You are blessed

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Sunday morning Beverley

It's one of those February days when you feel like you can catch a whiff of spring in the air. On the way up Beverley Road to the church, I stop at the Mexican panaderia for a coffee and a galleta.  It's just up the street from the Pakistani halal restaurant. There are Cyrillic language hand bills on the telephone poles. I love the funky diversity of this old Victorian stretch of Brooklyn.

Church today will include an older member who has come back after her believed Baptist pastor died and father who cares gently for his son. It is a gathering if the faithful.

Here is my reflection:

Since last we were together, the first month of the year has come to an end. January is over. It’s gone by quickly. The impeachment trial has gone by quickly as well. NO witnesses or anything to slow it down with its inevitable conclusion. Seeing people wearing surgical masks on the buses and subways is making me anxious. We’ve been mourning the tragic death of a beloved sports star, Kobe Bryant. Tributes to him everywhere. One of those players who like Derek Jeter defined the landscapes of my youngest son’s years. And today is Super Bowl Sunday, that annual extravaganza of excess and advertising and football. Without a team to cheer for, I’ll start my night helping serve a meal at our local homeless shelter. 

I was proud that in 1990, a Presbyterian Church in South Carolina did something new…here’s the prayer that started it..  The Souper Bowl of Caring began in 1990 with a simple prayer said by Reverend Brad Smith at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina:

Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat.

22 churches raised $5,700 in the first year. The number of groups involved has steadily grown each year, and so has the amount raised and put back into the communities.  It became a movement that spread all across the country, last year raising over $9million dollars. Both GeorgeW. Busch and Jimmy Carter participate. It’s not only money but service. I was glad when my church participated for so many years. Led by the youth…Sometimes with real soup! Just an example of the difference one person, one church can make. And a reminder, when we sometimes need it, that good things, too,  can grow.

Today we have two of my favorite scriptures….Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 5: 1-12.  This is what we call the “sermon on the mount.” We have it in Matthew and Luke, where it’s the sermon on the plain. (I’ve  been there…maybe he was at the bottom, maybe upon the hill, it doesn’t really matter..they call it the “mount of the beatitudes..” What’s important is what gets said. And there’s some differences, too. In Luke he’s speaking directly to the crowd, and it’s all straight out.  Matthew’s words are more nuanced, like not “the poor” but “poor in spirit”…But look closer in Matthew, Jesus has gone up the hill, the disciples have followed. And he is speaking to the disciples, not the crowd. He speaks most of this in the 3rd person as he speaks of :

Blessed are the poor in spirit, … those who mourn…. the meek… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…“Blessed are the merciful… the pure in heart….. the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God….. those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake….

You can almost  see him pointing towards the crowd. In that assembly are some of all those he has said are blessed. I’m sure that those descriptions fit many who are here today….finally he comes to address directly the disciples…

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

He knows that to truly follow him, there will be a price. There will be a cost. And he is preparing the for that reality, asking something hard….that they know they are blessed…even when being reviled, persecuted and having evil uttered against you…because that will happen…and if it is  on his account, we are blessed. (Though it may not feel like it…)

Some have said that Jesus’ sermon on the mount was an idealist vision, he didn’t actually expect us to act that way. But more so we see that it was a central part of Jesus’ mission to declare that the Biblical mandated Jubilee was to be made REAL. Debts released, properly regained and all slaves set free. Harriet Tubman was told even by her staunchest supporters that what she wanted to do, lead slaves all the way to the Canadian border from the Deep South, was impossible, dangerous, unwise.   But she did it anyway. She directly saved over 70 slaves, liberated hundreds more and never lost a one…

She said: 

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

 I was happy to learn she died surrounded by friends and family at 91. Sometimes things work out all right for someone…she certainly deserved it.....

The Micah passage means a lot to me. It was the theme of a national ministry I was in for years. We even commissioned a song about it that’s now in the hymnal. And we named our first son Micah.

In one sentence it pretty much sums up the beatitudes, Torah, all. 

What does the Lord require of us? Simply this…

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
          and what does the LORD require of you
     but to do justice, and to love kindness,
          and to walk humbly with your God?

If we ever worry about what we’re up to…just make that test…are doing justice? Are we loving  kindness? And are we walking humbly with God?

 That’s it.  So until we meet again…try that for a day. Maybe two. Or more,,,

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
          and what does the LORD require of you
     but to do justice, and to love kindness,
          and to walk humbly with your God?

Our prayers lift up family members struggling with different kinds of pain. Daughters, uncles, grandchildren, parents...We share communion with one another. Then head downstairs for refreshments. And I will soon be on my way ot an outdoor wedding in Central Park.