Marginal Christianity

A “good life” is a function of the vision of the life that informs it. A good life for an athlete will be different from that of a businessperson from a wealthy trust fund person from a doctor from a drug dealer from a politician and so on. Jesus too has a vision of a good life. It’s found (but frequently misunderstood) in what we call the Beatitudes, the very first part of the Sermon on the Mount. This section is frequently misunderstood because the word usually translated “Blessed” (or “happy”) is not rightly interpreted.   Jonathan Pennington, in his book The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary , has led the way to a more biblical understanding of this word. “Blessings (and the corresponding negative, curses) are divine, effectual speech,” he writes. Something he performs in us or on us. But the Greek word we find translated as “blessed” or “happy” (as here in the Beatitudes) is makarios. This word is “Macarisms (and the correspondi...

The First Division of the Beatitudes (5:3-6; Recap) In analogy with the Ten Commandments, which suits the New Moses persona of Jesus in these chapters, the Beatitudes fall into two divisions. The first four deal with Israel’s Godward relationship, with how Israel serves as the Abrahamic Israel God created it to be. In the conflict over the nation’s identity in the face of the coming war with Rome, it has one last chance to reclaim its destiny and duty. Failure to do so will be the end of ethnic Israel’s Abrahamic mandate. Total dependence on God, clear-eyed honesty about the condition of the people, single-hearted commitment to God’s will and way, and a passion for a world set “rightwise” as God intended are the affections which set our hearts toward God and enable us to sustain such faithfulness amid the crisis and conflict in the midst of which they live. As God decisively reasserts his rule in his world, this first stage of that kingdom coming which involves the ...

A Timely Word from Bonhoeffer                                                                                                                                         or                          ...

- - Blessed are the Godlike, this is their world. - - Blessed are the Happy, for they are living the American Dream - - Blessed am I, the world shall be mine. - - Blessed are those who lust for riches and the power it brings, for they can control the country. - - Blessed are those who can push and keep others down, for they get an even bigger slice of the economic pie. - - Blessed are the liars and manipulators, they can shape reality in their image. - - Blessed are the war-mongers for they shall always sacrifice the young to make money on the misery of others. - - Blessed are those who harass truth-tellers, they will get theirs right now.