Against the tide

‘…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ (Matthew 5:6)

Matthew 5:1-10 (Year A: All Saints)

Thirsting and wanting are not normally thought of as blessings. Indeed, the opening verses of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ does not contain worldly wisdom of a sort practiced and commonly believed in many organisations and societies. The words can wash over us – having heard them so often. But lets hear them again in a radically stripped down form:

·       Blessed are those who lack a sense of overwhelming ego.

·       Blessed are those are not all chirpy, positive and comfortable.

·       Blessed are those who are gentle and good listeners at the company boardroom, kitchen table.

·       Blessed are those are bothered about injustice, lies and murder in our world and actually do something practical about it.

·       Blessed are the merciful and the forgiving.

·       Blessed those who are focussed on what is right, meaningful and what is true and not on their short-term wants and urges

·       Blessed are those who seek after peace and not conflict

·       Blessed are those who are not popular but who face misunderstanding, judgment, even persecution, because they are prepared to stand by their beliefs and values.

Now the above charter is not to be recommended if your main guiding goal in life is to climb those organisational, political and even church ladders in some cases. Rather, such gospel beatitudes are seen as signs of weakness, ineffectiveness, submission, failure. Not the sort of stuff that gets results, crushes the enemy (and yourself in the process) and rises to a position of glory, comfort and praise in the sight of people.

People, including religious folk, can squander a lot of time in arguments about what is right, what is true and what is mine or ours. Yet, if we took to heart the words of Jesus in these beatitudes we might be astonished how transforming and transformative living the gospel is. It can transform lives and situation and render the impossible possible, the unthinkable thinkable.