Read Matthew 5:1-12 and do the following exercises:
There’s only one exercise today, but it takes a little explaining. Clarence Jordan was an American New Testament scholar who lived in the first half of the 20th century. Among other accomplishments, he wrote a series of translations of several NT books called “The Cotton Patch translations.” Being from the south, Jordan felt the words of the New Testament we’re especially applicable to the turmoil that was occurring there at that time (1940’s through 1960’s), and so, should be written and read in the vernacular of the south. And so, Jordan wrote several translations of NT books in the slang of the south, even substituting place names for familiar areas on the Southern United States. In the Cotton Patch version of Luke Jordan renders Luke’s version of the beatitudes in a mid-century southern accent:
Then he fastened his eyes on his students and said to them:
“The poor are God’s people, because the God movement is yours.
You who are now hungering are God’s people, because you will be filled.
You who are now weeping are God’s people, because you will laugh.”
You are God’s people when others hate you and shun you and pick on you and blacklist you just because you bear the name if the son on man. Be happy at that time and jump for joy, for your spiritual pay is high. Why, their fathers did the same things to the men of God in their day.
But…
It will be hell for you rich people, because you’ve had your fling.
It will be hell for you whose bellies are full now, because you will go hungry.
It will be hell for you who are so gay now, because you will sob and weep.
It will be hell for you when everybody speaks highly of you, for their fathers said the very same thing about the phony preachers.
- Take some time to learn about Clarence Jordan. How was his life consistent with the beatitudes, Jesus’ gospel message of the Kingdom (4:17), and the Old Testament passages we’ve been reading so far?
I had never heard of Clarence Jordan until now. What an amazing legacy he left! I like these two quotes from him. “Love has no rights but the right to give itself away” and “God is not in his heaven with all well on earth. He is on this earth and all hell has broken lose”