Blessed are you . . .

The gospel text for this past Sunday, appointed for All Saints' Sunday, was Luke's version of the Beatitudes.
All last week this had me thinking - what does it mean to be blessed?  What do we view as the difference between blessed and happy?  (Since the Greek word translated "blessed" here can mean both.) 

Click below to read the sermon (note, this is a  slightly different version, lacking the ending, than was preached in church)




Vicar Brett Wilson – All Saints 2010 – Luke 6:20-31




How can you tell if someone is blessed?

Our culture, just like the culture Jesus lived in, has come up with a system of blessing. It seems easy enough. Our culture says that the “you” who are blessed are the “you” who drive a nice car, made good grades, blessed are you who are thin, you who have well behaved children, you who have never done anything wrong or awkward or mean. Our culture says that “saints” are easy to spot – they are clean cut, after all, cleanliness is next to godliness, says our culture. Our culture designates this “blessed are you” as an impossible “you” that never quite will fit with me. Sometimes I think, especially with all the images on our t.v.s and in what we hear, we go around our whole lives figuring that blessing will always be about some ideal “you” and never me.

In Jesus' culture the same was true. The culture said that if you were wealthy, it was a sign of God's blessing, and if you were happy, God had blessed you. If someone was sick, or not as pretty, or depressed, or someone had a tragic disease or died then the culture of Jesus' day said that it was their fault – they had done something and lost God's favor. The same thing is true today, though we may disguise it a little better. We say someone is “blessed” with good looks, with wealth, and they are, but blessed by who? God, or our culture? There are preachers out there today – in pulpits, on the radio, but also well-meaning friends and family - who tell you God wants you to be rich. They say, as our culture does, that God blesses true believers with cars, houses, jobs. Our culture says the saints are the ones who achieve, who reach a certain status by doing the right thing.

Jesus says in these beatitudes that blessing doesn't look like that. It's not that Jesus doesn't want you to be rich, but Jesus doesn't care if you are rich. Jesus tears down the labels of what our culture says blessing looks like. You cannot tell a saint by its cover. And as much as our culture might set up this image of what it looks like to be blessed, that is not God's image. Jesus is calling the people out on their assumption that a person's status in the culture is a direct link to how much God loves or blesses them. It's not true. Jesus teaches saying, blessed are you who are poor, you who are hungry, who cry, who are hated, persecuted on account of their beliefs – God blesses them. Jesus' beatitudes are meant to break the stereotype that people who have more are more blessed by God. Jesus opens blessing up to the last, the least, the forgotten, and says God loves them too, and God especially blesses them. Jesus opens forgiveness and blessing to all people, and welcomes all people to be saints in God's kingdom.

When we hear Jesus' list, blessed are you, woe to you who, I think we tend to assume Jesus is sorting – saint, not a saint, Christian, non-Christian. But look at the context. “Then he looked up at his disciples and said,” - he's only talking to his disciples – they're already saints, they're already Christians. Jesus' teaching isn't about who's in and who's out. When we hear this passage, we assume that Jesus divides between how good Christians behave and how non-Christians behave – but he's not sorting us, but teaching us how to live a full Christian life.

The Christian life is one lived in the balance between these blessings and woes – because that's reality. Jesus talks to his disciples, and all of us who hear, all saints, and says blessed are you – and that you – it's you plural – a better translation, as some of you would say – blessed are yous, and as I might say, blessed are all y'all. And yes, there are woes too, and we know some of them well. Jesus is teaching us what it means to live the Christian life, and wants to teach us how to have full, faithful lives. Jesus is loving enough to warn us that when we put all our heart into being blessed by culture, into having stuff, then we will not really be happy or lead full lives because we won't embrace God's blessing. Jesus is teaching us about how to be Christian community.

The Christian community – the church, the body of Christ, is the communion of saints – we say it every week in our creed. We say we believe in the holy catholic (meaning universal) church, the communion of saints – these two phrases are meant to say the same thing. The communion of saints is the church and all, living and dead, who have ever been in it, a holy community, around the world.

Luther says, “This is the meaning and substance of this phrase (communion of saints): I believe that there is on earth a holy little flock and community of pure saints under one head, Christ. It is called together by the HS in one faith, mind, and understanding.” Well, let's get real here. With as many denominations, and even little disputes as the universal church has, or even between families, how realistic is this? But Luther goes on. “Now however, we remain only halfway pure and holy. The Holy Spirit must always work in us through the Word, granting us daily forgiveness until we attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness. In that life there will only be perfectly pure and holy people, full of integrity and righteousness, completely freed from sin, death, and all misfortune, living in new, immortal, and glorified bodies.”

This is the blessing to which you are called. To be blessed by culture seems to pale in comparison. As the church, we are the body of Christ on earth, called and taught by Jesus to be a blessing to others, by reminding them that God blesses every person, rich or poor, healthy or sick, old or young. When the church reaches out, and we do so in our giving, it echoes the same words as these beatitudes – blessed are the poor. When the church reacts to hatred not with violence or comebacks but forgiveness, it is Christ-like, and invites others into God's blessing.