The Blessing Way

Micah 6:1-8        

Matthew 5:1-12

There is a movie called Hashtag Blessed. It’s about a young woman who is miserable in her life for a variety of reasons, but one key cause is that she is trying to live her life through the lens of Instagram. And that is a lens that is almost guaranteed to make you feel like your life doesn’t measure up.

She scrolls through and sees a picture from a friend who just got a new car! #blessedlife! Other friends looking fine in their fancy clothes, hanging out in elegant places, surrounded by dazzling, glittery things - #blessedlife!

Real life just doesn’t measure up to that for most of us.

Sometimes we are a little confused about what it means when we talk about blessing, being blessed. In the popular vernacular, to be blessed is about the same as being lucky. Or maybe being good – good enough to have all the things you want to have. But if that is what we believe, then Jesus is throwing a king-size curveball into our belief system.

The story we hear today from chapter 5 really begins in verse 23 of chapter 4, when Jesus began traveling through Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news, and healing every sickness, every ailment among the people. The word spread, and soon they all began bringing the sick and the lame to him, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; great crowds began following him.

And when he saw the crowds – this is where we begin today – when he saw the crowds he began to teach these things. The blessings.

When he pronounces a blessing on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the persecuted, among other things, we struggle to make any sense out of this. Because we know from experience that being poor in spirit, feeling meek or mournful, being persecuted – these things feel like the opposite of being blessed.

A blessing is a good thing, by definition. Being poor, hungry, meek, mournful, and persecuted – these are not good things. So how are we to understand the meaning of these words, the beatitudes?

Of course, Jesus came out of a rich tradition of blessing. In Jewish tradition, a blessing can be understood as increasing. When we bless someone we are asking God to increase good things in their lives. And in the scriptures, we can see that the good things being increased come in all forms: increased crops, increased land, increased offspring, increased happiness.

More is better, the Bible seems to say. More is good, we agree.

But be careful about how we handle this notion of increase. Because more, when it comes to us at someone else’s expense, this is not blessing.

Blessing, when rightly understood, always involves an acknowledgment that there is something greater than ourselves and our personal interests at work in every part of life. Jewish teaching says that a person is obligated to recite 100 blessings a day – every day. But it’s not hard, because there are many, many blessings.

There are of course blessings for the food we eat. A blessing for the grain that grows to make bread, the fruit of the vine that gives us wine, the trees that bear fruit in their season. Blessed are you, O Lord, who creates different kinds of sustenance.

And there is a blessing for the hunger in us that allows us to eat and enjoy the blessing of being fed. Blessed are you, Lord, who creates numerous souls and their deficiencies; for all that you have created with which to maintain the life of every being.

There is a blessing for seeing a lightning strike, for hearing the roll of thunder, for experiencing an earthquake. Blessed are you, Lord, king of the universe, whose strength and might fills the world.

There are blessings for experiencing the pleasures of the world: the smell of flowers, of herbs, of balsam oil. There are blessings for new experiences – from wearing a new outfit to eating the produce of your garden to starting school to gathering together for a holiday. Blessed are you, O Lord, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.

There are blessings for God’s law, the greatest gift of all.

There are blessings for seeing a very wise person, for seeing a king, for seeing a place where a miracle happened.

There is a blessing for going to the bathroom. Blessed are you, O Lord, who created us with many openings and many cavities… I will leave the rest to your imaginations, But I will say that I think we all know that it truly is a blessing when all the parts of your body seem to be working the way they are supposed to, is it not?

What we see if we participate in the ritual of blessing is that all kinds of experiences and circumstances in life, whether they seem good or bad to us, can be connected with a blessing. Because to attach a blessing to them is a way of acknowledging God’s hand in everything, God’s concern for everyone and everything. And that God’s hand runs over all the things of life, smoothing and leveling – filling up the low places, and bringing down the high places.

It is, in a way, about balance.

The phrase I have used as the title of this sermon comes from the Navajo tradition, in which blessing is an essential part of life, of their way. In reading about the Navajo Blessing Way I have come to better understand the way that blessing – in their tradition, in Jewish tradition, and in our own tradition – calls upon God to bring balance. Or, we might say, Shalom.

Something we need very much.

Because to bless is also to know that there is evil in our midst. To know that there is sadness, there is anger, there is greed, there is violence. There is pain and death. To know that we might at any time suffer – from our own sadness or sickness, or from someone else’s pain or anger. It is far too easy to get swallowed up in the harmful feelings and thoughts. To let them make us recoil from another one’s suffering, or set ourselves against another one’s anger. The act of blessing serves to bring much needed balance into our lives.

When we recognize that we are frail and broken beings, created by God, wholly in need of the gifts God provides, this is a way to bring balance. When we can look at the ones who are persecuted, the ones who are meek, the ones who are mourning. When we can look at the family of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, and feel their pain is our pain; that the injustice they experience is an injustice that hurts us all. Then we are taking a step toward restoring balance in the world.

Then we too know ourselves as blessed, right along with them.

All this is to say that when Jesus offers his surprising blessings he is telling us something about balance. We can be blessed if we have some need that only God can fulfill.

And he is telling us something about the way God is present in all things: in the needs we have, in the needs of the people around us, in the troubles we might face in our lives. In making these surprising blessings, Jesus is speaking two co-existing truths: these present circumstances of life and the eternal truth of God’s kingdom, which we know is ours.

And when we know both these truths and can hold them both at the same time, then we know – we can see – God is always in our midst.

And when we can see ourselves in that great crowd of people before Jesus, standing in need of the things only God can give, then we can begin to be a part of the work of shalom, of bringing God’s healing to the world.

Photo by Ksenia Chernaya: https://www.pexels.com/photo/boy-lighting-menorah-3730941/  

Saying Yes

Matthew 4:12-23        

Something that has become a popular thing for the church to do around epiphany is a thing called Star Words. This activity is based on the premise of the magi followed the star to find Jesus. And so each person is given a star with a single word printed on it. Somehow, we follow where that word leads us. Spiritually. For a whole year. You can use it in your daily prayer, journaling, art, or however you like.

I have never done it before, but this year I went to a presbytery Epiphany luncheon where I was offered a star. I selected a bright pink one. The color made me smile. But when I turned it over and looked at the word I stopped smiling. The word was “Try.”

Try? Who would think that this word would be a good word to meditate on? Try? Just looking at the word made me feel defeated.

Maybe I should explain why. Try is a word I believe we use to mentally beat ourselves up. Try harder – no, harder! If you can’t do something, it’s because you haven’t tried hard enough. In fact, it seems as though you can always try harder. So, have you ever actually tried hard enough?

So I have some problems with the word.

When I hear the word “try” I think of what Yoda said – you know that wise Jedi-master-puppet from Star Wars: Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Do, or do not. There is no try. A wise puppet he is.

I think I can see Yoda’s point. Try is not a result. Try is not an excuse. Try is not a reproach. There is no try. There is only do or do not.

And this is what we see in these disciples of Jesus.

When he called them, it was not a convenient time. These men were in the middle of their workday. Simon Peter and Andrew were just casting their nets into the sea, hoping to make a good catch to take ashore. James and John were in the act of repairing their nets, a constant part of the work of a fisherman, mending and tending the tools of their trade. They were all hard at work. Their lives, the lives of their families, depended on it.

And Jesus calls out to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” And they all drop their nets and follow him.

Do. or do not. There is no try.

It frightens us to see this kind of response, though. We wonder if this is what Jesus expects from us, too. Are we supposed to drop everything that feels important to us in order to follow him? Are we supposed to walk away from things that feel essential to us in order to follow him?

We might feel more kinship with these guys if they responded differently, more like how we might have responded. For example: Jesus calls out to them, they pause a moment in their work. A person would know they were seriously thinking about what he was asking them, offering them, in fact. And then they say: That is an interesting proposition, Jesus. Something I would definitely like to think about. But, as you can see, I’m in the middle of something right now. I have lots of obligations, of course. So here is what I’ll do. Let me think this over…talk it over with my family…pray on it. And I will try to get back to you very soon.

But you know if that’s what they said, Jesus would have walked away. Just moved on.

Because there were other times, other would-be disciples who responded kind of like that. They said, “Hey, Jesus, sounds great. Just let me first go home and take care of family business,” but Jesus said it’s not like that. Follow me or don’t follow me.

Do or do not. There is no try.

The great Yoda had it right. No matter what excuses these fishermen made, no matter what deal they tried to negotiate with Jesus, it is still a simple matter of doing or not doing.

Of saying yes, or saying no. It really was in their hands.

So it is when I say I try to practice some spiritual discipline at least five days a week, but sometimes I don’t do that. Because the reality is that on some days I choose not to. The decision really is in my hands.

It might seem a bit harsh thing, it might sound like a scold, but it is not my intention to berate or pressure anyone. I’m not saying, “Try harder.” Rather, what I say is this: Many things are in our hands when they are placed there.

When they are placed there, and we are invited to take them.

In the Reformed church we like to say there are three parts to every call: there is the work of the Holy Spirit within a person, stirring in them an inner sense of call; there is the work of the Spirit within a person’s community that guides and supports them through the process of discerning the call; and finally, there is the particular call to serve in a specific time and place.

And when all three are working together for you it is like something is placed in your hand, and you close your fingers around it gently, and you say yes.

At that moment, Jesus is standing before you saying, “Follow me.” You drop your nets, climb out of your boat, and you follow him.

A couple of weeks ago we installed four elders to active service. Each of them was invited by a member of the nominating committee to serve in this way. The four who stood up here are the ones who said yes.

Today we will install four deacons to active service, and the same is true of them. They are the ones who said yes.

There might have been other times when they said no, but this time they said yes.

The truth is, we might say no to something many times before we finally say yes.  And that might simply be because we faithfully discerned that it was not the right thing at the right time for us. But remember this: as those who have been baptized, it is our most basic calling to be available, to do the work of faithful discernment, to trust in the Holy Spirit to lead us well. And then to say yes or say no.

Listen…trust…know that Jesus calls us toward a better life, should we be ready to say yes.

Photo by Drahomír Posteby-Mach on Unsplash  

What Men Are These?

Matthew 2:1-12

Because I wanted to get off to a riveting start this year, I thought we might begin with a little examination of the genealogy of Jesus. Shall we?

Yes, I know. Some of you are thinking reading through the genealogy is about as riveting as reading through the card catalog. And others of you are now thinking what’s a card catalog? But, come on. It will be fun.

“Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers” – and it goes on for a bit like that.

Typically, genealogies in scripture contain the names of the men in the line of descent – the patriarchs. And there are plenty of them in this list. So many that most readers probably don’t even notice that Matthew has thrown a few women in. Four, to be exact. What women are these? Let me tell you.

Tamar, the woman who posed as a harlot by the side of the road to ensnare Judah, her father-in-law.

Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho who let the spies of Israel hide in her boudoir.

Ruth, the Moabite woman who hustled her way into the family of a prominent Bethlehem man, Boaz.

And the wife of Uriah, also known as Bathsheba, who bore a son for King David while she was married to another man.

Some families want to shove the black sheep of the family tree into the back of the closet, but Matthew puts them right in the middle of the genealogy of Jesus the Christ. You have to wonder: Why are they here? It’s a bit strange.

No sooner do we get past this strangeness in Chapter 1 than we arrive at the scene in Chapter 2 where “wise men” from the east come to pay homage to the newborn king.

It is another mystery, really, that Matthew calls these men wise. Maybe they are knowledgeable about the stars, but they are dangerously naïve about people. They waltz into the court of King Herod, one of the most paranoid and ruthlessly violent kings ever, to ask for directions. “Excuse me, do you know where we might find the newborn king of the Jews? Oh, you’re the king of the Jews? Well, we meant the new king.” What could possibly go wrong here?

At any rate, they manage to get directions, although why they needed them, I don’t know. That star seemed to be as reliable as Google maps. They found Jesus.  But I don’t doubt that by the time they did, everyone between Jerusalem and Bethlehem was talking about them. What men are these? They didn’t exactly fit in.

These men from Baghdad, or thereabout, were Magi – magicians. They looked different, they dressed different, they sounded different and acted different. Really, everything about them was different – and by different I mean unacceptable. Yet, here they are with front row seats at the birth of the Jewish Messiah.

They were thoughtful enough to bring gifts – strange gifts, it must be said. I imagine Mary receiving their packages of Frankincense and Myrrh and wondering: Why? Although she didn’t wonder about the gold. That would be useful. Even so, she must have asked herself: What men are these, and why are they here?

Do we wonder? Why are they here? We should.

We might discover that Matthew, in his unique way, is telling us something about who we are.

One thing that concerns me about Christians is this: we have a tendency to talk about who we are in terms of what we are not. We define ourselves in opposition to everyone else in the world. We are not Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or Pagan or Buddhist or Atheist or anything else you can name. We are different from everyone else, we want to say.

And it’s possible that some of the folks in Jesus’ family tree felt that way too. They were acutely aware of who they were not, and who was not one of them. So they gave the side eye to Rahab, that woman who let the Hebrew spies into her room. They turned to their sisters and tsked Ruth when she just showed up in Boaz’s fields all by herself. They gave Bathsheba the back of their hand when she tried to start up a conversation with them at the market.

And when those Magi showed up in their strange headwear and colorful robes, people whispered about those crazy foreigners. Don’t even know where they’re going.

Yet here they are – these crazy foreigners. The welcoming committee as we open the New Testament. Let us show you the way, they say to us.

Then they might show us some of their favorite parts: When Jesus told his disciples that they would have to go to the back of the line if they wanted to be his. When he invited the misfits to sit down at the popular kids table and passed them the bread and wine. He lets them all in. They say, Look – he’s going to turn the world upside down, just like he flipped the money-changers’ tables at the temple.

We call this the Epiphany, which means revelation. The moment when the light bulb goes on and we can see something we couldn’t see before. When these strange characters from out of town came to bow down before the baby Jesus, to show the world who he was and what he would do. He would shake things up and turn things upside down. He would open the gates, tear down the walls and let everybody in. Come to the table. I am the bread of life. I am the cup of salvation.

He would rock our world. He still does.

Picture: ChurchArt.Com

Sacred Doing

 

Isaiah 63:7-9      

Matthew 2:13-23        

I have been reminded this week about a remark someone made to me once. Nothing you probably haven’t heard too. Just that all the things that happen in our lives – the happy things, the sad things, the crazy things, the boring things – they all stay with us and remain a part of who we are and always will be. Our life experiences – all of them, not just the ones we choose, make us the men and women we are. The good, the bad, and the indifferent. We can’t do anything about that. All we can do is choose how we will remember it, and that is a choice.

How we choose to remember the things that have made up our lives, it matters.

The ways in which we remember things are important for how they shape us, how they give our life meaning. The act of remembering is about telling the story of who we are.

That is what the Bible does. It tells the story of who we are. All of it.

And there are parts of it we like better than others. In the Christmas season we can’t resist the warm and cozy promise of it. The newborn baby, “no crying he makes.” At least, according to the song. We make the stable and the rough manger seem like desirable locations. In our imaginations we see the scene through soft filters and warm colors. We crop out any of the less attractive, more awkward parts that we would find in a stable with live animals.

We are so content in this scene that we usually fail to remember what happens next.

But Matthew does not let us forget it – not at all.

A voice was heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be consoled because they are no more.

We know her story from the book of Genesis. Rachel was the one desired by Jacob, the one for whom he happily gave seven years of labor to her father Laban for her bride price. But Rachel was then left behind because her older sister, Leah, had to be married first. Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah. Then, if he still wanted Rachel, he could work another seven years for her. Which Jacob did.

Rachel’s life was hard, and her suffering was great. She was plagued by years of infertility. She longed with every fiber of her being for a child. She watched with envy as her sister Leah was blessed with many healthy children while she remained barren. After many years she bore a son, Joseph, then another, Benjamin. But the birth of Benjamin was hard. Rachel died in childbirth. She was buried far from her home. Her two sons grew up without a mother.

The story of Rachel we hear in Genesis never mentions her tears, but we know she had reasons to weep.

Genesis doesn’t say anything about Rachel weeping, but we hear it later from the prophet Jeremiah. The Israelite exiles, on their bitter march to Babylon, pass by Rachel’s grave and hear her weeping, weeping for her children who are no more, weeping for all that Israel’s children have lost.

And then, again, we are reminded of Rachel’s tears in this second chapter of Matthew. Rachel still weeping, for all the little children who were destroyed by Herod’s wrath.

It is not a part of the Christmas story we often choose to remember, even though it’s right there in Matthew 2, right after Mary and Joseph open the gifts from the wise men. Right after Joseph has another dream in which he is warned to flee, and so they do, and find safe haven from Herod. In Egypt. We imagine them living there securely. But we ought to remember that they were refugees, and there is little about that you would call secure.

We lightly skip over this part of the Christmas story in the same way we tend to skip over our own losses when we tell our stories. We don’t talk about the things in our lives that made us afraid because who wants to hear about that? Nobody. Not even we want to remember the things that made us afraid.

But Matthew doesn’t skip over it, and there is good reason for that. It’s because everything that happens to us, the happy and the sad, even the terrifying, all stay with us and become a part of who we are and always will be. and on the whole, that is not a bad thing.

It is not bad, because to remember our own sorrows may give us compassion for those who are suffering their own sorrows now. To remember our own fear may give us empathy for those who are living in fear now. To remember our own suffering may make us merciful toward those who suffer now.

Remembering the bad can be good. But, again, it sort of depends on how you choose to remember it.

Jewish tradition says that a person should recite 100 blessings each day; and there are blessings for everything under the sun – the good, the awkward and embarrassing, and everything else.  “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us,” we hear from Isaiah. 

So we can have these words of praise right next to Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. We can have the wise men kneeling in worship before the Christ child right next to Rachel’s loud lamentation. Rachel will not be consoled for the losses, yet there is hope. In this world there is sorrow and there is joy, both. There is pain and there is hope, both. There is no amount of Christmas joy that wipes out the sadness of the world, but there is no amount of sadness that erases the joy we know in Christ.

We need them both. When we remember the sorrows of our lives they can move us to action – actions to bring more justice and mercy to the world. And this is why seeing the sacred reflected in all things, being the sacred in ourselves, is followed by doing the sacred, where we respond to all that we have seen and all that we have been given.

Rachel still weeps for her children. The children of Uvalde, still grieving. The children of Haiti suffering a new outbreak of cholera. The children of Ukraine, in the midst of war. Suffering continues. But this is exactly why Christ was born. He became fully human to identify with us in every way, from beginning to end, reminding us at every step, that we are not alone. God is with us.

Blessed be the Lord our God for this gift.   

picture: ChurchArt.Com