The Foolishness of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12

Often when we hear the Beatitudes, we are given a picture of them being a step by step process to becoming holy or as ways that we are supposed to behave or think in order to get God’s blessings. However, they are really something all believers have in Christ because he is the one who has lived a life that reflects them and we get the blessing that was always with Christ!

Image: Carl Bloch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Holiness for the Saints and for You, Revelation 7, Ephesians 1, Matthew 5

As we reflect upon the meaning of All Saints’ Day, we remember that the saints are the holy ones of God. The holiness they have though is not a holiness they create, but one that is given to them by the work of Christ.

Image: Johann König, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. File Location":https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Koenig_-_Allerheiligen.jpg

Overcoming by Salt and Light, Matthew 5:13-20

We hear of ourselves being salt and light, but how is it that we are made into these things that Jesus calls us? And what does Jesus mean by us needing to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes? Father Jeremiah considers these things in this sermon on Matthew 5:13-20

Image: Christ’s Sermon on the Mount: The Parable of the Lily, public domain, found at: https://loc.getarchive.net/media/christs-sermon-on-the-mount-the-parable-of-the-lily

Clinging to Christ's Blessing, Matthew 5:1-12

Too often, we cling to that which God has not given to us, but what happens when we cling to what is given, seeing it as the place of blessing? Jesus’ Beatitudes reveal to us not how to be blessed, but that God is blessing his people in the midst of their lives.

Image: Phillip Medhurst, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Luyken%27s_Jesus_6._The_Sermon_on_the_Mount._Phillip_Medhurst_Collection.jpg

Salt, Light, and Righteousness, Matthew 5.13-20

Jesus speaks of us as being salt and light and then of his coming to fulfill the Law. How does his fulfilling the Law bring about our being salt and light? Listen now to find out from Father Jeremiah.

Image: Ywain and his lion fighting a dragon, an illumination from the 14th-century Italian copy. [Public Domain] Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ywain_and_his_lion_fighting_a_dragon.jpg