So, I'm sure I've told the story of Fr. Brooks and I on the Mount of the Beatitudes, the spot where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount and uttered the words we just heard in our Gospel reading.
This area is essentially a long, wide slope rising from the shore near Tabgha (where Jesus would later feed the 5,000) and reaching it's highest point at just under 500 feet. And up there, about two thirds of the way up, is this cave that you have to stoop over to fit in.
But if you sit there, and you speak just a little louder than you normally do, because of the acoustics of the area, you can be heard all down that slope to the shore.
It was easy to imagine Jesus just sitting in that spot, talking to his disciples, but knowing that his voice is carrying. And all those people out there, knowing that maybe he's talking about them.
The people in that land that are just trying to find a way to get through life as best they can. Trying to do what's right and hope that what they see as right is what God sees as right, too.
But maybe also thinking that maybe they weren't important enough to matter. Maybe Jesus ISN”T talking about them, maybe God isn't even thinking about them at all. Do they really matter to God. Do they really matter at all?
And so, I started thinking about my last week. Living in this off-the-beaten-path part of the world with people struggling and hurting, laughing and sharing, trying to just get by, just like all those people on that hill so many centuries ago. I didn't know it at the time, but last week I went looking for the beatitudes. This is what I encountered:
I stood by and watched a young social worker give her full attention to a young man who towered over her. He has severe autism and he was having trouble communicating and was beginning to cry.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit...”
She stood still, then took his hand, and said, “It's ok. You don't have to be happy.”
“Blessed are the merciful...”
I listened to a woman whose voice broke as she wept from the loss of her cat.
“Blessed are those who mourn…”
I read a long article by a woman who has given her life to fighting for justice in foreign lands and who has suffered the consequences of following this call in the form of estrangement from loved ones, disdain from neighbors and co-workers, and death threats and imprisonment from strangers.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…and are persecuted for righteousness sake...”
I listened to a podcast about a man whose father ‘forced him to attend’ the March on Washington in 1963 as he recounted listening to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Dream” through the eyes and ears of a then-seventeen year-old boy. I heard him speak of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.
“Blessed are the peacemakers…”
I got involved with some parishioners who have worried about a woman who sometimes abuses the generosity of the church, and probably has more pain than we know.
They have had to face what every Christian faces one way or another...balancing the needs of the many with the needs of the few, and trying to walk that narrow path of doing what's right for the community, the church, the person, and themselves...of loving our neighbor...even this neighbor. Balancing generosity and accountability. This is hard, hard work.
“Blessed are the pure in heart…”
I watched a young woman face some hard choices coming down the pike, what with going on maternity leave, having to close a business (at least for a couple of months), wondering how to make ends meet, and knowing that somehow, God would hold her in his hands during all of this.
“Blessed are the meek...”
And I watched that video that was released Friday of horrible police brutality – police wickedness – from my home state, and saw people weep and wail or just stand stunned, wondering “Why, O Lord, why? When will this ever end? How can we get past such evil that we gleefully bring upon ourselves?”
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you...”
The Kingdom of God is right here, in you, in me. Those beatitudes are lived out right here, iin you, in me. And because the kingdom of God is within you, then the world is blessed. All those people...out there...they are blessed because of you.
Blessed are the poor in spirit...theirs is the kingdom of heaven, when YOU reach out with a kind word and a gentle, loving heart.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted even if it means all YOU can simply do is sit with them and love them and walk with them out of the darkness of their heart into the light.
Blessed are the meek, if you will walk with them and care for them.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled, if YOU will stand up for justice and change when you KNOW that what is happening out in the world is destroying the human spirit.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy, and all it takes is for YOU to love your neighbor as your Father in heaven has loved you.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God, if YOU will just pray for the all those out in the darkness, crushed by the rotting hearts of wicked men.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God, if only YOU will stand with them and call them “brother, sister.”
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, if YOU will stand with them, struggle with them, suffer with them, fight with them, not letting them endure this persecution alone.
So blessed are you, if you do these things. You will be hated, because haters gotta hate. And love is hated most of all. But your reward is great. And the reward is this: those who hate you, and look at you, and see you for what you are...they will name you, and that name will be... “Christian.”
Amen.