February 2, 2020 – Micah 6:1-8
Matthew 5:1-12; Micah 6:1-8
Live Blessing
4th Sunday after Epiphany [Lectionary 4] – February 2, 2020
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
At this point in Matthew, Jesus is preparing the disciples to do God’s work.
First, Jesus and John proclaim that God’s reign of justice and peace is coming.
Then, Jesus is baptized and named beloved and blessed at the beginning of his public ministry.
Then he heads into the wilderness to prepare for that ministry.
Then he calls people to work with him in that ministry: the disciples.
In the very beginning Jesus goes about the countryside, showing his disciples what it means that
‘the reign of God is coming near’: the sick are healed and the ill are cured.
And then, before they begin their part in this, Jesus takes them up a mountain and
instructs them in what they need to know in the Sermon on the Mount,
which brings us to today.
Now Jesus has attracted a lot of attention for his healing work and his teaching that
God reign is now breaking into the world.
So crowds are following him and his disciples.
And the crowds continue to follow them up the mountain this morning.
Jesus sits down to teach, the disciples sit close to him,
and then around them the crowds are gathered.
So: in the middle is Jesus, around him are the disciples, and around them is the crowd.
Then Jesus begins to teach.
And he begins in a very strange way.
We expect him to begin by telling them what they will need to do.
But he does not do that.
He begins with blessing.
Blessing means being favoured by God.
And he talks here about blessing in three ways.
First, he speaks of those who seemingly have no hope as being blessed or favoured by God.
Favoured are those who have no hope, he says, for God’s reign is over them.
Favoured are those who mourn for the state of the world, for God will act to change things.
Favoured are those without their fair share of the world’s resources,
for they will inherit their fair share when God is reigning.
Favoured are those who hunger and thirst for the justice of God’s reign,
for they will be filled.
These are the ones, in the first instance, who are favoured by God in Jesus’ understanding,
those who seemingly have no hopel
Second, he speaks of those who act on behalf of those who have no hope.
Favoured are those, he says, help put right what has gone wrong,
for they will receive God’s mercy.
Favoured are those whose hearts on fire for God’s reign, for they will see God.
Favoured are those who work for the wholeness and healing and shalom of God’s reign for
they will be called God’s children or apprentices in the world.
Favoured are those who are willing to suffer in their commitment to the justice of God’s reign of
manna-sharing and mercy-giving.
These are the ones, in the second instance, who are favoured by God in Jesus’ understanding:
those who act on behalf of those with no hope.
And then Jesus stops talking in general,
and he looks those disciples gathered around him in the eyes,
and he speaks to them directly.
In the third instance, then, he speaks directly to them as ones who will bring blessing
to those with no hope:
his disciples are favoured by God when they act on behalf of those with no hope.
Favoured are you, he says, when you act on behalf of those who find themselves in
difficult circumstances.
Favoured are you when you suffer because of your single-hearted commitment to putting right
what has gone wrong in the world and
when your hearts are on fire for God’s reign.
Favoured are you when you take my blessing and
pass it on to the crowds of people surrounding us.
I am blessing you so that you can be a blessing to the people surrounding us.
As in Genesis 12 when God blessed Abraham and his family so they could be blessing to
all the families of the earth, just so Jesus is blessing his disciples so they can be blessing
to all the people gathered around them.
Jesus was blessed by God in his baptism, and now he is blessing his disciples,
so they in turn can bring blessing to the crowds who are God’s favoured ones.
Jesus speaks the same blessing this morning.
You have gathered around him – so imagine we have gathered on the mountain to hear him.
First he tells you who are the ones especially favoured by God:
immigrants, refugees, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the out of work, the mentally ill,
addicts, the exploited, those who suffer from the prejudices of our world.
Then, secondly, he goes on to say that
those who act on behalf of all these are also favoured by God.
And then, thirdly, he goes from speaking about blessing to giving blessing.
And the ones he blesses this morning are you, gathered at Sargent and Victor.
Blessed are you when you welcome newcomers to Canada and support refugees.
Blessed are you when you feed the hungry and include the excluded.
Blessed are you when you support the out of work and stand with the mentally ill.
Blessed are you when you provide hospitality to every single child of God who
walks through our doors.
Blessed are you, especially, when it is hard for you and when it is difficult for you.
Blessed are you for your reward will be great – one day.
Being Christian, at its most basic, is very simple: we receive blessing or God’s favour freely,
and then we give blessing or favour away as freely as we have received it.
That is it: it all begins in God’s blessing, in God’s favour, in God’s generosity.
Here, Jesus blesses his disciples for their work before they have done a single thing, right?
Blessing or God’s favour is not a reward for their work:
it is what enables their work at the very beginning of it.
Jesus lives the blessing he receives from God.
Then he passes that blessing of love on to us, and invites us to live blessing as well.
Micah said much the same 800 years or so before Jesus.
What else does God require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God,
which is to say: knowing that everything you have is gift of God to be passed on freely.
Love kindness. Pass on blessing.
Kindness, as I have said many times, is a very underrated virtue,
and in English kind is a sort of weak word.
But it is a strong and very important biblical word.
Even in English you can feel the force of it: it is related to the word for kin, family.
Being kind is treating people as if they were your family, your kin.
Be kind, as the saying goes, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
All human beings are kin, children of God, children of the same heavenly parent.
Blessed are you, favoured are you: with Jesus, live blessing, live God’s favour,
Be kind, share what is in your heart.
So together, let us receive God’s favour, together let us continue to live God’s favour,
and together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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