Matthew 5:38-48

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Sermon Text

God has a blessing for everyone. Those blessings are not all the same. The exact way in which blessings are dispensed is in itself a mystery. Yet, when the question rises, “How can I call myself blessed when life treats me well, when that necessarily implies other people are lacking in God’s blessing when they struggle?” An answer of some kind must be given. If God is the source of all good gifts, then we must grapple with the absence of these gifts in the lives of other people. Either Heaven becomes a very capricious place, where God hands out gifts at random, or Heaven becomes a meritocracy where God only rewards people based on criteria we have never been told.

The easy answer here would be to make all material blessings separate from what God is willing or able to give. God, in this paradigm, would give us blessings spiritually – eternal life, peace, patience, et cetera – but not materially – food, water, shelter, et cetera. If this is the kind of God we worship, then it is not the God of scripture. The God of scripture is constantly multiplying food, sending rain to water parched ground, and actively working to secure shelter for the needy. God the Father may be Spirit, as is the Holy Spirit, but the Incarnate God we worship through Christ is anything but purely spiritual. God is working at all times in this world, in all its material matters.

Another easy answer would be to equate all good things, uncritically, with God’s blessing. The rich would therefore be the most blessed by God, while the poor would be the least. If this were so, then I suppose that we would have a logically consistent argument at least. However, it would again not be a God I want anything to do with. There are people who make their money off of blood or worse, I do not want to think that simply because they have, that God is the one who has given it to them and called them, “Blessed,” because of it.

Our scripture today may seem like a strange place to start to answer the question of blessings, but it follows a section in which Jesus lists all those who, in his Kingdom, are blessed. Peacemakers, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and those who are persecuted are among these blessed people. The blessings they receive are often antithetical to their status in the world. The humble, called meek, are given reign over all the earth. The Peacemakers, though war is waged against them, are truly called children of God. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, though they are denied it in this life, will be filled in God’s perfected eternity.

All of these are end times or spiritual blessings, which seems to support option one for how God blesses, but that’s why we have all the Gospels. Luke presents an alternate rendering of this passage. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Affirms that even a person’s material life can find answers in God’s blessings. “Blessed are those who hunger, for they will be filled!” We’re talking about the physical filling of bellies that had no food in them before. Clearly this is not a spiritual reality, but a material one. The blessings that God confers are therefore not limited to either a spiritual, invisible realm nor are they limited to the hard and fast bounds of our physical world.

The question then emerges, “If God is the one who gives blessings, then why is it that there are those who are clearly not blessed?” There are people who do not have Spiritual blessings in the sense of peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, et cetera; but more obvious than that is that lack of physical blessings all around us. People go hungry, people lose their houses, people get sick, people lack all kinds of things. What is God doing to bless folk when so many people are clearly lacking? We’re gonna start by addressing what God is not doing.

God is not only handing out good things to people who deserve them. We talked recently about how we do not deserve half the good things we have, but I’m going to say definitively that there is no blessing that a person can earn from God. It is all a gift. As Jesus puts it in our scripture, God does not think retributively, but redemptively. God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust, and the sun to shine on the same. In other words, good things come to all people, because God cares for good people and for evil people. In one place to strengthen them, in another to call them to repentance.

The whole passage gives us a picture then, of how God metes out blessings, as least a glimpse of one at least. God gives good things to all people, regardless of whether or not they are earned. God blesses in particular those who are lacking in this life, and promises they will have their fill in due time. God also is not concerned with us working for additional blessings, nor is God giving them randomly, but with a specific and redemptive intent. God, unlike us, knows how to treat even God’s enemies well.

The problem comes in, I think, that God has built our world such that some blessings are conferred divinely, by providence, and others by human action. God calls for God’s people to be invested in each other’s lives because God seeks to redeem this world through the same humanity that is being redeemed. If a person is hungry and another person has food, God does not call for food to be made out of nothing, but for one person to share that food with the other. God does not ask for the sick to be healed out of nothing, but for his people to visit the sick and bring them relief. God asks us to be blessings to other people, because God has ordained the it is through humanity the world is to be blessed.

Now, does this let God off the hook for the inequalities of the world – not entirely. There is still the problem of evil in this world, that so much bad happens to people who have done nothing to deserve it. I cannot speak to that reality fully today, we’ll be doing that a bit during next week’s Sunday School hour. However, I want to make clear that the anthropic nature of blessing and curses, that human beings can cause both to come to pass, does not mean God is not involved in either.

I do want to address, however, what scripture says for the rich and powerful, in contrast to the poor and needy. While one is promised comfort and peace, if not through God’s people working good here and now than in the world to come, the other is promised only torment. To those who are respected now, loved for their greatness and good deeds, to those haughty people who demand to be loved, Christ says “You have already received your reward.”[1] Those who seek to be above others, holier and more blessed, reveal themselves to know nothing of God, and for them the best they can hope for is the lowest place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

For the rich, even more is stated. Not only are they held accountable for their starving neighbors, not only are they told that it is nearly impossible for them to enter the Kingdom, but they are told that their blessings of money – if not used for others – will be evidence against them on the day of judgment.[2] In his Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus places the rich man in Hell, suffering eternally while he gazes at the poor, homeless Lazarus, now resting in Paradise. When he calls up for a drop of water, Abraham replies from Paradise, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony…”

Material good, therefore, is a burden that we must understand has been placed upon us. Every good gift, freely given, is not meant for us to hoard or to abuse. We are meant to support others with it, to love one another and feed one another and house one another. We are not called to be rich in this life, to be blessed with every material good, while any other person is allowed to suffer. We must work for the good of our neighbor, tangibly, because in every part of God’s word – whether it be the prophets, the law, the disciples’ teachings, or Jesus’s own words – the people of God are meant to confer blessings to the world around them, to each other, to all flesh.

So, can I tell you why one person is blessed and another person is not? No. Can I tell you confidently that, even and especially with your material goods you should give thanks to almighty God for it? Absolutely. Through faith you may receive every Spiritual Blessing on earth, but through the loving kindness of God alone you have received your livelihood. Give thanks for it, share it, and put it to bettering the lives of others. How many souls are left questioning why God does not bless this world, when God’s people are holding up those blessings like a dam? How many times have faith been crushed by worry, because God’s people were too busy building credit and not interested in building a community?

Do not fear calling yourself blessed, but if you claim God’s goodness today in any part of your life, take also God’s responsibility. “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” – Amen.

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[1] Matthew 6:1-21

[2] Luke 16:19-31