A Year with the Sermon on the Mount

A few weeks ago I devoted a couple of posts--here and here--to the Sermon on the Mount and its centrality to the Christian life.

I recently found out about a blog that will be documenting the journey of some individuals who are going to spend this upcoming year in a deep and intentional engagement with the Sermon.

You can follow their progress over the year on their blog A Year with the Sermon on the Mount where in their opening post they write:

This blog will be our journal for 2011 as we dive into The Sermon on the Mount. Our goal will be to chronicle our experiences, our discoveries, and our difficulties as we try to live what Jesus taught.

I'd like to highlight some of the commitments of the group:

1. Commit to privacy regarding this project and who is participating (Matthew 6:1).

2. Commit to reading the sermon aloud once each week from a different translation than the two weeks before (takes about 13.5 minutes from the NIV at a slow pace).

3. Commit to memorizing the complete sermon from the NIV translation (Chapter 5 done by the end of April. Chapter 6 done by the end of July. Chapter 7 done by the end of October. Entire sermon from beginning to end by Thanksgiving.)

4. Commit to identifying a “guiding principle” that will be a focus during a given month. The principle should be identified before the 1st of each month, and worded in such a way as to clarify a heart/behavior endeavor that will remain a focus for the entire month. For example: “I will endeavor this month to understand what it means to show mercy (Matthew 5:7), and try to let Jesus’ instruction to show mercy to affect all of my relationships, interactions, and behavior.” This statement should be the focus of at least one of your reflections written in that month.

As we think out New Year's resolutions we all might consider following the example of A Year with the Sermon on the Mount. I look forward to following their progress and plan to adopt many of their commitments for this coming year. At one time I had the Sermon memorized. I'd like to get that back.