The Beatitudes ~ the " be attitudes" : REALLY??!??

Did I mention that I tutor? I do. So last week I was helping one of my students with her Bible assignment. She is in 6th grade. Her lesson was on the Sermon on the Mount. The title of the lesson was "The Be Attitudes". Yes it was! The main theme of the lesson was that the beatitudes ~ the "blessed are . . ." portion of The Sermon is telling us that we need to have a good attitude and that that is how we will be really happy. OK...6th grade...ok, I get "make it simple for the kids". BUT! I think that all too often when "we make it simple" we don't just make it simple, we strip it of all depth until we are left with a chiffon-thin layer that while meant to be simple, becomes simplistic.

ok Barbara. . .breathe. . . you are ranting ~ calm down...

Ok!

OK, is there any problem with telling 6th graders to have a good attitude? NO! Is there ANY level at which the SotM could be used to talk about having a good attitude. . .sort-of. Yeah I know! We are talking about 6th graders. But here's my problem ~ this doesn't just happen with 6th graders. Somehow all too often when the Bible is taught, in an effort to make it relevant, and cool sounding, and simple, even sermons aimed at adults become thinner and thinner until you can see through the chiffon. And -- yes -- I have heard the same sort basic simplistic teaching about the Sermon on the Mount aimed at adults. One reason is ~ this from my perspective, ok? ~ that modern Americans too too often read the New Testament and only use the Old Testament to make a reference or to paraphrase an already familiar story. That is they don''t READ AND STUDY the Old Testament for the sake of what it actually said to the people to whom it was actually written. People know that Adam and Eve shouldn't have eaten an apple, that Noah spent 40 days and 40 nights on a boat with some animals, that Abraham was the Father of our Faith, that David killed a giant. They do not know the significance of the differences between Genesis 1 and 2. They do not know how long Noah spent on the ark, (do you know? no? go read Genesis ch's 5 - 9. YES all of it!)  nor more significantly that that story is introduced with the verse that rips the breath from my being: Gen 6:5-7

                            The LORD saw how great man's wickedness
                            on the earth had become, and that every inclination
                           of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
                           The LORD was grieved that he had made man
                           on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Were you ever taught that God's response to the sin and evil that saturated creation was grief? Can you even imagine God who is LOVE ITSELF, having His heart FILLED with pain? or did you think God was just mad so He sent a flood. They do not know that Abraham lived 100 years AFTER he was called by God out of Ur of Chaldean's. They probably have the picture of him as a doddering old man holding a tiny baby, but they do not have the picture of the wild, fierce warrior who took 318 men and road the length of Israel following 4 armies and defeating them to rescue Lot, his nephew. Abram was somewhere between 75 and 86 years old at the time. (its a great story...you should read it, with a map to show you the "where" of the story. It can be found in Genesis 14). They have likely not read the story of David in its scope ~ a story that spans the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, AND 1 Chronicles.  

ok...still ranting ...

Well, I think you get my point. So what I am going to do is talk about the Sermon that Matthew shared with us. I am going to try to link it back to the Old Testament ~ because I think that was Matthew's point. I think, in fact, that this rendition of the Sermon is Jesus preaching the Old Testament and because He is the Living Word of God, 'rightly dividing the word of truth' (2 Tim. 5:15)

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