Scripture Reading
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And 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 the sake of righteousness, 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
What does it mean to be blessed?
I have no doubt, it means different things to different people.
Some of us feel blessed by a parking space at the right place and right time.
Some of us feel blessed by improvement in our health, or good fortune for family members, or the wheels on the airplane touching down.
Some of us feel blessed when we are able to share our gifts, or when the storm veers north and misses us, or when we don’t get the scary diagnosis we were fearing.
What does it mean to be blessed?
The first thing we should notice is that, here at the opening of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to at least three different audiences. The first one is the group of his disciples—still just four. Last week we heard how Jesus called the two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Jesus is speaking to four people who have spent their lives casting nets into the sea of Galilee, and hauling them back in, filled with the catch of the day. These men know almost nothing about whatever it is that Jesus has called them to do, but for some reason, they have trusted God, dropped their nets, and followed. They’ve watched Jesus heal some folks and cast out some demons. But now he has called them to follow him up this mountain so that he can give them some basics. That’s his first audience.
The second audience is the crowd. They’ve been following Jesus, and when he takes the four disciples up the mountain, they follow him there, too. Think, disciples up close, crowd in the background. Listening.
The third audience, is us.
To his disciples, who are about to get a crash course in healing and feeding and teaching and casting out demons, Jesus says: You are blessed. You. Are blessed.
To the larger crowd, who are there because they are curious about what Jesus has to say, or because they have a spark of hope stirring in their hearts, because of what an amazing healer he is, or because they have a cousin who benefited from the demon-casting-out stuff—to them, Jesus says: You are blessed. You. Are blessed.
And to us—we who have come as we are, worried about this or that, the next exam we still have to study for, wondering if the medication is working, waiting for the diagnosis, or the surgery, who are thinking about our children or our parents near and far, who have just taken on a new job that scares the daylights out of us, who are struggling in a job we’ve had for a long time, who would give almost anything to have any job at all… to us, Jesus says: You are blessed. You. Are blessed.
Blessings can go three ways. God to humans. Humans to God. (Remember the psalm, “Bless the Lord, my soul”). And humans to one another.
Here. we’re talking about the first. This kind of blessing is a gift from God—a reminder that God loves us. A blessing reminds us of our relationship with God, that God is with us, sometimes, when we least expect it. There are many things in our lives we might consider or recognize as blessings—scoring the winning goal, a good grade, health, financial stability, friendships, gifts or talents. So, it comes as a surprise—a shock, really—when Jesus presents us with a list of things that we normally would not consider blessings at all.
Blessed are you who are poor in spirit—when you are absolutely at the end of your rope. When poverty or illness or isolation has made life so hard you want to give up.
Jesus is saying: I see you. I bless you. God sees you. God loves you.
Blessed are you who mourn—when you suffer a loss that has gutted you. When the job you need or the pet you love or the person who is your world is taken from you.
I see you, Jesus says. I bless you. God sees you. God loves you.
Blessed are you who are meek—who are at the mercy of cruel bosses or unjust systems or playground bullies. Blessed are you who don’t have the power or the will to stand up for yourselves.
Jesus says, I see you. I bless you. God sees you. God loves you.
Blessed are you who know the system is unjust, that things are not as they should be in a country, for example, where guns are now the leading cause of death for children. Blessed are you whose guts and hearts and brains are crying out for justice.
I see you, Jesus says. I bless you. God sees you. God loves you.
Jesus is saying, we are, all of us, blessed. We who are struggling. We who are suffering. We who know this is not how things should be. We who would give anything to change things, radically.
You are blessed, because I see you, Jesus is saying. You are blessed, because God sees you. And—to pull out an old saw that I nevertheless believe is 100% true—Everything will be ok in the end, because all things are in God’s hands. If things are not ok, then it’s not the end.
Blessed are you who show mercy, Jesus says, who extend the benefit of the doubt, who offer forgiveness, who let go of grudges, who give one another second chances. God, who gives us second and third and thirtieth chances, sees us. Blesses us.
Blessed are you who are pure in heart, Jesus says. Not only do I see you, you will see me because of the clarity that pure heart gives you. You will see me in your neighbor, in your friend, in your enemy. You will see my face, and be in awe at its beauty. God sees you. Blesses you.
Blessed are you who are peacemakers, Jesus says. Real peacemakers—not the fake peacemaker, the Roman Empire, which brags about a peace it maintains through the use of sophisticated weapons and legions of soldiers. Real peacemakers—who know, in fact, that peace is our only hope for survival. Jesus says, I see you. God, who made me the Prince of Peace, sees you. God calls you my siblings, God’s children. God blesses you.
Blessed are you when your advocacy for what is right, what is just, makes people vilify you, mock you, hate you. I can’t help thinking how the declaration “Black lives matter” became the source of so much hatred against those who insist that it’s true. Jesus says, you understand what God’s reign is about. You are a part of it. I see you. God blesses you.
Now, imagine the relief. Imagine, it pouring off the shoulders of that first group—the four who don’t quite know what they’ve gotten themselves into, the fishermen-turned-disciples. Imagine it flooding the hearts of that second group—the people who are nobodies, people bowed under the burden of the Roman system of taxation, people who are never considered the recipients of God’s grace upon grace, because if you’re poor, you must deserve it. People to whom the idea that they are “blessed” will seem, at first, absurd. But they see themselves in Jesus’ words. They know he is talking to them, too. His long list of upside-down blessings includes everyone. Each of them can find themselves somewhere in there, in our their own unlikely category of blessing.
Now, feel the relief pour off your own shoulders. See yourself in there—you’re there. Know that Jesus means you, too. You who have been at the end of your rope. You who have a grief you will probably always carry with you. You, who are bent low by injustice, or by a stage in life that feels devastating. You, who know the freedom of forgiveness, from either side, from both sides. You, who have shown the purity of your heart in the love you share. You who’ve shown your peacemaker’s heart at the workplace or in the home or protesting in the streets. You, whose faith has been costly. You, and you, and you.
You are blessed. You are blessed. And in these words of blessing, there is an invitation—to those disciples, to that crowd, to you. They are Jesus’ invitation:
You are blessed. Now, come. Follow me. Thanks be to God. Amen.