“Blessed Are You.”
Blessed are you! Blessed are you!
As I walk down the aisle and say to each of you, “Blessed
are you! When is the last time you’ve heard that said to you? Or that you’ve
said it to someone?”
It is a powerful art and an incredible opportunity to
offer someone the promise of God through a blessing.
We are all capable of blessing one another each day and perhaps
several times a day if we get really excited. It’s an ancient tradition
blessing those who come and go from the home. It’s an Old Testament tradition
for a father to bless his children just before he passes from this life to the
next.
On this day of celebration of All Saints. We think of those
in our congregation and in our family who have died this past year. We lift
them up and we remember the blessings they brought us.
We remember the holiness within them.
We remember the goodness of their nature and their gifts.
We rejoice in the remembrance of their lives and their
witness.
And we whisper in our heart, “Blessed are you!”
For in our memory we can only draw the finest moments.
We can only recall the times that brought joy and the
moments that stir our hearts with good thoughts.
And so the hard times and the difficult experiences melt
away.
Yes, the one we have lost was a dear saint.
Perhaps a diamond in the rough, but in the promise of God, a
saint.
Our churches’ story is filled with curmudgeons turned
saints.
None of us is perfect.
But all of us are perfected in Christ.
And it is often their story that inspires us to continue to
be the church for the next generation.
Not only does their story inspire us, but it also convicts
us to go on and to do and to live out the gospel message.
We receive a message of hope when we think about the hard
work done by those who passed away this year.
And thinking of them brings us to the question we face as we
read and listen to these from Jesus-as we hear about the blessed and the woes. What
is the kind of living that these beatitudes are saying we should have?
Luke’s beatitudes are described as the sermon on the plain
and we find the beatitudes in Matthew as well and there they are known as the Sermon
on the Mount. Luke, being a physician and a cut to the chase kind of guy, is
much more straight forward than Matthew as he shares the words of Jesus for us.
A lot more literal and less ‘spiritualizing’ one might say. He doesn’t beat
around the bush about what way of life will be blessed and the kind of life
that will be a life of woe.
Jesus makes it clear that the poor, the hungry, the outcast,
the sad, and the persecuted are rather special to God. God throughout the Old
Testament has been proclaiming the freedom of captives and the blind receiving
sight and the lame walking.
So, as we hear these proclamations again from Jesus what
does it propel in us?
It is to remember those who God loves and for us to love
them too.
The kingdom already belongs to those Jesus has just told us
about.
And so we wonder where do we fit in the kingdom?
We fit in the kingdom through the way we live our lives.
The foundation for holy living is to have the blessed
relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
Holy living begins when we open ourselves up to the
opportunities to be led by God to care for those God has placed in our path. We
are freed from selfishness and greed when we are willing to put ourselves at
risk for the sake of another.
My son in law had a traumatic experience on his way to work
this past week. As he was crossing the prairie swamp in Florida a car flew past
him at a very high speed. The speed there is 65 and he is one who obeys the
speed and even drives under the speed. So he was not surprised for a car to
overtake him. The next thing, however, he saw was the car flipping over into
the swamp and quickly engulfed in the water.
He pulled over.
Before he could think clearly he was calling 911 and diving
into alligator infested waters to try to save this individual from his
submerged vehicle. Officers and rescue crew were on the scene in minutes,
however despite their efforts they were not able to save this person.
I share this with you this morning because I’m sure that all
of us would also without hesitation jump into deep waters to seek to
save a life.
The beatitudes are a foundation of faith and life in which
we are to seek to live without hesitation.
We are to be willing to dive in to care for the poor and the
downtrodden without judgment. Judgment is God’s job. If we’ve been
bamboozled, or played, God will take care of it. But, we can know we’ve done
the right thing.
We find all kinds of excuses not to live the foundational
living that Jesus calls us to live.
We are busy. We really are busy-too busy. We are taking care
of our own bills before we get in debt caring for someone else. We have a few
dreams to fulfill before we can offer our time to help others.
Jesus gets it. Jesus gets us. Jesus gets it-he really does!
And so he turns out the woes to remind us of the
risks of not living in relationship with God. If you are laughing and
making fun of others now-you best look out-because you are the ones who will be
suffering next.
These are some pretty harsh words coming from Jesus! Jesus
is not meek and mild here-he’s telling it like it is!
He doesn’t stop there either.
He goes on to put in some tougher rules to live by.
“Love your enemies,” he says!
“Pray for those who abuse you,” he says! Jesus should know
better than to ask those who’ve been abused to pray for their abusers-but he
does! How can this be possible? These prayers are possible when we are
absolutely secure in the love of God for us-because nothing can separate us
from God’s love.
And when we live in that security-then even the
powerful can’t hurt us and we have the strength to pray for them.
Jesus finally finishes his talk, “Do to others as you would
have them do to you.”
No matter what the risk you face-care for others with the
kindness and love you expect to receive.
Which brings us back to the powerful gift of blessing
others.
Parents can offer their children as they leave home each
day, a blessing to send them off with God alongside.
Coworkers, neighbors, care givers, attendants, service
workers, all can be recipients of blessings as we offer God’s peace to them.
You will be amazed at how much strength and nourishment
comes to you as you offer and as you receive a blessing.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Blessed are you!
Amen.
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