Christ Church Episcopal in Harwich Port, MA
Sermon for Epiphany 4, January 30, 2011
Judith Davis, Rector
Matthew 5:1-12; Micah 6:1-8
+Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:1). Do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).
Two of my favorite folk singers in the late 1960s were Simon
and Garfunkel. I practically wore out their LP album Sounds of
Silence in the summer of 1970 when I was in graduate school.
Some of their well-known songs include ―Mrs. Robinson,‖
made famous in the movie The Graduate, ―I am a Rock,‖
―Cecilia,‖ ―Kodachrome‖, and ―Bridge over troubled water.‖
One of their less well-known songs was ―Blessed,‖ which was
on the Sounds of Silence album released in 1966 and was based
on the Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Listen to
these lyrics:
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows.
Blessed are the sat upon, Spat upon, Ratted on,
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me? I got no
place to go, I've walked around Soho for the last
night or so. Ah, but it doesn't matter, no.
Sermon on the Mount (detail). stencil print
(19‖ x 27‖), (digital image from the.
University Library, Special Collections,
California State University, Long Beach) -by Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996), a 20th
century Japanese printmaker.
Many people seem to have time to ―blog,‖ and, thanks to
the internet, we can read relevant blogs. I’m still committed
to being a ―non-blogger.‖ One recent blogger who has
written reviews of Simon and Garfunkel’s albums said this
about ―Blessed‖:
The music matches the despair and angst of the lyrics. It’s a subversion of the Beatitudes,
basically Paul Simon saying, ―You said all these people would be blessed, and look at the
mess they’re all in.‖ I read that he wrote this after hearing a sermon somewhere on the
Beatitudes and being disgusted with the lack of congruity with the reality he saw. Like Silent
Night, it uses a classic Christian text and challenges it. In addition to the Beatitudes, this song
draws from Jesus’ dying words on the cross: ―Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?‖1
Anne’s good Jewish friend Naomi in New Jersey, knowing nothing of this week’s lectionary, sent this
quote to Anne: ―Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.‖ That might preach
better than the actual beatitudes!
1
From the blog of Erin McCarty (Epinions.com), who reviews books and music at http://www0.epinions.com/userbilbopooh.
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Now hear these words from today’s Gospel reading:
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
So Jesus has called his disciples and now is teaching in various towns and villages, as we read at the
end of Matthew 4:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news
of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame
spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted
with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them.
And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from
beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)
Then when he saw how big the crowd was that had gathered to hear him, or perhaps to be healed by
him, he had to go up to a mountain where he sat down and called his disciples to him and preached to
them. Perhaps the opening of the sermon was designed to shock the disciples as a deliberate inversion
of standard values, but this shock value has been lost today due to the commonness of the text.2
What are we to make of the Beatitudes, as we call these sayings?
―The beatitudes begin to paint a picture of what the world looks like when the Lord's Prayer
(also part of the Sermon on the Mount) is answered: "thy kingdom come; thy will be done…"
we pray. Jesus is saying, "In the kingdom, in that place where God's will is done perfectly,
these people are blessed by receiving freedom from lack and freedom for steadfast love."
This description of the kingdom is not just philosophical or hypothetical. Just before the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has said, "… the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matt
4:17). The beatitudes start to describe what the reign of God will look like as God's will is
done on earth as it is in heaven, an eventuality that is at hand.‖3
I expect what I always believed when hearing the Beatitudes in church was that they offered a better
way for those who were currently oppressed. They offered a way of justice for those who were
persecuted, for those who were poor, for those who were mourning, and at one time or another, people
in my family were poor or mourning and people we knew growing up, especially people of color, were
persecuted.
2
Kodjak, Andrej. A Structural Analysis of the Sermon on the Mount. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1987.
Preaching: Thoughts on Biblical Texts and Preaching by Mary Hinkle Shore, (found at
http://maryhinkle.typepad.com/pilgrim_preaching/2005/01/blessing_as_fre.html), a weblog on preaching
from Luther Seminary.
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3
Ginny Doctor, who is an Episcopal priest from a native tribe, served as a missionary in Alaska to
native people; she said this about the Beatitudes as they relate to the native people in Alaska in an
article in The Witness magazine in 2005:
Every Sunday the people gather in small log churches and give thanks for the blessings that
God has given. This is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. It is about being thankful
for what has been given in order to live in harmony with what God created. Everywhere I
look–both past and present–there are blessed people. Jesus tells us that blessings come even to
those who don't think they can ever be blessed. If we continue to be thankful, there will be
blessings. If we continue to respect and honor what God gives us, there will be blessings.4
I think this is what the prophet Micah meant when he said what God wanted from God’s people: ―He
has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God‖ (Micah 6:8). Sometimes what I wanted Jesus to
say in the Beatitudes is more like what Simon and Garfunkel said. I wanted him to say ―Blessed are
the sick and those who care for them. Blessed are those with dementia and those who care for them.
Blessed are the kids at Children’s Hospital for six weeks undergoing treatment for leukemia and their
families. Blessed are those whose homes are being foreclosed, blessed are they who can’t pay their
rent or mortgage, blessed are they who look for jobs week after week and find nothing, blessed are
they who can’t afford enough groceries-- for they shall what?-- be comforted, inherit the earth, be
filled, see God, be called children of God? I want Jesus to give comfort to all those who are
oppressed. I want Jesus to preach about the difficulties all those people faced in the early first century
and what people face today. But it doesn’t happen. Or does it? What did Jesus mean anyway in all the
―blesseds‖? What does it mean for us?
An interpretation of the Beatitudes can be found in Resident Aliens, by Stanley Hauerwas & William
Willimon, professors at Duke Divinity School. In their book Jesus is explained to be showing his
audience that in God's kingdom, the poor are royalty, and the sick are blessed. "The Beatitudes are not
a strategy for achieving a better society ... they are an indication ... of life in the kingdom of God ... to
produce a shock within our imaginations ... to see life ... in a radical new way."5
Jim Forest, a lay worker for peace and justice, who wrote a book in 1999 entitled The Ladder of the
Beatitudes,6 left the United States Navy in the 1960s as a new Catholic and a conscientious objector.
He joined the New York Catholic Worker, where he collaborated closely with Dorothy Day. Then he
was befriended by Dan and Phil Berrigan and developed a close relationship with Thomas Merton.
While working for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, he made frequent trips behind the
Iron Curtain in the 1980s. The latter experience convinced him of the rich faith of Christian
Orthodoxy, and he eventually joined the Russian Orthodox Church. Both his decades-long com
commitment to peacemaking and his nurture in Orthodoxy deeply inform his book. Forest argues for
4
Blessedness: Lectionary Reflections for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany in The Witness, January 30, 2005
http://www.thewitness.org/agw/doctor012605.html
5
FromWikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatitudes.
6
The Ladder of the Beatitudes (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999,
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the interconnectedness and deliberate ordering of the Beatitudes: they are eight crucial aspects of
faithful discipleship with ―a ladder-like structure, with poverty of spirit the essential starting point and
with the cross at the top‖ (p. xi). In fact, they are a condensed summary of Jesus’ teaching, one that is
easily memorized and intriguingly well known within our culture. These words are intended for all
Christians, not just monks, priests, or nuns, and not just in a particular chronological era. The
beatitudes are always challenging, for ―each of the beatitudes has to do with dying to self‖ (p. 146).
Forest said, ―The Christian life is climbing the ladder of the beatitudes—and when we fall off, starting
once again‖ (p. 2).
Jim Forest took Jesus seriously and did not cut corners on what it means to be a disciple. He put much
emphasis on prayer and worship. At the same time he showed deep empathy and compassion for those
who have trouble believing, let alone following, Jesus the Christ. Yet there is no otherworldly piety
here. Hear this quote from his book:
A Christian is obliged to see and respond to the real world with all its fear, pain, and
bloodstains, to be a rescuer, to protect the defenseless, to participate here and now in God’s
righteousness. A way of prayer that makes one blind to the least person is a door to hell. (pp.
69-70).7
I think therein lies the key to the Beatitudes. While we sit around waiting for Jesus to bless our current
predicament, perhaps the way the disciples were and perhaps where Paul Simon was when he wrote
―Blessed‖ in 1965 after a trip to London, our call is to respond to the world’s needs, even when we’re
feeling needy, even when we need healing ourselves. Like the way Mother Teresa or St. Francis and
the other saints did, we are called to follow in the way of Jesus, responding to his gospel imperative at
the end of Matthew’s account:
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I
was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and
you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. . . And the king will answer them,
―Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,
you did it to me‖ (Matthew 25:35-36, 40).
And while we are caring for the least and lost, we will find blessing. Maybe it’s part of the great
reversal that begins with Mary’s Magnificat. Maybe it is simple. When we hear in Simon and
Garfunkel’s song, ―Blessed are the sat upon, Spat upon, Ratted on, O Lord, Why have you forsaken
me,‖ we want to think of ourselves and those we know who are suffering, but let us think instead of
how we can help those others and thereby, ironically, help ourselves.
Go out this day and be merciful and be peacemakers as Jesus said and do justice, love kindness and
walk humbly with God, as Micah said. Love and care for God’s people and, while you’re at it, change
the world. May it be so! Amen.
7
These comments include a book review, ―Living the Beatitudes Today‖ by Arthur Paul Boers, © 2008 Center for
Christian Ethics at Baylor University (online at http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/57713.pdf ).
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