“Hoping And Looking For The Kingdom” All Saints’ Sunday November 2, 2008

(First, read the text for this sermon: Matthew 5:1-12)

They are familiar, and even beloved – these verses we call the Beatitudes (or the “blessed ares”), from the gospel of Matthew.

Now, let me ask: did you pay attention as I read them?

Then what is going on here? "Blessed are the poor in spirit?” "Blessed are those who mourn?” To be blessed means to receive God’s favor. How can those who are struggling so mightily be blessed?

Indeed, isn’t that exactly how we do not use the word “blessing?” When do you say, “What a blessing?” It’s when something wonderful happens, isn’t it? When you marry someone wonderful you may hear, “God has blessed you!” When a child is born, people may say, “What a blessing!” When we have enough money to live comfortably, we talk about how richly God has blessed us.

But that’s not what’s going on in these first verses of chapter five of the gospel of Matthew, not by a long shot. Those who are called blessed are suffering – or they’re engaging in actions that will lead to suffering!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When is there poverty in the human spirit? Isn’t it when a person is without resources or hope? It’s when a person feels subject to larger forces. Poverty of spirit is often found among those trapped in literal poverty, or in dead-end jobs, or by debilitating illness; those confined to a nursing home. Here’s the news: theirs is the kingdom of heaven!

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Perhaps we are all mourning. We mourn the deaths of loved ones. We mourn the end of independence as the result of disability. We mourn the end of a job, and the professional identity that came with that job. We mourn when a marriage ends. We mourn when a child goes off to college. It is painful, to work through grief. When will we be comforted?

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” In Jesus’ meaning, talking to his followers, “meek” does not mean “wimp,” or “gentle,” or “doormat,” or “mild,” or “passive.” Someone who is “meek” is one with the immense courage to refuse to be violent in retaliation to violence. Instead of engaging in retribution, someone who is “meek” is living faithfully and expectantly – even when God seems slow to act.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” These are folks who are suffering because God’s will is not being done on earth: when, for whatever reason, there is scarcity. For instance, someone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness expects our nation’s leaders to do something about the lack of health insurance among the poor and unemployed, and many of those who are employed. Do you ever notice all of those who have died in their 40s and 50s, in the obituary pages? How many of them have died because they didn’t have health insurance, and so they had no preventative care that would have given them years more of life? Just one example. When there is a lack of righteousness, there is a cost in human life.

In these words, these “blessed ares,” our Lord is hoping and looking for the dawning kingdom of God to be fulfilled. Here’s the news: when the kingdom comes – which we pray for each week, and even more often by those who practice daily prayer – these situations of distress will be reversed!

For those who are “poor in spirit,” for instance, there is no hope, unless God intervenes. “When God’s rule, now under way in Jesus, is completed, there will be no poor in spirit.” There will be reversal!

Of course, the most significant reversal is the defeat of death, by Jesus the Christ, on the cross and in the resurrection. That may be why the Beatitudes are appointed to be read each year on All Saints’ Sunday. Those who mourn will be comforted, in the kingdom. Grief is not the final condition. We hope and look for the coming of the kingdom, which is already dawning, in Jesus the Christ.

When the kingdom comes, the meek will inherit the earth because there will be no need for violence. We hope and look for the coming of the kingdom, which is already dawning, in Jesus the Christ.

The kingdom will be God’s reign of righteousness – and so those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled! We hope and look for the coming of the kingdom, which is already dawning, in Jesus the Christ.

How do we know that the kingdom is already dawning? It is because we can see this reversal, now – in the actions of people who are already acting as citizens of the kingdom. The remaining Beatitudes invite and challenge you and me to live in these ways.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” When you are merciful towards others, you are bringing God’s mercy. Mercy and forgiveness lead to transformation. It is life-giving!

Those who are merciful will receive mercy at the final judgment, this passage is telling us. But, in the meantime, the practice of forgiveness is a life-giving. And as this way of life is practiced, God’s kingdom is dawning among us!

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” “The heart” means “the core or center of a person’s willing, thinking, knowing, deciding and doing.” Our hearts are with God, or they are with something other than God. When our hearts are in God, we see the dawning of the kingdom!

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” -- because they enact God’s merciful reign. Those who work to end conflict between individuals in a family or in a work group are signs of God’s dawning kingdom. Those who seek reconciliation with people who have offended them are signs of God’s dawning kingdom. Those who love their enemies are signs of God’s dawning kingdom.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

When I was in Atlanta a month ago, I visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolence, and that was a moving experience for me. It’s an experience that has come back to me when reading these last verses of this morning’s passage: remembering those who insisted on nonviolence, even under the force of fire fighters’ water hoses used against them; remembering those who were stuffed into jail cells, who responded by singing hymns! “Rejoice and be glad!?” Can you imagine how terrifying it was for those demonstrators, those who were persecuted for righteousness’ sake – who responded to their terror by singing hymns in jail?

It’s pretty clear that living as citizens of the dawning kingdom of God is not for sissies! Even if few of us will be sent to jail as a consequence of the dawning kingdom of God; even in our less dramatic day-to-day lives, unless you and I are open to receiving the strength and yearning and patience and courage that comes to us from God the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes are not good news!

However: for those who mean what they say when they pray, “your kingdom come”; for those who are hoping and looking for the kingdom; for those are already living counter-culturally, as citizens of the dawning kingdom, these verses are some of the most important in all of Scripture. What reversal is coming! What hope there is in that!

In the name of the God who creates us, who saves us, and who makes us holy. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia