Sunday July 5, 2020

Sunday July 5, 2020

good morning,

May this Sabbath day bring you hope, rest and the presence of God !

Blessed are the the poor in Spirit

For theirs is the kingdom

Blessed are those who mourn

For they shall be comforted  …           Matthew 5:1-2  

These are the only attempts at poetry for Jesus. Poetry has a different feel than history writing. It gets at your emotions, but other writing can also make you laugh and cry. The " blesseds " have a rhythmic flow to them. To me, it sounds like those first few verses in Genesis, " and there was morning and there was evening.. " . It sounds like Psalm 23 to me, " The Lord is my Shepherd .. " or many of the other worshipful Psalms that we can read.

But, the Beatitudes could also be a call to political transformation. The words are going to upset the status quo of the Roman Empire. It depends where you are in the society, to the way that you hear it . The " Blesseds " are a call to action, to stand up for the marginalized in our society too. In verse ten, it says "Blessed are those who are persecuted …" . That sounds like a political theme to me.

Jesus was not a politician nor a violent revolutionary, but he was speaking for a more equitable life for everyone. The Empire saw him as a threat. During the Vietnam War , MCC policy and volunteers stood alongside the peasants and farmers of rural Vietnam. MCC was not political , but people viewed them that way. Following the war, MCC stayed in Vietnam, not as a political stance, but because the country needed help in recovery. The United States did not see it that way.

 The call to be faithful sometimes is not an easy road, and our intentions of faithfulness are sometimes not interpreted in the way we intend them to be seen.

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;

    praise him in his mighty heavens.

 Praise him for his acts of power;

    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

    praise him with the harp and lyre,

 praise him with timbrel and dancing,

    praise him with the strings and pipe,

 praise him with the clash of cymbals,

    praise him with resounding cymbals.

 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.    Psalm 150

 Thanks be to God.