Sermon for Epiphany IV Year A 2017 Living Blessings In 2003, law student Diana Kim began documenting the lives of homeless people in her hometown of Oahu, Hawaii. She found she was naturally drawn to these people because of her own experiences as a child occasionally living in cars and parks. Ms. Kim had not seen her father since she was about 5 years old. Eventually, in 2013, she began looking in earnest for her father after her grandmother had phoned to tell her about her father s deteriorating health. For the first time, Diana heard that her father was mentally ill; he had been diagnosed many years ago with schizophrenia. But he was not taking his medications and had lost touch with his family and was very likely living on the streets, homeless. After hearing about his mental illness, Diana began gathering information about her father s condition with the intention of finding him and reconnecting with him. She eventually found him through her work documenting the lives of homeless people while driving through the streets of Honolulu. Diana was taking photos and focused on a man who was sitting nearly motionless on a bench. His hair was matted. His clothes were tattered; he was filthy and clearly undernourished. Diana approached him and tapped him several times on the shoulder, calling his name. He was unresponsive. That s when a woman who had been watching the interaction approached Diana and said, Don t bother, he has been sitting there for days. Kim said she wanted to scream at the woman for seeming callous, but instead replied, I have to try. The experience of seeing my father was incredibly challenging, emotionally and mentally. 1
She continued to try to reach out to her father, even though he did not acknowledge her, and she documented his life on the streets through photos. There were days when he did respond, and I would ask him if he would be willing to get help, Kim said about her struggle to assist her father. There were a few times when he agreed, and I would call a help hotline, but then he would change his mind as soon as I had someone on the other end. Finally, nearly a year later in October 2014, Kim s father landed in the hospital after he had a heart attack and a stranger called 911. But the misfortune of his heart attack appeared to bring about some positive change, as it seemed in many ways that her father s life began to turn around. Her father was able to get help after being admitted into a hospital, where he was then placed back on a treatment plan. After he was discharged from the hospital, Kim gave her father a camera in hopes of connecting with him further. And she and her father are working together now documenting and putting a face on the homeless people living in the streets of Honolulu On the one hand the book that they have produced has humanized the homeless population through the photos and accompanying stories but it has also helped to provide them with USB bracelets that contain important identification and medical information that is easily lost by homeless people living in the streets. Kim writes in her blog, The Homeless Paradise: When I see the homeless, I see my past in them. 2
I feel their pain and their frustration, their simple joys and hope. I feel their heart. And they feel mine. After finding her father she said: it became even more clear to her that homelessness is not just an issue my father isn t an issue. He is a person. He is a human being. No matter what the circumstances are, the most important thing to remember is that they are people. And people deserve to be treated with respect even if they ve hurt you. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 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. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 3
What is a blessing? Have you ever wondered about that? It s one of those words that we have so thoroughly taken into our religious vocabulary that I think it s quite easy to take for granted. The word translated here as blessing is rather, well, slippery. It can mean happy, or fortunate, or well off. But suppose, for a moment, that we stay with the traditional word blessed. For me it still seems difficult figuring out precisely what that means. Because being blessed, has several meanings as well. It can indicate special favor, unique standing, permission, empowerment, endowment, and more. So maybe the question isn t what it means, but rather what it feels like. What does it feel like when you re blessed? By asking the question this way, we begin to get a sense of Jesus promise. To be blessed feels like you have someone s unconditional regard. It feels like you are not and will not be alone; it feels like you will be accompanied wherever you go. Being blessed feels like you have the capacity to rise above present circumstances, like you are more than the sum of your parts or past experiences. Being blessed feels like you have worth not because of something you did or might do To be blessed is not simply to be happy, but to know that you are included you are part of the coming reign of God. 4
It seems to me that Kim and her father give us a fine and salutary example of the power of blessing, of blessing others with the dignity of being a child of God, a member of the kingdom Diana chose the way of blessing, which is not empty affirmation. And she didn t chose blame She didn t blame her father or his illness or her mother or society. Blame is a way of discharging pain without taking any responsibility. No, Diana chose the way of blessing. We ve been taught to pursue happiness, to settle for affirmation, and when neither of those work out, we relapse into blame. So, in place of empty affirmation and corrosive blame, let s substitute blessing: God s unconditional regard for us, assurance to accompany us, the power to help us persevere and flourish, and the promise that we deserve love, honor, and respect. Blessing is something that can t be pursued despite what President Jefferson wrote! but can only be received as a gift. Stop and think about the people Jesus names as blessed. They most certainly are not the people society considers blessed, which is partly why I think Jesus chooses them. Because in this sermon he is not offering a recipe for success or the keys to happiness or a roadmap to having your best life now. Rather, Jesus is demonstrating once again that God regularly and relentlessly shows up just where we least expect God to be in order to give to us freely what we can neither earn nor achieve: blessedness. 5
Jesus chooses these states or conditions because it s precisely in our moments of disappointment or despair that we are likely to abandon our cultural stereotypes about blessing (understood as happiness, wealth, fame, or power) and be open to the presence of God that gives without asking in return and blesses that we might be a blessing. To be human is to be broken. And when we meet ourselves in brokenness (poverty of spirit or mourning) and vulnerability (shunning the way of violence for peace), we experience the power and presence of God through the Christian community. Maybe that s what true blessing is: drawing together as the family of God, seeing each other as God s beloved children, meeting each other at the points of our brokenness, and conveying and manifesting to each other God s promises of regard, presence, accompaniment and, above all, worth. We are worthy of blessing, for God Almighty has created us and called us so. We here at Holy Trinity are fond of saying we are blessed to be a blessing. It is what many of us would say is what it means to be a disciple. But, as many of us already know too, the work of ministry and of discipleship is not for the faint of heart. Our texts for today are the corrective lenses we need to view our call to discipleship; our blessed to be a blessing way of living faithfully in the world. 6
Indeed, the call of all the baptized to live as children of light, to serve God, to love neighbor, to be little Christs in a world that sorely needs to know about him and experience his amazing grace and love. If we take all of this seriously, the discipleship walk and the call to serve God people can be both blessedly rewarding and extremely difficult. So, here we have a choice. We can approach the Beatitudes as an impossible challenge for ordinary living or we can accept that Jesus meant them to be for everyone and use three practices or principals for living into the spirit of the Beatitudes: simplicity, hopefulness and compassion. These three principles allow us to be in the world, while not being totally shaped by it. Simplicity, hopefulness and compassion offer an alternative to what the world seems to be pursuing. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard made reference to the importance of hearing the gospel in a primitive way by which he meant stripped of all refinements or nuances which tend to reduce or avoid its meaning. To approach the Beatitudes simply is to hear the words clearly and know that they are spoken directly to each of us. When we listen this way we receive more courage than fear. We can hear Jesus saying, You are blessed in my peaceful presence, open your heart to others and show mercy on those who cry out for it. Hearing Jesus words, simply spoken, is the first principal for living into the spirit of the Beatitudes. 7
Second, there is little disagreement on the lack of hopefulness in our world. Instead, our world seems overwhelmed by cynicism, which accepts whatever is, regardless of the consequences. Cynicism offers little hope that things will get better. The Beatitudes invite us to the opposite point of view, which is hopefulness. We place our hope in Christ, who offered hope to the hopeless. Through Christ we are able to approach the world with a spirit of hope, even when the outward signs indicate otherwise. When we are hopeful, we stand in the world sure of the possibility that the day will come when mercy, humility, peace, and love are the descriptions of what it means to live. (Just ask Diana Kim and her father!) The third practice or principal of Beatitude living is compassion. Compassion is not pity or sympathy. It goes deeper. To have pity on another person means that you feel sorry for them. Sympathy means that you understand what another person is experiencing and so you offer some advice. Compassion, the late priest Henri Nouwen, helpfully tells us is something that grows out of an inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you. This partnership cuts through all walls, which might have kept you separate. Compassion crosses all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust... We share in the gift of being created in God s image; thus we belong to one another as family. Compassion requires not walking the same path with a companion, but walking in his or her shoes. 8
The heart of the Beatitudes is a call to be disciples who live out the blessings of God s righteousness that is God s steadfast love, goodness, justice, and mercy for us, but not only for us for everyone. Sounds a lot like blessed to be a blessing to me. Simplicity, hopefulness and compassion. Did you notice that these three practices and principals are a lot like doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God and with others. Feeling blessed is trusting that God s grace will and does accompany each of us in every circumstance. So, rejoice and be glad! You are blessed to be a blessing! 9