Micah 6:1-8
Hear what the LORD says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the LORD has a controversy with his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
"O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD."
"With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
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?

Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
"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 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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We have a familiar gospel reading today: the Beatitudes. This list of who is blessed and what they receive from God’s hand. The Beatitudes are one of those Bible passages that has made its way into popular culture.

In elementary school, I was in a musical all about the Beatitudes and how they were guidelines for how to live a good life.

In the Monty Python irreverent comedy, Life of Brian, people listening to a version of the Beatitudes from the far edge of the crowd mishear what is going on, prompting one woman to ask her husband, “Did he say blessed are the cheese makers?”

And in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, there’s a song entitled “The Meek Shall Inherit,” whose chorus goes, "They say the meek shall inherit. You know the book doesn't lie. It's not a question of merit. It's not demand and supply. They say the meek gonna get it. "And you're a meek little guy." You know the meek are gonna get what's comin' to 'em, by and by."

The problem with popular Bible passages like the Beatitudes is that sometimes their message gets diluted or twisted when taken out of context. And so while we think we know what the Beatitudes are all about, I want to start by clearing up two common misunderstandings.

1. These are not a prescription for happy living. It is true that the word we translate as "blessing" also means "happy." Jesus isn’t saying that poverty, hunger, suffering, or weakness are a path to happiness. Sometimes the Beatitudes get sold to us as a promise that if we take on these qualities, they will guarantee our happiness. But the truth is that peacemaking, showing mercy, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness are things that are pretty likely to make our lives more difficult, even if these things are worth doing.

2. These are not conditions for receiving God's love. Sometimes we’ve been told that if we are meek and if we are pure hearted and if we pursue peace and justice, then - and only then - will we have God’s favor. But the Beatitudes aren’t a list of how to make God like us better. They aren’t a set of guidelines for how to earn God’s favor.

The Beatitudes, instead, are Jesus’ way of laying out his mission, and his way of talking about the peculiar nature of God’s kingdom. Where the world praises strength, God seeks out weakness.

The rest of the world might say, “Blessed are the rich, the happy, the assertive, the fulfilled, the strong, the determined, and the powerful.”

But Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, blessing comes to the poor, the grieving, the meek, the seekers, the merciful, the innocent, the peacemakers, and the oppressed. To those who the world sees as weak or unimportant, God gives gifts of comfort, fulfillment, mercy, intimacy with God himself.

Similarly, Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, tells us that to those whose present condition is weakness, foolishness, lowliness, rejection, and emptiness, God has promised life, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; God chooses those who cannot boast of themselves in order that they reveal Christ by boasting only in the Lord.

This is good news for us when we are facing seasons of weakness in our life; when we can’t quite make some of our ends meet.

But it is challenging news for us when we realize that we are in a season of strength, when we have plenty, when our spirits are full, when life is going well and it doesn’t seem like we need a lot of divine assistance or intervention.

In my office, I have a poster print of a short prayer that says, “To those who have hunger, give bread; And to those who have bread, give the hunger for justice.”

This is my reminder that there are two sides to God’s kingdom. There are those who hunger - who need to receive the hope of the kingdom. And there are those who have bread - who are called to seek justice and to bring the kingdom to those who need it.

God, speaking through the prophet Micah, reminds the people of his saving acts; he has proven himself to be a God concerned with his people, who has consistently moved his people from the difficulties of their present condition into his future, who has, in so many words, given bread to the hungry. And so what is the proper response to God's ongoing gifts of salvation? Lavish acts of worship? No. The proper response to God's gift of salvation, Micah tells us, is fervent acts of justice, mercy, and humility.

Environmentalist and author Paul Hawken says, ”When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

This is the twofold beauty of God’s kingdom. Weakness and power are both bound together and redeemed in Christ on the cross, who turned weakness to power, and brought to nothing the powers of sin and death.

By the cross, we have the assurance that God's favor doesn't depend on our success or failure or life status. God's concern lies with transforming our present condition, whether that be a condition of hunger or plenty, of weakness or strength. The cross gives us the hope and assurance that our present condition in Christ trumps our present condition in the world; that our future condition is bound up in redemption and not despair.

This message is a great equalizer. The easy-to-stomach good news is that our weakness and shortcomings have no bearing on how much God loves and cares for us. The harder-to-swallow good news is that our successes and strengths have no bearing on how much God loves us and cares for us.

The good news of the kingdom of God is this: for those whose present condition is unfortunate, the kingdom of God comes to them; for those whose present condition is fortunate, the kingdom of God is theirs to bring about.

"What I love about the ministry of Jesus is that he identified the poor as blessed and the rich as needy...and then he went and ministered to them both. This, I think, is the difference between charity and justice. Justice means moving beyond the dichotomy between those who need and those who supply and confronting the frightening and beautiful reality that we desperately need one another." - Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood

So if you are in a season of weakness, take heart. The kingdom of God belongs to you. You are blessed and beloved in God’s sight.

And if you are in a season of strength, take heart. The kingdom of God is yours to bring about. You are blessed to be a blessing.

I close with some further words of blessing - a fourfold Franciscan benediction that both blesses us and challenges us to be blessings in our world:

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.