Teacher: John Hamilton

Purpose: This class reads Matthew 5–7 as a single vision of life: what truly flourishing human life looks like when the heart is undivided before the Father. Guided by Jonathan Pennington’s reading of the Sermon as wisdom, we will trace three movements toward one end: a whole, integrated heart that serves a single master.

Along the way, we will name the competing visions of the good life our culture offers — success through performance, security through control, belonging through comparison — and set them beside Jesus’s own vision of blessedness. Participants will leave able to state what the Sermon actually teaches in their own words, recognize where a divided heart still wears the mask of piety, and take one concrete step toward singleness of heart in their own household or vocation.

Overview: This Core Class belongs to our Community Life classes on Christian Scripture, forming disciples in the Rule of the Word by teaching the whole canon as one continuous story.