and within the one the nightly and online news tells us about. 

Or as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians, “God chose what seems foolish and weak and low and despised in the world, the things that are not, to abolish the things that are, so that no one may boast in the presence of God.” Here’s the second thing that felt important to say: It was the world abolish that struck me this week. I’m sure you can guess why, as nationwide calls for the abolition of ICE have rung out. Another clergy colleague, Elizabeth Rawlings, reminded me that this call to abolish the things that are is part of a larger abolition movement that is traced back to the abolition of slavery in this country, the civil rights movement, the call to end Apartheid in South Africa, and in modern times the abolition of all kinds of policing and detention systems. 

This is the scary thing about the kingdom of heaven, friends. It requires the abolition of the things that are so that the things God intends may come to be in their place. We are for the most part a moderate people who want to think our systems are good at heart and they just need reform, or more training, or better oversight. We don’t need new systems, we think, we just need to make them work better. But over and over in Scripture, our God calls for the destruction of the systems that are, so that the ways of God can prevail. The systems of humans cannot bring about the kingdom of heaven, only a completely different way can do that.

This is true in the church too, of course, and I think deep down we know it. If the systems we’ve gotten used to in the church were working, the church would not be declining at the rate it is. The system we’ve built does not work anymore, and I have my doubts that it ever did, at least not to build true disciples who are committed to bringing the kingdom of heaven to life in our midst. 

That’s the bad news, but this is the gospel we are talking about, so you know there is good news too. Lots of it. We have a roadmap, right here in the Beatitudes, right here in Micah 6, right here in 1 Corinthians. And not only a roadmap, but the proclamation of Jesus that is 2000 years old: The kingdom of heaven IS AT HAND. Did you notice that the first and last two beatitudes, unlike the middle five, are in the present tense?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, for your reward IS great in heaven.

Already, people of God, your poverty of spirit that comes from being worn down by the messed up world around us, is a sign that the kingdom of heaven is already yours. You are tired and poor in spirit because you know the way things are is not the way they are meant to be. And already, people of God, when you get guff and pushback and nasty name-calling because you dare to stand up and say this is not the way of Jesus, this is not who we are called to be, the kingdom of heaven is yours. 

Your reward is already great in heaven, because you are joined by a swelling community who stands up for mercy and righteousness, because you are surrounded by a great cloud of witness who believe that the world can be different and better than it currently is, even if the failing powers that be call it foolishness. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, my dear ones, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Thanks be to God.