Blessed in Our Brokenness: Communion and the Beatitudes

``The Sermon on the Mount has been translated in many different ways and perhaps you know different versions. The word blessed has been translated as happy. But neither happy nor blessed or any other forms that I found quite articulate what Jesus is trying to say when he preached this sermon. Because the word that he used was Makarios. It doesn't mean lucky. It doesn't mean successful. It doesn't mean things are going your way. Instead, it speaks of being deeply well before God. It speaks of living in a right relationship with God. Even, even when life is hard. [00:48:22] (48 seconds)  #MakariosMeaning

In a moment, we're gonna break bread. We're gonna pour and drink wine. And, these are not symbols of a pain free faith. They speak of our God who knows suffering, who knows pain. For those who mourn the loss of a loved one, the loss of certainty, the loss of what once was, this table is not a denial of sorrow or grief, but a place of gentle, holy comfort and acknowledgement. [00:52:32] (33 seconds)  #TableOfComfort

And that's a bit like the world I think. Sometimes we think that we don't need God because we have God and we know God. But do we really always know him? Sometimes we read bible stories. We think we know exactly what they mean and yet suddenly, we're reminded that perhaps we're reading it in the wrong way. Or maybe, we think that we're being kind to people, but actually, we're really hurting them. [00:26:26] (31 seconds)  #RethinkScripture

But I do believe that we're all saints. God loves us. God died for us. God rose again for us. But we need to remember that we are also at the same time sinners who always need God. But I'd also encourage us to remember that how we see the world perhaps isn't how someone else always sees it. And what we might think is one thing might be seen as another thing by someone else. [00:27:19] (28 seconds)  #SaintsAndSinners

The word speaks of walking with God. Macarius names a kind of flourishing that well doesn't depend on the circumstances we find ourselves in at any given moment. It speaks of a blessing that cannot be taken away by illness or by loss or by doubt. A blessing that isn't dependent on a building or a name. It's a blessing that means everything for us. [00:49:10] (33 seconds)  #UnshakableBlessing

That's good because we are all children of God, and we are saints, aren't we? We think so often that we are wonderful, wonderful people. God loves us. We're made in his image. But sometimes, the thing is that we see things in the world and we think we know what they are. We think we know what we're doing. We think we can see the truth. [00:25:15] (28 seconds)  #ChildOfGodPerspective

But the reality is we don't always see the truth. So do we know what that says now? Sinner. Do we see this? It now says, it's very bright there, isn't it? Should I stand there and then you don't have to squint? Is that better? Do you see that? It now says, sinner. What we thought was the truth and what we saw and what we knew perhaps wasn't the whole truth. [00:25:44] (42 seconds)  #SeeTheWholeTruth

Often we forget what our words do and we see things and we think, oh, I know what this is. It's all okay. I can say it. It won't matter. They're big. They're strong. It won't matter. But then, when we turn the world upside down, we realize that perhaps what we said wasn't what we first thought. So this, I thought was a very clever way for us to remember. [00:26:57] (23 seconds)  #WordsHaveWeight

The Sermon on the Mount also isn't a set of instructions to follow. Jesus isn't say, try harder to be poor in spirit. Make yourself more weak. Mourn properly. Instead, what Jesus is doing is that he's describing the very people who are already closest to the kingdom of God. And so, the words of the beatitude are words of recognition, not requirements. [00:50:06] (27 seconds)