If I were to ask you to share one blessing that happened to you today, what would you say? You might tell me you were blessed to have a phone call from one of your children or you were blessed be in relatively good health or you’re blessed to have a roof over your head. You wouldn’t say you were blessed to stub your toe or get in an argument with your neighbor. Yet, in The Beatitudes, Jesus seems to be saying that there is blessing even in difficulties and pain. Blessing is different than we think it is.
Jesus has just been asking these newly called Disciples what they are looking for and now he is shaping what they are looking for and how they see the world in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is training them to pay attention to the unexpected. He wants them to look for blessing in unexpected places. We call it a blessing when things are going well. But things won’t always go well and where do we turn then, how do we see our lives then? Do we blame someone? Do we blame ourselves and think it is because that’s what we deserve? Jesus says in times of pain and trouble, look for blessing.
These instructions form Jesus are not just about how we see our own experiences, but how we see others who are going through difficulties. Jesus is saying to build relationships with those in pain and trouble. See value in those who suffer. People who are struggling may find themselves more receptive to the Good News the Disciples bring and they may know the Good News better than the disciples even do, have an even stronger faith because they have been relying on God and not their own wealth or comfort.
Blessing is different than we think it is. Blessing is plentiful. Maybe we think that blessing is limited and there isn’t enough to go around. Maybe we think blessing is for the few, the rich, the healthy, the young. But Jesus in this sermon is indicating there is a lot of blessing if we know where to look for it, there is a lot of good, a lot of favor, a lot of joy to be found even when circumstances are difficult. There are blessings abundant for everyone. This is a sign of God’s grace that blessing comes to even those who don’t deserve it. Then all of us who are undeserving get to decide what to do with abundant, unexpected blessing.
Maybe this is why we do so much blessing in church. Church is a training ground for the Kingdom life. We are training ourselves to bless and receive blessing. We bless God in the hymn of praise. “Blessing and honor and glory and might be to God and the lamb forever, Amen.” Even us lowly humans have a blessing to offer to God.
We bless each other in the sharing of the peace. We practice going to people we might not ordinarily expect blessing from, people we may have disagreed with, people we might have hurt or been hurt by, we go and share the peace. If we wanted to share and experience further blessing, we could challenge ourselves to invite that person for a conversation and try to come to more understanding between you than can be found in a moment of shaking a hand or giving a fist bump. We bless each other in the sharing of the peace.
We bless the meal as we share it and Jesus blesses us with his presence, his body and blood. Talk about an unexpected place to find blessing! In Jesus suffering, he comes to us with his own flesh and blood poured out for us, to give us new life and make us into his body.
Finally God blesses us in the sending blessing. “God bless you and keep you, God’s face shine on with grace and mercy, God look upon you with favor and give you peace.” This is what we call the Aaronic blessing, a blessing given by Moses’ brother Aaron in ancient times, a priestly blessing that Aaron learned from God when he and Moses were setting up the tabernacle to contain the ark of the covenant. It’s a blessing we share often at church, but I also often share it in people’s last days, when we know their earthly life is drawing to a close. Blessing is God’s intent for everyone. When God first called Abraham, God said that Abraham was called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Blessing has been God’s intention from the beginning, to bring people together in relationship and look for the best in each other, connections and depth and humility and honesty that comes by having lived through difficult things.
Blessing is for sharing. In church God blesses us and we bless God and then we are called out into the world to bless the poor, hungry, and grieving, all those in any need. Then we find ourselves blessed by unexpected people that we are going out to serve. God makes a relationship with us and we go and make a relationship with others forming the body of Christ. We become conduits, with blessings and relationships flowing freely between us. That’s the nature of blessing. When we receive blessings, realize how close God is and how much joy there is in this world even in our suffering and grieving and pain, we share it with other people. They too are conduits, sharing blessing with us, teaching us about perseverance, sharing joy even in adversity.
Blessing is for sharing. Remember the story of the unforgiving servant in the Gospel of Matthew. The servant is called to repay a debt to his master and he can’t pay it so his master forgives the debt. But the servant sees another who owes him a much smaller amount and when this person can’t repay the debt he had him arrested. When his master sees that although the servant was forgiven, he didn’t pass that forgiveness on to others, he is enraged and heaps on disastrous consequences. Jesus is adamant that blessings are to be shared and that God does not give them to us for us to keep all for ourselves. God never hoards blessings, but is always generous in handing them out. As followers of Jesus, we also get to let the blessings flow.
There is a quote attributed to Martin Luther, “God divided the hand into fingers so money would slip through.” We can receive blessings, but we aren’t meant to keep them for ourselves. Whether it is money or blessing, or love or food or land or possessions, we aren’t meant to keep them but to share them.
The wisdom of the Beatitudes may seem like foolishness. To see value in something difficult and scary, to move toward grief, toward hunger, toward persecution and ridicule is the opposite of what we might be inclined to do. However, God saw the value in moving toward us and we are grateful. In Jesus, God moved toward poverty, toward discomfort, toward grieving and pain. And in Jesus God moved toward blessing, the sharing of true, lasting, life-giving relationship. The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, who trust in the temporary, but to us being saved it is new life and good news.
So we go forth in God’s blessing, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. The trust we confess with our voices, we live out, standing up for all who are oppressed, standing up to powers that separate and destroy, demanding that our leaders see and hear the people with little power in our midst. We see the value in our neighbor who is suffering. We put ourselves in the role of peacemaker, choosing the way of nonviolent resistance.
Let us count our blessings, so many gifts from God, and then count them again in case our hardships might also contain blessings, and let those blessings flow to others so that life can flourish and good news be shared, relationships built that will never be destroyed.
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