Having celebrated Advent together and now journeying into 2022, some of the talks in ICL services will focus again on Jesus’ words that are recorded in Matthew 5 to 7. Many know it as ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. Some people, after reading it, conclude it is impossible to live out. Are they right? Did Jesus really mean what he said?
Jesus’ words are far reaching, very much turning the ‘norm’ inside out but also arguably right way up! His way is not one of keeping the status quo or re-affirming the ‘proper’ way as others in his time had decided it ought to be defined. His call is a radical one to living in a way that counter-cultural and brings the ‘kingdom of heaven’ very much into earthly realities.
I am not suggesting that counter-cultural means being anti-cultural or being against all that is ‘out there’. Rather it is bringing our lives and society under the lens of Jesus’ teaching and being open to what light this will shine on us and the world we live in.
The Sermon on the Mount won’t be the focus every Sunday but will certainly be on quite a number of them. We actually began back in the Autumn last year (previous talks can be found on the ICL YouTube channel).
For 2022, the Sermon on the Mount focus began on Sunday 16th. If you missed that talk, you might like to watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GC39bNW3mvc
(For the Bible reading and talk, start at 14 minutes 45 seconds though be at liberty of course to watch the rest of the service too).
Let’s see what the words of Jesus might mean for our lives even now in 2022.
Andy