Blessings

Are we abandoning the concept of gracious blessings in our national dialogue? A look at The Sermon on the Mount, as contrasted with modern America, would suggest so. The contrast is particularly stark when we select the Beatitudes. These form the exordium, or introduction to the Sermon from which this most important Christian constitution flows. Why did the Galilean use them so?

He knew. We guess.

The concept of gracious blessings is not particularly new in Hebrew or Greek genres. We read in Psalm 1:1−2: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” (NIV) Luke, of course has his own version of the Beatitudes. Some say Matthew expanded and edited these, most notably perhaps in adding the modifying “in spirit” to the blessing of the poor.

At any rate, we don’t do much meditating in our nation these days. The advent of spurious but addictive “news” outlets and social media seems to have replaced our reflective time and practice.

Neither are we content with the promise of future blessings based on our righteous behavior at present. The current worldwide health crisis brings that home to us daily. We can only guess how the Galilean would react to his armed and angry children who refuse to protect the least of his children, or a national leader who exhorts the mob instead of comforting those who mourn. We sit on the edge of global annihilation and pray for a peacemaker. But none comes. 

In fact, one could make a sound argument that, for more than a third of Americans, the Beatitudes and much of the remainder of the Sermon provide nothing more than a contra-constitution for guiding daily life. They provide only nauseous rules that bless the most obnoxious segments of society, and should be shunned and strewn from out path. We do tend to elect politicians that promulgate that philosophy.

Some scholars have argued that the content of the Sermon, demanding to the maximum as ordained by the Galilean, was intended as guidance for his disciples and not as structures for the average person.

We’d best hope so.