You’re Blessed.
“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:
‘You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.
You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.
Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.’”
This is Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Beatitudes from The Message. I wanted us to hear it all again in a slightly different way. I don’t think we can hear the beatitudes too often. I want us to hear them in a fresh way each time no matter what version we use. I want these words to sink into our bones. I think we’ve been on the hillside this summer listening to these words of Jesus. We are the climbing companions accompanying him along the journey of faith. We have listened with open ears, looked with open eyes, felt with open hearts, and thought with open minds as we’ve considered each portion of this oh so well-known passage of scripture. We’ve been blessed this summer by these words of Jesus.
We’ve thought more about what it means to be a disciple of Christ and what it means to live into this kingdom vision. We’ve thought about what it means to be blessed, to be poor in spirit, to find comfort in mourning, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, and to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. And in all these things, in each of these blessings, we are given a vision of the way things ought to be. We are given a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven, of God’s intention, and of Jesus’ way of doing things. For the earliest hearers, for the disciples and the crowds gathered on the hillside these were radical sayings. Sometimes I think their meaning has softened for us though these words are just as radical today as they were the first time they were uttered.
This morning we consider, again, what it means to be blessed in persecution and this time it is directed toward us as individuals. A more traditional reading of the text says, “Blessed are you, when people revile you and persecute you.” Not blessed are “they.” This isn’t about they out there, somewhere else, it’s about us. “Blessed are you when people talk badly about you, criticize you, berate you, chastise you, disparage you and pick on, hound you, harass you, injure you.” We can easily turn this around to a very self-centered idea but Jesus doesn’t let us. Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people talk badly about you and pick on you…on account of me.” Jesus says that we’ll be insulted and injured because of him. It’s one of the things that happens to those who choose to follow the Way of Jesus Christ. As Vernon Gramling said in the Faith in Real Life blog this week “Living a life of love is hard. You will be misunderstood and maligned.”
When we live out the gospel, people won’t understand. When we love as Jesus calls us to love, people won’t understand. When we take the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously and live as though it’s true, people won’t understand. When we live a beatitude life, people won’t understand. That’s the kicker. Taking Jesus seriously means living a life that is counter to everything the world tells us. That’s what we’ve spent the summer thinking about…this upside- down world that Jesus proclaims where the poor in Spirit are blessed and the meek inherit the earth. Where blessing is found in sorrow and an undivided heart helps us to see God all around us. Where peace rather than division is sown and forgiveness and mercy win out over retaliation and holding a grudge. Of course we’ll be maligned and misunderstood, if we live as though these things are true.
This is the risk we take as followers of Christ. We risk ridicule. We risk name-calling. We risk being lonely. We risk being unpopular. We risk being labeled as a weirdo. Jesus mentions the prophets in this last beatitude. He says that when we live our discipleship lives out loud we’ll be treated as the prophets were treated. I don’t know if any of you have read the prophets lately but none of them were liked. Nobody liked the prophets. They were not popular. They were not loved. They were not revered or placed on pedestals. They were hated. They were scorned. They were ridiculed. Why? Because they did what God asked them to do. They spoke truth to power. They called on the people to repent. They pointed out hypocrisy and self-righteousness and injustice. They made people uncomfortable. They reminded the people, usually not gently, that they were not living lives worthy of God’s children. Nobody wanted to listen to them. Nobody wanted to be around them. I’ve often thought the prophets must have been terribly lonely. I picture them in the lunchroom of life with no one to sit at their table. And yet, Jesus says that when we live the life of a disciple, this is what we have in store. We’re to rejoice in it. We will be blessed in it. Huh?
When we hear the word prophet, we may think of the Old Testament, we may think of Isaiah or Jeremiah or maybe Habbakuk…all those short books with hard to pronounce names. Or we may hear the word prophet and think of someone who is a bit loony standing on a street corner shouting about repentance or hell or the end of the world. We may think that true prophetic voices are long gone but I disagree. I’ve heard prophetic voices lately. I’ve heard people speak truth to power. I’ve heard people challenge cultural Christianity. I’ve heard people call us to be more loving and forgiving and merciful. I’ve heard stories of people doing what they can to make this world a more peaceful place even in small things.
A few weeks ago, I read a story about an Episcopal priest who won an AR-15 rifle in a raffle. Rev. Jeremy Lucas, a priest in Oregon, heard that a girls’ softball team was raffling off an AR-15 to raise money for travel expenses. He tried to stop the raffle altogether but when that failed he used his discretionary fund and donations from his parishioners to buy raffle tickets. He won the raffle and plans to give the gun to a local artist either to destroy it or re-purpose it into a symbol of transformation. He says he wanted to make sure that this weapon would not ever be used for harm. “This is a very small, symbolic step,” Lucas said, “but sometimes you have to do what you can do, with what you have, where you are.” From what I’ve read, Lucas’s decision has been praised by many but it has also been scorned by many. Once he made it public that he intended to destroy the gun, Rev. Lucas received threats. And he has been criticized by those who view his actions as political. When I first read the story, I saw a vision of swords being made into plow shares. I heard, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” There are prophetic voices in our world today. There is prophetic action, too. God speaks, God acts, God moves even when we are not ready to hear, ready to see, or ready to do. Prophetic voices call us to see the world as God sees the world and to live out the love of Jesus Christ no matter the cost.
No matter the cost. It takes courage to live out the love of Jesus Christ no matter the cost. The cost of living out our faith here in Decatur, GA, in the United States of America, is most often ridicule or misunderstanding or hurtful words but for many in the world and for Jesus Christ himself the cost was much higher. Jesus risked scorn and ridicule and misunderstanding. Jesus preached a gospel that the powers that be didn’t want to hear. Jesus lived a radical life of love and died for it. The risk was not too great, though, for this life here on earth is not all there is. The Psalm we read this morning carries the title “Trust In God under Persecution” and the verses that have stayed with me are these…
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me? My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.
Why do we live this discipleship life with courage? Why do we risk ridicule and misunderstanding? Loneliness and hardship? Because God has delivered us from death and kept our feet from falling. Because we walk in the light of Christ. Because there is nothing in this world that can ever, will ever separate us from the love of God in and through Jesus Christ.
The beatitudes are a call on our lives…to follow the Way of Christ, to take the gospel seriously, to lift up the downtrodden, to live lives full of mercy and love, to be peacemakers at all times, to live the reality of the Kingdom of God and when we do this there’s a very good chance that we will be misunderstood, maligned, and persecuted because the light of Christ that shines in us will be too bright to ignore. With God’s help, may it be so.
Rev. Alex Rodgers
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, GA
August 7, 2016
