"podcast" Tagged Sermons (Page 70)

Today’s gospel reading picks right up where we left off last week. And, we’re about a third of the way through Jesus’s famous “sermon on the mount.” And it’s so very important to remember the context; otherwise, we’ll miss the meaning or come to believe in alternative facts. So, we’re going to do three things: first, dig into the context; second, dive into the examples; and third, find out what this all means for us…

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain” (Matthew 5:1). That was the first verse in today’s gospel. At first glance, it seems like a transitional statement to get us to a place for Jesus to teach. However, real estate agents have taught us that location matters. A location provides or limits access to resources which often communicates value. So too, a location can reveal something about identity, including someone’s socio-economic status or their values. And, when Jesus went up on that mountain, it was more than a transitional sentence…