Poor In Spirit

Note: I’ve been meditating on the Beatitudes lately. So, I thought I would share some of my experiences…

The Sermon on the Mount is said to be the Manifesto of the Christian faith. If so, then this faith is impossibly rigorous. The precepts seem impossible, the passage drips with idealism. Jesus seems to be describing a utopia. This Utopia is so far removed from my experience that my immeadiate reaction is to scoff.

Immediatly, we are met with the Beatitudes and Jesus announces to us that the poor in spirit are blessed and posess the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the basic structure of the rest of the Beatitudes – blessed are the people who aren’t really blessed. Blessed are the losers. In Jesus’ kingdom the blessed are the down and out, bi-polar hard cases. It seems that Jesus isn’t very good at building, for he built his kingdom upside down.

To be poor in Spirit is to be spiritally needy. “Blessed,” Jesus seems to say, “are those who look at the towers they have built to Heaven and see so much missing.” Blessed are the lost simpletons who want someone to help them home. Blessed are those who believe, but need help with their unbelief.

Apparently, if I want to experience the blessedness of the Kingdom of Heaven, I have to lose it all. I have to empty my pockets of all these spiritual riches I have hoarded. I have to file for chapter 11 and declare myself spiritually bankrupt. And then, with nothing, i must climb into the lap of my father and ask for my allowance – the bountiful richness of his presence, his hope.

Abba, strip me of all that I have and leave me naked and in need of that which only you can give.

Come back and haunt me, Follow me home
Give me a motive Swallow me whole
They say I’ve lost it, What could I know
When I’m but a mockery? I’m so alone
Sooner or later you’ll find out There’s a hole in the wall
Today is ours Condemned to be free
Free to keep breathing, Free to believe
I look to find you Down on my knees
Oh God, I believe! Please help me believe – SWITCHFOOT (Soren’s Song)