The Third Blessing - Matthew 5:5

The TED Radio Hour is a program that takes one over-arching theme per week and has several people talk about it from different perspectives. One such topic recently was “approaching with kindness”. The topic struck a cord with me instantly. We live in a world where we don’t see much kindness celebrated in large ways, but everyday kinds can make an impact on our lives. 

I was particularly struck by Dr. Laura Trice who told the story of how a lack of kindness impacted her dad negatively - as she remembered going to visit him in the hospital after having trouble with his heart manifesting from stress at work. This memory led her to eventually study what difference kindness makes in the workplace - and the answer is a lot. A lack of kindness can cause people to not work up to their potential. To quit. To become ill. So if a lack of kindness is so detrimental to work performance why aren’t folks nicer? Because they don’t want to appear weak. 

Which is perhaps our trouble with today’s text as well. We equate meekness with weakness. The dictionary defines being meek as quiet, gentle, and easily imposed upon. Submissive. The word that Jesus used more commonly translates as gentle and lowly. And in today’s culture, when we look at that list of definitions relating to meek, not many people would jump at being identified in that way? Why? Because in layman’s terms we define being meek as being a doormat - as letting other people use you. But is that really what Jesus is saying?

The truth is while in our culture we sometimes see meek as being a deficiency, being gentle and lowly in Jesus’s time was considered more positively. To be meek was to have a balanced and ethical life. And most importantly it was seen as being the opposite of arrogant. 

Yet, today, we seem to celebrate the arrogant. Or at the very least, we celebrate people who are confident in life, even if they end up hurting other people. This world teaches us to win, to dominate, the get all we can, no matter what the cost. And that is the opposite of what Jesus is trying to lift up in this teaching. 

For Christ, this idea of meekness was tied in with reducing selfishness and pride. Which of course is deeply scriptural. In the 16th chapter of the book of Proverbs, we find this wisdom, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit among the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” We’ve heard those words before, haven’t we? That pride goes before the fall? Meekness stands in the face of pride and teaches a new way of living. 

I’ve shared before that one of the things that I do, every single day, is read the obituaries. Obituaries can be fascinating, because they try to give us a glimpse into who someone was in this world. Sometimes they do that by listing accomplishments, but more often than not it’s through the difficult work of describing who this person was in relationship. What their best characteristics are.

I cannot tell you how many obituaries I have read, or how many times I have sat down with a family to plan a funeral and have them describe their loved one as kind-hearted. Never saying a bad word about anyone. Someone who tried to love others above self. Do I think these descriptions are true? Absolutely I do. Because I have had the privilege of deeply knowing someone of these people, and how their loved ones would describe them, that’s how I would describe them as well. 

I think of people like the woman who got cancer far too you, fought a hard battle, and whose dying wish was to pass onto her children what it means to live with kindness. I think of the woman who could not leave her home for decades due to illness, yet made gifts of love to send to people who would never have the opportunity to know her, but whom she wanted to bless. These were people who lived lives of gentleness and kindness. They embodied for me the understanding of meekness in this passage, and it touched hearts and lives, dear friends.

Sometimes, as believers, in the words of someone from this parish, we can get so heavenly minded that we aren’t any earthly good. We sing songs that look forward to getting to Heaven, and that’s so important to remind us that this world isn’t our permeant home. But if we get so caught up in what will be that we miss living lives that touch hearts and lives here and now, we aren’t living into the opportunities that God has given us. 

We have a choice about how we are going to live our lives every single day. If we are going to live lives of meekness or not. If we are going to live humble lives or lives that strive to humiliate others. Who we are going to be and how it reflects upon God.

Not too long ago, we were studying the book of Revelation in this parish. And one of the things we talked a lot about was God’s power and authority. About what the Kingdom of God means. And we realized that the Kingdom of God isn’t just about Heaven, its about God’s rule on Earth, here and now, as well. We don’t always recognize the rule of God because people get in the way - rulers that distract us. People who try to impede the rule of God. Princes and Principalities that try to act like they have final authority, not God. But the world is still God’s house. And so maybe we need to be talking a little bit more about God’s house rules. 

I visit people in their homes a lot, and each place has a different set of rules, some which are spoken, some of which are unspoken. Where you sit. If you take off your shoes or not. But God’s house rules are much more consequential friends. They boil down to knowing who we are and who we belong to. How we are to treat others. Because its all a reflection upon the Master of the House, our Lord and Savior. 

But Jesus also modeled all of this out for us in the way he lived on this earth - a King who was born in a stable and placed in a manger. The Messiah who didn’t come to fight and save by the sword, but by the Word of truth and the way we live into it. The Revolutionary who came to redeem and point out the work of the Kingdom of God. The one who rewrote what it means to have success.

Someday we are all going to have someone write an obituary for us. What do you want yours to say? I want mine to say a lot more about living a life that was pleasing to God, living into those rules of the Master of the House that speak to a relationship with God and how I treated other people, then anything else. I want to be seen not necessarily as a success in the eyes of the world, that calls for domination and triumph over others, but as a success in the eyes of God - who calls for us to be meek, gentle, kind, and lowly. Friends, what is the life that we are being called to live here and now, so we can impact the lives of people in the world to come? Amen.