"Blessed Are..."

Anna Blaedel
November 2, 2008
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
Matthew 5:1-12

Celebrating All Saints Day and Communion

I want to tell you about one of God’s saints. A couple of you might even know him. His name is Bob Farr. Bob is still with us, still living life on earth into his 80s. Bob began his ministry as a Methodist pastor in 1948, 20 years before, in fact, there even was a United Methodist Church. Bob would never call himself a saint, but I do every time I e-mail him, just about every week. Bob, you dear saint, I always begin… Bob returns this blessing with every e-mail. Anna, my joy, he always begins… We bless each other, with every e-mail. He would never call himself a saint. In fact, when I asked if I could mention him in this sermon, he had this response: “I still say I am not a Christian, one who follows and shows Christ. I am a redeemed sinner, whom Christ is finding. I pray I live long enough to become a Christian.”

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed is Bob, for he is well on his way indeed, to living the life of Christ’s mercy, compassion, and love. Let us pray… O God, may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, our Strength and our Redeemer.

Bob Farr is a voracious reader and scholar, and blesses me by passing on the bits of wisdom from saints and prophets he discovers. His rich life of study and prayer is a shared blessing between us. Friday morning he e-mailed after rediscovering Tyndale, a 16th century Christian who has impacted each of us and our faith practice, more than you might know. In England in 1409, owning or reading an English version of the Bible was punishable by death. Tyndale believed, and told the Bishop of London, that the boy at the plow could know more about scripture than the Bishop. The boy at the plow was as blessed as the bishop. Tyndale took recent editions of the Greek NT and started translating. The religious authorities, bent on protecting their hold on Biblical truth, found him and chased him out of town. The Bible, especially the Beatitudes, was dangerous reading material. It offers, after all, hope to those with no hope. Within its pages we learn a rich man won’t make it into heaven until a camel can make it through the eye of a needle. But the poor are God’s beloved, blessed by God. Good news for the communion of saints. Bad news for those in power, for those wielding their power against others. So.

Tyndale learned Hebrew in Germany, and published a number of books of the Christian Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, before a fellow English church member turned him in, again, to the authorities. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The church imprisoned him for almost a year, and then burnt him at the stake. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely…The charge, heresy. To claim the Bible as divine in any other language than Latin, heretical.

It was Tyndale the heretic who first translated the Bible into understandable English. He received in reading the Bible a blessing from God, and wanted to share this blessing with others. As Karl Barth said, and Bob Farr reminded: “The Bible is a window through which God shines through to us. Worship the Light. Not the window.” The same could be said for the church, a place where God’s blessing might flow and overflow. Give thanks for the blessing, not the building.

This morning’s gospel reading is the first part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. The beatitudes. Or translated, The Blessings. When Jesus preached this sermon, it was designed to shock the audience. Wake them up a little. A deliberate inversion of standard values, these Blessings from Jesus. Their bite, their blessing, their umph, is often lost today due to the familiarity of these words. Hear this blessing again.

“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 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 righteousness’ sake, 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!”

In this series of blessings, Jesus names the community of saints, those who should lead us, those whose leadership we need to recognize. Those whose leadership we need to step into. Not the emperors, conquerors, governors, or priests…no. Blessed is the common communion. The poor. The persecuted. The peacemakers.

We who have known grief, who hunger and thirst for a new and renewed world. Those who are building beloved community, becoming the reign of God, not trickled down from the top but birthed from the bottom and shared. Blessing: an inward contentedness and joy not fully determined by the surrounding circumstances. Blessed, not because there is no war, but when we dare to work for peace in the midst of war. Blessed, not because there is nothing to mourn, but because we mourn loss and grieve injustice and seek to comfort each other in the midst of it all.

Etty Hillesum died in Auschwitz when she was 29 years old. In the midst of unimaginable mourning, surrounded by horrendous violence and disregard for humanity’s shared sacred worth, Etty wrote: “Our human vocation, our spiritual calling, is to safeguard that little piece of God that is found in each of us—to make a safe dwelling place for God to be at home in the world.” Our vocation—not to chase down, finally, a blessing from God, but to receive, glimpse by glimpse until finally and fully, the blessing God has already, always, offered us. And to return that blessing to others. Make space for God and God’s blessing in our lives, and then work in the world to make space for God. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the merciful.

Rejoice! You are blessed! When we work for peace in the midst of warring madness, we are blessed, children of God! When we summon the courage to seek justice, rather than secure our own self interest, we are blessed! When we vote because we want to end poverty, care for and sustain creation, provide health care and education and safe spaces for all our children, all God’s children, we are blessed!

O that we might receive the blessing of this text, more than receive the familiar litany. We are blessed and through our living we can bless others. When we live into our blessedness, we participate in the work of the Kindom. When we build relationships of blessing, we will find relationships of awe, of passion and compassion, love and justice for our earth and all her people.

What would your life be like, you communion of saints, you, if you believed, deep down in your bones, that you are blessed, beloved by God? That you are called and invited to be a blessing? Sit with that. What would be different? What would you do differently?

What would our life together be like if we believed, deep down in our collective bones, that we are blessed, beloved by God, and invited and called to bring God’s blessing to the people we meet?

The communion of saints calls us to remember. The Beatitudes bless us into recalling. May we allow Christ to find us through these blessings. If we live the beatitudes, live our blessing, God’s light shines through us. We become a living blessing, and through our hands and hearts and lips God’s blessing might flow and overflow this world. This morning, may we receive the blessing, not just the text. May we receive God’s light, not just the window. Amen, and amen.