“Blessed” – Sermon on Jan 30, 2011
January 20, 2011
Scripture Micah 6: 1-8:
God: Hear what God says: Take your stand in court. If you have a complaint, tell the mountains; make your case to the hills.
Prophet: Hear, you Mountains, God’s case; listen, Jury Earth; for the LORD brings charges against the people; God is building a case against Israel.
God: “O my people, how have I done you wrong? Have I burdened you, worn you out? Answer! I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; I sent Moses to lead you— and Aaron and Miriam to boot! Remember all the stories of my saving grace. Keep all God’s salvation stories fresh and present.”
Israelite: “With what shall we come before the Holy One, how can we show proper respect to God on high? Shall we come with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, with thousands of rivers of oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children, our precious babies, to cancel our sin?
Prophet: God has told you, O mortal ones, what is good. What does God require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Matthew 5: 1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“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 receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Sermon: Blessed
by Reverend Doreen Oughton
The child smelled terrible. It was surprising that that sour body odor smell could come from a girl so small, only about 8 years old, and so strong that it penetrated the stale food smell on her unwashed clothes. Her pale freckled face, framed by stringy, greasy hair was usually twisted in a scowl. She was whiny and pesty. The day care director could understand so many of the children avoided her or made fun of her, and could even extend sympathy to the teacher’s assistant who did manage a kind tone as she steered the girl wanting a hug off instead to gather her coat to go outside. The director walked over and helped the child zip her thin jacket, and gave her a big hug and the girl nestled into her arms with a sigh. As the woman thought of all the possibilities for why this child was such a mess, her heart broke. And it was just one of the many heartbreaks of the work. There was the time she had to call child protective services when the 11-year-old girl talked about the 40-something neighbor who was kissing her romantically, and the devastation of the girl’s mother as she coped with her own and her 6-year-old son’s mental illnesses. There were the generations and generations of families whose dreams extended no further than living in the projects and getting money for having babies. How does one deal with so much tragedy, so much poverty in both body and spirit?
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them.
So this is the prelude to the Beatitudes, the teachings of Jesus that say those who are poor in spirit, those who grieve, those who are meek, who hunger and thirst for justice, all those people are blessed. These are such shocking statements, and dangerous too, though we’ll get to that later. It sounds like Jesus is recommending these conditions to his listeners – be poor, be sorrowful, be meek, and be sure to focus on the unjustness of your circumstances. But I wonder, don’t you, how he felt after curing crowds of people beset with all manner of pain and suffering. The crowds surrounded him, they pulled upon him, and he saw the broken and the wounded. He saw the mothers with dying children and the children who had been left parentless. We know some things about how Jesus felt in these circumstances. We know that when Jesus healed, he could feel a bit of power leaving him. And when we read that Jesus bore the sins of the world, I imagine they weighed heavily upon him–the crushing burden of our cruelty toward one another. And in this moment when this teaching rises up from him, I wondered, did it emerge from his powerless, burdened mourning? Did he feel that exhaustion and that bit of pain creeping into his joints? Is that why he left the crowds and sat down? Did he just need to gather with his friends and reflect on how upside down the world seemed to him at that moment? It is as if in these words, he sees the needs–the hunger, the thirst, the longing–and, somehow, he sees blessing in all of it.
I wonder what he saw in the eyes of his disciples after they been in the crowds with him, assisting where they could. Had they ever seen such suffering concentrated in one place like that before? Been with someone who was expected to help, had themselves been expected to help? They also must have been exhausted. Perhaps they were foreseeing the crowds that would come in village after village. Perhaps they were wondering if this was really what they wanted to do. How could they cope with so much tragedy, such physical and spiritual poverty? And so he teaches his disciples and reminds himself: Blessed are these people, these broken and hurting and selfish and cynical children of God. He is telling them, don’t be afraid of them, don’t block yourself off from them, not physically, not emotionally, not spiritually. Touch them, go near them, they are blessed. They are God’s beloved. Whatever we do for the least of these we do for God.
And Jesus goes on. Not only are the broken, grieving, anxious crowds blessed, but so are the disciples, for the work they are doing. In the mercy they show, in their peaceful actions, in their focus on goodness and purity, in their non-violent response to harassment, persecution, mockery, in all these things, they are blessed.
Jesus knows he is asking his followers to tread a narrow path, one that few have gone before. But he knows they are not the first, that they have their scripture, their prophets, to learn from. The words of God through Micah challenge not only the Israelites of Micah’s day, but challenge the ways of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the scribes and all manner of religious elite in the time of Jesus. They have fallen into the same trap of thinking that their religious rituals of tithing and animal sacrifice, their focus on clean and unclean, all the minute legalities, are what keeps them close to God. They are under the delusion that their separation from others, their elite status, reflects God’s favor. They are under the delusion that they are blessed. These words challenge not only the religious elite in Jesus’ time, but religious people of all ages, and into today. Do you want to show your love of God? Don’t focus just on attending services every week, but live your faith out in your life, out in your world. Don’t just write checks for good causes, get out and be with God’s people of all kinds. Look into their blessed eyes even if you see grief, even if you see spiritual poverty, even if you see self-pity and entitlement.
Jesus knows the truth. He knows that it is those who concern themselves with the well-being of all, those who seek justice for the oppressed are blessed. He knows that those who don’t put barriers between themselves and others, but who extend kindness to anyone, no matter what station in life, are blessed. He knows that those for whom only God is the source of all goodness, who know they are powerless with God’s help, and accept that they cannot understand the ways of the world nor the ways of God, but put their trust in God anyway, they are blessed.
Now there are at least two dangers in these readings. One is if we start to think we can earn God’s blessing and favor by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. That is backwards. God’s blessing always comes first. It is a gift. In the Micah reading, God starts his charge against the Israelites with the ways he has blessed them – freed them from Egypt, sent them leaders, saved them in numerous ways. God can’t understand why they have responded in such a messed up way! But he doesn’t threaten to stop blessing them. God wants to clarify what it is she wants from them. God wants us to do these things because of her blessings, not in order to get them. Likewise, the beatitudes come at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, a very long discourse on how we are to treat one another. The blessings are noted first, before a single instruction is given, before there’s been any chance for obedience or disobedience. If blessings were to be earned, that would be stated at the end: when you have done all this, or if you do all this, then you will be blessed, you will see God, you will earn your spot in heaven, etc.
The other danger is the belief that these blessings Jesus talks about – having the kingdom of heaven, receiving comfort, being filled, receiving mercy, seeing God, being called children of God, that these things are all to come in the future. This mistaken belief has been used to enable and collude with all kinds of injustice and evil. Accept your lot in life, be it poverty, slavery, sexual servitude, rigid gender-based roles, abuse, and your reward will come later, in heaven, after you die. No, no, no! This is not at all what these words mean! The idea that all the best things are available only after death is life-denying. It can inspire suicide bombers and other violent religious fanatics. It is the perspective of those who see no point in nuclear arms treaties or trying to alleviate poverty or cure disease because the rapture is coming any day now. For others it brings about a sense of “why bother with anything?” and it gets harder and harder to see the goodness of God. Do we really want to encourage people to believe that the now is just something we want to get through as quickly as possible so we can get to the good stuff?
If you were here last week you may remember my explanation of how certain phrasing has ambiguity in verb tenses – like “the kingdom of heaven has come near” means “it is here and it is coming still.” These words are like that. They indicate that the blessings are here and are still coming. Those mourning are being comforted and will be even more so. Those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled now and will be even more filled in the fullness of God’s time.
And can’t you see that? Is there anyone who has suffered a loss of a loved one and has not found blessing in it somewhere? Even in the absence of a loved one, the love is still there. At the spiritual retreat some of us attended last week people were asked to bring sacred objects. One woman had a sweater sealed in a bag, and said it was her grandmother’s, and she sealed it in the bag to hold her smell in the sweater. When she was lonely or hurting and missing her grandmother, she would open the bag and inhale the love. And when we ache at the state of the world, at all the injustice and pain, can’t we find a story of inspiration, someone somewhere trying to make a difference. And when I hear all the slurs against Christianity, about hypocrisy, manipulation, brainwashing, judgment etc, etc, the light of Jesus, his true message of love and mercy and sacrifice burn even more brightly in my heart. We are blessed now in all these trials. The Beatitudes are not promises of future happiness; they are congratulations on present bliss. And they are but a foretaste of greater blessings to come. Savor each taste, let it awaken in you ever greater hunger and thirst for God and God’s kindom within and among us. May it be so.
