Family service, 20th September 2026, 16th Sunday after Trinity

Season of creation 3

By Peter Evans

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Reading

Matthew 5: 1 - 10

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

 

The Beatitudes

He said:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
   for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
   for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
   for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
   for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
   for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
   for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

The Talk

This reading, from the beginning of Matthew’s gospel is Jesus’ first bit of recorded teaching, right at the beginning of His ministry.

 

It’s known as the Beatitudes, a term that was coined in the 4th century, and it simply means “blessings”. Jesus is describing a series of blessings that the Kingdom of heaven will bring. And they are not trivial at all. They are heavy duty, with some serious weight and substance.

 

The Beatitudes are something special. They are like a giant advert. Or a manifesto for the Kingdom of Heaven. “This is what being a Christian is going to be about”.

 

Most have their roots in the old testament in some form or another, but Jesus brings them all together to remind us of the character of God.

 

They are written as couplets – Blessed are the …. For they shall be…..

 

And the way they are written is important.

 

Each consequence is designed to go with the cause, for example, “Blessed are those how mourn”, clearly goes with “for they shall be comforted”.

 

And the one we are going to take a closer look at today is the third Beatitude:

 

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 

And actually, I think inheriting the earth really does go with being meek. This is not a coincidence.

 

All the Beatitudes have challenges, but this one particularly so – I mean – how will the meek actually inherit the earth?

 

More like, the meek will inherit the earth, if that’s alright with the rest of you!

 

And as inheriting the earth fits particularly well with the season of creation, we are going to take a closer look.

 

And just as the Beatitudes can be seen as a giant advert, or a manifesto, we are going to look at a couple of adverts to help us understand why the meek shall inherit the earth.

 

Back in 1994, Pirelli ran an advertising campaign featuring a picture of Carl Lewis, the Olympic sprinter, about to set off down a track wearing a pair of high heeled shoes. Clearly he was never going to set a personal best. And the message from the advert is clear. You can’t put the power from your car engine down on the road if you don’t have the right set of tyres. Power is nothing without control.

 

And it is this that connects us to meekness. Today, we have a view that meekness is about being timid. About giving way. Or giving in. Perhaps being weak. Not a quality that we admire. But this view is not the right view.

 

In the new testament, the Greek word that is used here is praus, or πραΰς.

 

It is used a dozen or so times in the new testament and it gets translated as gentle or gentleness, humble, sometimes lowly, and also meekness.

 

It’s the word that is used when St Paul lists the fruits of the spirit in his letter to the Galatians. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or praus, and self control.

 

So when we see it in a broader context, we can see that meekness is a quality to desire rather more than the modern meaning suggests. It is a fruit of the Spirit after all.

 

But why the Pirelli advert?

 

Well, the origin of meekness is power with control. It was used by the ancient Greeks to describe a wild horse that had been broken in, typically of war horses. Plenty of power, but under control. Aristotle, in his philosophical works, described praus as the midpoint between anger and complacency.

 

So meekness describes someone who exercises self-control, good judgement, and discernment. Someone who has power but uses their power wisely and with gentleness. This is meekness.

 

And this brings us back to our starting verse.

 

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 

Now that we have a better understanding of meekness, how does it link in with inheriting the earth?

 

Well, way back in Genesis 1 and 2, in the stories of creation, God lays out our mission to fill the earth, subdue it and care for it. And as God’s co-creators in His project of creation, we have certainly filled the earth, and to an extent, we have subdued it. We have the ability to feed, clothe and house the world’s population, although that ability is not always evident – poverty, starvation etc still remain, very sadly. And while, in many respects, the world around us is a lot safer than it used to be, do we really care for it? In some ways yes – those farmers that we know work very hard to manage their land in a sustainable way, alongside loads of legislation with the same aim.

 

But worldwide – there are a dozen and one extremely serious issues – climate change and water security being one. And we can add to that forever chemicals, air quality, plastics pollution, and so on. And ultimately, each one of these is a result of greed, selfishness, shortsightedness, carelessness etc, not just at an individual or corporate level, but for society too.

 

This is not a picture of meekness.

 

And so, in a very blunt sense, without meekness, without using our power wisely,  there may not be an earth to inherit.

 

Meekness is the key to managing our environment, to caring for our planet, to ensuring that this earth works for everybody. It is that balance point between greed which will trash the planet, and complacency which would see humanity retreat back to the oceans.

 

There’s another advert from the 1990s that is very relevant to this.

 

It’s an advert for Patek Philippe watches, and in 1996 they came up with the advertising strapline:

 

“You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”

 

It’s a great piece of advertising, but also true of so much more. It is true for this earth and in particular, of how we look after our environment. It is actually a statement that is meek in the truest sense of the word, recognising our responsibilities in how we look after things.

 

Jesus spoke these words of Beatitudes at a time when the Roman Empire ruled. This empire did what it wanted and took what it wanted. There was not a hint of meekness about it. And so these words must have seemed very strange to Jesus’ listeners. But they are meant as a message of hope to those who feel they have nothing.

 

The central message of Jesus is to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. To be made new and to love one another.

 

This Kingdom is a place where conventional rules are turned on their heads. In a very real sense, it is an upside down kingdom.

 

Conventional beatitudes would have looked something like this.

 

Blessed are the wealthy, because they can have whatever they like.

Blessed are those who are cold hearted because they shall ride out the emotional storms of life.

Blessed are the assertive because they will achieve the most.

Blessed are the ruthless because no one will get in their way.

Etc.

 

But the Kingdom of Heaven is different. It is a place where the last shall be first, the poor shall be blessed, enemies shall be loved and many others. It is not a kingdom of conventional power and authority.

 

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus quotes from Isaiah (chapter 61).

 

“The spirit of the Lord has been given to me.

For He has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and to the blind new sight,

to set the downtrodden free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

 

This again, is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and it’s another Kingdom statement. It goes against conventional wisdom, against the way that the world sees things. Just like the Beatitudes.

 

Sometimes, when we read the Beatitudes, it can seem like they are written about other people – partly because of the way that they’re written, but partly because it’s not that easy to identify with them.

 

But they are for us. Perhaps not all of them all of the time, but they are for us.

 

They are a manifesto of God’s blessings. How He meets us where we are, supports us and is with us through all the stages of life. They tell us what’s important in the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

And meekness is part of that picture. Something for us to seek, to take our responsibilities seriously, to act wisely and with compassion, with gentleness and with humility.

 

Meekness is there for us to embrace. As part of God’s plan for us.

 

God has blessed us with such a beautiful world, in so many ways, and in so many places. A world of such splendour and awe. A world which points to the glory of God.

 

Let’s be sure that we keep it that way.

 

Amen