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A sermon series on the Beatitudes

At the beginning of Jesus’ most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he turns to the crowd and begins naming the people who are “blessed”. If you were to name the blessed people in our world today, who would you turn to? Who are the lucky ones, the fortunate ones, the ones who are winning in life?

Maybe the influencers? The rich? The successful? The super religious? The admired?

Jesus pointed to the ones you would least expect and called them blessed: the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. These are the ones Jesus calls fortunate. These folks are among the “in crowd”. These marginalized ones are the first welcomed into Jesus’ Upside Down Kingdom.

The reason Jesus calls these unlikely people blessed is that one day, when the fullness of the Kingdom of God is established, their fortunes will be reversed. The poor will inherit the kingdom. Those in mourning will find laughter and joy. Those who are hungry for justice will find their fill. Those struggling to make peace will find shalom in the family of God.

And even as these blessed ones are waiting for the fullness of their future Kingdom blessing, God is at work bringing grace to them even now. He is lifting up the heads of the poor in spirit, comforting those who are mourning and strengthening the persecuted. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, how should we respond to Jesus’s beatitudes?

This Lent, join us at Delaware City Vineyard as we consider this question and meditate on the beatitudes and how they are a window into the Upside Down Kingdom of God.