Arizona sun., 1949-02-25


The Sermon on the
Mount is Jesus an DIR. Foreman
;swer to it. The
main theme of that sermon is the
kingdom of God, an ancient phrase
but with new meanings as Jesus
used 1t. We can say 'The Ideal
World" and mean just the same
thing.
The Right People
TESUS EMPHASIZES, above all,
} the kind Of people who belong to
Gods Ideal World. This would be
surprising to some modern plan
ners. Communists think that if you
can once get world in which every
one has enough to eat and drink and
wear, a world where nobody is poor
Cor everybody is as poor as every
body else, which is all the same
thing), you will have the perfect
world. Jesus would know this is
nonsense.
But the fact is that even after
you got your perfect social sys-
tenn, with perfect politics and
perfect distribution of wealth,
even a perfect climate and soil,
you would still be nowhere near
the Ideal World unless you inn
proved your people.
The wrong kind of people will
spoil the best kind of system. So
we find Jesus talking not about sys-
TENS but about people.
Is This You?
Vx7HAT WE call the "beatitudes"
w (Matt. 5:7-12) is Jesus eight
point program for the citizens
of the Ideal World. The right peo-
pie are happy people, to begin with.
(The word translated BLESSED" is
a regular Greek word for tshappy.~
But the main difference between
different kinds of people is not that
some want to be happy while others
do not; rather it is that they are
made happy by different kinds of
things.
Jesus ideal people are humble,
not proud; they see their sins and
are sorry for them; they are
"meek"-that is, they are not in
hurry to demand their own rights;
they do not merely admire good
ness, they are positively hungry for
It; they are merciful, not careless
Or cruel; they are pure in heart and
not only in speech and act; they
are not mere peace-wishers or
peace-lovers (who isn't?) but peace
makers; they are people who are
brave enough to do what is right not
only when it is comfortable and
popular but even when it brings
them SANDER and suffering.
no YOU really want an ideal
- world? The best way to begin
Is to learn how to be a citizen Of
such a world. Jesus used two in
teresting simple words to describe
the kind Of people he means. You
are salt, he said, - you are light.
Salt and light are old-fashioned
things but they have never gone out
Of date. No one has invented good
substitute for either one.
So there Is no substitute for
really good Christian. Liv-
ing, here and now, like citizens
Of the ideal world to come,
Christians are both salt and
light.
Salt because they give a taste to
otherwise fiat or bitter life. Salt
because they keep human society
from going rotten. This world is in
bad enough mess as it is; but
what it would be if all the Chris
hans were removed from it at once,
one hates to think.
Light
X ND LIGHT! Like salt, light
q ought not to be too noticeable.
A glaring light is bad on the eyes,
az too much salt is bad on the
tongue. So a Christian is not sup
posed to rub his goodness in on
other people, so to speak. He is as
indispensable as salt in bread-and
should be as inconspicuous. But
light, like salt, if it is any good has
10 be applied directly. A strong
tight concealed in a steel tube does
no good. Swishing the glass end of
the salt-cellar around in the soup
gives it no flavor. The salt must
get into the soup, the light must
touch what we see.
Copyright by the International Coun.
Gil of Religious Education on behalf Of
40 Protestant denominations. Released
HNyU \