Living A Blessed Life

Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 30, 2011

Matthew 5:1-10

I think it’s probably safe to say that we all desire to live a “blessed” life. But, what does that really mean…a “blessed life”? We sometimes say a person is “blessed” if something good happens to them. I know a lot of pastors who end the message on their church answering machine with “God bless you”. And I often sign my emails or letters with the word, “Blessings”. – as a way of saying I send this note with the hope of blessings for you.

And, then there is the “Bless you” that we say when someone sneezes! Tradition says that the saying comes from way back in history. When one sneezed, it was thought that one lost part of their soul. So, saying “God bless you” was a way of asking for their soul to be made whole again.

As we follow Jesus on his path of discipleship, we follow him today up to the mountain with multitudes of other followers over the centuries and we listen to him preach a sermon – a sermon that has a lot to say about what it means to live a blessed life.

Several years ago I taught a short-term course from the Companions in Christ series called “The Way of Blessedness”. Cindy Stone has also taught this course. I am indebted to the material and to the group that traveled that study with me as it formed much of what I will say today about these teachings.

This teaching is often referred to as “the beatitudes” and it is only one part of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. The entire Sermon on the Mount actually takes up 3 chapters.

Beatitude is a rather quaint term – it is seldom used in common English speech. Basically, it means “a state of blessedness or happiness.” Biblical language makes the words blessed and happy virtually interchangeable.

But, what Jesus means by happiness goes far beyond the surface of daily life and moments of happiness that come when life is easy to deeper currents that run strong and steady beneath times of surface happiness or deep pain and turbulence.

I will never forget as a young seminary student serving as a chaplain in a children’s hospital listening to another young seminarian give a sermon on this scripture in the hospital chapel. Most of the people present were parents of children who were sick or even terminally ill. The student talked mostly about how we are all supposed to be cheerful – regardless of what we are going through. I kept looking around at those exhausted parents surmising that they were more than likely thinking… Are you kidding me?? This is what Jesus has to offer me??

The rest of us listening were actually horrified as she proclaimed this very surface message that didn’t in any way actually deal with the pain these parents were experiencing and how this scripture might speak to them. It was not a message of hope and did not adequately address the kind of happiness this scripture means to offer us.

The kind of happiness that Jesus points to in these teachings is far more profound than what we often think of as happiness. It moves beyond superficial contentment that flits in and out of our lives, dependent on whether life is going our way or not.

These teachings hold within them the key to realizing God’s joy-filled intent for us – “to live the soul-deep gladness and satisfaction of our faith” that carries us through all our joys and all our pains. (The Way of Blessedness)

Now, the path to which Christ calls us is certainly challenging at times. His teachings may first strike us as strange or confusing. But, as we examine them closer we discover how the way of blessedness calls us into the very life of God’s kingdom – meaning they call us to live fully with God in love in the here and now of our daily.

I think it’s probably fair for me to say that we all long for true joy, for deep contentment, for a full sense of blessedness in our lives. The world tries to give us answers by fulfilling our desires to thrive on consumer products such as exotic vacations, fashionable clothes, more and more technology, and financial security.

We’re surrounded by all sorts of business models, management tools, mental relaxation techniques and physical conditioning that supposedly give us a competitive edge in life, thereby enhancing our sense of personal power and satisfaction. These things are not inherently bad. And they can enhance our living. But we know that these “things” do not finally fulfill our longing for deep joy. It really is true: The world cannot give what only God can give.

Jesus, God’s love made visible in human form, came with the joyful mission of helping us recover the things that make for deep happiness and satisfaction in life. He knew and embodied the secret of true joy and delighted in sharing it with any who would listen.

Jesus shows us a pattern of living that makes it possible for us to enter God’s divine realm of life by following the patterns he himself embodied. When we follow his patterns, we become his disciples.

The beatitudes offer a “rule of life” for those who would be a part of the community called the kingdom of God. A rule of life is simply a way of life, a pattern of commitments we deliberately adopt to help us grow spiritually. Combining practices with the cultivation of certain attitudes or dispositions generally forms the pattern.

Practices might include prayer, scriptural study and meditation, worship, fasting from time to time from some of our worldly means, and acts of service. Attitudes might include patience, kindness, gentleness, gratitude, and joy. Our practices and our attitudes are mutually supportive, each reinforcing the other.

So, if we think of the beatitudes as practices and attitudes, listen again to the scripture in the words from Eugene Petersen in “The Message”:

1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

3"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and God’s rule.

4"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. (meaning that you see your need to be embraced by the God.)

5"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

6"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

7"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

8"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

10"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. (or when you have to do something difficult to be a disciple) The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. (you know you need God to grow in discipleship)

We’re not blessed because we are going through something difficult in life or in our discipleship. We’re blessed because we know that whatever we are going through or faced with in life, we live with assurance that God sustains us. We’re blessed because we’ve embraced the rule of God in our life and we trust that God is caring for us above, within, and beyond the surface of our daily joys and our pains.

The Companions in Christ study on the beatitudes ends with these words and I can think of none better to share with you today:

“It is the nature of love to go out of itself to the other. So it is love ‘going out’ that we refer to as ‘self-emptying’. The Christian spiritual life means participating with Christ in the self-emptying born of love. Each beatitude represents a way of participating in the self-emptying love of Christ. Without poverty of spirit, there is no need to access the reign of God. There is much of this world to lose, but the whole kingdom of heaven is ours to gain.”