Blessings

Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller

Date: February 2, 2020

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

When I think about what it would have been like to live in the same time as Jesus did and have the opportunity to meet him or hear him speak, I think about being a part of the crowd. I’m talking about the generic crowd we always read about: “Jesus got out of the boat and a crowd was waiting…Jesus began to teach and a crowd listened…When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountaintop.”
I’m not bold enough to claim a seat for myself around the table at the last supper, and the idea of being personally healed by Jesus is a little terrifying because I don’t want to know what kind of demons would fly out of me, metaphorical or otherwise. But I love the idea of being a part of the crowd, because then I would get to hear his words, and I would also get to feel the energy that is passed from person to person as we took in the words, to see the effect this great teacher had on everyone.
Specifically, I imagine what it would have been like to be a part of the crowds that followed him up on the mountaintop, the crowd that prompted him to look out and begin sharing beatitudes. Beatitudes are blessings. They are more than blessings – Jesus offers them in the form of short stories.
The best stories are the kind that contain small truths or observations. The best stories capture a relatable feeling or experience that feels deeply specific to one person but is also universal in its experience. Storytellers use their stories to build bridges across differences, to form new connections, and to help people feel seen or less alone. This is what Jesus did when he began preaching to crowds. He looked out and he observed what he saw in the people
surrounding him. He observed their pain and the things that kept them separate from others and the things they wish could be kept hidden from the world.
Jesus shared these observations, these micro stories describing the human experience, and then he turned them into a blessing, a hope that the pain and separateness would one day fall away and transform into healing and unity.
“You out there who are poor in spirit. I see you. You are blessed, and the kingdom of Heaven is all yours. You over here, the one who is wearing the clothes of a mourner, the one who has grief written on their face, you are blessed and you will be comforted. You, child, whose hunger and thirst is craving righteousness, craving justice for your neighbors, your hunger will be satiated.”
I imagine being a part of this crowd and as Jesus offers one blessing after another, there would be a shift in the crowd. Not a “woohoo! I got my blessing!” kind of shift, but a shift that sounds more like, “He’s not talking to me, right? I don’t need a blessing. He must mean that other person over there. They look like they are in more pain than I am.” I imagine deflection shields being raised and instead of just letting Jesus’ words soak in, people do what people always do and find a way to deflect the blessings to someone else.
I imagine that would have happened on the mountain top that day because that is still what happens today when we read this passage. The beatitudes, these simple blessings, are one of the most quoted teachings of Jesus. We return to them over and over again but usually not for ourselves. Most often we point to these blessings as a reminder of how we should treat our neighbors.
We tell each other, we need to invest in solutions to solve hunger and eliminate poverty because Jesus taught us, “blessed are the poor and blessed are those who hunger.” We tell each
other, we need to listen to those who are working for peace or who are leading with kindness because Jesus taught us, “Blessed are the peacemakers and blessed are the merciful.” We remind each other to stand beside those who have put their jobs or their bodies or their lives on the line in pursuit of justice because Jesus taught us, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”
On a side note, I recently learned that righteousness can be a triggering word for some folks – that it signals a holier than thou, superior mentality and has been misused by folks to keep people out of the church. I learned that righteousness has been used as a measuring stick of who is good enough or pure enough to make the so-called cut to be considered righteous. In the Bible, when righteous is used as a description, it refers to someone who cares about others – who looks after their neighbors or the poor or the widow. You are righteous when you have the moral high ground and that is only possible through a focus on justice and caring for the world around you. That is why self-righteous becomes negative – you only care about yourself and your own worth.
Jesus often talks about righteousness, twice alone in this passage, and it always points toward a deep compassion and caring for the world and for justice. This was a small tangent, but an important one. But back to the beatitude blessings…
Yes, we can hear these blessings and be reminded of how to love our neighbors and how to treat each other and how to center justice in our lives. But they are not just prescriptive – they are descriptive, and they are meant to be a blessing to whomever hear them and connects to what he describes. If you are a person who knows grief – who has lost a parent, or a child, or a spouse – you are blessed. Even as you grieve, you are surrounded by God’s blessing of comfort in the midst of sorrow.
If you are a person who is poor in spirit, Jesus is blessing you. If you, as Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber says, “are spiritually impoverished and therefore not so certain about everything that they no longer take in new information.” You are blessed. “Blessed are those who have nothing to offer. Blessed are they for whom nothing seems to be working.” When we do our own kind of storytelling – when we write our autobiographies or our greatest hits or even our obituaries, we focus on our accomplishments. The things we have achieved, or acquired, or excelled at. We count our trophies and our awards, we share our titles and our honors, we make sure to include every institution we’ve been a part of. We fall into the trap of believing we are only as good as our achievements, or we are blessed because of the good things that have happened to us. But what Jesus’ blessings remind the crowd that day, and remind us still today, is that it is every other day that makes us blessed. That even in the hardest parts and the loneliest moments, God will meet us where we are and offer us a blessing. Because we have been blessed with comfort in the midst of grief. When we extend mercy to others, we receive God’s mercy in return. When we hunger for righteousness, that is justice for our neighbors, and when we work for that justice, God will feed our spirits. Yes, beatitude blessings remind us that those who are left out, kicked out, cast aside, and forgotten are blessed in the eyes of God. And they remind us that when we are left out, kicked out, cast aside, and forgotten – when we suffer and struggle and we too are blessed in the eyes of God. Jesus’ words were not meant to create an “us vs them” the “we have enough and they don’t.” Jesus’ words were meant to break down barriers and to allow the crowds of people to understand that no matter who they were, or how they suffered, or what kind of grief they carried, their life was a blessing to God.
The beatitudes are a scripture passage that is a source of comfort, but it is also a challenge. Will you allow yourself to find your story in the story that Jesus tells as he looks out at the crowd? Will you allow yourself to imagine being in the crowd and imagine that he has a word of blessing and hope for you as well as your neighbor? Will you know that even in the hardest parts of life, or the times we felt invisible to the world, God sees you and loves you? The gospel challenge is always this: will you open yourself up to receiving God’s love, knowing that it is through being love that you can in turn love your neighbor? Friends, we are blessed. Not because of all that we have done or achieved. We are blessed in the wholeness and messiness of life. So may we live each day carrying God’s blessing with us and offering it freely to others. Amen.