The Great Manifesto

Introduction:

Sermon on the Mount is a great manifesto for transformation for individuals, families, organizations, societies and nations. Gandhiji was influenced by beatitudes as he read several books on it and attended Bible Studies while in UK and South Africa. It is a blue print for our lives as individuals, families, organizations, societies and nations. It transforms people and organizations as it redefines our relationship with one another and to God. When our relationships are redefined by it, it heralds joyful, enriching, sustainable world. Beatitudes applies to businesses if it permeates into the corporate culture it can make the organization prosperous. John Stott the author of the book The Message of the Sermon on the Mount said in the book, “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably is the least understood and certainly it is the least obeyed. This reminds us of the parable of the Foolish person who built his home on sand and got washed away in rain. Jesus compared those who listen and does not put it into action to the foolish man. Henry Truman, 33rd US President said “I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.” Beatitudes culture must form the DNA of the families, organizations, societies and nations. Beatitudes culture is a culture of creation, leading to creativity and a powerful work culture.

Kingdom Framework:

Beatitudes give the framework of the Kingdom of God. God wants us to be before we do and everything we do must spring from who we are – as the right being leads to right doing. Kingdom framework does not stop with doing out of our being, it extends to exceeding beyond the basic requirements. No other framework than Kingdom framework talks about exceeding, everywhere minimum standards are adhered to.?Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees who were considered super righteous. Beatitudes are about the core values and are beyond the character ethics. It leads on from character ethics to competence ethics. Beatitudes are about being blessed

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God

Being poor in spirit is being humble, expressing hopelessness and helplessness. It also refers to crying to God with a broken heart for his forgiveness and help. As a person of poor spirit we are called to be salt and light of the world and not to be bulldozers or steamrollers. A little bit of salt and light can start a revolution. It happened 2000 years ago through Jesus Christ. Pharisees were very proud of their righteousness and were thinking too high of themselves. Jesus talked about the two extreme attitudes of two people who came to pray – a Pharisee and a sinner. Jesus could see how a proud Pharisee could focus only on his righteousness and point out to others as sinners. The sinner stood far off, didn’t even have the strength to look up, but beat his breast and cried Lord have mercy on me the sinner. Jesus concluded the parable saying that the sinner went away declared righteous. Let us beware of the middle class in spirit, with false humility only in words and avoiding all responsibilities. Being poor in spirit also means taking care of the poor. In India we have one third of the population below poverty line and they need to be lifted up. Only the poor in spirit will and can do that.

Opposite to being poor in spirit is being arrogant, hubris, being close minded, being narrow in thought and being rigid. These vices will stifle creativity and freedom. Openness, humility and teachability are not signs of weakness but signs of real strength. During this pandemic we are able to witness hubris everywhere. No ownership of responsibility with government offices or health care institutions. Hubris destroys the nation as hubris leads to debris.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted:

Bob Pierce, President, World Vision said, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” We must mourn for the sin in our lives and in the community. We must mourn for deaths around us. Our hearts must not be only thinking of merry making in weddings and parties. We must look at the painful situations and show Jesus Christ the great comforter. Mourning is about being broken, lamenting, repenting, feeling the responsibility. Mourning is about caring deeply, owning and regretting for the mistakes and sins, not blaming but accepting mediocrity, feel for the suffering around and owning it. We need to read the book of Lamentations from the Bible frequently and we need to mourn deeply for the pain, sin and mediocrity.

How can we mourn really is to think and act on how to help thos who are hurting. During this pandemic there is lot of pain and grief. On an average daily 3500 to 4500 people are dying. How do we mourn for the children orphaned, parents who lost their children, pastors who left their congregation and members of congregation who lost their family members? Christian Professional Forum has agreed to give a support of Rs.25000 to pastors’ families who lost the head of the family. Though a very small amount this still can be of some comfort and help to the family to find a means of living.

Be comforting, repenting and taking responsibility of the pain and grief around you – which is real mourning. All of us can face troubles, accidents, tragedies, failures and brokenness. Let us not sweep the negative events and the resulting emotions under the proverbial carpet. Let us learn to recognize the emotions, address them and validate them. Most importantly use the negative situations to strengthen your resolve to improve and overcome.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth:

Meek refers to being gentle, soft spoken, kind and patient. It is opposite to the culture of masculine, domineering, survival-of-the fittest culture. Being meek refers to not being oppressive, not being exploitative, not seeking vengeance and not seeking power of your own. The meekness of His Excellency Rajaram, Governor of West Bengal (----), a true Gandhian, is commendable. He regularly travelled by economy class and never wanted an ornamental or special chair in a public meeting. Meekness is keeping our power under control and is a by-product of humbling oneself before God. Meekness is part of servant leadership. Jesus said, “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” We must seek to make ourselves the least. Mahatma Gandhi the symbol and icon of meekness said, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” Meekness involves risk taking and trust. It does not imply the inability to defend oneself but rather it conveys the choice not to exercise strength at the cost of others by using harsh words or snide comments or intimidation or bitterness. Meekness is not fretting, fuming or seeking violence, but staying away from these.

The first three beatitudes are passive beatitudes. The next five are active beatitudes.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

It indicates the strong desire and passion for the right things to happen and getting involved in the right things. It does not indicate self-righteousness rather being filled with goodness and doing good to others. Martin Luther was in favour of righteousness in action. He said, “The command to you is not to crawl into a corner or into the desert but to run out, if this where you have been, and to offer your hands, your feet and your whole body and to wager everything you have and can do. Hunger and thirst are basic human needs and we get overpowered by these needs and our total focus shifts to these when we are under these needs. As a leader we ought to hunger and thirst for righteousness and have our core focus on doing the right thing, being just and upholding your ethics and morals.

In the book titled Good Work: Where Excellence and Ethics Meets, the authors suggest that righteousness is a condition acceptable to God, correctness of thinking, feeling and acting. This gives us the direction for the utilization locomotion, in other words it is our rudder and it is how we steer. Jesus modelled righteousness for us and how we are to seek rightly.?Mediocrity is easy and excellence is hard work. There are also many temptations for shortcuts. However, a search for excellence always inspires both inside and outside an organization.

Blessed are the merciful:

Being merciful refers to forgiveness, generosity, mistake tolerance, compassion and grace. We are called to have compassionate engagement in the world. Passion coupled with compassion is the need of the hour. The parable of Good Samaritan reminds us of the compassionate traveller who rescued the Samaritan attacked by the robbers. There were others who crossed the wounded traveller, but they thought that it was not their responsibility as they had no mercy, no compassion. We are expected to be compassionate to those in need. Mother Teresa the epitome of compassion who cared for those dying in the streets said, ”Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” She was rightly recognized with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, Nobel Peace Prize and India’s highest Civilian award Bharat Ratna, for her service to the abandoned and dying with the utmost love and care.?

Christians must be known as the mercy givers. Christians must do justly, they must love mercy and walk humbly. Christians cannot afford to be unforgiving, hard-hearted, ungenerous or inhuman. Jesus said, “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. To forgive and to be forgiven, to show mercy and receive mercy, is a blessing and they go together. We are expected to be generous, kind hearted, forgiving and humane.

Blessed are the pure in heart:

Being pure in heart refers to integrity, honesty and transparency. Being pure in heart means keeping our thoughts, desires, intentions and will be centered on goodness. Being pure in heart means freeing oneself from selfishness & personal gain. If one lives with integrity, we are relieved from having to be always covering our tracks, maintaining a fa?ade, or looking over our shoulder. Integrity means doing the right things when no one is watching. The root word of integrity is ‘integer’ meaning whole. Wholesomeness means nothing wrong about it. When we are checked for our wholesomeness with a knock we must be found perfect. Our response to irritations in the market place, request for greasing palms for a travel iin train, etc. would test our wholesomeness. C. S. Lewis speaks of integrity as doing the right things even when no one is watching. Psalm 15 is a Psalm on integrity. Purity of thoughts, purity of words, purity of action are essential for integrity. No one can ascend the LORD’s hill and stand in his holy place unless he has ‘clean hands’ and ‘clean heart’. Corrupt thinking and corrupt behaviour are antithesis to purity of heart. We need to beware of hypocrisy.

Blessed are the peacemakers:

Peacemaking refers to brining reconciliation and being peace loving, by maintaining peace with God and peace with men. In order to be called the children of God peacemaking is the fundamental and we must be peace loving. To achieve reconciliation we must begin in humble openness, responsibility and gentle freedom. We must pursue peace on a foundation.

Nelson Mandela a person who stands as the synonymous to reconciliation. Though he suffered heavily under imprisonment for 28 years by the South African government, he never wanted vengeance to be part of his life. As he was set free from the prison he said, “As I walked out the door toward my freedom, I knew that if I did not leave all the angers, hatred and bitterness behind, that I would still be in prison.” He constituted the reconciliation committee instead of?punishing the culprits behind his imprisonment and suffering. Thus he brough peace to South Africa, rather than choosing vengeance and violence.

Blessed are the persecuted:

Persecution is common for media professionals as they speak the truth out. The trait is about courage and tenacity in doing the right things and in staying true to our core values. It is about hanging in there and persisting in righteousness, doing the right thing even when you are oppressed, persecuted and attacked for it. This is the realism caveat added to the beatitudes values and character.

Anti-Beatitudes:

Beatitudes

Anti-Beatitudes

The poor in spirit

The arrogant, The hubris

Those who mourn

Irresponsible, Careless

Those who are meek

Overbearing & Aggressive

Hunger for righteousness

Corrupt & Unrighteous

Those who are merciful

Unforgiving & cruel

Pure in heart

Untruthful & cunning

Peace makers

Conflict makers, trouble creators

Persecuted

Persecuting, Insulting

Blessed

Not Blessed

?

Be interesting and engaging in the society:

As a Christian and as a leader one needs to be active and not be boring. One need to be salt adding taste to others’ lives and be a light that dispels the darkness around. One needs to get engaged in the society using one’s influence to impact the society positively. Beware of the circle of concern, and don’t be carried away by it. Rather choose to expand your circle of influence, by which you can influence the family, society and the nation. Too many of us try to hide ourselves away in dark little cupboard. We need to come out and let our light shine before others to impact the nation and the world. Understanding the big picture of the beatitudes - character and culture can create societal impact which will lead to glorifying God.

What is our response?

We can respond by taking up responsibility, involving or withdrawing. We are not expected to be a ‘holy cow’ or a ‘closed shop’ which has little to do little with the world as possible. A Christianity that has lost its vertical dimension has lost its salt and is useless to the world. A Christianity which uses its vertical preoccupation as a means to escape its responsibility for humanity has lost its light. Salt and light impact is possible where people move beyond the four walls of the church and enter the civil society so that we can be salt and light to the society. William Wilberforce the British Parliamentarian the man behind the abolition of slavery in Britain said that when he accepted Jesus Christ as his LORD and Saviour in 1785, his own lifestyle changed and he committed himself to the reformation of the society. India needs more William Wilberforces today to take care of the health care reformation and other reformations seriously required.

What we need is a critical mass of 2 percent. Robert Bella, University of California,?has substantiated the impact of a small 2 percent as here, “ We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when 2 percent of its people have a new vision.

Along with prayer be a responsible citizen and get engaged with the society in political arena and social arena. Model integrity and excellence and suffering for others to follow. All these values must be carried into the work place. Beatitudes can instil in us three essential distinctiveness: greater righteousness, wider love and nobler ambition. As part of the Kingdom get engaged in the Kingdom framework from being to doing and exceeding. No earthly framework speaks about exceeding or doing beyond what is required. Exceeding expectations, righteousness extra, Christianity extra, is what Jesus Christ expects from us. Jesus while talking about the sin of adultery told that it is not onely physical involvement, even a thought in this direction was condemned by Jesus. Christians are very loveable people at workplaces but are legalistic – can’t contribute even few minutes extra at work place.Raising our bars of standards and working beyond the requirements of the rule and not expecting rewards and recognition for the excellent work is the Kingdom framework. Mathew 5: 41 Jesus wants us to walk the extra mile, give the coat to the one who asks for shirt and to give the other cheek if slapped in one cheek. Exceeding is fulfilling Christ’s expectations. Even if the expectations are unjust yet do more than the expectations. Corporate trainings demand employees demand that they must contribute beyond the rule requires – walking the extra mile. Loving our enemies is yet another expectation Jesus Christ has placed on us. This is the manifesto that can change the country, transform the nation – loving enemies and praying for them is exceeding.

Conclusions:

Be enthusiastically engaged with the society. Move beyond the walls of the church and do something extra in the society is the crux of Christianity. Loving our enemies is the Christian principle that can transform the nation. Be an interesting person – transform the society. Walk the extra mile and exceed as Christ expects. World Vision project was being run by a young boy Project Officer and loved by all in the basti. The political leader of the area was angry with him and slapped him. The boy showed the other cheek and she exclaimed that I know Christians will do this! It is not an eye for an eye or a tooth for tooth that can transform the nation but that extra and exceeding expectation that can change the nation. The nation needs the extra and exceeding that Christ taught us to do, to bring about the real change God wants to happen all across the globe. Let us mover from character to excellence to exceeding!