i will be good though my body be broken

i will be good though my body be broken

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter!

Today’s Gospel is probably as popular as it is unbelievable…

And that’s the problem isn’t it?

We imagine we’re so familiar with these sayings that we skip right along. “Oh, I love this part,” we say, while putting on a smile and tuning out.

Before we do that, though, let me ask us to do something: 

Try and imagine we hadn’t heard these words before.

Better yet, though, imagine that as we’re hearing these words for the first time, we’re one of those who Jesus called to follow him, or maybe someone from the crowd with a disease eavesdropping on this message Jesus gives…

Let’s try hearing today’s Gospel this way, because when we do that, these familiar sayings become appropriately shocking.

To help us really hear today’s gospel I am going to read it again, although I am going to read it from another translation; for those of you who go to the Bible Study, it’s the Message translation I read from often.

-So let’s hear these words as if we hadn’t before, as if we were a disciple of someone in the crowd…

“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

*Sounds a little different, huh?

It’s sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it?

I hope you are feeling a little unsettled, because it shows that this shocking sentiment of Jesus’ word has hit you.

See, for as well as we think we know these beatitudes, the truth is we don’t believe them.

Blessed are the poor, the mourners, the meek and hungry?

Yeah right!

That’s not what we called blessed…

If you don’t believe me, just watch five minutes of Super Bowl ads. These commercials will lay bare what we think it means to be blessed.

These advertisements will put on full display the fact that we think being blessed means having the newest, biggest and best toy; having that perfectly snappy outfit and impossibly thin body to fit therein; and while we’re at it a having a perfect smile with straight, pearly white teeth.

That’s what we’ve decided it means to be blessed.

Perhaps that is why we pretend to know these beatitudes so well; because if we let ourselves actually hear Jesus’ words we’d probably have to reevaluate everything…

Maybe, though, that is exactly what Jesus is trying to do with these so-called beatitudes,

maybe that is exactly what the life of a Christian consists of;

reevaluating everything.

Everything.

So, let’s just pause and do a little evaluating.

Why would Jesus say the poor, mourners, meek and hungry are blessed?

Or, have you been blessed; what was it like?

Have you ever blessed someone else?

Finally, what does it even mean to be blessed???

(pause)

Okay, 

so we’re having our “Incarnation” sermon series;

and I’ll grant you that incarnation is a theological concept that is hard to wrap our heads around, 

and even harder to see the connection to our everyday lives.

The truth, however, is that the incarnation is a central Christian claim, the incarnation is the unique Christian claim about God - it’s what sets us apart, so we’d darn-well better spend at least a little time coming to terms with this concept, lest we cease to be Christians.

To put it simply, the incarnation is the claim that God became a human, 

a human just like you and I, that’s it; 

furthermore, though, Christians throughout the centuries have insisted that somehow this action of God matters; 

that it makes a difference, 

that it makes all the difference in the world…

So, try this on for size:

What if the claim that God came to people by becoming one insists that the people who God comes to are not the people we’d expect,

and that when God comes to these unexpected people they are blessed,

blessed because God is near them.

We’re getting closer, aren’t we.

We’re pushing up against why the incarnation matters.

Here’s the thing,

today’s Gospel helps us understand the incarnation,

just as much as the incarnation helps us understand why today’s Gospel is so unbelievable, why it’s so scandalous.

When God becomes a human, God comes to be with humans in such a radical and profound way that humans are blessed by God’s unexpected proximity, by God’s decision to stand with us.

Here’s the really shocking thing, though; as if that wasn’t enough:
God gets closest to us when we’d least expect it.

God is near you, God is near us, 

not when we’re sitting on the set of a Lexus ad with an iced-tea in-hand,

but when we’re beset by all life has to throw at us, when we’re most empty-handed, when we can’t help but wonder if there’s any future for us;

that’s exactly when God is close, that’s precisely when we’re blessed.

Shocking, right?

Hard to believe, right?

Well, that’s what the incarnation and Jesus in today’s gospel insist…

So, do you still feel like calling yourself a Christian,

are you beginning to think you need to reevaluate some things,

are you feeling a little unsettled like I am?

I hope so.

Now, I know we’re wading deep into theological territory, but i want to go deeper.

I know we’re pushing the buttons that make humans think Christianity must be put aside, but these buttons should be pushed.

For pete’s-sake, let’s not fiddle with Christianity, 

let’s not pretend that it doesn’t matter that you’re here on a cold snowy Sunday morning when you could be anywhere else. That’s a big deal - it’s a big deal because you’re here, not because you don’t have anything better to do (heaven knows that not true), you’re here because God has brought you here. 

So let’s honor what God has already done, let’s get to the marrow of all this.

Let’s push to why any of this matters.

There’s a way of talking about how God creates; its called “effective speech.”

In other words, God says something, and it happens. 

For instance, take creation, how does God create sun and moon, light and darkness? 

God simply speaks it into existence. God says “let there be light,” and indeed there is light, that’s all it takes for God.

God speaks, it happens; that’s what effective speech is.

Well, today’s Sermon on the Mount is just such effective speech,

Jesus says blessed are the poor, mourners, meek and hungry; 

and so they’re blessed, simply because Jesus says it, because Jesus is none other than God in the flesh declaring who’s blessed.

Today is an important moment in the Gospel; 

and here’s a clue, we’re going to keep coming back to it.

Today on that mountain Jesus says blessed are the poor, mourners, meek and hungry; as we continue through Matthew, pay attention to who Jesus chooses to be amongst, who he eats with, who he calls and who he heals…

While it may not be expected, and while it may not be as obvious as hitting the jackpot; these blessings Jesus speaks today are more true, more meaningful…

When your spirit is famished, when you mourn, when your life is trampled underfoot, when you’re hungry, when God’s justice seems too far away, when you’re mocked because what you believe

you’re blessed.

You’re blessed because poverty will not have the last word on you,

neither will hunger, sorrow or slander for that matter.

Nothing will get the last word, because God has become a human suffering the same poverty, hunger, sorrow and slander; all to get near you, to be there when everything else departs even death to speak that Word over you when and where it matters, to speak the last word over you: “beloved, child.”

That is why you’re blessed,

God says it and so it’s so.

In light of that, we’re going to have a little exercise.

I want you to turn to the person next to you and say “you are a child of God” as you make the sign of the cross on their forehead. Make sure you receive such a blessing, too.

(pause)

Okay.

Now, do you know what just happened?

God’s effective speech just happened, sisters and brothers;

and here’s the cool thing: not only are you the vessel to receive such blessing, you’re the vessel to give that blessing as well. 

You are named,

and you name others as“child of God”

and nothing can change that because God has decreed it, God has said it,

through us and to us — when and where it matters.

That’s why the incarnation matters, sisters and brothers, fellow children of the God most high.

That is the truth that blows apart comfortable familiarity with today’s beatitudes, too.

When you mourn, and you will;

when you long for God’s justice, and you will;

when you’re merciful, and you will be; 

when you’re spirit is empty, and at times it will be — you’re blessed. 

You’re because God has said so, and because when God says so God is standing next to you, standing with you. 

Amen