“The Life of Discipleship, Part 1: The Calling and the Kingdom” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, February 1, 2026, Year A / Epiphany 4 – Isaiah 58:1-10 ¨ Matthew 4:12-23 and 5:1-12
THEME: Disciples living out the Kingdom values of the Beatitudes form an alternative community that can change the world.
Do you remember a TV show called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?” It was popular back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The host was a British presenter named Robin Leach. It was one of the first shows to give us a peak into the glamorous lifestyles of celebrities. It profiled the lives of people like Brooke Shields, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, and Richard Branson. Each episode gave us a personal tour of their mansions, wardrobes, yachts, and vacation homes. It always concluded with the famous catchphrase, "I’m Robin Leach with champagne wishes and caviar dreams."
The show was a hit. It made Robin Leach a celebrity and it spawned a host of other shows much like it. The latest versions are the so-called reality TV shows: the Kardashians and Real Housewives. They are proof that we are attracted to lifestyles that represent our hopes and aspirations for a better life.
Jesus is teaching his disciples the very same thing. Where we pick-up the story in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ public ministry has begun. He has been baptized by his cousin and tempted by Satan. He has called the first four disciples and taken them on a teaching and healing tour of Galilee. Everywhere he goes, he proclaims the good news: God’s Kingdom has come near. Now, he takes his disciples up the mountain to teach them about this Kingdom and their calling to proclaim it. At this point, his only disciples are Peter, Andrew, James, and John. But the crowds have followed him, and we can be sure they are listening in as well. Jesus begins by declaring 8 blessings that you and I call Beatitudes. This is the start of his Sermon on the Mount. It is all about discipleship.
Over these next 3 weeks, discipleship will be our focus, too. We will explore what Jesus’ teaching has to say to you and me as we try to follow him faithfully 2,000 years later.
This list of those whom Jesus declares blessed could hardly be more unexpected and counter-cultural:
· The Poor in spirit,
· Those who Mourn,
· The Meek,
· Those who Thirst for righteousness:
· The Merciful,
· The Pure in heart,
· The Peacemakers,
· The Persecuted.
I have a confession to make. For years, I thought of the Beatitudes as a checklist of requirements for being a true disciple. I found that deeply discouraging. It seemed to me that these attributes were so lofty, and so utterly contrary to human nature, that no one could ever hope to achieve them. But not that long ago I realized something. The Beatitudes are not a list of attributes required to be a Christian discipleship. They are a description of life in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is embodied in Jesus. Only he fulfills all of these.
For the rest of us, these blessings are promises. They are God’s promise of what life will be like in his Kingdom. This is not to say, however, that the blessings of the Kingdom are restricted to the future. If the Kingdom were only a future promise, it would have little power to transform lives in the present. It would be like an insurance policy that we tuck away in a file somewhere and which pays out only when we die. It might give us peace of mind, but it would do nothing to change the way we live, or the world we live in.
Jesus is proclaiming something far more powerful. He preaches that the Kingdom is present to us now. This is the Good News. And, Lord knows, the people to whom he’s preaching need it desperately. No one among them knows this better than Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians. They are struggling. The religious elite question their faithfulness to the law. This causes conflict and division in the broader community. It causes confusion and doubt within Matthew’s community, too. Some are even walking away from the faith. This is all happening under the watchful eye of the occupying forces of Imperial Rome. By threat of violence, they impose an uneasy and fragile peace on the people of occupied Judah. Anyone who disturbs this tentative peace is immediately and brutally squashed. The risk of being labeled troublemakers is high and the penalty is death. That is the reality of life in the Roman Empire.
Jesus’ proclamation of God’s empire stands in stark contrast. The hallmarks of this Kingdom way of living are divine justice, true piety, and real relationships - relationships that are compassionate, caring, merciful, mutually beneficial, and self-sacrificial. This is what Jesus describes in the Beatitudes. He is forming his disciples into an alternative community that demonstrates them. In this counter-cultural community, blessing comes not from having power, wealth or status, but from internalizing and living out the virtues of God’s Kingdom.
Disciples proclaim the Kingdom by the words they speak, and especially the way they live. This inevitably attracts others and their lives are changed, too. This is how the world begins to look more like the Kingdom. Friends, we, too, are disciples of Jesus Christ. He is calling you and me to form this faithful community of blessing that points to the reality of God’s Kingdom. The surest signs of this reality are the people who live according to its values.
Like the first disciples, we, too, live in a world that believes blessing comes from having power, wealth and status. This is evident in the violence in our cities, not just Minneapolis or Portland, but all over – in this country and in others. For many who live in these places, life often looks more like Roman rule than it does God’s Kingdom. This has been a tough week for Christians who trust in the values that Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes. In truth, it’s been a tough year, a tough decade, and, if we are being honest, it’s been a tough millennium. In the midst of all this pain and suffering, Jesus offers us a better way to live – a more faithful way. It requires us to embrace the Kingdom values of humility, mercy, compassion, and self-sacrificial care, especially for the least. The hallmark is a community of God’s justice, true piety, and persistent peace.
Will we always get it right? No, we will not. Will it immediately create the change we hope to see in our world? No, it won’t. But even our limited, flawed efforts to live out the Kingdom values of the Beatitudes has the power to attract others and to change the world. Few people knew that better than William Wilberforce. Does that name ring a bell? That is because William Wilberforce led the movement that finally abolished slavery in England. Many people know that. What they don’t know is how that happened. William grew up in an exceedingly wealthy family, surrounded by influential members of the English upper class. Like all of them, he was a nominal member of the Church of England. After a socially active but academically apathetic college career at Cambridge, William decided on a career in politics. In 1780, at the astoundingly young age of 21, William Wilberforce became a member of parliament. It wasn’t long before he became known as one of its leading orators.
Four years later, at the age of 25, God deepened his faith. William became curious about a small group of Evangelical Christians known as the Clapham Saints. It sounds like a soccer team, doesn’t it? But the Clapham Saints were so much more than that. It was a close network of friends and families in South London who shared strong social and spiritual bonds. They were deeply influenced by the teachings of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount. They were determined to put the Kingdom values of the Beatitudes into action in the way they lived their lives. This led them to support the cause of abolition.
William was attracted by their lifestyle: the vibrant way they lived out their Christian faith. He soon joined them. He quickly became the center of the anti-slavery movement not only in Clapham, but in all of England. Later in life, he said, “I determined that I would never rest until I had effected (slavery’s) abolition." It wasn’t long before his commitment to living out Christ’s Kingdom values attracted others to the movement. In just 5 years, this alternative Christian community went from a handful of adherents in South London, to a movement of tens of thousands across the globe. Finally, in 1807 the slave trade was outlawed in England. In 1833, slavery itself was abolished throughout the Empire.
Folks, as disciples, you and I have been formed by Jesus Christ himself into an alternative Christian community. We, too, are called to live out the Kingdom values that Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes. We, too, have the power to attract others and, together, we have the power to change the world. Not because we are rich and famous, but because we are righteous and faithful.
The question is, will we do it? May it be so.
