A Great Light

Jonathan Pennington's book, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, is really engaging. I can't wait to pick it up each evening. Pennington is helping me "adjust my focus" when it comes to the Sermon.

If you'd like to hear Pennington himself discuss the book, this podcast is for you. And this one. Oh, and this one too.

Needless to say, I'm kind of stuck on the Sermon. My Bible-reading modus operandi lately has been to focus primarily on the four Gospels (I said "primarily," not "exclusively"). As for the Sermon, I just can't seem to get past it. In one of those podcasts above Pennington suggests that one good practice to help you understand the Sermon better is to memorize it. He admits he hasn't got it all down just yet, but much of it. Maybe I'll try that.

The Sermon as a whole is, among many other things, a call to radical selflessness or humility. I keep thinking, as I read this, that Jesus is out to convince people of the ultimate beauty of humility, and that in humility is foundational to holiness.

As such, the Sermon acts as a corrective, a kind of re-orientation of our hearts, turning us away from our normal concerns, calling us to something better and yet something daunting and apparently counter-logical. That which is central to God is not normally central to us.

Christmas can act as the same kind of corrective. So to finish, let's hear from Isaiah:

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

2 The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
    and the staff for his shoulder,
    the rod of his oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called[e]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.