I am a wanderer. I would say that I am a seeker, but sometimes I have no idea what I might be seeking, so I will stick with wanderer. This blog is more a public journal than anything. I don't claim to have life figured out. I simply stumble from mystery to mystery, and share my reflections along the way. Sometimes I feel burdened, and trudge. Sometimes? Well sometimes grace breaks through, and its time to dance.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
God bless us
The beatitudes do not tell us what to do. They tell us who
we are, and more importantly, they tell us who Jesus is.” (Barbara Brown
Taylor, Home by Another Way, 55.)
_______________________________________________
Jesus had a way of turning the world upside down
Nothing about him made sense
In term of standard ‘wisdom’
If he was who people say he is
If he truly was the incarnation of the Sacred
A “first born” who came to show us looks like when we
allow the Sacred Presence
be fully expressed in human lives…
then he had a strange way of showing us
Born among the animals
Born into poverty
Born into obscurity
A common man
With common parents
Living in a rural city
A ministry on the backroads of Galilee
But as weird as all that!
His behavior
His words
He gathered around him people of no importance
He spent time with the lowest of the low
He broke a lot of rules
He comforted the afflicted (as they say)
And afflicted the comfortable
But it were his teachings that really turned things
upside down
Love your enemies
Turn the other check
Go the second mile
Give more than you are asked for
Give up all that you have
Over and over Jesus said things that make us stop
(if we really listen) and gape.
But nothing is stranger than the beatitudes
Where Jesus truly turns everything upside down
What we normally think of as bad, is good
What we normally think of as good, is bad (Luke’s
version)
What do we do with these stranger verses?
We cannot see them as commandments
They do not (BBT) tell us what to
Jesus does not say (at least in the Beatitudes) be poor
Or grieve
Or starve
Or become a person who is meek
He says when we find ourselves in these places
We are blessed
Which when you think about it is good news
Because almost all of us find ourselves in some of these
places
Where we are struggling, or in grief, or pain
Where we have been humbled
And knowing God is with us in those moments
Is indeed a comfort
But perhaps not that comfortable
Because the implication is, that if we are following the
way of Jesus
The way of radical giving
And love
And acceptance
And service
And humility
When we are people who expend themselves for others
Not thinking of ourselves first
But thinking of God
And thinking of others
We will find, in many cases, our world turned upside down
We like to think following God, and being blessed by God
means our lives will look like those of the mega pastors
(perhaps)
That we will have great cars, and amazing clothes
and mansions to live in
and private jets to enjoy
That we will be rich, and powerful
Yahooo!
But perhaps, if we follow the way of Jesus
Really follow the way of Jesus
We will sometimes,
Maybe often
Grieve
It hurts to see others in pain
And to walk with them in that pain
It is painful to see injustice, and inequity
And to feel with those afflicted by that injustice and
inequity
Perhaps the beatitudes do describe
the things that can come in to the life
of the one who walks the way of service and love
but still
we are told, there is blessing
The blessing of being close to God
The blessing of making a difference
The blessing of walking next to Jesus
Whose very life is described by the Beatitudes
The man of sorrows acquainted with grief
The one who picked up all the pain and fear, hate and
greed of the world
And carried it with him to the cross
That it might die there
It is odd, perhaps,
To think of blessing this way
But seriously
How blessed are the pushy
The ultra wealthy
The powerful
If they felt blessed
Would they keep grasping for wealth and power?
Would they always be hungry for more
Would they need to abuse power to feel strong
Have to make others less so they can be more?
It is I know
A mixed up messy thing
Full of paradoxes and contradictions
It does not always make sense
It is rarely easy
But who Jesus was and is
The blessed one, is illustrated in these blessings
And who we are called to be
Is equally defined
And what this all tells us
In that upside down
Weird way of God
Is that when we are faithful
Even if being faithful puts us in a very difficult place
We are truly blessed
And if we are wrapped up in the wrong stuff
(think Luke’s woes)
Wealth, power and acclaim
We are,
Well,
Not
Even if the world says we are
So…
God bless us
everyone
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