Sermon based on Matthew 5:1-12

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All Saint’s Day was this past Wednesday, what a time to have this text show up in the Lectionary. I am imagining Jesus standing on Hawk mountain, preaching this to all of the ancestors we remember and honor, as well as us today.  Even more so, I am recalling that he was standing on a top or mountain in Northern Israel on what is now called the Korazim Plateau.  “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he preaches. 

Jesus today, knows that we are experiencing spiritual emptiness, grief and sadness, and disenfranchisement.  We are living in a world framed by expedience and greed and war and mass murder.  We witness daily, emboldened cruelty, tainted and corrupted by the thirst for power.  Disharmony and divisiveness appear to reign. 

Jesus is again standing at the mountaintop.  His message is one of empowerment.  Those of us, who may be ignored and persecuted by the earthly kingdom, are not only promised, we already have something better.  We have Christ within us, we have God’s kingdom on earth and heaven.  Let us rejoice and be glad.

We are truly blessed.