Sunday, November 1, is All Saints’ Day. On this important holy day, it is customary for Christians to read the Beatitudes, found in the Sermon on the Mount, the most important summary of Jesus’ teachings:
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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.
(Matt. 5:1-12)
These words always move me.
This year, however, they speak to me differently. With the election just a few days away, I am reminded that the words describe Jesus’ political vision — what the Kingdom of God looks like, what Jesus imagined when he taught his followers to pray “Thy Kingdom come.” God dreams of a world that upends ours — the rich and the privileged aren’t blessed. The poor and humble are.
The Beatitudes are, in effect, Jesus’s Voter Guide.
It is also the New Testament passage that has meant the most to me in the last four years. The Beatitudes have been my spiritual rock during the Trump presidency. I’ve read this text over and over — in times of crisis and times of despair. They’ve accompanied me along the way, sharpened my political vision, shaped my prophetic voice, and provided comfort when needed.
My spiritual journey with the Beatitudes during the Trump years started at the Women’s March. As we move toward All Saints’ and Election Day, I share this reflection (below) from January 21, 2017, found in Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks — as an invitation to remember where we have been and where we can go together.
I had arranged to meet some friends – mostly clergywomen – on the patio at the front of the American Indian Museum. Although the crowd was already larger than any I had ever seen (and it would grow into one of the largest protest gatherings in world history), I arrived first at the meet-up location. But the patio was already teeming with marchers. I worried that my friends would not find me, as I was just one pink hat among thousands. I looked around and realized that the museum had placed huge boulders around their entrance as (I suspected) both a landscape design and security feature.
I scrambled up on the rocks. From there, I could both survey the crowd and be seen.
I waited. Standing on the boulders worked. Across the growing crowd, hands waved in recognition! My friends managed to make it through the throng to where I occupied the rocks. There was no place to stand, so they joined me on the landscaped mount (and the concrete bench at its base). Hugs and tears made up the greetings. And, finally, one said, “We brought the signs!”
She passed them out to the dozen or so of us who made up this small Christian band, most of my sisters were wearing pink hats, ordination stoles, and clergy collars. A few other women who were pastors saw us and joined the party and she gave them signs, too. I looked at the placard she handed me, black cardboard with rounded white letters that read:
Blessed are the Poor — Matthew 5
The Beatitudes! Our signs were Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament. I laughed with joy as I read them all:
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the hungry
Not only were there signs bearing the actual words from the Bible, but my friends had updated them and added a few special beatitudes for the day:
Blessed are the women
Blessed are the uninsured
Blessed are the immigrants
Blessed are the LGBTQ
We were marching with the Beatitudes.
Or not. Because we could not move. The crowd had so filled in that it was difficult to move, much less march.
We stayed up on the rocks, pink hats and clerical collars, holding up blessings as women slowly filed by below.
“Yeah! Blessed are the poor!” a voice shouted from the crowd. “I’m mourning A LOT right now,” yelled another. “I must be really blessed!” And more replies: “God bless the immigrants!” “Jesus welcomes everybody!” “Blessed are the protestors!” “Even politicians would be blessed if they passed single-payer health insurance!” “Blessed are the working mothers!”
Some pointed at the signs — “Look the church is here!” “Who knew that Christians would show up at a march like this?” Others commented on my friends – “Blessed are women ministers!” And seeing those collared women, more than a few people stopped to talk and pray.
My mind wandered back to the New Testament, to that ancient hillside in Galilee, where Jesus had stood just above the crowds and uttered these blessings for the first time. Looking out at the poor, the weak, the oppressed, women, and slaves, he preached his radical sermon on the mount, holding forth the promise of a new society. Although the words were so familiar to me, having heard them all my life, when I stood up on the rocks in the middle of the Women’s March, I realized that Jesus’ sermon added up to one thing: “Blessed are all of you who are disregarded by the powerful, for you are God’s beloved community.”
Jesus blessed history’s losers. No wonder people all those years ago had listened. No wonder they remembered and wrote it down. No wonder it is still so powerful two millennia later. The blessings were protest.
I looked down from the artificial hillside, and my heart moved as I watched the crowds. I held my sign up higher and shouted, “Blessed are the poor!” Some women yelled back, “Blessed are the poor!” And others cheered. Yes, they cheered the Beatitudes.
And tears came. The day before, I had cried because I was afraid and sad. But, on this day, I cried because of blessings. For the first time in the two months, I felt grateful.
(from Grateful, pp. 136-139)
I can’t predict what will happen on Tuesday. I can’t promise you that voters will send Trump and his unjust administration packing. And I can’t promise that any candidate will bring forth the Kingdom of God, even though some will take the words of the Beatitudes — and other sacred texts like them — more to heart than others.
But I can promise that the Beatitudes are with us always. They guide the best of human visions, they offer blessings in the worst of circumstances. Their undeniable power and beauty speaks to all the heartbroken, the poor, the merciful, and the persecuted no matter what Caesar occupies the throne.
The Beatitudes are indeed Jesus’s Voter Guide.
PLEASE VOTE WITH THE BEATITUDES IN MIND
INSPIRATION:
Becoming a child is living the Beatitudes and so finding the narrow gate into the Kingdom.
—Henri Nouwen
Being a peacemaker is part of being surrendered to God, for God brings peace. We abandon the effort to get our needs met through the destruction of enemies. God comes to us in Christ to make peace with us; and we participate in God’s grace as we go to our enemies to make peace.
—Glenn Stassen and David Gushee
[Many Christians] demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. … I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon?
—Kurt Vonnegut
I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
—Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth.
—Maya Angelou
What does the Sermon on the Mount really mean? It sure does seem to favor the poor and the merciful, and those who in worldly terms don’t have a lot, but who have the spirit that God recognizes as the core of love and salvation.
—Hillary Clinton
Hilary Clinton quoted on Christianity? Interesting anyway
Which "Jesus" are these folks following ?