Redefining Blessed ~ Matthew 5:1-12 ~ All Saints Sunday

So many days leave me feeling so weary and so exhausted, that I’d love to be able to open up a door into paradise; leaving every worry behind for a life of total ease. 

Typically, we call that “vacation,” and as such those occasions are sorely limited in our lives—and in this economy, vacations have quickly become an endangered species. 

Even if you are lucky enough to get one, it’s over before you know it—and it’s back to reality, and all its troubles…

But listen to what Jesus has to say:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…  Blessed are those who mourn… Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you…

This isn’t what I’d call paradise—yet, for most people, this is real life.  Only a fortunate few will ever get to happiness—at least as the world defines it; a life of uninterrupted health, wealth, and satisfaction.  In Jesus’ day, those persons would’ve been the aristocratic elites.  We call them “the rich and famous.”  But thanks to TV and internet celebrity gossip, we know better.  We also know how evil people can be to get what they want. 

Today, Jesus turns the human understanding of happiness upside-down.  From God’s perspective, you are blessed when you are broken.  You are blessed when people turn against you.  You are blessed when you lose everything.

This is good news on this All Saints’ Sunday, as we are brought face-to-face with life’s most dreadful reality: the reality of death.  And the only thing more unimaginable than our own death is the death of the ones we love; and then facing life without them.

Of all the things Jesus teaches, this is, without a doubt, the most outrageous.  Surely you’d never say this to family who’s lost their home, or to a starving child…  Surely, you’d never say this to someone who’s standing at the grave of a loved one. 

Yet it is in these moments, when we are most broken, most helpless, most afraid—that God becomes gracious to us.  He is the Savior for those who need him the most.  When your life is full of pain, frustration, and anxiety, Jesus takes them and uses them to draw you closer to him.  He dwells in the hurt—and out of that hurt he makes you new again.  When happiness is gone, grace abounds.  Life in Christ won’t always mean happiness, at least as the world defines it, but it will mean hope—because you’re never alone.  The Holy Spirit will be hard at work in your life to show you, by faith, that Jesus is with you.

On this All Saints’ Day, you are invited to be bold—and name before God everything that hurts today.  Name before God all your frailties, your failings, and your hurts.  Be vulnerable enough to recognize your need for grace.  Prayer is where it begins—but it can’t stop there.  We all must work together to build this church into a safe place where we can name our hurts to each other—because the first way Jesus will come to you is in the love and care of your brothers and sisters.  Together, we must immerse ourselves in God’s Word, and listen together as God speaks.  We must encourage one another by bearing witness to what Christ has done. 

As Christ showers us with his saving grace, we must heed his word as to what it means to live blessed.  Life can never again be a pursuit of the happiness we buy or the happiness we call success.  We must work out the grace Jesus works in by being merciful; forgiving sins; striving for peace and justice in all the earth.  Doing good must always take precedence to getting good.  Whether we realize it or not, the Holy Spirit lives and breathes in us to give to others the same saving grace we receive from Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit who makes saints of us.  A saint isn’t someone who’s dead; a saint is someone whom Christ makes alive as a living witness of his grace.  The good that Christ did through those who have died lives on, but our time is now.  The life of true joy is the life lived in Christ who makes all things new.