Blessed

Blessed ImageOver the period from late June to September 2014 the liturgy and sermons for Sunday worship will be focussed on the Beatitudes of Jesus as found in Matthew’s gospel.

All else going well, the focus for each Sunday will be as follows

June 22 – Matthew 5.1-2: “Blessed”
June 29 – Matthew 5.3: Blessed are the poor in spirit
July 6 – (a break from the series)
July 13 – Matthew 5.4: Blessed are those who mourn
July 20 – Matthew 5.5: Blessed are the meek
July 27 – Matthew 5.6: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
August 3 – Matthew 5.7: Blessed are the merciful
August 10 – Matthew 5.8: Blessed are the pure in heart
August 17 – (a break from the series for a “Festival of Psalms”)
August 24 – Matthew 5.9: Blessed are the peacemakers
August 31 – Matthew 5.10: Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake
September 7 – Matthew 5.11-12: Blessed are those persecuted on Jesus’ account
September 14 – Matthew 5.13-16: Salt and light

The sermons from these Sundays will be available from the sermons page within a day or so following the service.

Resources

Two possible “helps” during the Beatitudes series are Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of discipleship and Soren Kierkegaard’s Purity of heart is to will one thing. The Cost of Discipleship is available in a couple of editions; Kindle options are here; non-Kindle (epub format). The section on the Beatitudes is only a small part of the book, which treats the whole of the Sermon on the Mount. The whole book could be read over the whole of the sermon series.

Kierkegaard’s Purity of heart is to will one thing is not a commentary on the Beatitudes as such but is a rich account of how we stand between time and eternity, which is one of the concerns of the Beatitudes. Kierkegaard is not an easy read, but this is a devotional text which would reward the effort if read a chapter a week over the course of the series. It is available in a couple of translations (some online purchase options here), and in several Kindle editions (1, 2, 3 [These all appear to be the same translation, published in 1938]; there is a later translation available, at least in hard copy).