Sermon 641+January 30, 2011

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
772nd Week as Priest
598th Week at St Dunstan’s

Blessed are the Meek

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week, I led us through a close reading of the passage from Matthew’s Gospel concerning the call of the first four disciples of Jesus. Do you remember this? Don’t worry if you can’t; I remember very few of the sermons I’ve ever heard—which may be an indication of something about preachers, or something about sermons themselves.

Anyway, we read from the previous chapter of Matthew, first from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which we use in our worship each week. And then from the Revised Standard Version, and the Good News Bible, and the Contemporary English Bible, and a radical new version called The Message.

We also compared the story from Matthew with the same story as told by Mark and Luke. We looked at every word, and I asked you to think about what the story meant to you, personally.

Well, that’s what I want to do tonight. But we are going to focus on a single verse from Matthew 5:1-12, commonly called The Beatitudes. We will examine “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve led a discussion on this verse before. Six years ago, when I also served as the vicar of Emmanuel Church in Opelika, I asked the children to come and sit down with me and help me with the sermon. There were six or seven little girls, all in their summer dresses, and one boy who was too little to talk.

“Blessed are the meek,” I said, “for they will inherit the earth.” And then I asked them, “Who are the meek?”

They looked at each other like I was crazy. They laughed into their hands. “Come on,” I coaxed them. “Who are the meek?”

The oldest girl said, “I know. The meek are girls with long flowing hair.”

Another one said, “That’s right. And they have beautiful dresses.”

And another said, “And they flow in the wind.”

“What else can you tell me about the meek?” I asked.

“They ride camels,” announced the fourth child. Everybody agreed: The meek ride camels.

“It sounds like the meek are sort of like you girls,” I suggested.

They looked at each other. “No, we’re nothing like the meek,” said the oldest girl.

So now it’s your turn. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” What does it mean to be meek? Most people, if they are truly honest, will say that meekness is about being humble, gentle, even like a servant. A meek person is lowly, with no authority or standing in the world, like a slave.

Well, that’s one way to look at meekness, but I don’t think it’s the way that Jesus was considering when he said, “Blessed are the meek.” In fact, Jesus has been called “the meek King.” But this is different. This understanding of meekness is about being gentle, and mild, and humble, but it also means to be compassionate, and to be patient.

Jesus, as our meek King, tells us later in Matthew’s Gospel, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble in heart.”

This meekness is a “disciplined calmness” and a “rejection of violence.” This meekness is an expression of true strength. Our meek King is the One who is unafraid and always ready to forgive. Our meek King is heroic in his purposeful love for us, and he is willing to lay down his life for us.

Now that is real meekness. If we can learn from him to be gentle and humble in heart in the face of adversity and hostility, then we will inherit the earth. I know this is true. Amen.

659 words

With thanks to Deirdre J. Good, Professor of New Testament at General Seminary in NYC, for her fine book, Jesus the Meek King, and my old and dear friend Tim Holder for giving it to me.