Beatitudes Matthew 5

The congregation could easily see and wonder at this stain-glass window while I preached last Sunday on the beatitudes (St. Mary's in Lebanon).  The disciples look basically bored.  Only the children and the mother are paying attention!   The window gave me pause while I preached!

My Jesuit colleagues concluded that this window illustrates this piece of scripture:

"People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced the children and blessed them,
placing his hands on them."

The disciples obviously don't like it when Jesus becomes indignant with them!

But below I print Sunday's homily in part based on the reading of the Beatitudes:

THE BEATITUDES OF POVERTY, MEEKNESS, MERCY ET AL.

...Who among us really wants all of these weak and unworldly characteristics that Jesus praises as bringing on  happiness and blessedness?    I am certainly not alone.  I prefer riches to poverty and freedom from sorrow, I prefer pride to meekness, prefer to hold a grudge rather than forgive.   The world tells me that riches, pride, freedom from sorrow and a vengeful heart lead to glory and happiness.   So much for our humanity.  

Rather than imitate the Christ who becomes known for all of the characteristics in the beatitudes and who himself receives all these blessings, we imagine ourselves in a different light…. I for one, and I am sure many of you share this desire, would rather, well, be in charge of dispensing the blessedness.   As a rich person let me offer some blessings to the poor!    As a comfortable person let me offer some consolations to the sorrowful!    Let me choose which of my enemies I want to forgive and the nature of righteousness that I want to pursue.  I would rather be God and be in charge of handing out happiness.

Yes it is true that the beatitudes tell us about God’s benevolence toward us.  God offers comfort to those of us who are poor or sorrowful, to those who have paid the prices of forgiving and meekness, of peacemaking and single heartedness.  

But how do we describe this God?   Where does God find the divine strength to do this?   Do not think that God is some sugar-daddy.   Do not imagine God as some rich or comfortable person as it were dispensing blessedness from on high.   I believe that God is whole and happy and all powerful and radiates the happiness of the beatitudes because the traits of the beatitudes are the best description of God. 

God is poor in that nothing can be added to make God less poor and nothing can be taken away to make God more poor.   All the riches in the world makes no difference at all.  God is meek in that God allows sinners to find their own way and allows those who preach the death of God to keep their tongues.   God is merciful..well we know that.   God is sorrowful, too, in the sense that God loves us enough to mourn the evil that we do to one another.  Blessedness characterizes God, yes, because the divine nature is poor and sorrowful, meek and merciful and so on.

Jesus by his preaching proclaims this God, his Father as blessed and happy.   And Jesus imitates his Father in his human life by being poor and sorrowful, merciful and meek.  And, so, Jesus himself is blessed.

Let us respond!   Blessedness belongs to us, made in God’s image, to the extent that we answer the call of Jesus to this way of life.  Thanks be to God that we live in a world with so many who live and love in this way.   God without doubt has blessed many of you in this Church in similar ways.  In your poverty of spirit, your meekness, your mercy, your righteousness, you have found blessings.  Such experience makes you more generous with family and friends , more generous to the church and civic community, more generous to strangers.  God will continue to bless you.  Take courage.  God will not let us down.