Focus Text and Homily Transcript From the Mid-Week Worship Service on July 19, 2023

Title: ” A Strange But Beautiful Blessing “

Topic in Brief: A reexamination of the Beatitudes, focusing on the blessings for the meek and those in need. How do we find strength in meekness and humility?.

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

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 the sake of righteousness, 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. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you

Homily by: Rev. Mark Breese

It’s really a pretty strange saying, this idea that “blessed are the meek.”

It’s kind of a paradox. For many, perhaps most of us, receiving or having “Blessings” just means things like ‘happiness’ and ‘hopefulness’ and ‘prosperity’ and ‘success’ … all of the kinds of things that we equate with doing okay. When you have blessings, life is good. And that’s the way that we often think about it. Sometimes, because of the way our society works, we also recognize or start to feel that “blessings” seem to come with things like an increase in power and authority, and with that, money—material things. Ultimately the idea of “Blessings” sometimes pulls together the idea of success and happiness based on the things that we have.  And, honestly, in first century Palestine in Jesus’ day, that is how blessings were understood too.

Then along comes Jesus and he gives this strange saying, this idea about what it really means to be blessed. He says that those who are meek, those who are humble are the ones who are truly blessed. First, it’s important to understand that (and I’ve said this many times before, and in many settings of the mission), it is important to understand that being meek and being humble is not being a doormat.

It doesn’t mean being a pushover. Humility is not about self-degradation. It’s not about wearing your hair shirt and flogging yourself and putting yourself down.

It’s not about any of those things. Being meek, being humble— the idea of humility and meekness is all about embracing your strength, and basing your strength on your relationship with God. It’s about recognizing that the center of our universe is not power for ourselves and prosperity for ourselves and what we can accumulate and gather around us to be happy.  The center of our life is recognizing that the beauty of the universe is where our blessing comes from.

Beautiful warm day. When it rains and pours, it causes problems, but it makes the plants and the flowers grow so that animals have things to eat, so that our farms work, so that we have hamburgers and French Fries and all those things that we need. The blessings and the humility, all of this works together for us in this particular way. Our limitations are not about meekness and humility. Our limitations are about recognizing that God is in control. It’s not letting people walk on us all over us to be humble and meek. It’s about having our eyes open.

This idea that the “meek will inherit the earth” is another strange idea. When you meet people who are strong and assertive, we kind of want to gather around them and often be led by them, but there’s also a certain amount of fear there.

I couldn’t count how many times in my life I have actually had the experience of feeling kind of swept up in somebody else’s ‘thing’ and not really being sure if it’s where I should be heading. We love a charismatic leader. We love somebody who speaks to the things that we think are meaningful to us. And sadly, what’s most meaningful to us is often the stuff we’re afraid of losing. Oftentimes, more often than not really, that strength that we see in other people, that charisma, that makes us want to follow them is about our fears. This is actually pretty dangerous for us.

I think that is part of the reason that Jesus talks about this idea that the ‘meek are blessed’ and humility is held up as a virtue. Jesus is suggesting that what we should be looking for in our leaders is a meekness and humility that clearly signals they are not looking power. They are looking to lift up others. It’s about having patience and gentleness, self-control—the kind of virtues that create caring environments. Jesus is saying here that all of us, leaders and followers, should strive to live with compassion and love. It is not easy to do this, at least at first. It is all about trust.

If you think about it, the people that really touch most deeply are the ones that approach you with kindness. People you want to follow, the people you want to gather around you, are those that touch our hearts. It is those who treat us with love and compassion—the way we know we should treat others. We want people to come to us because of our love—because of our value. When you think about the idea of “blessed are the meek” and how they will inherit the earth and where our strength comes from, it’s connected deeply into that idea of compassion. This is the central idea of the Beatitudes.

The central idea is about how to love one another and how to be present in the moment in a real way with others. Jesus  is teachings about how to be aware of where you are and of where other people are. Life is often a struggle. Sharing a mutual caring for one another lightens that struggle.