LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com
Date: Nov. 5, 2023 All Saints Sunday
Scripture Lesson: Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon: Blessed!
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
‘Have a blessed day!’ the receptionist at the doctor’s office chimes as you take your leave. ‘Have a blessed day!’ the clerk at the store says as you are dismissed with your purchase. ‘Have a blessed day!’ decrees the server as they pick up your payment for lunch.
Have a blessed day! It’s a way of wishing good fortune. Of expressing hope for good things to come your way. Blessing is associated with favor, prosperity, health, and happiness.
In the Bible to be blessed includes having lots of children and lots of livestock and lots of wives! It’s about being privileged, having power, and being well off. Someone with standing in the community who has money, family, good health, whose material needs are met, and who has influence in the community. This is someone who is blessed. Blessing connotes salvation, well being, and peace.
In the biblical context blessing is seen in opposition to curse. Someone who is blessed is seen as favored by God and not cursed by God. The Jesus Seminar uses the translation: Congratulations! The word blessed has associations with being fortunate and happy.
So what about the Beatitudes? What about that kind of blessing? Blessed are the poor in Luke, the poor in spirit in Matthew. Those who are mourning. Those who hunger and thirst, even for righteousness. The merciful. (Softies.) The pure in heart. (Vulnerable.) Peacemakers. Who usually get attacked from every side. The persecuted. Why would you congratulate people for enduring suffering?
It’s like: Have a blessed day. May someone beloved to you die. May you lose your job – and your house, and your car, and. . . May you be embroiled in a conflict. What kind of blessing is that?
These beatitudes, this is not what we expect blessing to look like. What is Jesus talking about?
The way Matthew presents it, Jesus immediately kicks off the Sermon on the Mount with a surprising reversal of the values and expectations of his day. He turns everything upside down. It’s shocking and disturbing. Jesus reverses what blessing is supposed to look like; health and wealth, power and status. The expectations of rewards and punishments. If you are good, God will bless you with prosperity and health. If not, you will suffer. And Jesus continues this kind of reversal throughout the Sermon on the Mount – turn the other cheek, love your enemy, and so on. As one scholar observes: “The beatitudes make most Christians cringe.” [David Beckmann in Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice Year A, p. 40.]
Maybe we cringe, but instead of walking away or shutting down or escaping or leaving this in the first century, where it was also incredibly controversial and unnerving, when we engage with the Beatitudes, we see there is more. We see a God that is love, pure love, for everyone, no matter their behavior or circumstance. We see a God that is merciful and compassionate. Not vindictive and punishing. We see a God that is with us through our darkest, most painful, most solitary moments. We see a God that knows that peace comes at a price. We see this today as people who are calling for a cease fire between Israel and Hamas are vilified. We seem willing to pay the price for war, but not for peace.
This week a group from Trinity and Lakewood went to Metro Health to find out how we can support their work particularly with transgender youth. We were told a story of a person who is transitioning who went to their church, their home church, dressed as the new gender. In the middle of the service, in front of the whole congregation, the pastor stopped the service and demanded that the trans person leave. Get out. Immediately. All I could say is, “That is so not Jesus.” Just look at the Beatitudes.
The beatitudes assure us that the presence and the power of Divine Love surrounds us, upholds us, infuses us, blesses us – especially when we need it most! We can never be outside or beyond the scope of this compassionate, all loving God. We are always in God.
Yes, our faith puts us constantly at odds with the culture around us. But our faith fulfills our hungers while the values of society leave us ever wanting.
So many people say that when things have been at their worst, when they have been close to death, when they have been traumatized with grief, they have felt closest to Divine Love. We know about this. Many in this room have experienced this.
You don’t hear that from people who have won the lottery. Oh, I felt closest to God when I got that check! You don’t hear it from the rich and famous: Now that I have all this status, power, and wealth, I feel closer to the Divine.
But you hear it from people who don’t know how they are going to take another breath. How they will go on. People who want to scream about the horrible problems that we are facing – many of our own making. When things are bad, sour, seemingly hopeless.
We find our healing and wholeness in our dependency on God, on Love, on a higher power beyond us yet within us. The Divine. The sacred. The holy. Blessed.
Today we will name those who have been saints in our lives. Saints. We have seen Divine Love in them. They have blessed our lives. Perhaps when we have been most in need.
May we accept God’s blessing in our lives and may we be a blessing to others.
Have a blessed day!
Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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