God Bless You!

Matthew 5: 1-16 (NRSV)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“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 righteousness, 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, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

===================================

I have a cold. It’s not the sneezing kind of cold right now, but a couple of days ago it was.

And so, of course, I received many blessings that day!

A-A-A-A-CHOO!

GOD BLESS YOU!

Sniff…. Thank you!

It’s good to receive blessings.

In the middle ages, when someone sneezed, you said “God bless you” because you feared that they might have the plague. So this mantra we repeat so regularly was developed as a way to ward off the fear of evil, disease, and death.

Besides the Gesundheit types, many of us ask God to bless our food before we eat. Bedtime prayers include blessings. I can still remember my children, every night, asking blessings for many things, but always ending with “God bless mommy and daddy and all my friends, AMEN.”

The word “blessed” that we hear in today’s gospel reading, commonly called the Beatitudes, is not the kind of “blessed” that is a synonym for “lucky”. It is not the kind of “blessed” that is meant when we hear someone say, for instance, “I’ve been really blessed; I’m so glad that I can provide good cars for everyone in my family.” Or, “I’ve been really blessed with good health, so I can still get out and play a lot of golf.” The kind of “blessed” that Jesus is saying here is a Greek word, makarios, that translates best as “sacred”, or “holy”, or “greatly honored”, or “awesome”. Jesus is saying “the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, they are totally awesome. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They shall be called children of God. They shall see God. “And how awesome is that!

But, it’s up to us whether we choose to receive it or not.

When God’s blessings come to us, it is our choice whether or not to receive it. The blessing itself is unconditional. Our response to it, our consent, is not.

Mary was called out by the angel Gabriel as being blessed. The angel said, “Greetings, favored one! Blessed are you among women!” You are awesome. You are sacred, holy, greatly honored. God is honoring you greatly, blessing you by asking you to bear the Son of God. And Mary says yes. She receives the blessing

There is a poem by Denise Leverton about the Anunciation of Mary, this event when the angel comes. It reads, in part:

“But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions courage.

The engendering Spirit did not enter her without consent. God waited.”

It takes courage to receive a blessing. Mary is evidence of that.

It takes humility, too. When we ask for our meal to be blessed, for our families to be blessed, we are acknowledging our dependence upon God. Saying a blessing over our meal humbles us to remember that our daily sustenance comes from God.  Asking for a blessing for ourselves and our loved ones humbles us to remember that God alone saves us, God alone fills us, it is not our own doing.

So receiving a blessing requires courage, and it requires humility.

It also requires trust. Thinking back to Mary again, she could not know what the future impact of that blessing would be.  She only knew she would give birth to the Son of God. She knew nothing more about what would become of him, of the suffering he would endure, of the challenges she would face in raising him. Still, trusting in God, she agrees, when she says, “Let it be with me according to your word.”

A blessing from God is more about being used by God than it is about getting cool stuff, or having cool things happen to us.

Abraham was blessed with descendants – which, for him, was a cool thing to have, but God planned on using them.

Moses was blessed with opportunities to interact with God, but it created a whole new set of challenges and problems he could never have imagined.

So we might be asking ourselves, “do I really want to be blessed?”

Because we are blessed to be a blessing, aren’t we? The blessing is not just for us, it is never just for us. It is so that God can use us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble, the meek, the peacemakers. They shall inherit the earth. They shall be called the children of God. They shall see God. Jesus doesn’t say if you will become humble, meek, then you shall. It's not something to aspire to, it's the result of your current condition. Jesus says if you already are - here and now. If you have been marginalized. If you have lost your way. If you have been humiliated. If you are mourning a loss. Then you are special in God’s sight. You are awesome. You are beloved.

The blessing is there for us to receive. Jesus is speaking to the people who have come to listen to him. The disciples, the townspeople, the people he grew up around in Nazareth. They were humble people, meek, basic laborers.  He is offering them blessing, telling them that they, in fact, are blessed, by virtue of the lives they lead, through no choice of their own. Theologian David Lose reminds us that Jesus is  proclaiming that God regularly shows up in mercy and blessing just where you least expect God to be – with the poor rather than the rich, with those who are mourning rather than celebrating, with the meek and the peacemakers rather than the strong and victorious. If God shows up here, Jesus is saying, blessing the weak and the vulnerable, then God will be everywhere, showering all creating and its inhabitants with blessing.

But, like Mary, it is their choice to receive the blessing. It is our choice to receive, to accept, to own and to live into the blessings that God offers us.

Taking an idea from David Lose, I’d like us to take back the mantra of “God bless you”, and let it signify not fear, but joy, not disease, but delight, not death, but God’s new light. I’d like us to think of a blessing as an insight that God is a God who delights in creating, and blessing, and redeeming, and to be reminded that we are God’s own beloved and blessed children.

So if you are not already doing so, slide over or move up or back a row so that everyone is sitting next to someone else. Pair up. Then I’ll tell you what I’d like you to do next.

It’s time for us to turn to one another and share God’s blessing. That means to give it and to receive it.

Turn to the person next to you, and take turns saying to each other,

“God bless you!” (just as if they had sneezed…)

OK?

Now say to each other,
“You are God’s beloved child.”

Done?

Now say to each other,

“God calls you awesome!”

Now say, “God comes to you right where you are, to bless you.”Be sure to say it to each other, take turns.

OK, one more.

“God’s blessing waits for your consent.”

Amen.

Upside Down and Backwards

Isaiah 42: 1– 9; 53: 1– 12 

Matthew 16: 13– 17: 9

Has anyone ever done a headstand, or a handstand?  Show of hands.

I used to love to do them. I haven’t tried in a while, so I have no idea if I still can, or not, but the thing I loved about it was the feeling of being out of balance, and then re-finding my balance while being upside down. What an incredible thing, to turn upside down, and to find your balance point.

It’s way easier to stand upright on our own two feet and be in balance, isn’t it? Although as we age, we may need help with that too. But being upside down, or walking backwards, throws us off kilter, and we need to really concentrate to balance ourselves. It’s not natural. But it’s possible…and with practice it gets easier.

Sometimes getting out of balance is not something that we choose. Perhaps it’s a diagnosis, or the loss of a loved one, or the seismic change of something that has been central to our life. When that happens, the one thing we want more than anything, it seems, is to get back to our former balancing point, to get things back to normal. But more often than not, going forward means finding a new point of balance, often a place that is more vulnerable than before.

Following Christ requires that we practice a whole new balancing act, every bit as challenging as walking on our hands or walking backwards.

Our gospel story today offers several examples of how Peter goes in and out of this New Balancing act.

Jesus asks the disciples, “who do you say that I am?”

And Peter nails it!

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

Now this was an upside down moment for Peter. Jesus has taken them 25 miles away from their home base in Galilee, on a field trip of sorts to Caesarea Philippi, which was a regional center of the Roman Empire.  As Brian McLaren described it, to claim Jesus as Messiah, as the liberating king, anointed by the living God, here in a city bearing Caesar’s name, Caesar who considered himself son of the gods, is dangerous to say the least. But Peter claims Jesus as the Son of the True and Living God, distinct and above all those other gods.

Peter has stated and claimed his new balance point. And Jesus affirms him – good job! God has given you this revelation, has allowed you to balance upside down.

But before we know it, Peter has lost his balance and is no longer upside down. He is coming back to his usual way of seeing the world. Jesus begins to tell them all about the suffering and death that he will soon endure. And Peter, probably full of himself for having figured out who Jesus really is, feels pretty confident that Jesus’ predictions about the future must be way, way off. And so he boldly steps forward to say, God forbid! That must not ever happen to you, Jesus!

And of course, standing upright, looking at the world the way we usually do, it makes sense for Peter to draw that conclusion, doesn’t it? How on earth can Jesus, the Messiah, the liberating king, set the people of Israel free if he is defeated? That is the one thing that must not happen. As Brian McLaren describes it, Jesus “must conquer and capture, not be conquered and captured. He must torture and kill his enemies, not be tortured and killed by them. So Peter feels completely justified in correcting Jesus – “stop talking nonsense!”

And now Jesus, who just told Peter that he had received a divine revelation, turns 180 degrees around and says, “Get behind me, Satan! This is not from God, but from man”.

Peter’s upright way of thinking, like most of his countrymen, is that “God will send a Messiah to lead an armed uprising, to defeat and expel the occupying Roman regime and all who collaborate with it.”

But Jesus sees the world differently. God’s kingdom is upside down and backwards to the way Peter understands things. In God’s kingdom, “the nonviolent will inherit the Earth. Violence cannot defeat violence. Hate cannot defeat hate. Fear cannot defeat fear. God must achieve victory through defeat, glory through shame, strength through weakness, leadership through servanthood, and life through death.”

This is upside down and backwards.

A few days later, Jesus goes up the mountain with Peter, James and John. And right before their eyes, the words Peter had spoken about Jesus are confirmed by God. Jesus is transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus.

Now Peter sees this as another opportunity to score some points by showing how well he can walk on his hands, how well he does in this upside-down world. He offers to build three tents so that Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus can stay in them. But God interrupts his words, saying,

“This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!”

Peter, James and John, fall down from their upside down perches, and lay flat on the ground, until Jesus touches them, saying “get up, don’t be afraid.”

And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

Peter, James and John had been raised to see Moses and Elijah as great heroes of their faith. Seeing Jesus as equal to them is a big deal. But God’s plans are bigger still. God affirms what Peter had glimpsed a week or so before. This is the Son of God. This is who you must listen to, whom you must follow. Jesus above Moses and Elijah. Jesus above all.

This is another upside down view of the world for observant Jews. It feels wrong, hard to balance, thinking of the law, of the prophets in this way. It’s easy to fall back into their usual habits. It’s hard to keep their eyes focused on Jesus and to stay balanced upside down in this paradoxical way.

It’s hard for us, too. We hear the words of Jesus, to love our enemies, to carry the load a second mile when are forced by our oppressor to carry it one mile. To forgive seventy times seven. It all feels upside down. We would rather play it safe. We would rather take care of ourselves and our own. We would rather walk right side up, the way we know how to walk, with confidence. We would rather not depend completely, surrender all of ourselves, to the living bread, to the cup of salvation. We would rather fill our own pantries and lock our doors to keep it for ourselves. We would rather not see the strangers around us as beloved children of God, our brothers and sisters, to whom God has made us accountable, to whom God calls us to serve and to see with God’s eyes, with eyes of love.

But Jesus calls us to live our lives upside down and backwards. This is the only way that we will be able to serve one another and love one another as Christ loves us. And this is the only way that others will ever see how Jesus has changed our lives – if all our behaviors, all our actions, reflect this strange new balance to which we have been called.

This story was shared on Facebook this past week:

"I saw the most incredible display of humanity on the train. A six foot five man, who appeared to be suffering from drug abuse and/or mental health issues, was being very aggressive on the train, with erratic movements, cursing, shouting, etc. While everyone around him was scared, this one seventy-something-year-old woman reached out her hand to his, and tightly gripped his hand until he calmed down, and sat down silently, with eventual tears in his eyes.

When I spoke to the woman after this incident, she simply said, "I'm a mother, and he needed someone to touch." And she started to cry.

This woman went upside down and backwards in her simple act of love. To anyone else, it looked like a totally unnatural act. But it wasn’t a hard thing to do; it was only a hard thing to decide to do. When we decide to do this sort of thing, it is God who provides the balance for us.

Focusing today on a Souper Bowl of Caring over The Super Bowl, giving to those in need above and beyond what we spend on chips and dip and beverages and parties, is an act of rebalancing our priorities.

But we won’t always get it right. And we won’t stay in balance all the time.

And so, our entire lives as followers of Christ are spent learning how to walk this way, how to live this way. Peter moved in and out of this balancing act, all through his life. The apostle Paul took years to change his point of balance, and then practiced it relentlessly for the rest of his life.

The grace and mercy of God allows us to fall, over and over again, and to get back up and try once more. We are forgiven every time we lose our balance. God stands ready to steady us.

Christ who will not break the bruised reed, who will not extinguish the faint candle light, and who will bring justice in an upside down way, will walk with us, upside down and backwards, showing us how it’s done, encouraging us, nourishing us so that we can nourish others, so that we can show them what walking with Jesus really, truly, looks like.

Upside down and backwards.