unstuck: #5 “i can see clearly now” – matthew...

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Unstuck: #5 “I Can See Clearly Now” – Matthew 5:1-9 Dr. Matthew Cassidy – 2/12/2012

Video clip from 1992 movie “Sneakers.”

Redford character in an office building, facing a locked door with a key pad locking system. On his two-

way communication to his team, he says:

Redford: Anybody remember how to defeat an electronic key pad?

Poitier, team member: Don’t even joke about that, Martin. Those things are impossible.

Redford: You think I am joking? Looks like they just put it in.

Poitier, team member: Oh boy. Here, maybe this might help. An old buddy of mine who was in

Desert Storm sent it to me, of course he was on the other side.

Redford: Come on, Crease, there has to be another way around these things.

Aykroyd: All right, all right. [looking through manual]. This might work.

Redford Listening to team mate. … Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Okay. I’ll give it a shot.

[He kicks the door in.]

That worked.

* * *

Yep, sometimes when things get stuck, the way to unstick them is to kick them as hard as you

possible can. That is what we are going to look at today. When we get unstuck, sometimes we just need to

get kicked.

The first two weeks in our series, we looked at the stages of a spiritual life. As we go into an

inward journey on Stage Four, it is not uncommon for us to stall there at The Wall, or the dark night of

the soul. I think we will spend a little time looking at that next week because I want you to understand

that it is a circle. We will find that again and again in our lives. If it hasn’t happened in the last two years,

maybe you misunderstand what the Wall is. It just keeps showing up in our lives.

A lot of times that Wall is related to the second thing we have found about being stuck – that we

need to know ourselves.


One of the church fathers, St. Augustine said: Grant, Lord, that I might know myself, that I might know

Thee.

It is how we can experience God individually in our own lives that can help us better know God.

The point being, the better we know ourselves, the better we can know how God is communicating to us

specifically.

We introduced a ministry tool called Monvee which is available to all of us. It is free, easy, fun,

and it is confidential. In your bulletin, there is a tear out on the bottom right corner and you can log onto

that web site. It prints out a summary of test results that helps you find out a Bible personality you can

relate with, probably an inhibitor or common sin that you are tempted to fall prey to, a pathway best for

you to enjoy God’s presence, and then even a way to learn that is most effective for you. Have the kids

take it; it is a blast and confidential. – If you want to go one step further, there is a packet in the lobby

which will help you find a pathway which will instruct you in how to better know yourself. Monvee is not

a way to know God but it is to help you know yourself better so that you can know God better. If you buy

that packet, it has a roadmap, a pathway so that you can send it to a friend or accountability partner and

you can keep account for one another and help each other through that journey in the unique ways that our

church is working in your unique life to know God better.

Those are the first two things we spent a couple of weeks on each of those. Now it is time for us to

look at this third thing that causes us to get stuck, which is described in Chapter 7 of “Emotionally


Healthy Spirituality” (“Unstuck”) – how God can kick the door in or make His presence known to us in a

way that is probably not as comfortable as we would like.

What happens at home when you have a jar with a stuck lid? What do you do? You bang it on

something and then you bang it on something a little harder. You will do in order to loosen that lid. You

are not punishing the jar but just doing what is necessary to get the lid unstuck.

It is through grief and sorrow and loss and hardship that God often uses these in our lives as

expressions of evil in the world or sometimes our own consequences for the choices we have made to

help us get past some sort of road block.

The best sermon given by any human being in all of time is called “The Sermon on the Mount.” In

Matthew 5, Jesus gives this sermon in a number of situations and places to multiple audiences. In this

record of The Sermon on the Mount, the first verses are called “The Beatitudes”. Some translations read,

“Happy is the man …” or “Blessed is the man…”

Now, before we look at the blessings or beatitudes, it is important to understand the audience’s

interpretation of that word “blessed.” “Blessed” means an objective state of the soul, of well being – not

necessarily a subjective feeling of happiness. That is why it is unfortunate that some translations will

actually read “happy is the man who …” Happiness, especially in our vernacular, means an emotional

state; this is the state of one’s Spirit. It is peace with God. One definition is: good spirit, good soul – as

opposed to puppy kisses.

In the famous Job story, in his despair, is blessed – not because he is happy or because he is even

well but in his suffering, he knows he is right with God. That is what all the argument is about. So Job is

blessed to be there.

When you look at Jesus’ promises in Matthew 5, the deepest part of your soul, immediately

gravitates toward the promises He is giving us. In this life, He promises us these things:

The kingdom of heaven.

They will be comforted.

They will inherit the earth.

They will be filled.

They will be shown mercy.

They will see God.

They will be called sons of God.

Beatitudes – Matthew 5:1-9


We look at that list and say: I want that. I truly desire those things from God and Jesus. In this very

popular sermon that Jesus gives multiple times is promising those things for us, His Christ followers.

You have probably read along in your Bible and know I am only quoting the second half of each

of these sentences. That is the rub, isn’t it? Jesus did not say: Here are these things I have for you. He said

this in context:

Matthew 5:3 – 9

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.

The problem with these things we desire so much is that we don’t want to go through what we have to go

through to get them. We just want the second half; we don’t want to go through the first half. Is there an

energy drink or some microwave version of these beatitudes that we could get quick and simple? --- No,

there’s not.

I have been studying today’s lesson for months now. It occurred to me to put it into this kind of

illustration. Remember eighth grade biology class where you studied how people are able to see,

particularly how we recognize colors, because we have these receptor cones. Different cones take in

different colors, the primary colors: red, green and blue. People who are not color blind have all three of

these receptor cones and so they can see colors. If you have one of those cones missing, you cannot see

those colors or variations of those colors.


Here is my analogy for you. In light of the promises that Christ makes for us, He says there is a bit

of a gauntlet you must travel through and have the right attitude to receive the blessings of the promises.

Look at it this way. What if there are cones in the eyes of our souls. If we are able to endure

suffering, hardship, grief and loneliness, then those receptors come on line. Maybe they appear or maybe

the switches are thrown and they are able to receive electricity and everything is starting to work now. So

now, we can see God in His fullness as we experience and respond appropriately to the hardships in life.

It just seems like people who have a feeling of wonder towards God have survived great sorrow. It

seems ironic but people who can see God’s closeness to them, it is only after they have felt very distant

from God. It is as though there is a tuition that has to be paid to get the cones of our souls to see God, to

turn on and work. I hope that is working because if we are able to learn from these things and we can see

that is what happens to a person’s life to have the cones of their souls actuated, they don’t worry so much

because they don’t fear anything. There is nothing to fear anymore. They see God’s boldness and

greatness and love that go beyond explanation and understanding – and because of that, they are not

asking so many questions and trying to put God in somebody else’s outline. Passages become clear

because there is not an argument going on.

But it just seems like there is a price that has to be paid. You can look at the passages and think to

yourself, I know stories about people like that, who have those attributes. They received the promises that

Jesus talked about in that great sermon. But you start reading about the depth of their lives and you

wonder how people can survive it. Well, they survive and then they receive these cones of understanding,

about loving God and loving other people.


Look at one of the first promises.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This last year I was reading the biography of a gentleman named John. I was way down in just the

abbreviated description of his life. He was a very pampered individual, from a very wealthy family, and

he wanted to be a writer and a poet. So, of course, his parents sent him to all the best schools in the world.

He was from England and wanted to write great poetry about England because he was proud of his

country.

After graduating from college and graduate school, he married a woman named Mary and they had

three daughters together. She became pregnant with their fourth, a son, and she died giving birth to him.

Then the son died about three months later.

While all that was happening, John went blind, absolute pitch-black blindness. He wrote a sonnet

because of that. The sonnet was about his fear that he would never be used by God to write again because

he had lost his vision. The last part of the poem says: I will choose to obey God regardless of whether He

ever uses me again.

Four years later, John married the absolute sweetheart of his life, Katherine. They had a wonderful

relationship and he was living the dream because she was one of his youthful crushes. Within fourteen

months, she died giving birth to his son and the son died a month after that. In his sorry and grief, he

wrote a poem called “On His Deceased Wife.” That poem is still used today by songwriters as a template

for the depth of love a man can have for his wife.

A few years after that, he married, out of convenience, to Elizabeth. She knew it was for

convenience. He had now been blind for eleven years now and he needed help raising his daughters and

keeping his house. She obliged him.

In the bathing, sautéing of his grief, he was poor in spirit and because of his poverty in spirit, his

was the kingdom of God. God gave him a vision for things you and I can’t see. He committed to a new

poem. He would compose it in his mind, then memorize a section of that, then dictate it to his secretary.

Then he would compose another section, memorize it, and then dictate it. That is how we were gifted with

Paradise Lost and then Paradise Regained – by John Milton.

Blessed are the poor in spirit


Do you understand that the greatest poem, descriptive story, ever written of Eden before the fall

that has ever been penned was done so by a blind man who could not see? He had cones which began to

work because of his suffering. In his blindness and darkness, he could see Eden, untarnished and curse–

free, the kingdom of God before it was contaminated.

It is interesting to note that his ambition as a young college student was to write a great epic about

England, to make her famous, like Rome was made famous with the writings of Homer. But after his

journey through too many funerals of his children and wives, he wanted only to exalt God. So he wrote

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

A year and a half ago, I met a man named Bill. That is not really his name but I can’t remember names –

but he will be Bill today. Bill is a man’s man. I liked this guy the minute I shook his hand. He is about my

age but he is a whole lot older.

Bill is a missionary and one of his hobbies, when he is in the States, is to help young men and

women learn how to work on cars. These are not just any cars; they are only classic American muscle cars

– three 1969 – 1971 Camaro SS and Z28’s are in his garage.

Bill would go hunting but not like people typically hunt. He would get a bow and arrow and go

into the mountains for days, just sleeping on the rocks. He would come back with an elk, quartered, and

they would eat on that for the winter.

Tom Sanchez and I were in his house, looking at a box of slingshots. We asked – What is this? He

said, Well, every couple of years or so, I go down the Amazon River (of course he does) because there are

native tribes there where I have introduced the Bible in their native tongue. We recorded it for them. The

last time, we noticed they were malnourished. Now I bring slingshots to them so they can hunt the

monkeys in the trees. He asked: Have you ever had monkey? --- Not that I know of. No, Bill.

He is everything I want to be but I don’t want to go through all that. The guy is amazing.

Anyway, he started telling us his story, which was that when he was younger, just out of school,

he was traveling around the world including some very impoverished places that no one would dare to go.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.


He was starting some orphanages. Then they would bring the Word of God to those villages in Africa and

India.

While he was in India, he ran into a gal that he fell in love with and she was tough like he was.

She could handle the elements and she was dedicated to Christ and His kingdom. They got married and

continued to travel to these obscure places, serving God at unimaginable cost to their bodies. They came

home in transition and she was acting a little funny. She left the house and did not come back for hours,

and then it turned out to be days. Bill found her and brought her back home. They took her to the doctor

and it turned out she had started some kind of bi-polar illness and it was the madness in her head.

So they stayed in the United States a little longer. She left the house again and she did not come

back for a long time. She tried to medicate herself with illegal drugs and she became an addict. Bill

looked all over his city for her and found her. She had been selling herself to keep the drugs coming. He

brought her back home and nursed her back to health and made her strong all over again. It is a great

story.

She took her new-found strength and ran further to another state. Bill took months to find her and

brought her back. He tried to put her back together again. She would escape and run away from home. His

mom and dad sat down with him and said: You have got to let her go. But he never did.

For fifteen years or so, he has been in this relationship where he leaves the light on at his house for

her and he leaves the light on to his soul.

He is just different and in all of that, he picked up some cones. His soul can see things that you

and I cannot see. He knows things about God that you and I don’t know. He is quiet but he is not a quiet

person. Do you know what I mean? If you knew this guy, you would think – boy, when he was younger I

bet he was loud. He is not loud now. When he talks, you really want to listen to what he says because it is

going to be important and it will mean something. You want to learn it the way he learned it.

Because the organization he works with has some notoriety, one best-selling Christian author

came through there and he had written a book on suffering. Because of Bill’s story, the author sent an

early copy to Bill, asking him – What do you think? We haven’t published it yet. Give me your analysis.

Bill wrote back a simple letter and said: It is clear that you have not suffered. – He was actually quoting

an old bishop. A man who has not suffered, what does he know anyway?

About two years later, that author came through town and made a special trip to meet with Bill to

apologize for the book because he himself had suffered in those two years. He said: I am sorry I wrote it. I

am sorry I sent it to you. It was insulting. I am sorry and can’t even read it now.


But here is the thing with Bill. He has a complex relationship with God that at times seems simple

because he does not wrestle anymore with God. He is all cried out. So passages or life stories that you and

I struggle with, he doesn’t. He would probably say it is like trying to teach chess to a pigeon. Why do we

try to figure God out? But he can sees things about God and His glory and in His kindness that is severe

because he has been comforted, because he has mourned so much for so long so deeply.

Jesus promises that those who mourn, you will be comforted. He will get you unstuck. He will

kick the door in.

Look at the next promise.

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

The first thing you have to understand in this sentence is what meekness means. Meekness is power under

control. So if you could visualize some King Kong movie, whether it is Fay Wray (1930s) or the one in

the 1980s. Then there was a movie a few years ago. You have this giant, 10-story gorilla in New York

City, picking up little taxicabs like slot cars and flinging them all around and knocking holes in buildings.

So there is power. Then his girlfriend, Ann, the blonde woman, shows up. What does he do? He gets kind

and stoops low so that he can hear her whisper. That is meekness. Tremendous power settled.

With that in mind, you can meet me at II Samuel 16. I wanted to bring up the story of David

because we have talked about him two or three times now in our series. David, we know, is the great king

of Israel. He waited patiently when he was being hunted by Saul. That was David’s dark night of the soul.

His wall was with Saul. Then David became king and he cheated and took another man’s wife and had

that husband killed. So this is after that. Because of those events in his life, he was having to pay some

heavy bills. The bills include his eldest son, Absalom, taking over the kingdom. Absalom now has

invaded the holy city of Jerusalem and he is taking over David’s castle. David is running in

II Samuel 15:30 But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his

head was covered and he was barefoot.

The great king of Israel is barefooted, leaving his palace.

… All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up…

Blessed are the meek


II Samuel 16:5 A King David approached Bahurim (outskirts of town), a man from the

same clan as Saul’s family (the previous king) came out from there. His name was Shimei

son of Gera…

He came out for the specific purpose of cursing David.

II Samuel 16:6 He pelted David and all the king’s officials with stones, though all the

troops and the special guard were on David’s right and left.

So David is with his entourage who is his royal guard with shields and swords. Now this relative of Saul

comes out, takes the high ground, and is throwing stones at all of them. It is humiliation with insult. This

descendant of Saul, this Benjamite, starts screaming:

:7 As he cursed, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel!

:8 The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose

place you have reigned.

Stop, right there. David never did anything towards the household of Saul that was not beneficial to them.

He protected the descendants of Saul. So this is a lie and this man is lying and throwing rocks at him and

cursing him because of the blood on his hands from the house of Saul. – There is no blood on those hands

from that house.

:8b “The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin

because you are a man of blood!”

Now, David’s right hand man, his personal assassin, is standing right there and says what you are

supposed to say in these situations.

II Samuel 16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog

curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head.”

Here is what David said. Something happened in David’s life, something at the Wall in the dark night of

his soul, and something after Saul and Jonathan’s death (his dear friend), and something after the sin with

Bathsheba and the assassination of her husband – something happened to him. The humiliation of

Absalom taking over his kingdom in the confrontation with God’s man who said: You are the man,

David. It is your fault this is happening. He was able to earn vision in his soul to see things from God’s

point of view and he is not going to come to the conclusion that Abishai comes to that this dead dog

deserves to die. He is going to see things that other people cannot see because they have not been through

the gauntlet of sorrow that David has been through. So this is how David responds. David says to Abishai

and all of his officials – hands off this guy.


16:11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, who is of my own flesh, is

trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him

curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay

me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.”

What kind of king says that when a mongrel comes and mocks him and bruises him – in public, in front of

his men? A king who sees things differently, a king who says: Maybe the Lord sent him here to curse me.

Maybe I am supposed to be learning something through all of this. Maybe God has His foot at a door in

my soul that is stuck. This is what it will take to unstick it.

That is how the cones work. That is why Jesus says in the next promise – which we don’t have

time for –

Matthew 5:6 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 sons of God.

Why the suffering? Why do we have to go through suffering to experience the presence of God and the

presence of people? Because this place is broken and we are broken with it. We are bent and misaligned

and it just seems like that is what is necessary now. You have to go through extreme loneliness and

hunger and infertility and unemployment and sorrow and grief to be able to see things that are eternal and

ever lasting. It is the only common denominator in saints, suffering. It is because the place is not working

right and so this is how it works now.

I have a dear friend; I have known her my whole life. She had a mild stroke when she was just

under two. Because of that, she has a hard time articulating her thoughts. She has a bit of a stammer and

she has to think a lot and then say it. You have to be patient when you are talking to her. Sometimes when

she does not think, it takes much longer. I don’t know if it is her temperament or part of that stroke but

she is so sweet, innocent, and just a joy to be around. It is just a little bit of work. She is around 55 years

old and that is how people know her.

Suffering yields understanding


She has a difficult set of circumstances with her body. She called a few months ago because she

was in so much pain she had not slept for two days. She was crying and she wanted Melinda and me to

pray for her. She was having these terrible back spasms – not the back spasms that you and I have with a

ruptured disc. Her back spasms were quite literally realigning her spine and moving it. She was getting

adult scoliosis. It was twisting her body. Every drug and medication they were giving her was just

bouncing off. So she was calling us in confusion and she needed somebody to share her tears with and to

talk to us about it. So we prayed and we cried and we were confused. I hung up the phone and then on my

way into the house, I thought – Oh, that was a very strange phone call because in all the years I have

known her, in that few moments, in unbearable pain, she was articulate and concise and premeditated. She

was eloquent. It was as though the pain worked through the fog of the broken part of her brain. She had

never talked like that before and she may never talk like that again. Maybe that is just the way it works. It

is a picture of life.

This is Jesus and though He was the Son, He learned obedience from the things which He

suffered. Jesus learned obedience through suffering. [Hebrews 5:8]

What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you in all of your life? What is the absolute

worst thing you have ever been through in your life? Do you have that? I don’t want to talk about that. Put

that right over here. There is too much energy and confusion. I don’t want to talk about that.

So, what is the second worst thing that has ever happened to you in your life? Here is the question

really. Can you see now that brought about a cone so that you could fulfill the great commandments, as a

result of that loneliness or sorrow or fear or anxiety or depression or whatever? Can you love other people

better? Can you love God better, more effectively and deeper? I will bet you can. – If you did it right – I

am not saying it is a guarantee. I am just saying that it has the potential of firing up a cone of

understanding that you cannot get any other way so that you could love God and love others differently,

deeper, with not so many words.

I came here today to convince you that grief and heartache and sorrow are necessary to see God’s

greatness, to see the vastness of His love, the severity of His love. I want you to hear. I am not talking

today about you being a better person. It is you understanding a little more about God through suffering

and then it has consequences on your soul.

I just came to convince you of that. You cannot experience the “blessed’s” without earning them. I

came to remind you that God does not cause this evil, if it is evil. He hates it and He hates it more than

Application


you. He hates it worse than you and He is going to make it right. Justice is going to come and be

experienced. But what God does in this context of this planet which is all broken is that He takes manure

and sewage and stench and our waste – and He uses it as fertilizer to bring forth the fragrance of beautiful

souls. That is what He does. He went to the cross and before He did, He invited other people to come.

As one saint says (St. Philip Neri) “The cross is the gift God gives to His friends.”

So I am reminding you that He did not cause this thing and that He hates it too.

I want, finally, to warn you that if the door is stuck, He will do whatever is necessary to get it

open. He will kick it in. He will knock down that door. If you respond appropriately to it, you will be glad

because think about it. The door was stuck with Him on the outside. Is that really the way you want to live

this only life you have? I don’t think so.

That is why I came here today, to convince you and to remind you and to warn you about what is

real in life.

Lord,

There are people here who got stuck somewhere even before they understood about forgiveness. I

ask, Lord, that You would help them understand that they can know You through your Son and enjoy You

and your presence by accepting forgiveness from Jesus the Christ.

There are a lot of people here, Lord, who have felt your boot on their soul for a long time. I ask

that maybe today they would get some insight into what You are up to, that they would let You in.

God, I hope that today Your Spirit could help us remember well the things in our past and help

your Spirit to cause them to produce a cone of understanding of your love and grace and vast bigness and

power, your joy and majesty, and that we would understand that and enjoy people more as a result of it. I

am asking that your Spirit would start ahead of us and get us to see things that are eternal. We pray

desperately and hopefully and a little fearfully in Jesus’ name. Amen

unstuck: #5 “i can see clearly now” – matthew...

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