Reflection: "Blessed to be a Blessing"The translation of the Greek word for “Blessed” is “happy”, “fortunate”, or maybe “lifted up”.
eg. the poor shouldn’t look down-trodden, but lift up their heads It’s often been said that we in Australia are indeed “the lucky mob, in the lucky country.” According to Credit Suisse's 2021 wealth report, Australia ranks as second on the scale of biggest gain in wealth over the past year and that puts most of us in the top 10% of the world’s wealthiest people. How, then, should we react when we listen to the blessings expressed in today’s reading from Luke’s gospel? I mean, on one hand, we have the advertisers, who try to deceive us into thinking that we still need more than we already have, but on the other hand, we know that whatever we have, has been freely provided by the God who loves us, as a gift of grace – a blessing. The words we read in Luke 6 are often called the Beatitudes. We also find them as written in Matthew's Gospel, in an expanded form. They’re the introduction to what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Earlier in chapter 6, Luke tells us that Jesus went up to the mountain to pray; as a matter of fact, he spent the whole night in prayer. Then he called his disciples to come with him, and they came to a level place, where a great crowd had gathered to hear his words, be healed of their diseases and have unclean spirits cast out. Jesus looked at the multitude of the people who had come from far and near, took pity on them and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” The poor, the hungry, and those who mourn are mentioned with special rewards. Do you think that we fit into any of these categories? Matthew says that the poor are the "poor in spirit." I guess that any economically poor people in our society, could also be low in spirits, but most of us aren’t exactly hungry for food these days – it’s our souls that need nourishment. And do we weep? Maybe we weep for others, but what about for ourselves? So, anybody can be poor in spirit, humble, and retiring. Anybody can mourn for the neglect of the Lord's way of life or can be meek or merciful or pure in heart. Anybody can thirst for God's will to be done or can strive to reconcile quarrels. But the question remains – what’s asked of us in each of the beatitudes or blessings? Isn’t it to know who we are? If we’re poor - poor in spirit - we know that we can do nothing on our own. If we’re hungry, or soul-hungering, we can begin the search through the dry periods of our life for the beauty of holiness to fill us and renew us in our lives in Christ. If we weep or mourn, we often find ourselves powerless to remedy the conditions of death, violence and injustice, until we look into the mind of Christ and pray, "What would you have me do now, Lord?" The key to looking at the beatitudes is obedience - obedience through faith. For in each of the beatitudes, that observation is there. The blessedness about which Jesus is speaking is further explained, when he says something that, at first, sounds peculiar: "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you because of your love for the Lord. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven." The prophet Jeremiah, who lived thousands of years before Jesus, summed it up when he wrote in Ch 17, v 10: “I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruits of their doings.” Bishop Richard Chartres, who was recently the Anglican Bishop of London, wrote: "When we examine Jesus' own teaching method, we see how often he was focussed on opening up the imagination of his hearers to fresh possibilities. In doing so, he sought to disorient them, in order to open the door to re-orienting them." So, we should remember the beatitudes, those lovely, blessing-full, sayings of Jesus. But his teaching doesn't just end there. He follows it with what we can call “the woes” and we need to consider these, too. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets." In later verses, he berates them to: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you." Didn't anyone tell Jesus that, in this day and age, these things are not politically correct? What should we do with our enemies, other than win a victory over them? Why should I do good to that person who has hatred in their heart for me? Should I bless the man who just cursed me? Why, I can do better than that, I can curse him back. Take more abuse? Absolutely not! I won't pray for that person. These sound like the normal, human, ways to react, but they’re not the ways of Christ, are they? Jesus asked them to reverse their way of thinking and let their minds and hearts be ruled by actions such as blessing, loving and forgiving those people who do these things to you. Recently I read a sermon by the Rev. Paul Petersen, a Presbyterian minister, who preached on the beatitudes by asking the following questions: · Are the beatitudes your attitudes? · Do you live the simple, basic life of the poor – keeping apart from the materialistic consumerism that rules our society? · Do you mourn over the loss of God as the recognized guide for our society? Not the intellectual mourning that judges and condemns society, but the heartfelt grieving of an empty spot in our life? · Are you guided by clear vision of God's desire for you? · Are you persecuted for righteousness sake? · Do your life attitudes stand in such contra-distinction from society's attitudes that you are considered strange? And he concludes, "If not, why not?" The beatitudes call us to look at our lives and accept the blessings God gives us as signs of God's faithfulness to us and in return to live in such a way that we show by word and example our faithfulness and commitment to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ to others. Just showing forth such blessings in our lives will make us a blessing for others. “O God, you've made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son. Look with compassion on the whole human family. Take away the arrogance and hatred which infects our hearts. Break down the walls that separate us. Unite us in bonds of love, and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth, that in your good time all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” Pastor Rick
2 Comments
Peter Andrews
11/2/2022 05:23:45 pm
Pastor Rick
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Lena Beryl Blok
11/2/2022 08:41:54 pm
Rick, Your message, today, makes me stop and think. We have been richly blessed and I believe God is calling us to be a blessing to others, and to share the good things we have been given and to tell others about the great love of God that we experience.
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