...are the Meek... [3]- Neil Ryan

Date: September 3, 2006
Passage: Matthew 5:1-12
Message: Blessed are the Vulnerable
Series: The Be-Attitudes [3]

There are many bland words in the English language.
Words like –
Nice: Wife asks you if you like the new hair do and you say
“It’s nice!” She get’s the opposite message!
Fine: You ask someone how they are and they say
‘I’m fine” You know they’re holding out on you!!

Well this word we come across this morning in Matthew 5:5 is one of those words that immediately brings a sense of blandness and nothingness to our minds when we hear it!

Meek
We associate it with words that rhyme with it like –
Weak, Geek, Freak!

J. Upton Dickson founded an organization called DOORMATS. That stands for "Dependent Organization of Really Meek And Timid Souls -- if there are no objections."
Their motto was: "The meek shall inherit the earth -- if that's okay with everybody."

Meek sends off all the wrong signals in our ‘winner takes all’ culture.
This is the day of enterprise bargaining – drive as hard as you can, for as much as you can.
This is a day of ‘someone’s got to pay for this’ mentality.
This is a day of serious and concerted self protection.
If you don’t look out for yourself, promote yourself – you’ll get killed in the stampede as the world rushes over you!
This is a day of demanding our rights, even if they are wrong!

Eg.
We have seen an example of that this week in legislative Council of State Parliament.
Sandra Kanck claims she is fighting on behalf of freedom of speech in using Parliament to deliver a speech outlining ways in which people can commit suicide – or euthanize themselves which somehow sounds almost civilised!

In her mis-placed attempt to draw attention to the inequities of our laws, she plays dangerously with the mental state of those who care little about the point she is trying to prove!

She fights for a right that is all wrong!
You see freedom brings accountability and responsibility.
There is no such thing as freedom perse.
Our freedoms must be exercised within the constraints of wisdom and maturity!

Her greatest folly was not even her outrageous speech, but her unwillingness to listen, her inability to change, her incapacity to see outside her own driven-ness.

The State’s most senior Psychiatrist, Head of Mental Health, Dr John Brayley tried to rein her in, The President of the Australian Medical Association called it totally irresponsible, but she would not hear of it. She would not be tamed.

Even now in the face of people’s common senses being outraged – she defiantly claims that she is right in principal and is unrepentant!

Now as much as it might make me feel better pouring out my pious wrath on this Politician in the relative safety of a Church building – the truth is, I am often guilty of the same level of stupidity.

We don’t like to be reigned in.
We don’t like to be tamed.
We like to run free and wild!

Who of us likes to take advice?
Who of us likes to admit we’re wrong?
Who of us can change direction when our hearts are set?
Who of likes to be confronted?
There is a ‘No Go’ zone in each of us that will defy anything if it is threatened!

All this leads us to one of the most confronting of all the statements that Jesus made!
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth

What is this thing that Jesus places so much store on?
How can something that seems so innocuous be so important?
How can meekness stand up in a world that is built on the principle of ‘I’ll get you before you get me!
How were first century Christians who longed a leader to come and deliver them from the humiliation and suffering of Roman rule to take this seriously?
Well let’s try and understand what Jesus was actually saying.
Meek = [Gr] Praos
In classical Greek the word was used to describe a soothing ointment; gentle breeze.
That’s where we get our sloppy, bland view of meekness.
Who wants to be likened to a gentle breeze!!!

But in Koine Greek -Greek language used in post-classical antiquity (c.300 BC – AD 300) – included when NT was written.
Praos = used to describe the taming of a wild animal

Meekness = was the very opposite of weakness; it is the harnessing up of our wildness!
It is the bringing it under control.

Being MEEKED is not the process of being stripped of all our passion, it is the process of having it harnessed for the right things!

This is getting interesting!!

I want to do a survey right now.
How many of you have a dog or dogs? Put your hands down. Now, this is a time to be really honest.
How many of you let your dog sleep on your bed?
How many of you let your dog play with children?
How many of you take your dog for a walk in the park without restraint?
I want to tell you how ABSURD this is.

I have it on good authority that every dog comes from a wolf. You've got a wolf sleeping in your bed!
You’ve got a wolf playing with your children and walking around in the park!

Here is what is so amazing. Wolves today are an endangered species in many parts of the world. Yet, the meek dog has inherited the earth.
Why? Because the dog demonstrates strength under control.

Scientists have grappled for years over when and where the transition happened from wild flesh eating savage to loveable, saliva slobbering man’s best friend!

But every time you look at a dog you have a wonderful, living powerful illustration of what meekness is all about.
The dog has not forfeited its character.
It has not lost its strength.
It has not become something less than it is.
It is a wild beast under control!
It has inherited the earth.

What a pity we think humans know better!!

You see Jesus is addressing the one thing we find the most difficult – vulnerability!
We are born into this world in a very vulnerable state but by the time we get to Kindergarten we are learning to defend ourselves!
We are learning that vulnerability is a dangerous thing.

One of the reasons people have such a poor perception of Christians is that they see us as a pretty pathetic bunch of people who need someone called God to help us.

I don’t view life or humanity in terms of weakness and strength.
I believe our fundamental problem is that we don’t like to be vulnerable.
We don’t like to admit we need help.

The problem with humanity is not that we are not strong, resourceful, competent and intelligent – our problem is that we don’t know how to use these things in way God intended!

Think about it for a moment.
Never have we had so much knowledge, so much capacity for good in our world and yet never have we lived in a time of such fear and despair.

Eg.
Watching a bit of TV with Madi other day.
Thought she needed bit of culture – ABC
‘Beyond Tomorrow’

First segment was about a scanning machine that can see through your clothes.
How necessary this was in a day terrorism is so common.
Show up the guns, knifes and plastic explosives that people might take on plane.

Next segment some scientist in Russia has developed a box-casing that you put over objects that are suspected of being bombs and they minimize the explosion and reduce the death toll on Railway stations and busy streets.

This is the tomorrow that my grand-daughter is growing up in!
You see meekness is not calling us all to realize we are no-hopers.
It is calling us to realize we don’t know how to use what God has given us!!!

Jesus outrageously claims that the really rich people of this world are not those with all the real-estate, share port-folios, holiday homes on the coast –
But those who have surrended their lives to the Father.

I read that statement about 10 times and asked myself whether I really believe it!!
If you had the choice of all those things OR have none of them, but be happily serving God in some ordinary, non-descript way….what would you really chose?

We think that inheriting the earth is about HARVESTING –
Jesus says it is about HARNESSING.
It is about surrendering to
God’s love,
God’s discipline
God’s Word,
God’s ownership of our lives.

Perhaps the most amazing example of meekness is found in
Matthew 26:36-46
Read
Do you know the most stirring words for me –
“…..rise, let us go…” v46

That is meekness
That is strength under control.
Jesus stares at his betrayer and moves toward him.
Jesus stares at death itself and embraces it.

Meekness = God’s power to live with our vulnerability
God’s courage to embrace our pain
God’s wisdom to negotiate life’s crisis
God’s grace to contend with that which is wrong
God’s contentment to accept what we cannot change.

If you want a little check-list to see if you have been ‘meeked!’
Try these.

1. What’s your attitude to God’s Word
Do we read it as those under its authority or those who think we have authority to do what we like with it?
Have we grown accustomed to what it says and that familiarity has robbed it of its impact?
Has this day of information and experts deceived us into thinking that the Bible is somehow tired and out of place in world like ours.
Horrified at the thought?
How much time did you spend in it this week?

2. What’s your attitude to those who oppose you?
Read Matthew 5:43-48
Where is the fruit of this?
Meekness doesn’t require us to roll over and allow people to take us as fools, but where is the grace under fire?
The world knows we have a hard exterior,, they want to know if we have a soft underbelly!

Why is it when we people think of such meekness like this they think of people like Ghandi, Dala lama who was voted as the most respected man in 2005!
You know what – he doesn’t have a web site!

Why is it that we relate better to the story of….
A gang rode in on their Harley's bikes and walked into a restaurant. Over in the corner there was a truck driver eating a plate of spaghetti. One of the bikers decided to show off, so he went over, picked up the plate of spaghetti and dumped it on the truck driver's head. He then took his cup of coffee and poured it in his lap.

The truck driver looked at the man, looked at the other bikers, stood up, paid his bill and walked out. All of the bikers thought it was a huge joke. A few moments later, the waitress came over to take their order and the biker snorted,

"He wasn't much of a man, was he!" Everyone laughed. The waitress said, "I don't know about that, but he wasn't much of a truck driver either… he just ran over eight motor bikes in the parking lot!"

3. What is our attitude to service?
Jesus says the only person who is free to inherit the whole earth is meek.
We seem to think that the Donald trumps of this world will inherit everything and leave nothing for us.
Jesus says
"Whoever wants to become great among you, must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many."

Western Christianity often tries to make God into a better option that other options.
We give the impression that God owes us something.
Or that God has to buy our allegiance.
After all – what’s in it for me!
Why would we chose to follow Jesus?

Truth is – the whole earth can be yours!
You just have to learn to serve!
You just have to be meeked!

Perhaps I should not close by challenging the Dads.
Serve your family
God has called you to love them, protect them, pray for them and lead them in faith!
Let God harness up everything he has given you to spend on their behalf!

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth