The 9 Beats of the Beatitudes
Sermon by Reverend Matt Harbage
Readings:
Revelation 7.9-17; Matthew 5.1-12
I want to give you something to take with you as we go back into lockdown. It’s something I read in a small book on my desk.
I’ve been reading pages from it since the start of March. It’s called the Ninefold Path, by Mark Scandrette. Mark and his friends are musicians and theologians from around the world, who united themselves around a single project – to bring Jesus’ teachings of the beatitudes alive, afresh for a new generation; regarding them as – quote – “the world’s path to recovery”. They produced an album but also that little book I have sitting on my desk.
Each Beatitude in the book of reflections is called a beat and I’d like to share with you the 9 Beats in turn. 9 Beats of the Saints. 9 Minutes.
Beat 1. I invite you to open your hands
Blessed are the poor in spirt, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
What does it mean to be poor?
Poverty is when you don’t have enough, or you feel you don’t have enough. Something is lacking. This beat invites us to own our own poverty.
Where in your life do you feel like you do not have enough?
When presented with such a question our first instinct can be to close our hands. To grasp all that we have. This is a posture of scarcity. But today we are invited to trust in the abundance of a good creator. We are invited to open our hands, to live in gratitude, satisfaction and generosity. This is the way of trust.
Beat 2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted
I invite you to put your head in your hands.
This beat is an invitation to journey upon the way of lament. To face our pain. We human beings have always looked for way to escape pain, but this rarely works.
In ancient cultures, people knew how to mourn. They tore their clothes. They poured ashes on their heads. They sat in the dirt and raised their voices in lament. When you look at the world, what breaks your heart? What do you see that grieves you?
The beautiful thing about a community of people is that at times of lament – like during this COVID pandemic and the coming lockdown, we can carry those who mourn through our prayers and through our care.
We must learn to sit and weep for ourselves and our world – and look to our creator for comfort.
I invite you to place your hand on your heart and bow your head.
Beat 3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness isn’t a quality that is particularly valued in a world built on competition and comparison. If you want something you have to seize it, right? The meek are assumed to get nothing. But what if we could learn to live differently?
Humility is the quite confidence and strength that comes from being at home with who you are. The Prophet Isaiah said this: “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength”.
This beat invites us to use our strength to serve and not to oppress, to bow to the dignity of all.
Beat 4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will satisfied.
I invite you to cross your fists and hold them up as a symbol of your power.
Something deep inside of us tells us that the world is not as it should be. Nations are at war. Refugees struggle to survive. Children are separated from their families. We feel the pain of injustice and we ache for change. What’s the hunger for justice that is inside of you?
We shape the world by our choices and by using the power that we have and the power of prayer.
I invite you to make the shape of a heart with your hands.
Beat 5. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
This beat invites us to give up judging and contempt, to look at ourselves and others through eyes of kindness and compassion. To pray for the person you find it most difficult to forgive. To see their face through the heart in your hands.
Beat 6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
I invite you to hold your hands up.
A young child cannot hide their feelings: it’s written on their face. Disappointed. Happy. Sad. Excited. But over time we learn to put on our masks.
What would people think if I was truly myself? Would I be loved? Warts and all?
This beat encourages us to be real because God sees us without our masks. He sees us and declares: you are loved. We can be real, we can be honest, we can walk with integrity because He loves us just as we are.
Beat 7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
I invite you to put out your arms and link your hands.
This beat invites us to seek peace, love peace, pursue peace.
The most common greeting in both Jewish and Muslim cultures is Shalom – Salaam. In Hebrew, the word Shalom suggests not just the absence of war, but the presence of ‘right relationships’: of wholeness.
We so easily live with stereotypes, of assumptions. This beat invites us to forge peace, by being curious and breaking down walls.
I invite you to hold out your hands in a gesture of surrender; as if ready for arrest.
Beat 8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Francis of Assisi. Martin Luther King. Bonhoeffer. John of the Cross. The Apostle Paul. Jesus.
These people are icons of doing good, no matter the cost.
Through history people have endured violence, arrest, imprisonment – and even death – for standing up for what’s right.
What if this path isn’t just for an exceptional few, but a way we are all called to follow?
We are part of a world of broken systems: of racial injustice. Of unfair taxation. Of fragile welfare provision. The interests of the powerful are protected. Love demands us to stand up and be counted.
To discover creative, peaceful protest.
And finally, beat 9. I invite you to stand.
Hold out your arms, in a posture of the cross.
Beat 9. ‘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.’
The first saints, the apostles, 11 of them, were stabbed, stoned, beaten or executed because of their faith in Jesus as the one who makes and teaches the way of eternal life and love.
People are still killed today because of their embrace of Jesus.
Yet here, at the last of the beatitudes, we come to the greatest of all the paradoxes. Life comes through death.
The illusion that keeps us from living heroically, living as a great saint, is that death is the end. It isn’t. This final beat invites us ask, how would I live, if I wasn’t afraid of death? What is worth giving up my life for?
If we have an answer to that, we can face anything: persecution, injustice, hardship, poverty. We can know that love is greater than fear. God is more powerful than death.
What might it look like for you to live fearlessly?
I end with the final prayer from the book:
Let us pray:
Lord, help me today to
Live with open hands
Mourn what’s broken
Serve with self-respect
Use my power for good
Look with compassion
Walk in honesty
Reach past difference
Suffer for love
and live fearlessly
following the way of radical love.
Amen.
This is the path of the Saints.
AMEN
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