Blessing in the Active Voice

Matthew 5: 1- 12

Luke 6: 17 - 26

Luke 6:17-26

6:17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

Blessings in the Active Voice

Jesus must have been a great preacher. The gospel writers remember his style and content quite clearly. They remember the settings of his sermons: preached from a boat, on a mountain, on the plain. Like any good speaker, Jesus apparently repeats some of his best material. I imagine the disciples may have even rolled their eyes a bit at hearing some of the same things over and over again. But they remembered. The passage from Luke we just read is the beginning of what is called the Sermon on The Plain. Matthew records what is called the Sermon on the Mount and it begins with some of the same elements. What we call the beatitudes. They are like the passage from Luke we just heard, but a bit more extensive:

[3] "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[4] "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

[5] "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

[6] "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

[7] "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

[8] "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

[9] "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

[10] "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[11] "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Blessing in the passive voice.

The two sermons are different in many ways and the beautitudes are different, but today I’d like to focus on their similarities. Specifically, how they both are in the passive voice.

Now, when I was in school, if you used the passive voice (the egregious error of the passive voice, as my English teacher Mr. McLain would say) you were marked down. The passive voice is a cagey way of saying something happened without saying who did it. “Mistakes were made” was Ronald Reagan’s famous way of talking about errors in Iran in his 1987 address before congress. Things aren’t quite clear when you use the passive voice.

Sometimes the subject in the passive voice is assumed. We assume in the beatitudes that God is the one doing the blessing. Jesus could very well have said “God is blessing the poor.” But he didn’t. He said “Blessed are the poor.” Now Jesus is a cagey character. He often says things to get us thinking. In this stump sermon, delivered at least twice, he chooses very carefully to use this passive voice. Perhaps he is suggesting something more than just God is doling out sweet rewards to certain classes of people.

What if the active translation of these blessings has to do with us? What if we are the forces behind this blessing business?

We are called to bless.

We believe God works through us. We believe we are the body of Christ. The resurrection appearances of Jesus say over and over and over “Feed my sheep.” Jesus is all about serving others through us.

Yet when we read the beatitudes, we are like lottery ticket holders waiting for our number to be called, listening for the category that most includes us so that we can be assured of our blessing, our winnings. Even Matthew, who writes later, takes Luke’s edgy ‘blessed are the poor” and makes it into the innocuous “blessed are the poor in spirit.” Thanks goodness. That surely must mean me. Or the mourning. I do that. I’ve certainly been hungry. Yep. The beatitudes are really all about me. Me. Mimimimi. My personal blessing religion. No?

The Greek word used in the beatitudes for blessing when used in its active form in the New Testament is all but once used with us as the active agent. Later in the same sermon, Jesus says, “bless those who curse you” using a different word form.

We are so eager to be on the receiving end of the divine gravy train that we have failed to hear our responsibility here for all these years.

The Beatitudes are NOT the announcement of the divine lottery winners, but a job description. A job description for all of us together. If any one of us felt the burden of this completely, it would be overwhelming, but Jesus delivers this message to the crowds, the church, to us. This is not one of the special teachings for the elite few. This is the message for the masses. It takes a village to bless. Let’s walk through the beatitudes in Luke and see what this might mean.

Bless the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

This means not blaming to poor for being lazy or having bad study habits or whatever. What is the best thing that would happen to the poor. What would God do?

Does God love poor people more? Many theologians have said yes to this question. Does this mean we are suppose to love or bless poor people more? Could be. Blessed are the poor may be our call to arms rather than God’s loving one child more than another. Blessing the poor may require us to know their names, or at least their condition. How exactly does a family of three live on $50 a week? In Nigeria, how exactly does a family of eight live on $50 a year?

Bless the hungry so they will be filled.

Remember the beginning of one of the feeding miracles. The disciples come to Jesus looking to send the hungry people away. He tells them “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37) We are the blessors and the blessees all at once.

This means collecting the cans and living modestly and designing a way of living so that hunger is a thing of the past. Bread for the World is a great cooperative religious program that gets at the substance and cause of poverty all over the world. Our denomination is an active and enthusiastic sponsor of their work.

Bread for the World, U2 singer Bono, and others have joined together in the “One” campaign to provide “fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans . . . at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget.” This is a way we bless the hungry.

Bless those who weep now, so that they might find the time of laughter.

Weeping is a necessary part of life, but not a part that needs to last forever. There is a time for everything. As Steven ministers know, we walk with people in their grief. Shawls and brownies are all a part of our mutual caring that Christ calls us to.

And so this congregation has sought to be God’s blessings to people in grief in the hospitality that so many show after services. Daniel’s warm and deep ministry is a reflection of our corporate understanding of how important it is to care for one another. To love one another as Christ has loved us.

Bless those who are hated.

Rosa parks wasn’t always celebrated in our land. It wasn’t always safe to talk about how invading Iran may not be a great idea. People were beat up for suggesting the war in Vietnam was short-sighted.

We need to bless the prophets of our age, even if we disagree with them. Perhaps especially if we disagree with them. Pray for your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Sound familiar? So let’s make this injunction clearer. Bless people you hate.

Blessings are for you too.

Now I know that life has not always been kind to you. I know that each of you need some blessings in ways no one else but God will ever understand.

But unless we together contract to bless each other, contract to act out the blessings of God, our faith is too self-serving. If you love children, you can understand the concept of sacrificing your needs for the greater needs of someone else. Putting kids through college or even putting kids in shoes often requires that someone go without something. And yet those sacrifices of love are their own blessings. The rewards of love live in the heart and are the true blessings of God. The rewards of love live in the heart and are the true blessings of God. It is the true kingdom of God.

When people sneeze, it’s common to say “God bless you.” I suggest to you this morning that the Godly response is also, “Can I get you a tissue?”

This is all good news. This is not just another list of commands, it is the real hope of how the world can be. When blessing is how we act, then we will rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Hot diggity dog.