Where you are right now in this world and all the turmoil: blessed are you, because that’s where God is, too.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 4 A
Texts: Matthew 5:1-12; Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
This is our time, our moment, to be Christ.
Perhaps never before have we in our own lives seen so clearly and close by Christ’s sheep, God’s beloved, who need love, care, food and shelter, protection from the wolves.
But this is also your time, your moment, to hear perhaps more clearly than you ever have before, what Jesus, God-with-us, who loves you beyond comprehension, needs you to know and trust.
Because you have moments of despair in these days.
You wake up in the morning, eager for a new day, or you’re doing something enjoyable, and suddenly it hits you like a blow: this is the world we live in. This is the fear our neighbors face. It’s hard to see how and when this could ever end. Your spirit feels impoverished, and in those moments you can’t find hope.
But beloved one, you are blessed, Jesus says. When your spirit is poor you are exactly where you want to be, in God’s reign. God isn’t found in those who think these the best of times, who haven’t any love or empathy for anyone but themselves. Your despair means you care about the ones God cares about and you long for healing. God’s cross-shaped love says God’s reign is found amongst all whose spirits are low, where you are.
And you are feeling grief in these days.
Grieving for Renee and Alex, persecuted for righteousness’ sake, killed for righteousness’ sake, like prophets of old. Grieving for their loved ones and families. Grieving for the loss of so much, grieving over a government growing ever more cruel and fascist.
But beloved one, you are blessed, Jesus says. Your mourning means you’re exactly where God is, your heart pouring out for people who are suffering, disappearing, and dying. God isn’t found in those who rejoice at masked, armed, anonymous federal thugs grabbing five-year-olds and shipping them to vile detention centers, executing people who are trying to protect neighbors. Your mourning means you share God’s heart. A heart that went to the cross to break evil and sin in this world by loving it out of existence, a heart that says God isn’t with the violent but with their victims. Be comforted by this, Jesus says.
You long for hope and promise in these days, for justice.
It’s like a hunger and a thirst, Jesus says, wanting righteousness and justice to come to our streets, our city, our nation.
Beloved one, you are blessed in that hunger and thirst, Jesus says, because God shares it, and God promises to fill that hunger, quench that thirst. God isn’t found in those who warp the law to benefit themselves, who spit on constitutional rights while claiming to be on the side of “justice.” Who use power to harm the weak and the vulnerable. God always operates from below, Paul says today, bringing righteousness and life and wholeness to the least, the frightened, the powerless. Your longing is God’s longing, and so you will be filled.
And your heart for those who are hurt and crushed, your acts of mercy and gentleness, are God’s pure heart.
You’re not just wishing good, you’re doing good. Getting groceries to those afraid behind doors, walking the streets to protect those threatened, calling your government to account, seeing and loving your neighbor, all this mercy that comes from your heart of love, Jesus says, is God’s gentleness and mercy and heart.
So, beloved one, you are blessed in this, Jesus says. God isn’t found in the cruel and cold, the destructive and hateful. God chooses what is weak in the world, Paul says, to shame what is strong. When you are merciful and gentle and acting from God’s heart inside you, you are blessed. And you will see God in this.
You are angry in these days, yes. But you and thousands more choose to act in peace, not in violence.
To seek peace, with justice, and stand with those who are threatened and alone. To be a voice that others around the world are noticing, not returning violence for violence, but shouts and chants and songs. Not returning bullets for bullets, but whistles and car horns.
So, beloved one, you are blessed, Jesus says. You are exactly what God hoped for when you were created. God cannot support violence and abuse, killing, abduction, teargassing, warmaking. God went to the cross and allowed humans to do what we would, even execution, rather than fight back. And in the foolishness of such love and forgiveness, God shows how worthless the wisdom of this world is. In your peacemaking, your prayer for peace, your work for peace, you are God’s child.
This is the foolishness of the cross Paul proclaims, God’s foolishness that is life for you.
In these words today, Jesus gives you hope and comfort that where you are right now, what you hope for, dream for, are working on, is what God is hoping for, dreaming for, working on. Weakness, despair, grief, gentleness, kindness, mercy, love are things this world sees no value in. It says be strong and powerful and get what you want, hurt who you want.
But what the Triune God who made all things knows is that such power can’t be sustained in the face of God’s way. A way that grieves and despairs when needed, yet finds hope and comfort to move on and keep loving. A way that seeks kindness and mercy and peace because they’re the basis of life and healing. And all these so-called weak things, God shows in Christ’s death and resurrection, in Christ’s teaching and calling, are powerful enough to cast the mighty from their thrones. Powerful enough to bring life and hope and healing to this world.
So keep doing what you’re doing. You are blessed, beloved, and none of it is in vain.
Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. It doesn’t get any simpler or clearer than what Micah said millennia ago.
But when you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, when I do, when thousands do, as we’re seeing right now, God’s blessing isn’t only yours. It’s for the whole world.
God sees things very differently from the way of the world. But your joy is that it turns out you see things very differently from the way of the world too. It turns out that God is walking right next to you.
And imagine what that will mean for your life. And for the life of this world.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
