1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:26,800 The Lord is King, the Lord was King, and the Lord will be King forever and ever. 2 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:33,200 The ancient collection of Jewish conversations, the Mishnah, compares Rosh Hashanah to Psalm 3 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,640 33, 13-15. 4 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,220 The great King Adonai looks down from heaven. 5 00:00:41,220 --> 00:00:43,840 He observes all humanity. 6 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:49,340 From his dwelling place he gazes on the inhabitants of the earth, and he who fashioned the hearts 7 00:00:49,340 --> 00:00:52,400 of all, who discerns all their deeds. 8 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:57,280 Tonight is a time to remember the kingdom of heaven. 9 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:04,680 Tonight is a time to look inward, to place our King on the throne of our hearts. 10 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:12,480 So tonight for our message today, I'm going to begin a series that will continue on tomorrow 11 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:18,960 and then throughout the fall on the Sermon on the Mount. 12 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:24,840 So if you have a Bible here, Ken, maybe you could pass some out, some of the Tree of Life 13 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,200 versions there. 14 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:32,320 And I'll introduce this while Ken's getting those. 15 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:33,880 He could pass those around. 16 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:41,520 Our theme last year, the Etzchayim Hi, it is a tree of life, is coming to a close. 17 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:47,480 And we are launching a new strategic theme for this year, 5784. 18 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:52,680 And wow, I just want to say we have done some terrific things last year from planting our 19 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:59,280 two trees of life out in front, an act that is imbued with symbolism for tomorrow, to 20 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:04,480 our daily Jewish living teaching series, launching the hospitality team, running our Etzchayim 21 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,600 retreat last spring. 22 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,800 Well done, Ruach Israel. 23 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:14,200 Our new theme is our Ruach Israel voice. 24 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:16,960 Our Ruach Israel voice. 25 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,560 And there are two parts that we're going to emphasize this year. 26 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:21,200 First, our inner voice. 27 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,960 What qualities do we need to nurture and cultivate for our community to be a strong voice for 28 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:27,760 Yeshua? 29 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:30,900 And the second part is about sharing our message with our people. 30 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:35,400 We have an important message that Yeshua has commissioned us to bear witness to within 31 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:40,720 our Jewish people, and this year we want to make some steps in that direction. 32 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,960 We have some new initiatives that I'm really looking forward to this coming year, and we'll 33 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:46,800 share about those in the weeks to come. 34 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:52,560 But tonight, we'll begin one of them, a new teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount. 35 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,680 And there'll be some memorizing the Sermon on the Mount coming up soon, I think. 36 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,640 Gary said he would do a dramatized version of it. 37 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:01,760 Reina is writing a song. 38 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,120 So anyway, we'll do all kinds of things with the Sermon on the Mount this year. 39 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:11,460 Now personally, the Sermon on the Mount has a very special place in my heart. 40 00:03:11,460 --> 00:03:17,840 Most of you here have heard my story of how I found Yeshua, or perhaps how he found me 41 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,280 while I was hiking from Maine to Georgia on the Appalachian Trail. 42 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:23,760 But there's a part that I don't usually share. 43 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:29,880 After walking over the backcountry mountains in Maine for a month, I crossed into New Hampshire, 44 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:34,400 and I got sick and set up camp by a rushing river north of the White Mountains. 45 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:38,780 And I found a nice flat rock in the middle of a river where the water was shallow. 46 00:03:38,780 --> 00:03:44,400 And there, with the water swirling around me, I opened my Bible and read for the first 47 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,760 time the Sermon on the Mount. 48 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:53,320 And it was as if the words lifted off the page and went into me and made themselves 49 00:03:53,320 --> 00:04:00,480 a home somewhere deeper in my soul, somewhere that I didn't know was there. 50 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,640 The following day, I continued hiking south, and at a clearing in the White Mountains, 51 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:09,760 I felt Yeshua calling me deep within, and I said, yes. 52 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,960 And I remember his presence welling up within me, bringing such healing and warmth to every 53 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:17,600 area of my soul. 54 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:22,440 And I felt that his presence changed me on the inside, a change that I could feel happening 55 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:31,640 in real time, as if the kingdom of heaven was now closer somehow. 56 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:35,960 Now it's interesting, when Yeshua teaches about the kingdom of heaven, he doesn't teach 57 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,360 us about a distant land that is removed from the lives of the disciples. 58 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:45,400 And he doesn't often even teach about what the kingdom of heaven looks like, or what 59 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,160 life will be like in the kingdom of heaven. 60 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:53,680 A few places, perhaps, but most often he fervently invites us to seek the kingdom of heaven with 61 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,240 everything that we have here and now. 62 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:03,320 And the way that we seek the kingdom of heaven is not in theological abstractions, and in 63 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:07,920 spite of what many people think, it's not found simply by a checklist of worthy deeds 64 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:09,240 for entry. 65 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:14,160 Yeshua teaches us that he is the entryway. 66 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:20,160 And when we find him, the kingdom of heaven begins within us right away. 67 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:27,760 And then he shows us how to live that life here on earth, our voice. 68 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,400 Now of course, the Bible did not call the Sermon on the Mount the Sermon on the Mount, 69 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:35,120 the Latin Vulgate in the late 4th century first used the name. 70 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,120 Amy Jill Levine in her commentary retitles the Sermon on the Mount to, A Beginner's Guide 71 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:43,320 to the Kingdom of Heaven. 72 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:44,560 I like it. 73 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:48,520 So we're going to begin with the section famously called the Beatitudes. 74 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:52,560 Of course, Yeshua didn't call it that either, but we'll get there. 75 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:53,800 Or beginning in Matthew 5. 76 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,640 Now when Yeshua saw the crowds, he went up the mountain and he sat down. 77 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:02,520 His disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and he began to teach. 78 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:07,500 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 79 00:06:07,500 --> 00:06:11,240 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 80 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,880 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 81 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:22,120 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 82 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,920 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. 83 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,840 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 84 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:34,760 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 85 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:40,100 And blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs 86 00:06:40,100 --> 00:06:43,360 is the kingdom of heaven. 87 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:48,320 Now these are often called the Beatitudes because Beatitude is a Latin term for blessed. 88 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:54,520 The Greek term Matthew used, makareos, can be translated blessed maybe, but also happy, 89 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:56,440 fortunate, even rich. 90 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,400 Now Yeshua wasn't teaching in Greek, so there are a few other Hebrew possibilities. 91 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:01,400 Let's look at them. 92 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:04,080 One possibility is Baruch, blessed. 93 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:08,480 Jeremiah 17, Baruch, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. 94 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:13,080 Psalm 118, Baruch, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. 95 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:19,440 But another possibility is in the Hebrew word, ashrei, which means happy or fortunate. 96 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:27,920 So think of Isaiah 30, verse 18, ashrei, happy are those who wait for the Lord. 97 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:33,680 Rabbi Pinkus Lapid feels that ashrei is the best option. 98 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:38,240 When Jewish scholars of the second century BCE translated the Torah into Greek, we call 99 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:39,760 this a Septuagint. 100 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:44,560 They translated the word ashrei here in Isaiah with the same word that Matthew uses in Greek 101 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,400 in the Beatitudes, makareos. 102 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,900 Now Matthew usually quotes the Tanakh from the Septuagint, so do you see it's likely 103 00:07:51,900 --> 00:07:56,280 that this was the idea that he was trying to communicate. 104 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:01,040 In the Siddur we pray ashrei traditionally three times a day. 105 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,560 Ashrei, o'shvei, veitecha, o'dhado luke, seila. 106 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:11,600 Ashrei are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. 107 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:15,280 Now happy in English doesn't quite capture ashrei. 108 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,960 There really isn't a translation for ashrei. 109 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:19,800 Neither does blessed. 110 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,720 Happy might feel too light and trivial to be linked with grieving a loss and mourning 111 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:28,280 or the difficulties of poverty. 112 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:34,080 And blessed, though it captures God's provision and his favor, sort of leaves us with this 113 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:39,280 sense of theoretical spiritual things that might come in the distant future. 114 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:44,320 Rabbi Russ Resnick says in his book Divine Reversal, this scripture isn't speaking so 115 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:50,340 much of a blessed future in the life to come or an ethereal blessedness of the super pious, 116 00:08:50,340 --> 00:08:55,400 but of concrete happiness here and now through an active relationship with God. 117 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:01,280 And Yeshua isn't describing some ideal state of sainthood or future reward, but the condition 118 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:07,360 under God's authority today, which we can experience if we have the faith and vision 119 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:10,240 to follow Yeshua. 120 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:16,240 Now the DBL dictionary defines ashrei as a heightened state of happiness and joy, implying 121 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,040 very favorable circumstances and enjoyment. 122 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:24,160 Rabbi Russ sees ashrei as the true happiness. 123 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:26,340 I like that, so I'll use that. 124 00:09:26,340 --> 00:09:29,000 The true happiness. 125 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:35,400 Now what these verses reveal is that life in Yeshua is ashrei, even in the midst of 126 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:38,960 great difficulty and trial. 127 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:40,160 We'll begin with verse three. 128 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:44,720 We'll just cover verse three today and then we'll cover the rest tomorrow. 129 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:53,960 Ashrei, truly happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 130 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:59,280 Now in context we need to remember that Yeshua is speaking directly to Jews about Jews, so 131 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:05,320 he's speaking mostly to what we call the Amharits, the people of the land, who were kind of a 132 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:10,600 broad category of Jewish people dispersed outside of Jerusalem, in the Galilee. 133 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:14,280 These were people who were abused and often very poor. 134 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,540 They were policed by Rome and oppressed with impossible taxes. 135 00:10:18,540 --> 00:10:24,120 We think of Pontius Pilate who is recorded as having mixed the blood of the Galilean 136 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:27,360 Amharits in with their sacrifices. 137 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:31,360 He wasn't a nice guy. 138 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:36,520 Further we know from rabbinic texts that reflect back to first century political dynamics that 139 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:41,840 there were groups of Jews in leadership in the temple who despised the Amharits, not 140 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:46,720 because they were poor per se, but because they lived a simpler Jewish life and often 141 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:53,280 challenged some of the pharisaic reformations that were promoted from Jerusalem. 142 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:58,920 These reformations tended to give these leaders more authority and power and placed even heavier 143 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:03,760 burdens on these Jewish people who were just trying to survive. 144 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:09,120 For example, during a time of famine one member of the religious elite in Jerusalem said, 145 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:16,960 Woe is me for giving my bread to an Amharits, and again speaking of the Amharits, their 146 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:21,840 poverty is a sign of pride. 147 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:30,840 So when Yeshua says, Ash-re, the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, his immediate 148 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:36,440 hearers would hear something remarkable, that God saw the Amharits and that they had a very 149 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:40,040 special place in his eyes. 150 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:45,120 Now the first century Judaism scene was very complex and there were many different branches 151 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:49,400 in sects, not just the elite in leadership. 152 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:53,760 And there were many things that we read about the Amharits that are also very positive. 153 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:58,060 Yeshua was not creating new teachings for these Jews, he was pointing to the heart of 154 00:11:58,060 --> 00:12:04,480 what Judaism was really all about, pointing the way of the true Torah. 155 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,160 Here's an example of how Judaism developed in the third century. 156 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:12,360 In Talmud, Joshua B. Levy said, Come and see how great before God are those who are bowed 157 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:14,480 down in spirit. 158 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:15,480 Similar idea. 159 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:22,320 And again in Talmud we see, those who suffer from poverty will not see the face of Gehenna. 160 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:28,260 Gehenna is the same term that Yeshua uses for hell later in his sermon on the mount. 161 00:12:28,260 --> 00:12:32,720 It was a garbage dump in the first century, a place where corpses of criminals and dead 162 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:38,760 animals and all kinds of manner of refuge were thrown to be destroyed and burned. 163 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:44,040 So the valley was a burning place of sewage and burning flesh and garbage and it made 164 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:46,800 a great metaphor. 165 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:52,180 Now in fact this passage even goes so far as to say that their poverty is what rescues 166 00:12:52,180 --> 00:12:53,960 them from the judgment of Gehenna. 167 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,480 So this is inside of our tradition as well. 168 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:01,840 Perhaps Yeshua is drawing straight from Isaiah 61. 169 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:06,320 Here Isaiah reflects on the Jubilee and then remember when he reads this in his home synagogue 170 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,720 in Nazareth he applies it to himself. 171 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:16,240 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news 172 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:18,760 to the poor. 173 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:23,940 He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening 174 00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:30,060 of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of 175 00:13:30,060 --> 00:13:35,300 the vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. 176 00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:40,720 We know that Yeshua reads this passage in his hometown synagogue and applies it to himself. 177 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:48,140 He is the one who comes to bring good news to the poor and what is that good news? 178 00:13:48,140 --> 00:13:55,240 That they are ashray because they are inheriting the kingdom of heaven. 179 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,360 One clue to what Yeshua is saying here is the word itself. 180 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,120 There's is the kingdom of heaven. 181 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:04,640 Matthew is setting up a contrast between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of the 182 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:06,140 earth. 183 00:14:06,140 --> 00:14:10,240 In the kingdoms of the earth the strong and the wealthy and those who are held in high 184 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:13,720 esteem have already been rewarded with power. 185 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:18,900 This is their world but for the poor, the beaten down, the bedraggled, those who have 186 00:14:18,900 --> 00:14:24,480 no place of joy in this world, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 187 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:29,040 The idea isn't that the kingdom of heaven is like a pie in the sky kind of platitude. 188 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,760 One day it will be better but rather Yeshua is revealing an entirely different set of 189 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:38,240 values and priorities to his disciples, to his hearers. 190 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:43,440 Yeshua says in the disciples prayer, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, 191 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:45,360 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 192 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,940 It's not only a promise of eternal peace after death, it's like a prescription for a new 193 00:14:49,940 --> 00:14:52,600 set of glasses. 194 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:56,880 Kingdom of heaven glasses where Yeshua is inviting us to take off our earthly glasses 195 00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:02,320 that are colored with greed and pride and run by the power struggles and oppression 196 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:08,160 of the world and to replace them with heavenly glasses which see the world through heaven's 197 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:12,080 eyes to quote from the prince of Egypt. 198 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:19,160 In Isaiah 57, 15 God says, I dwell on high and in holiness yet I also dwell with the 199 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:22,520 contrite and the poor in spirit. 200 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:28,000 Reviving the spirits of the lowly, reviving the hearts of the contrite. 201 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:36,520 Now the Hebrew here is literally, it's shefal ruch, the poor or the lowly in spirit. 202 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:42,320 Psalm 51, 19, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. 203 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:47,560 To the world system, the broken, the oppressed and the humble people of the land are simply 204 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:55,160 there for the strong and the powerful to stand on and to use, but not so in heaven. 205 00:15:55,160 --> 00:16:00,920 In heaven everything is flipped upside down and God sees, he values, he has compassion 206 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,520 on those who are weak. 207 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:09,600 Rabbi Russ wrote an entire book about this called The Divine Reversal, the transforming 208 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:10,800 ethic of Yeshua. 209 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:17,800 In his words he says, each of these sayings in the Asherah of Messiah, as we are calling 210 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:25,240 it, reverses a common ideal of happiness to reveal the source of true happiness. 211 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:30,160 The pages of world history books are filled with the same story which repeats itself over 212 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:31,800 and over again. 213 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:36,880 People desperately seek happiness through power, through control, through money, through 214 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:39,940 fame, through revenge. 215 00:16:39,940 --> 00:16:44,120 Those who are the most successful in these pursuits are the ones who we know about who 216 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:52,600 have caused wars, slavery and terrible pain to the world that's still going on today. 217 00:16:52,600 --> 00:17:00,160 Others continue to strive from one thing to the next but never taste true Asherah. 218 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:04,680 In the kingdom of heaven, true happiness does not come from these things. 219 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,000 The kingdom has radically different priorities and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount will 220 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,760 tell us what those priorities are. 221 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:18,760 Follow the way of Torah, always reconcile, love even your enemies, forgive, trust God, 222 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:22,560 give what you have. 223 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:25,480 Elijah Svi Solovecek lived in the 1800s. 224 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:31,800 He was an orthodox scholar who interestingly wrote a Hebrew commentary on the Gospels, 225 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,200 attempting to connect Yeshua's teachings with the teachings in Talmud. 226 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:38,760 That was his vision because he grew up learning this. 227 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:43,240 He wanted to bridge the gap and show that Yeshua was really a great Jew. 228 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:48,120 Now Solovecek was also a great, great relative of the famous Joseph Solovecek who was the 229 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:51,640 founder of the modern orthodox movement today. 230 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,480 Jordan Levy, many of you know her from Campo El Dorado translated his commentary into English 231 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:56,480 and it's in print today. 232 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,480 You can find it on Amazon. 233 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:05,360 Solovecek sees poor in spirit as a call to Judaism's highest value of humility. 234 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:15,040 He quotes from Perkei Wot 4-4, be very, very humble for the end of man is the worm. 235 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:18,840 All human pride is vanity and will end in the grave. 236 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:26,960 The Hebrew here translated humble is shefal ruch, poor in spirit. 237 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:32,520 Historic Christian thinker of the fourth century Augustine joins Perkei Wot. 238 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:35,300 Pride is the beginning of all sin, he writes. 239 00:18:35,300 --> 00:18:39,920 Let the proud therefore seek after and love the kingdoms of the earth. 240 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:45,400 But blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble and the God fearing for theirs is the kingdom 241 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,000 of heaven. 242 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,040 Isaiah 66 two gives us a bit more depth. 243 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:57,680 All these things my hand has made and so all these things are mine says the Lord, but this 244 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:05,600 is the one to whom I will look to the humble and contrite in spirit who trembles at my 245 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:06,800 word. 246 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:12,400 Now the Hebrew word translated as humble here is ani, which literally means poor, but it 247 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:17,720 has the connotation of those who recognize their dependence on God and their dependence 248 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:18,720 on others. 249 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:26,000 Amy Jill Levine wisely writes in her commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, thus poor in spirit 250 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,440 crosses economic lines. 251 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,840 To be poor is not necessarily to be righteous. 252 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,880 They don't mean the same thing necessarily. 253 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:41,840 And if we hold this equation, we wind up romanticizing poverty rather than working to alleviate it. 254 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:46,880 Nor for the gospels is being rich synonymous with being venal or evil. 255 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:52,540 Rather having surplus or wealth comes with the mandate to help others. 256 00:19:52,540 --> 00:19:58,960 The poor in spirit are those who recognize their dependence on others and others dependence 257 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,160 on them. 258 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:06,580 Yeshua's words are not only an encouragement for us, they are a mandate that we become 259 00:20:06,580 --> 00:20:12,520 agents of the kingdom of heaven here on earth to be aware of our own obligation to care 260 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:17,600 for those who are in need, those who are suffering hardship, those who are brought low, those 261 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:24,720 who are hurting, those who might depend on us. 262 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:29,980 Being poor in spirit then isn't about how much money a person has or doesn't have. 263 00:20:29,980 --> 00:20:36,000 It means that you have exchanged at the deepest levels of your identity the world's systems 264 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:43,600 for happiness and success with God's values in the kingdom of heaven. 265 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:49,860 It also means that you've given up hope of finding Asherah in yourself. 266 00:20:49,860 --> 00:20:56,080 And instead you realize that Asherah is found in the presence of God and among God's people 267 00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:02,380 with whom you are inseparably part of your larger family. 268 00:21:02,380 --> 00:21:12,280 And even more, one who is poor in spirit thinks less and less about his or her own Asherah 269 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:18,400 at all and instead becomes an agent of the kingdom of heaven seeking to meet the needs 270 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:22,360 and even the Asherah of others. 271 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:31,040 These people have found true Asherah, true joy because they have inherited the kingdom 272 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:39,680 of heaven and the kingdom of heaven is filled with joy. 273 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:44,740 I will pause now and we'll pick up with the rest of the Asherahs that Yeshua teaches us 274 00:21:44,740 --> 00:21:46,560 tomorrow morning. 275 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:51,800 We have some really great material to get into when we hear the hundred blasts and the 276 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:53,560 shofar. 277 00:21:53,560 --> 00:22:01,020 But for now I invite you just to close your eyes for a moment and just imagine that you 278 00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:07,860 are with the disciples in Galilee. 279 00:22:07,860 --> 00:22:12,320 You're following your beloved master, Yeshua. 280 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:17,640 There are crowds pressing in and Yeshua has been healing one person after the other. 281 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:22,880 Everyone who comes to him, he listens to, he touches, he looks in their eyes and he 282 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,720 heals them. 283 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:32,320 As you see Yeshua, your heart fills with love and you just want to be near him. 284 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,580 You take a breath and you look toward the distance. 285 00:22:34,580 --> 00:22:39,080 The hills are filled with luscious tall grass that shimmers in the sun. 286 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:46,200 The sky is crystal blue and casts its striking reflection onto the sea of Galilee below. 287 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:54,120 A sweet breeze comes as you hear the shouts of joy as a woman is set free from her suffering. 288 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:57,940 Then you look, Yeshua is no longer there. 289 00:22:57,940 --> 00:23:00,640 You turn around and you look for him. 290 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:07,080 You just have to find him and then you see him walking slowly up the path on the mountain. 291 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:08,600 He's alone. 292 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,000 He turns and looks at you. 293 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,840 He smiles and he motions for you to come away with him. 294 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:23,560 Instinctively you follow as if your bones had no other desire in the world. 295 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:28,880 And you find Yeshua sitting on a rock waiting for you. 296 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,040 And you join your friends, the other disciples. 297 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:35,800 And by now others have seen him climb the mountain too and they're approaching in crowds 298 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,800 eager to hear. 299 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:40,880 Yeshua smiles. 300 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:46,380 He looks on the people with compassion and he seems to be moved inside. 301 00:23:46,380 --> 00:23:52,400 He looks upward for a moment, his eyes welling with tears. 302 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:57,120 And he opens his mouth and he begins to teach. 303 00:23:57,120 --> 00:23:59,320 Ashray. 304 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:09,400 Truly happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 305 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,580 It wasn't just teaching you how to be a disciple. 306 00:24:12,580 --> 00:24:17,880 He was actually making you a disciple as he taught. 307 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:22,040 Yes, yes, yes. 308 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:23,040 You think to yourself. 309 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:43,320 I will follow you, my king, to the ends of the earth. 310 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:50,520 Hashem, malech, Hashem, malech, Hashem, yimlok, le'olam, va'ed. 311 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:51,520 The Lord is king. 312 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:58,840 The Lord was king and the Lord will be king forever and ever. 313 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,280 Let us rise and we'll sing this together. 314 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:22,320 Hashem, malech.