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The Feast of All Saints , 11/01/2009
Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12, by David Hoster
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then 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. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. [NRSV]
The Beatitudes are among the most radical documents in human history.
Certainly, the Beatitudes are more radical than the Magna Carta which might have turned the authority of the king on its head but claimed blessings only for the entitled nobility. The Beatitudes are more radical as well than the Declaration of Independence which claimed that the individual rights of free citizens are blessed. It is more radical even than the Communist Manifesto which claimed blessedness for the vulnerable working classes across the face of the earth.
Each of these documents envisioned a radically different world in which the weak and vulnerable of the day would be revealed as blessed and strong in their nobility.
That is the spirit of the Beatitudes as well where the last will also be first. The Beatitudes, however, go much further. Where other upheavals envision only the blessedness of a social or political class, the Beatitudes enshrine as blessed all that is restrained, empathetic and unselfish in human nature itself.
This is no mere social, political or economic revolution. It a human revolution.
The radical perspective of the Beatitudes confirms our instinct that sainthood sets a very high standard. People who take the Beatitudes seriously are guided by a greater faith than that of the Founding Fathers or even Marxist revolutionaries. People who take the Beatitudes seriously have to step out in a challenging faith in human nature that few other people on the planet believe in.
Exactly the opposite, in fact. Kings, entitled nobility and captains of industry believe that human beings must be controlled. These people fear and suppress the very elements of human nature that Jesus would beatify. After all, simple people who believe in their own inherent goodness just might question whether a willful, entitled monarch really should have the right to control them. That fear turned out to be well-grounded, as we know.
Yet even we ourselves, the weak and vulnerable of the earth, are trained to trust the things that give us control rather than to trust in the sufficiency of our human resources. We are conditioned to rely on discipline more than spontaneity, aggressiveness more than affection, the quest for safety more than patience and restraint. Incredibly, we who, like the peasants of Jesus' day, live only a single act of faith away from the virtues of blessedness are nevertheless conditioned to mistrust and discount the very human nature that Jesus would have us embrace.
So the challenge of that single act of faith in human goodness does rise to the level of sainthood. Yet I believe that being blessed by sainthood is something within reach for any of us. Furthermore, I believe that sainthood begins with the faith we are called to have in our own nature, each of us, individually with ourselves. The first step in living the Beatitudes is a very personal step.
Being meek, then, with myself? I cannot tell you how many times I get angry at myself. I forget something, perform below expectation, do something awkward, and I berate myself as though I were Caligula flogging a peasant. High expectations of self and low faith in self is a lethal combination leading to all sorts of self-destructive violence. How much more blessed would it be to be restrained, patient, meek with ourselves?
The blessedness of mourning? I can be terribly resentful about the skills I can't attain, the victories I cannot win, the experiences in life I have never had and never will. Resentment of our limitations is a dangerous animal prowling our souls. How much more blessed and appropriate would it be to mourn our inadequacies like a lost limb, mourn and then accept the absence?
The blessedness of peacemaking? There is anguish within most of us caused by conflicting loyalties, conflicting motives, conflicting impulses. We constantly battle with ourselves. The clashes within us can make us feel weak in the face of forces we can't seem to control. How blessed with restored strength of character is the willingness to make peace among these very real impulses, and thereby to make peace with them?
The result of all this blessedness is that we come to terms with ourselves as we really are. We are blessed with freedom from destructive illusions about ourselves, and delusions and the expectations based on them. We experience the blessedness of dealing with ourselves realistically, and the relief of knowing that by doing so we approach sainthood. For if God made us as we are, warts and all, then the summit of our existence is to be who we are, warts and all. Faith in human nature is faith in humanity's creator.
Blessings flow from such faith when we turn it toward other people.
Meekness does not impose the expectations of our illusions and delusions on other people. Mourning addresses the hurtful and broken things people do so much more effectively than do the tools of intimidation that we've been trained to employ. Peacemaking sees the truth beneath people's self-serving propaganda in situations of conflict, and then seeks to draw them out of such delusions to act in their real best interests.
When we know people as they are, we can deal with them as they are and not as we wish they were. When we deal with them that way, we will very likely act in the most effective and constructive way available to us. That's because we are living in the truth about others and ourselves. Jesus was right, truth really does set us free.
One of the great models for blessedness in human relationship is the process of Twelve Step meetings. People simply state their own truth as well and as honestly as they can. They don't try to manage each other's problems. They don't control. They don't fix. And if somebody spouts delusions in a meeting, they don't judge.
There's a lot of meekness in that approach, and there's plenty to mourn in the truth that's put into words in those meetings. Peace comes through the simple telling and hearing of truth, broken or flawed though the human beings who speak it may be. In the world of the Twelve Steps, thinking like Jesus in the Beatitudes brings the blessing of freedom from addiction, one day at a time.
Few of these people think of themselves as saints, let alone claim sainthood for themselves, and that speaks volumes. Most people don't realize what they're doing when they act like saints. Because the Beatitudes are so selfless, they neutralize our impulse to pat ourselves on the back and assign ourselves an impressive title like "sainthood." Meekness simply dissolves away that sort of pride.
Yet at the same time, people who live the Beatitudes are generally the most effective people around. They are the people who know the right thing to say and the right thing to do. They're not necessarily the nicest people in the room, because speaking truth isn't always nice in the world of flawed human nature.
But it is the most effective thing to do.
It takes most people a long, long time to let go of their illusions and delusions about the person they wish they were and the world they wish they lived in. So long as we do those things, we make the world a lot worse than it needs to be. But when we practice the Beatitudes on ourselves, realize that we are affirming the God who made us, and become effective people of spiritual power, then the world gets better.
Then other people will think of you as a saint even if you don't, and isn't that the person you really want to be? Isn't that the person you really are?