March 10, 2013 Blessed are. . .

Matt 5  Blessed are the poor.  Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are the meek.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.   

This class is called Kingdom of Heaven 101.  Jesus, the teacher says that in the new kingdom, those who have nothing are the truly happy ones.  Those that have just lost something, and are still mourning that loss, are really truly happy.  And those with no appearance of power or control, are really truly super happy.  He says that the poor, still mourning what has been taken away, who are powerless and who are hungry, and thirsty to know what is right, are really truly super duper happy.

Yeah right!  Teacher, I’m pretty sure you left something out of that lecture.  I’d like a little more background and support for your thesis.    Like, maybe it’s ok to be poor because then you can really appreciate a good meal, and maybe mourning is good, because your loved one is now playing golf in heaven and that is even better than being here playing Cornhole in the front yard with me.  Meekness is good because it allows you to be flexible and not get injured by what you can’t control.  And hungering to be right is good because then it will make you feast on the good things, like paying taxes, and avoid the bad things, like alcohol or pornography. . .    

And so goes the need to contradict the Teacher and make sure everyone else can understand what He failed to explain, his being such a bad teacher of the good news and all. . .

This rationale, this need to explain otherwise non-sense is the basis of religion.  It is the thing which Jesus would spend a great deal of energy to go out of his way to offend.  And it is one of the lenses through which we seem to want to view everything he did, and everything he said.  What say we smash the lens, and allow his “non-sense” to just set a while on the screen before our eyes, blurry, dark, and mis-figured until something miraculous should happen.  Like being given new eyes to see with, new ears to hear, and a new mind to understand and believe what he has said.

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness means that we long for what is right, while not experiencing it.  Being poor means, simply, feeling as though we do not have enough to take care of ourselves and are dependent on others.  

Mourning means feeling the pain associated with loss.  Just the pain.  And meekness, I no longer explain as "controlled power" like a super hero biding his time to wipe out Dr. Evil, I think it means being powerless and enduring injury without resentment, like the dictionary says.  All of these are what make people of the kingdom happy.  That’s what Jesus said, do you believe it?