Saint Rachel. Trusting We are Loved. Avoiding Tummy Aches.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
November 2, 2025
All Saints’ Sunday, C
Ephesians 1:11-23
Psalm 149
Luke 6:20-31

My son, on Halloween afternoon, said he was going to eat all of his Halloween candy that night and make himself sick. I didn’t point out that he was going to get sick if he ate all of his Halloween candy, mind you. He said, “I’m going to eat all of my Halloween candy and make myself sick.” I asked him not to, pointing out that if he did that, I’d have to take care of him, so really, he’d just be making life difficult for me, not to mention that he’d feel terrible and regret the decision. Grudgingly, he agreed to have mercy on his dad and not eat all of his candy in one night.

So, my darling angel chose to care about someone else and get a little less pleasure for himself. What a saint, and truly isn’t that the way of the saints? How blessed are you who don’t eat all of your Halloween candy in one sitting, for you avoid a tummy ache, as well as your father’s displeasure. That’s from an older version of scripture.

Seeking a little less pleasure for yourself so you can care more about other people and not get a tummy ache. That really does sound like what Jesus was talking about in the blessings and curses we heard him give in our reading from Luke 6 today.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Woe to you who eat all of your candy all at once and even take more of other people’s candy, so they don’t have as much and eat all of that too, but blessed are you who have just enough candy to enjoy and not get a tummy ache. It’s not the best analogy, but the point works. 

Woe to you who have far more than you need and tend not to be all that bothered by the struggles of those around you. Woe to you who have far more than you need and end up relying almost totally on yourself and your money, seemingly without the need of anyone else. 

That’s not how God made creation, for us to depend on ourselves alone with our stuff. We were made to depend upon one another. 

So, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is present when we are in love, and peace, and service with one another. When we are not rich, we kinda have to depend on one another, and Jesus calls that a blessing. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the kingdom of God. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the lives of the saints. 

Put that way, being a saint sounds kinda good, and not terribly hard.

I knew a young man when I was a youth minister, many years ago. He said he didn’t want to be a saint because it seemed too much like work. There were too many things he thought he’d have to say “no” to. He felt there was too much pleasure that he wouldn’t get to have.

So, he went another way with things, sought a lot of pleasure real fast, ate all of his candy at once, and he struggled quite a lot for many years. He’s doing well now, and it took a lot of work with his parents and others to help get him back on track.

Unfortunately, when he was younger, he had this notion that being a saint was all about behaving well, being good, and not enjoying life too much. He had this notion that following Jesus was all about not going to hell and having to be miserable in this life to avoid hell. Trouble is, both those notions are wrong.

Following Jesus is not about avoiding hell or being miserable in this life. Jesus never said, “Be miserable, or God will be displeased with you.” Following Jesus is about living and receiving a life of love, peace, and kindness with one another. Following Jesus is about living with trust, walking with God, and having hope for life abundant even after we die.

Being miserable is not part of the bargain. 

Being beloved and trusting how beloved we are, now that is part of the bargain.

Trust your belovedness, and then live in a way that brings love, peace, and kindness. Do not fear getting everything right. Just trust that you are beloved, and then live out that same love towards others. So, when Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” he wasn’t saying, “Make sure you’re poor so God doesn’t hate you,” Jesus’ teaching was more like, “Wait a sec, guys, you think you’re poor because God hates you? Look despite what others may say, you who happen to be poor are 100% beloved of God. Despite what others may say, you who are poor are not cursed by God. In fact, you who are poor are blessed by God, and the kingdom of God is yours to live, and love, and enjoy. 

Also, if you’re terribly jealous of those who are rich, who look down on you and think of you as cursed, God’s got some words for them, and they aren’t going to enjoy those words. 

Now, to be clear, there’s nothing particularly saintly about being poor, all by itself. Think of a guy who is angry and mean to everyone he sees, who then asks, “Do you think Jesus is cool with me? I mean, I’m a total jerk to everyone.” “Well, are you poor?” “Yeah.” “Ah, well then, you’re good. Don’t worry about it. Jesus is cool with you.”

Obviously, that’s not the case. You can be a hateful, mean, evil jerk, so long as you’re poor, of course not. Jesus wasn’t making a list of how to trick God into being on your side. 

Jesus was teaching us to trust that we are beloved, and then to live out that same love towards others. Think about the people we consider saints in our lives.

I’m thinking of one of our kid’s teachers, Saint Rachel. She was so good with our kiddo and strove with him when he was having an enormously hard time. She may never be in a book of saints or have her face on a medallion in a Christian store, but our family will always be grateful for Saint Rachel.

When we talk about people in our lives and say, “She was a saint,” we’re talking about how they were with us, the impact they had on us, the kindness, caring, and love they showed. They weren’t perfect, but they were saints to us, living the love of God and making that love real in our lives. 

That doesn’t mean perfection. It does mean habits and practices of doing good for others, treating other people as beloved. That’s part of what having faith in God is. We believe we are loved, and we let that belief be real enough to change our lives. See, we cannot separate what we believe from what we do. If we say we love God, but hate people, then we are lying to ourselves. We cannot claim to love God while hating people, and we cannot claim to love people while treating people terribly.

Having faith means we treat people well, and when we don’t treat others well, we work to repair any damage done. We see a beloved one whom we have harmed, and we work to help them heal. That’s having faith. Faith is not just what we believe with our minds, but also what we do with our bodies. 

God became human. So, our human bodies and what we do with them matter immensely. When we seek too much pleasure for our bodies all at once, eat all the Halloween candy in one night, we get a tummy ache, the people around us suffer, and our faith suffers. Our ability to receive God’s love and then love others in return suffers. So, being a saint is about living a faith of belief and action. Being a saint is not about being perfect. Being a saint is about believing we are loved, as Jesus taught that we are. Being a saint is about living out that love towards others, as Jesus taught us to do, and being a saint is about practicing that belief and way of living. 

Even as saints, we still get to have candy. We still get to enjoy life, and we get to do so with love and concern for others, trusting that we are loved. 

When We Help and Give Love to Folks in Need, We Have Jesus with Us

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston

April 6, 2025

5 Lent, C

Philippians 3:4b-14

Psalm 126

John 12:1-8

“You always have the poor with you,” Jesus said. I’ve often heard this said with a kind of fatalism. You’ll always have the poor with you so, there’s not a whole lot we can do; we wish it were different, but eh, we can’t really help. So, “You will always have the poor with you,” ends up being used as an excuse not to worry too much about poverty and those who suffer from poverty. The poor will always be with us, so just accept it and move on.

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus meant when he said, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” Jesus taught extensively about caring for the poor. Jesus taught folks with wealth to live off of less so that those with little would have more. Jesus even taught that those at the top, in modern times, the CEOs and shareholders, should choose to earn less for themselves so that those on the bottom of the pay scale could earn more. 

So, when Jesus said, “You always have the poor with you,” he did not mean, “Meh, don’t worry about ‘em.”

Jesus was talking to Judas who was making a good self-righteous show, pretending to be upset about how much money Mary had spent on the perfume she was using to anoint Jesus. It was a huge amount of money, about 10 months’ worth of minimum wage, and she was using it all in one go to anoint Jesus’ feet. So yeah, fair point, that’s an extravagant expense, but as John tells us, Judas didn’t actually care about how the money could have been used on the poor; he just wanted to be able to keep more money for himself.

So, when Jesus responded, “You always have the poor with you,” he was telling Judas, “Dude, I know what you’re really on about, and if you actually care about the poor, like you say you do, I highly recommend doing something about it.” In fact, Jesus was commanding Judas to care for the poor. “You always have the poor with you,” was a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 15:11, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’”.

Yes, Judas, you are commanded to care for the poor and needy in the land, so stop lambasting Mary, stop stealing, and start using what you have to care for those in need. In fact, Judas, not only do you always have the poor with you and should therefore care for them, but you do not always have me. 

Ok, on the one hand, Jesus was obviously speaking about his upcoming arrest and crucifixion. When Jesus was killed and then when he ascended into heaven, his friends and disciples truly didn’t have him there with them anymore. He continued and continues now to dwell in our hearts, in our very souls and bodies, and yet, Jesus is not walking among us physically, at least not in the way he was a couple thousand years ago. 

In Matthew 25:31-46, however, Jesus did say that whatever we do to the least among us, we do to him. We do have Jesus with us among the very poor and needy whom Jesus commanded Judas to care for. By not caring for others among us, we push Jesus away. 

So, anytime someone dismissively says, “You always have the poor with you,” and therefore figure there is nothing we can or should do about it, they are ignoring Jesus and pushing Jesus away. By words and actions that care only for the wealthy and do nothing for the poor and needy, people reveal the truth of Jesus’ statement, “you do not always have me.” When we push away, trample on, and ignore the poor and needy among us, we push away, trample on, and ignore Jesus and find his words are true. We don’t have Jesus with us. 

So, the truth is, we always have the poor with us; we always have people in need among us, but depending on how we treat them, we don’t always have Jesus. 

So, what are we then to do with the hugely expensive bit of perfume that Mary used up in one sitting to anoint Jesus’ feet. Well, it may not have been the best use of money ever in the history of the world, but Jesus meant a huge amount to their family. Beyond that, they seemed to have some idea of Jesus’ importance beyond just a family friend, and Mary wanted to honor and bless Jesus, and draw near to him in this act of pure love. 

Giving of ourselves to spend time with Jesus, never a bad idea. That’s part of what Paul was saying in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul had been one of the absolute best at his religion, and I don’t think there’s really a contest about being better than others at religions, but even so, Paul was the GOAT at his religion, and he gladly let all of it go when he came to know God as a human being, Jesus. 

Mary had this hugely expensive bit of perfume, and she got rid of all of it, used it all at once, in order to be near and offer love to Jesus. 

Now, don’t let anyone fool you into giving them all your money for some Jesusy, religious, whosadeewhatsit. “Send us $1000 and all your prayers will come true.” “Support our ministries with all you’ve got, and God’ll give it back to you with interest.” The only folks what get rich off things like that are the preachers.

No, when we give all that we have to draw near to Jesus, we’re giving our lives, our wills, desires in order to follow Jesus more fully. Sometimes we do give money to support ministries, and we do give money to help others in need, and when we’re helping those other people, we are drawing near to and loving Jesus. 

Realize too that when we give things up in order to draw near to and love Jesus, they’re usually things that we find we’re just fine without. Paul didn’t regret giving up his number one religious guy card, and Mary didn’t regret using all of that perfume on Jesus. She found afterwards that she didn’t need it anymore. 

When we help others in need, we tend to find that we didn’t really need whatever it was we gave up in order to give that help. We find instead that we have spent time with Jesus in those moments, and it was well worth it. We’ve always got folks in need among us, and when we help and give love to folks in need, we have Jesus with us as well.

Punk-Rock Mary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 22, 2024
4 Advent, C
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55

We just heard in our Gospel reading Mary’s words of praise to God, not only for placing Jesus to grow in her womb, but also praise to God for the upheaval God has planned for humanity. We call Mary’s words, “The Song of Mary” or “The Magnificat”, and I heard a comment last week that someone wished there was a punk-rock version of the Magnificat, and that seems to fit pretty darn well the whole idea of Mary’s song. The status quo ain’t quo, and God is not ok with how things are: the rich get richer while the poor struggle ever harder. 

That won’t stand in God’s eyes; there will be an upheaval, Mary proclaims. The lowly will be raised up, and the rich will be sent empty away. If that ain’t punk rock, or rap, or metal, or any kind of protest music, I don’t know what is. 

We’ve got these quiet, mindful, demure images of Mary, hands folded, piously looking heavenward: a dutiful little housewife with no real will of her own, other than to say, “You bet!” to the Holy Spirit impregnating her with Jesus. Hmm, let’s look at Mary for a minute.

She was likely about 14, the general age for marriage back then, and she was risking everything by saying “Yes” to God’s offer to have her be the mother of Jesus, the mother of God as a human being. She was risking her marriage as Joseph may or may not have believed and understood that she was bearing God’s son. She was therefore risking her life because if Joseph didn’t believe that she was bearing God’s son, she could have been killed for adultery, bearing another man’s child. If not killed, she was still risking being ostracized and outcast for dishonoring her family and bringing some unknown man’s child into the world with no real hope of land or security.

So, Mary was taking a big risk by saying “Yes” to God. “Let it be with me, your servant, according to your will,” she said to God, and she seems to have been pretty darn excited about it. Quiet, mindful, and demure? No, Mary was excited, faithful, and outspoken, and she spoke out about what God was doing in the world by becoming human and living among us. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” she said, because she was so excited about what she knew what was coming.

She knew what the angel Gabriel had told her, that Jesus would be the son of God and that he would rule forever. Mary also seems to have known the scriptures because what Mary was describing in her punk-rock, rap, metal protest song was the kind of status quo smashing action that God had taken continually throughout the scriptures. 

Oppression of the poor laborers by the rich ruling class, yeah, that kind of stuff has never sat well with God, and we see throughout the scriptures God telling the people of Israel and other nations that a reconning is coming because of their oppression of the poor. ‘Oh, you’re very religious, and that’s great,’ God would say, ‘but when you have a society in which those at the top keep getting more and those at the bottom don’t have enough to live on, then by your actions you show that I’m not the one you’re worshipping.’ 

That was God’s complaint, over and over. There was outright idolatry too, but time and again, God’s big complaint against the people was that when their society became one in which the rich had more than they could ever need and the poor worked hard for not enough, then the people’s god had become something other than actual God. 

“But we worship you all the time,” the people say, and God says, “Yea, I don’t know you, for I was naked and hungry, without shelter, and you did nothing but stare with indifference and contempt.” That’s how Jesus said judgement will be, the same kind of reconning that God has brought throughout human history. 

So, when Mary sang, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty,” she was being a punk-rock prophet. She was remembering what had happened over and over when God intervened in our world.

Now, we could look at Mary’s protest anthem as a song about class warfare, rich vs. poor, the rich losing the battle and the poor overtaking them in conflict. As a rock song, that would certainly sell a few albums, and the movie would be great to watch, but I’m not sure God would be all that delighted in such devastating a conflict. 

See, what we read about God and what we hear Mary proclaim is that God does not desire for one group to rise up and destroy the other. It happens a lot. An oppressive and powerful minority is eventually ousted as the oppressed rise up in violence against them. We recently saw this happen in Syria as the oppressive government was overthrown after over a decade of civil war.

Violent uprising is the way things tend to go after the oppressed have finally had enough, but I don’t think that’s what Mary was singing about. Punk-rock Mary was a revolutionary, but not a violent revolutionary. John the Baptist was in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth when Jesus was in the womb of Mary, and even in the womb, when John heard Mary speak, he leapt for joy.

The revolution that Mary was singing about was the kind of revolution that John started when he went into the wilderness baptizing people. Mary was singing about a revolution of repentance. That’s the kind of revolution we see God desiring throughout scripture, constantly warning the people that violent revolution is coming if you don’t repent of oppression. Violent revolution is coming, God warns, if your society doesn’t stop claiming to worship me while actually worshipping wealth and power. 

God’s desire is to break the cycle of violent uprising. God’s desire is revolution of repentance where the rich and all of society will turn away from their love of wealth and power and instead learn to love one another. That is what John proclaimed in the wilderness. That is what Jesus taught over and over again. That’s what Jesus gives us the power to do.

In our world today, we can’t go on as we are. A society increasingly ruled by wealthy oligarchs who push for rules to benefit themselves while almost fifty percent of people struggle to make ends meet. Society can’t go on that way.

So, we look to Jesus, to the revolution of repentance and love which he brought. We sing the song of punk-rock Mary, calling for and living for a revolution of repentance and love, rather than a violent revolution. That’s why Mary’s soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord. God lifts up the poor and the oppressed. God turns our hearts to repentance and love to end oppression by breaking the cycles of violence and leading us to God’s kingdom of peace. 

But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not Care for Them!

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
September 24, 2023
Proper 20, Year A
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Psalm 145:1-8
Matthew 20:1-16

But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not Care for Them!

“But God, I wanted you to hurt them, not care for them!” That’s Jonah’s complaint against God over the people of Nineveh. Jonah was a prophet sent by God to tell the people of Nineveh to turn from their harmful ways and follow God’s ways instead. Jonah didn’t want to go there because he wanted God to kill all the people of Nineveh, and he knew if he went there, they would repent and God would show mercy.

So, when God took him to Nineveh on the Whale Express, he preached to the people, and they repented, and then Jonah began to sulk. “I wanted you to hurt them, God, not care for them.” Jonah was displeased because God’s love for humanity was too much for Jonah’s taste. “It’s great that you love me, God, but you’re not supposed to love those other ones. I don’t love them. I don’t care about them, so you shouldn’t either, God.”

If we’re really honest, Jonah’s contempt for humanity tends to show up in all of us, even if in less obvious ways. The people we won’t forgive. Our “my way or the highway” mentality. The irredeemable people we know are on the outs with God. Sometimes our contempt for humanity is even less obvious than that. Jesus illustrated this in his teaching about the Kingdom of God with his parable of the laborers in the vineyard.

In Jesus’ parable of the Kingdom of God, people who only worked an hour got paid the same as people who worked all day. That’s not fair, we may cry, and we’d be right. It’s not fair. God doesn’t seem all that concerned with our notions of fairness. God seems concerned about people, the healing and well-being of all of us and of all people.

All of the people in Jesus’ parable needed enough to live on, and so they each received the usual daily wage. That wasn’t making anyone rich. The daily wage was enough to live on. So, when folks who worked only an hour received the usual daily wage, they were receiving just enough to live on.

Well, it’s still not fair, we may say, so let’s look at where our notions of fairness get us. If the folks who only worked for an hour only got paid for an hour’s worth of work, they’d have had about an eighth of what they needed to live. If they kept on with only an eighth of what they needed, they’d soon enough be starving and dead.

The landowner had enough for that not to happen. He was able to pay all of his workers enough to live on, even those who were only able to work for an hour. Is it fair? No, but the other option for the people who could only work an hour is eventually just to let them die.

That’s where our notions of fairness get us. You can’t live off only an eighth of a day’s worth of wages. So we see, our notions of fairness actually hold people in contempt just as much as Jonah did with the people of Nineveh. “I wanted you to hurt them, God, not care for them” Jonah was thinking. Then the laborers in the vineyard were thinking, “It’s not fair that those who only worked an hour got paid for a full day’s worth of work.” The possibly unconscious reality was then, “I don’t care about them, and neither should you, God. If they die, they die.”

We may not actually think that last part, but our notions of fairness leave us with the contemptuous mentality of “If they die, they die.” That’s the economic reality of those upset about fairness.

Jesus’ parable of the kingdom of God is about economic justice, because economic justice seeks to care for people and heal people. Remember, that’s the whole point of the gospel, for God to heal us and for us to heal each other. So, in God’s kingdom, we use what we have for the well being of others.

The wealthy landowner needed workers, and the workers needed enough to live on. The landowner could have only paid an eighth of a day’s wage for those who only worked an hour, and that’s probably what would happen most often in our economy. The landowner got to save some money by only paying them for the hours they worked. They weren’t owed anything else, and anyone who complained could easily be replaced by someone else the next day.

That’s often how our economy works, but that’s not how the kingdom of God works. If all who call themselves Christian were really serious about living the kingdom of God, people would be paid what they really need, not just what employers can get away with paying them. Of course, not all employers do that. Many employers do pay what people need, but a great many do not, and a great many people get extremely wealthy while their lowest paid workers are in poverty.

That’s not the kingdom of God, and for those who think Jesus’ parable is all about getting into heaven when we die, don’t kid yourselves. Saying this parable is all about life after death is definitely a convenient way of ignoring the economic justice that is taught in this parable, but getting to heaven when you die is not what Jesus was teaching. The parable wasn’t a metaphor for life after death. Jesus was talking about life here on Earth and God’s continued desire for us to treat one another with love and to create a society in which we care and use our riches generously.

If you look at the acts of Jesus and his other teachings, he was continually healing the poor and sick, those who had been left with only an eighth day’s wage, and he was continually telling those with great wealth to give what they had to the poor.

Pretending that this parable is not about economic justice is just one more way to ignore the fact that our apathy towards others and our desires for “fairness” would leave many people dead, and in fact, our apathy and unthinking ways do leave many people dead.

“But God, it’s not fair that those who only worked an hour got paid for a full day’s worth of work.” Well, if we paid people what the really needed, not just for the amount they were able to work, wouldn’t that lead to apathy? Many would argue that, saying, “God’s economy wouldn’t work. I’ll bet the next day, in Jesus’ parable, no one showed up to work until the last hour.” Well, I’ll bet the landowner had a fix for that.

Notice the people who only worked an hour wanted to work, and the landowner was happy to hire them. If folks had showed up at the last hour, unwilling to work until then, I have a feeling he wouldn’t have hired them. God’s economy works. We just have to be willing to care about one another as much as God does. We have to be willing to let go of our ideas of fairness. We have to be willing to let go of our apathy towards one another and our contempt towards one another. Then, we will see “justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) Then, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). Then, we will see God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Smacked Upside the Head by Hope

Brad Sullivan

4 Epiphany, Year A

January 29, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Matthew 5:1-12

Smacked Upside the Head by Hope

“I get it, guys.  The Gospel sounds foolish, and you feel kinda dumb for proclaiming it, but just go with it.  That’s how God works.”  That’s basically what Paul is saying in his letter to the Corinthians.  He says Jesus seems like foolishness to the nations, although for us, he calls Jesus the wisdom of God. “For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.”  It’s as if Paul is saying, “I get it, guys.  The Gospel sounds foolish, and you feel kinda dumb for proclaiming it, but just go with it.  That’s how God works.” 

Jesus’ words sounding foolish, at least on some level, certainly seems to be happening with the beatitudes, the beginning of his sermon in Matthew 5.  Now, I love, this sermon, this list of blessings, this list of people who are blessed.  I love that Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  That’s fantastic.  There is hope in those words, as if even in our darkest moments, life is still moving towards hope.  At the same time, I can see how Jesus’ words sound kinda foolish.

“I am so blessed because I’m really down right now.  I feel kind of bereft of spirit, life, energy…I just don’t have anything left right now.  I feel so blessed.”

What!?  I think his disciples might have been thinking the same thing.  “What are you talking about Jesus?”

“I am so blessed because I’m mourning and in deep sorrow over the death of my father.  It feels like the world stopped when he died, and everyone else is silly enough to think the world is still going.  I feel so blessed.”

“I am so blessed because I don’t really speak up for myself all that forcefully.  I don’t really insist on things going my way, and consequently, things often don’t go my way.  I feel so blessed.”

“I am so blessed because I’m not really all that righteous.  I really want to be, but I’m just not.  I keep on messing up, not loving God or others the way that I’d like to.  I feel so blessed.”

I’m guessing that kind of threw Jesus’ disciples for a loop.  It doesn’t make an overabundance of sense on the first hearing.  None of those really falls into the category of things or people that feel particularly blessed.  Maybe not necessarily cursed, but blessed?  Phrases regarding blessing that sound more familiar to us are, “I am so blessed because of all that God has given me:  my talent, my family, my success, my money, my friends, etc.  I’m blessed because of my many obvious blessings.”  That makes sense.  That we get. 

Looking again at what Jesus said about blessing, we kinda get some of the last ones.  The merciful, who doesn’t like them?  They’re merciful. They’re great; of course they’re blessed.  The peacemakers?  We love the peacemakers.  We give them prizes from Sweden.  Sometimes we kill them.  The peacemakers!  They’re great, of course they’re blessed.

The pure in heart?  Those who are persecuted for being righteous.  Well, of course God’s going to bless those people.  They’re his favorites, right?

But what about when they’re not anymore?  What if they stop being persecuted, or what if their hearts aren’t quite so pure anymore?  Are they still blessed?  Do they move to a “blessings pending” category?  I think if we were in charge, they probably would. 

I think if we were in charge, blessing would be given based on our perception of merit, and those who are considered blessed would be those whom we perceive as obviously blessed with whatever great things.

Fortunately, God doesn’t seem to work that way.  Those peacemakers who lose heart, who are so tired of living in a world of conflict, a world that just won’t make peace no matter how hard they try to make peace; those peacemakers who end up losing heart and being totally bereft of spirit, life, energy that they just don’t have anything left, God has already declared them blessed.  Not blessings pending or blessings removed.  God has declared the poor in spirit to be blessed.

Those who were persecuted for righteousness’ sake so much that they just couldn’t take it anymore, and are no longer the paragons of righteousness that they had been even though they still really want to be righteous, God has already declared them blessed.  Not blessings pending or blessings removed.  God has declared those who hunger and thirst for righteousness to be blessed.

Blessed are the perfect?  No.  Blessed are those who never mess up?  No.  Blessed are those who are God’s favorites, those who do everything right?  Jesus didn’t say that.  There is no hope in that.  If that were the case, if God only declared as blessed those who did everything right, then God would be forever counting our sins against us and holding the carrot of blessing over our heads, smacking us upside the head with it when we mess up.  Does that sound anything like the Gospel of Jesus crucified?  Do the beatitudes sound anything like the words of someone who is interested in constantly holding our sins and past mistakes against us?  No.  There is no hope in constantly being condemned for past mistakes.  There is no new life, no resurrection.  The beatitudes are full of hope.

While our brains tend to get hung up on our own past mistakes and the past mistakes and sins of others, the crazy, awesome, foolishness of the Gospel is that God doesn’t get hung up on our past.  God is constantly looking to our future, vastly more concerned with what we can do than what we did do.  Such forgiveness, such hope often doesn’t make sense to our brains, and yet, such forgiveness, such hope is what we are so in need of.  We long for hope, and sometimes we just can’t see it.  That’s why Jesus sometimes takes hope and smacks us upside the head with it so that we can finally see the hope that he sees and has for us.  

I’d almost like to rename the beatitudes, “smacked upside the head by hope,” because Jesus offers us hope in something greater than ourselves. Hope that we are part of that something greater.  Hope that our lives have meaning, even when we can’t see it.  Hope that mourning and sadness are not the end, but part of a journey through darkness and into light.

When my dad died, I was mourning, and I didn’t feel particularly blessed.  I was comforted though, comforted by hope through our belief in Jesus, comforted by the church sharing and proclaiming our belief in resurrection, comforted by the love and support family and friends gave.  Through all of that, our whole family was tremendously blessed. 

During difficult times, feeling very poor in spirit, I have seen blessing, often on the other side of those times, not only for having been carried through those dark times, but also for looking back and realizing the Kingdom of God, the Gospel, Jesus himself never left during those times.  We’re still part of the Kingdom of God in and through the darkness.

During Bible study last Sunday, we were in the Derrick Tavern reflecting on Psalm 23.  Chris Delange had brought the topic and we talked about the many times and places in our lives which feel like the valley of the shadow of death.  Even in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil for we trust in the shepherd, we trust in Jesus, to lead us from grazing place to grazing place.  Sometimes we must be led through the dark valleys, the valleys of the shadow of death, in order to come to the next grazing place.  Blessed are we when being led through the valley of the shadow of death, for Jesus is leading us to a green pasture, beside still waters. 

The valley of the shadow of death may be those times when we mourn, those times when we are poor in spirit, those times when we feel far from blessed.  Even in those times, even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus teaches us that we still have hope, that we are still part of his kingdom, beloved of God simply because we are beloved of God.  Jesus’ words of hope may not always make sense to us; they often don’t.  Those times are when we especially need his words.  When we are in the valley of the shadow of death, we need Jesus’ foolish sounding words to smack us upside the head with hope.