Matthew 5:1-13
All Saints Day
The word “blessed” is used in different forms, all of them with nuanced meanings. “You are truly blessed.” “You have my blessings.” “Have a blessed day!” Those who are mathematically inclined say, “Count your blessings.” When I moved to the South, I learned the real meaning of, “Bless your heart,” and its more emphatic form, “Bless your little heart!”
In the spirit of blessing, a friend just shared with me an article about a new priest in the town of Wittenberg. To mark the anniversary of the Reformation, the Protestant church has engaged a robot named “BlessU-2.” The mechanical priest delivers blessings in five languages AND beams light from its hands. They explain, “’We wanted people to consider if it is possible to be blessed by a machine, or if a human being is needed.’”[1] I have no comment.
Today we hear Jesus’ version of blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, and blessed are the meek. On this All Saints Sunday, we hear blessed are those who mourn. We began our service by naming loved ones who have died in this past year, and this afternoon we will commend Dan Stimson to the mercy of God. Today is a day when we grieve collectively. There is blessing in that. Grief can be so raw that some may feel that mourning and blessed don’t belong in the same sentence.
Although grief is an unwanted companion who shows up uninvited, mourning the death of a loved one is normal. But we sometimes forget that the losses we grieve come in many different shapes. Losing someone to dementia is devastating. It’s as if a dark shadow came and stole a part of the person. The loss of our own health, children graduating, and moving out of our home into someplace new are endings, too. Retirement can be both a loss of self and of purpose. What are the losses that you are grieving?
Blessed are those who mourn, Jesus says, while our culture tells us it was for the best, and to keep our chin up. Blessed are the poor in spirit, and the meek and the merciful, Jesus says, while the world tells us we are blessed if we are strong and powerful. We are blessed when we succeed, they say, but Jesus says we are blessed when we fail. Exposing our vulnerability may not give us society’s approval, but it opens us up to experience God’s blessings. In exposing our weakness, we discover God’s unconditional love. In our struggles and in our doubts, God calls us faithful. Isn’t that just like Jesus to turn our world-view upside-down?
The Beatitudes help us to challenge our perspective and our understanding of blessedness. They are descriptive, not prescriptive. They state who we are. If you were to write your own beatitude, what would you say? Blessed are you who are providing care for someone you love, for God will give you compassion for others. Blessed are you who are struggling with addiction, for God will provide someone to walk the path of recovery with you. Blessed are you who are scared, for God will not leave your side. Blessed are you, …fill in the blank.
Today, we remember those who have completed their baptism. In affirming our own baptism, we participate in this upside-down kingdom of God. God sees creation, you and me, as so precious that its redemption is worthy dying for. Our worship today sings out God’s promise that there is more to life and to death. There is someone in your life, a saint living or dead, through whom you learned that, and that is why you are here today. Someone promised in their baptism to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through what they say and through the things they do, with the help of God. It is through Christ that their witness with their lives has drawn us here.
Blessed are you who have come this morning not feeling blessed, or loved, or worthy of God’s blessing. We who are meek, and grieving, and doubtful are blessed, whether or not we feel that. We will all fall short, or simply fall, at one point. Well, to be honest, more than once. The blessing is that in the community of faith, even as we fall, we hold on to each other, and Jesus is holding on to us. The blessing is that God shows up in the middle of our muck and mire, just where you least expect God to be. God’s blessings come unconditionally. Blessed are you with mercy and grace, and the Easter promise of resurrection to new life.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/robot-priest-blessu-2-germany-reformation-exhibition