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The Rev Alissa: Sermons
A place to listen to sermons preached wherever I go as Canon to the Ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
The Rev Alissa: Sermons
Sermon for Celebration of New Ministry for Paul Lebens-Englund & St. Andrew's: Words reveal Worlds
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The Rev. Canon Alissa Newton
"Words create worlds.
I think this is precisely what Jesus is about in our gospel reading tonight. We may be tempted, as humans who inhabit our particular culture to read the beatitudes and try to make them an individual prescription for who gets blessing and who doesn’t. For some of us this is the most obvious way to hear these words.
But that is not what Jesus is up to, here. Jesus is not giving a prescription for who God loves, or even a recipe for how particular people might gain God’s attention and blessing.
Jesus’ words are revealing a world. "
Preached for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Tacoma, WA
text: Matthew 5:1-12