Blessed
How are you doing? Okay, that was a rhetorical question. One month down, only 47 to go.
So, what is a follower of Jesus to do?
There are many forms of what Jonathan Rauch calls “thin Christianity” out there. This can be on the left as well as the right. There is an understanding of righteousness based more on having the right views or being on the right team than actually living righteously.
The Sermon on the Mount has been my go-to biblical passage these days, especially the Beatitudes. The Sermon on the Mount calls us to a much thicker, robust form of Christianity than what many of us are used to. In writing about the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian who was executed by hanging three weeks before his concentration camp was liberated, warned about the church of his day offering “cheap grace.” Cheap grace offers forgiveness without repentance, salvation without discipleship, a relationship with Jesus without the cross. It focuses on how to get into heaven rather than praying for the kingdom of heaven to come to earth and offering one’s life in service to that mission. Cheap grace is justification without justice, consumer spirituality rather than the deep change and transformation Jesus talked about.
One place Jesus talked about this deep change was the Sermon on the Mount. I call it his Kingdom Manifesto. It begins with: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
I suspect that the kingdom of heaven (Matthew's phrase for the kingdom of God) is still a relatively unfamiliar, even foreign, idea to many Christians, even though it was the main thing Jesus talked about. The kingdom of God isn’t just an idea: it’s not a doctrinal kingdom, or just a spiritual, inner, or mystical kingdom; and definitely not the kingdom that’s sometimes conflated these days with Christian nationalism. The kingdom of God is the very real global, cosmic, multidimensional, multi-spherical kingdom Jesus discussed and demonstrated through countless parables and miracles – especially the miracle of his physical death and resurrection.
The kingdom of God is God’s actual reign over the entire universe. It’s also his master plan to restore all things. It’s both already and not yet, reflected by Jesus’ use of both “is” and “will be” when laying out the Beatitudes.
God’s kingdom is more real than any other country or kingdom, including the United States. The kingdom of God, unlike the US, doesn’t have a shelf life. Everything we call material is ephemeral compared to the kingdom of God. It’s both this worldly and otherworldly. It doesn’t require anyone to believe in it for it to exist. It operates by different principles, with different goals, according to different strategies, and on a different timetable than the countries and kingdoms of this world.
This kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom. In the Bible, the word eternal means “of the age,” or “of the age to come.” It’s eternal in that it lasts forever, which is definitely a big deal. The word eternal also refers to a quality of life marked by the values of God’s kingdom as taught and embodied by Jesus Christ.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The ashes administered in the shape of a cross on our foreheads remind us that our lives are terminal; we're all going to die. That would be a depressing thought apart from Jesus' offer of eternal life, something authenticated and guaranteed by his death and resurrection.
One thing eternal life does is put in perspective what we’re going through right now as a country. What’s happening is mindbogglingly destructive and ominous – I won’t deny it – but it’s temporary. The results of the actions being taken may last many years, even decades. But whether we're talking about four years or 40 decades, compared to eternity, it’s a drop in the bucket. I’m not exaggerating. Just do the math.
Of course, none of us will be living 40 decades from now – unless Elon Musk achieves his goal of transferring his consciousness to a computer (if you can call that living). And we still have to endure through what feels like the current eternity of days.
So, again, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus wasn’t saying it’s a blessing to be poor in spirit. The blessing is what’s possible for people who are poor in spirit. They can have, live in, be part of, and even reign in the kingdom of God now. That’s why Jesus uses the verb “is.” Most of the other beatitudes say “will be,” suggesting something in the future. It could be in the near future or the future beyond this life. I think we can safely say that once you are in the kingdom of God, blessings will start to come your way and will continue into eternity. Some of those blessings are listed in these eight Beatitudes – being comforted, inheriting the earth, having your desire for righteousness and justice satisfied, experiencing God’s mercy, seeing God, experiencing life as a child of God, and being able to know joy even when being persecuted. Some of these promises require explaining (which I hope to attempt), and all require a major transformation of our inner lives and general approach to life.
The kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, is definitely the place you want to be, especially in times like this – but actually, anytime.
A Path to Emotional Freedom and Maturity
I’m planning to write about each beatitude in future posts. One gift they offer us is a way to emotionally and spiritually navigate the next four years, including whatever personal hardships we’re facing or will face. For some time now, the Beatitudes have provided me with a step-by-step process for working through my difficult emotions around our political situation and other emotionally charged circumstances.
I believe that each beatitude offers us a rich stream of wisdom. I also believe that, taken together, the specific sequence of the Beatitudes offers a path towards increasing freedom and healing, in some ways paralleling the journey the Israelites took out of Egypt. It’s a path I have to take again and again when the cares, brokenness, and evil of this world – as well as my own failures – cause me to feel poor in spirit.
So what I’ll do now is list the Beatitudes in order, followed by the emotional transition I attempt to prayerfully navigate:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
From Denial to Honesty
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
From Grievance to Grief
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
From Being Consumed to Sovereignty
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
From Despair to Hope
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
From Hostility to Mercy
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
From Being Broken-Hardhearted to Becoming Wholehearted
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
From Retreating to Shalom-Making
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
From Revenge to Rejoicing (Matthew 5:3-10)
I’m not trying to “trick” my emotions into feeling better. Each step is grounded in something solid and true, even verifiably true, about the kingdom of God. As Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” I don't think of this as a meditation technique so much as an artful way to lean into the reality of God’s very real character and kingdom. I suspect we can develop spiritual/neural pathways over time that can make the process flow more naturally.
What’s happening in Washington is deeply disturbing and can consume us long after we’ve stopped reading or watching the news. Personally, I believe there is a strong "spiritual world" component to what’s transpiring, which is all the more reason to keep our hearts and minds grounded in the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God. Even if you’re not a Christian, I hope you can find some of this helpful. If our hearts are in a good place, or wholehearted, we’re more likely to discern the actions we’re to take.
Forty-seven months to go. It’s crucial that we not allow Donald Trump and Company to reign over our hearts. That’s God’s responsibility, and ours.
Comments