Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?
I guess I was a little nervous. When I was first here at FPFC, I had not officiated at many weddings yet. The ceremony was held in the Great Room upstairs, and we had gotten through the charge, declaration, the exchange of vows and rings quite well. The next thing in the great order of nuptials is "the Kiss."
The right way to do it is to say to the Groom, "You may now kiss your bride." But I misspoke. What came out of my mouth was, "’Sam’ you may now bless your bride." He turned to me with eyes this big and a smile this wide and said, "Right here?!" Everybody lost it, and I’ve never forgotten it. Maybe I’ve forgotten that I’ve already told you this story?
Did you know that the word bless actually comes from an OE word blod, which sounds like our word blood, doesn’t it? In fact, the word originally described a pagan ritual that involved sprinkling blood on an altar. It doesn’t have anything to do with blood.
The word bless has been usurped into the vernacular in statements like, "We were blessed to get a parking space by the door"; or "We were blessed to win the Megabucks." Being blessed has nothing to do with getting lucky—no matter what my groom thought. The word we know as "bless" actually came from an ancient word, blod, which meant to spread blood on an altar, a pagan ritual beyond our ken.
For Christians, blessings come from God and have everything to do with faith. Yet, clearly the world is taking some of our faith language and "reframing" it to mean something completely different. For instance, a redemption center is not a church but a place to bring returnable bottles and cans.
How many phrases (idioms) can you think of that contain a form of the word "Bless"? We have the blessed event; bless your heart; bless your soul. We have mixed blessings, unexpected blessings, blessings in disguise; counting our blessings; bless one’s lucky star; bless her cotton socks (British/Australian humor). There’s even a proverb: "blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
In the OT lesson this morning, we meet Micah, a prophet speaking for a disappointed God—disappointed and frustrated by Israel’s reframing the rituals of sacrifice to meaning that they were "good with God." Micah’s message to the masses is that calves a year old, thousands of rams, numerous rivers of oil, or firstborn infanticide" means nothing to God. If one’s life of faith fails to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, then what one might think is a blessing from God is probably nothing more than a case of getting lucky. There’s nothing blessed about it.
In the NT lesson, Jesus begins his very first sermon with the word "Blessed." Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart; blessed are the peacemakers.
This list of seven blessings is called the Beatitudes. The name comes from the Latin translation of the Sermon on the Mount, which begins each blessing with the word "beati" which means "happiness" or "wealth." If you wanted to, you could replace "blessed" with the words "happy" or "wealthy." They fit, but they do not frame the true meaning of the message.
Happy and Wealthy have connotations far afield of blessedness. The passage may sound like the outline for a best-selling self-help paperback, but for the followers of Christ, it’s unwise to reframe the beatitudes into the seven secret ways to find happiness or become wealthy.
Truly, the Beatitudes are about finding God-given strength in humility. Just as I Corinthians 13 is the classic passage on love, Matthew 5:1-12 is the finest treatise on humility. Let’s find out why1:
1 Sproul, RC. "The Beatitudes." www.ligonier.org
The poor in spirit are those convinced of their spiritual poverty. Nothing humbles a person faster than the recognition of just how far they are from the person God created them to be.
Those who mourn acknowledge their continued sinfulness because of their spiritual poverty, and such recognition causes them to mourn over their condition. Also humbling.
The meek have strength of character allowing them to withstand mistreatment by others and abide in adverse circumstances in their lives without becoming resentful or bitter toward God or anyone else. This is humility of self-understanding.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness have a growing recognition of their continued sinfulness, coupled with humbling realizations that their sins are covered by the blood of Christ. The tension between what they desire to be and what they still see themselves to be produces a continual state of humility toward God and other people.
The merciful are those who realize how much they have been forgiven, and they readily forgive those who sin against them. Mercifulness begins with humility, with a deep sense of one’s own spiritual poverty coupled with a growing realization of how much one has been forgiven by God.
The pure in heart have not achieved sinless perfection, as one might think. Their lives are characterized by a sincere desire for and an earnest effort toward holiness even though only God is holy. This, too, is humility.
Peacemakers take the initiative toward peace even when they have been wronged. Only when we have this attitude toward ourselves can we seek to be peacemakers among others. Humility leads to peace.
The Beatitudes, I think, reframe for followers then and now God’s message through Micah to people prone to disobedience. You see, God requires us to seek justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with him because God is faithful in all things to us.The faith we practice as individuals, as congregations, and as the body of Christ is not about attaining happiness or wealth or good luck for ourselves; it is about the blessing of being in covenant with a wholly holy God who only requires us to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him.
These requirements and the necessity of obedience are not God’s way of humiliating us. They are there to bring us the best blessing of all: new life in Jesus Christ. Through the sacred meal we are about to share, we remember that Jesus took on the ultimate humiliation of death on a cross. This is a blessing, a spreading, or shedding, of blood, that the world will never understand.
How does one reframe the action of an innocent man, the Son of God, being whipped and stripped, a savior pleading and bleeding, to secure for sinners and for lost and disobedient souls God’s ultimate blessing: everlasting life for those who seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.
So for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, and in plenty and in want, let us take a vow today to be a blessing to people through lives reframed and refocused on seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.
And with humble hearts, friends, let’s bless one another in God’s name—and, oh yeah, do it right now. Amen.
February 2, 2014/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/Rev Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
