Good Shepherd sermon February 1, 2026 Matthew 5: 1-12
“Blessed Are We”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God, the Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, thru the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a joy! What a blessing to be with you again at Good Shepherd. And, that word, “blessing,” is not just some word that sounds good. I truly am blessed to be here.
As I say that, I think it’s important to define the word, “blessed.” So, I consulted the Greek Concordance for the word, Makarios . . . Here’s what it said: “Blessed describes that joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and the changes of life.”
And, just so the emotion of being happy and the emotion of joy don’t get confused, I double-checked the word, “happy.” It has a root of “hap,” which means chance. Knowing that, might you agree that human happiness is something which is dependent on the chances and the changes of life…
(Pause)
…something which life may give
and
which life may also destroy.
And, joy? Jesus is quoted as saying in John’s gospel, Chapter 16 verse 22:
“No one will take your joy from you.”
Joy comes from God. One of my favorite verses from the Psalms, which is one of my favorite Books, comes from Psalm 30, verse 5:
For his anger is but for a moment;
his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.”
Then in verse 11 the psalmist writes:
“You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy”
Yes, joy comes in the morning!
What Jesus is telling his disciples and the crowd listening is about this incredible Kingdom of God, which is of paramount importance in Matthew’s gospel. Actually it’s his primary focus in conjunction with Jesus being the Messiah, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.
What these 8 “beatitudes” are saying is this counter-intuitive manner in which people who have been looked down upon, or overlooked because they are “different” than others, or…or…or…
Or, maybe they were ME! Or, maybe they were you! Let’s face it, most of us have taken some roads that we are none to proud to admit we took. There is shame, guilt, at times even feeling morally unforgiveable. You know what I mean.
Well, Jesus says – “you are blessed. You give me the opportunity to show you how precious and priceless life can be, then, the Kingdom of heaven is yours.”
But, dear friends, here’s the cool part. We don’t wait until we take our final breath to experience the Kingdom of God.. NO. We are living in it now. See, we straddle this invisible line of the already (today!) and the “Not yet (after death).
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “
17 “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!” Hello! I was one who thought being transformed was for most other people; I thought I used up all my second chances. Well, you see, God doesn’t count chances given. God’s forgiveness takes care of that. When we give him who we are, with no holding back, the work of the Creator continues to bless and transform us.
What does blessing look like?
For the past couple of weeks, I have been volunteering at a food distribution site in Terre Haute giving out food to folks who are in need. This past Thursday, when the temperature was barely in the double-digits, I asked a fellow how he was doing. He quickly responded, “Man, I am blessed.” My immediate reaction was something profound like, “Me too.”
I have heard that response so often in ministry uttered by folks who one might not think would consider themselves “blessed.” Up in Toledo a number of years ago, I recall serving a weekday breakfast at a church and approached a table with four men just chatting away. When I asked that question, I received the same answer, as one of the men said, “Blessed.”
And, right here, in Dayton, at one of First Lutheran Church’s breakfasts, a man named, Arley, had a similar retort. He is also the one who, on a weekly basis, when I would ask if there were any prayer requests, he would stand up and pray that we would count our blessings and to make the right choices that day.
To Arley, the manner in which we can make the “right choices” is to make Jesus our first choice. And, by making Christ our first choice helps us realize how blessed we are, even under the most trying of circumstances. Why, you might wonder, was Arley blessed? Like he told me a number of times…Pastor, I’m sober today and Jesus is the One who never gave up on me.
What about you and me? How are we blessed? In order to see the blessings of today, doesn’t it make sense to remember where we’ve been to arrive at such a blessed state. What, in your life, has been overcome, because Jesus has made good on his promises?
As you can imagine, the eight beatitudes are hardly an exclusive list of folks who will know the Lord’s blessings. Nadia Bolz-Weber, a rather cutting-edge ELCA pastor in Denver, has authored a couple of books and offered a few more beatitudes.
- Blessed are those who have nothing to offer.
- Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.
- Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.
- Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.
- Blessed are the motherless, the alone, the ones from whom so much has been taken.
- Blessed are those who “still aren’t over it yet.”
Blessed are they who laughed again when for so long they thought they never would. - Blessed are those who mourn.
- Blessed are those who long to hear the words of forgiveness, and
- Blessed are those whose hearts wants to speak those words but need the courage to form them on their lips.
Dear friends, may you never forget that you are a loved child of God and Jesus blesses you…today, and always.
AMEN.