Blessed Are You!
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 16, 2025
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Our scripture for this morning is from Matthew 5:11-12 from the New Revised Standard Version.
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.
Today, we conclude this series with the additional commentary Jesus adds to the end of the Beatitudes to emphasize and explain what he was saying about the persecuted in last week’s message. If you were listening carefully as I was reading these concluding remarks, Jesus compares the blessed who are persecuted to the Old Testament prophets – I think this is a very important comparison and a not-to-be-missed concluding remark because it speaks to our condition, today.
You may remember, back in the fall of 2023, I preached a sermon series on the Biblical Prophets based on a small book by my friend and fellow Quaker, Howard Macy. This was preparation and set-up for both my last sermon series, “Speaking Truth to Power,” as well as, this current series on the Beatitudes. Sometimes, it just takes several years of 15 to 20-minute messages to finally connect all the dots. I thank you for your patience.
I want to return to some of the insights I shared in those messages on the Prophets, to help us fully understand why Jesus would add these thoughts and even give somewhat of a warning to those of us trying to live out his message.
Howard early on quoted Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel who said that the Hebrew Prophets were “some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived.” And then Howard urged us to befriend them, to come alongside them, and to risk becoming a disturbing person ourselves.
Because he says, “The world needs more disturbing people – people who can envision the wonders of life together that God intends for us, people who can see through and call out the ways we corrupt that life, people who can teach us how to walk in God’s ways.
Many of you are struggling with knowing what to do in these challenging times, I know because you share it with me, on a daily basis. Most of the conversations I have had over the last three months have included the phrase, “I am not sure what to do.”
Interestingly, the prophets often were in the same place asking the same question when they were called. And guess what their initial response was?
Moses and Jeremiah said, “Not me, send someone else.”
And even though Isaiah’s first response was “Here I am, send me.” He later balks, “I’d just rather not.”
Amos comes out and denies he is a prophet under pressure.
And we all know what Jonah did, he decided to run away.
So, folks, currently most of us are in the same boat as the prophets. We really don’t want to speak up. We would rather someone else do the hard work. We would like to escape the reality of what is happening or wish it away. Yet as Quakers and Christians in our world today, we have a responsibility to respond.
These same prophets who were trepidatious and full of anxiety would soon find their voices in their local communities and give us some of the most important images of the world God intends. They would describe:
· A peace without limit, where justice and righteousness prevail (there it is again righteousness, just what we have talked about for the past 8 weeks.
· A time when nations will stream to hear God’s teaching and will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks.
· Where justice will roll down like an ever-flowing stream.
· Or how about this one…where “Faithful love and truth will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss, and Truth will literally spring up from the ground as righteousness gazes down from the heavens.
Those are some impressive and inspiring images coming from some people who originally did not have the courage to step up or speak out. I think it was in them all along, as I believe it is in you and me right now.
Howard helped me get to the meat of the prophet’s message by sharing the four most used words of the prophets which he describes as the “shiny facets of the gem, shalom,” and what he considers are the foundations for building a community of peace.
So, what are those four words?
If they are the meat of the prophets, the gem of shalom, the foundation for building peaceful communities – AND from our text today, the things that cause people to revile, persecute, and utter all kinds of evil against them falsely, then these must be loaded subjects.
So, what are these four facets of the gem of shalom…
1. Righteousness
2. Justice
3. Love/Kindness
4. Truth
At first pass, these four things may seem a simplification or to some even religious fluff, that is until you get to what is behind these ordinary things.
Righteousness to the prophets was first and foremost about practical living - thus it means to live by common means, widely and readily accessible to our neighbors.
And the prophets point out who to focus on within that grouping of neighbors. They say to give special attention to the poor and needy, the widow and orphan, and the foreign resident (or stranger) in your land.
This righteous practical living is daily living, folks, it happens right in our own homes, communities, workplaces, and places of worship.
Those of us asking “What should I do, currently?” Maybe to start we could simply begin by living practically. Acknowledging and engaging our neighbors who are struggling, who have needs, who have questions in our spheres of influence.
Then comes Justice. To the prophets, justice was rooted in their understanding of the character, actions, and guidance of God. When justice is added to righteousness or practical living – it is called “Social Justice.” Once we are seeing and acknowledging our neighbors, then we can move to pursuing justice to protect, care, and uplift them.
To do this, we must seek out where they are being cheated or treated unfairly. This may take some of us coming together to speak out or rally against the injustices taking place. For some of us it might take letter writing campaigns and making phone calls to our leaders. At times we may be nudged or even led to personally stand with or speak up for our neighbors. Or maybe it is not for a person but for our environment which impacts our neighbors.
These are just a couple examples, but to know how we are to respond means we have to first of all know who are neighbors are and what is going on in their lives.
Then comes Love and Kindness. The prophets used the Hebrew word hesed, which I talked about earlier in this series. It is hard to translate, but probably the best way to translate it for what we are talking about today is “embracing faithful love.”
The character of God’s love should guide our own character, especially how it persists and never gives up. We have to respond to our neighbors and our world in faithful love, not in bitterness, not in hatred, not in revenge, but in a manner that offers a loving presence in the daily lives of our neighbors.
This attentive care then shapes our relationships and builds stronger ties between us and helps us become kinder and more respectful people.
And finally comes Truth. For the prophets, truth meant reliability, dependability, or things being firmly established. Please hear me on this, our neighbors need to know that they can count on and depend on us.
Our neighbors should be able to rely on our integrity (especially as Quakers), our consistency, and our desire to say and do what is right.
One of the greatest struggles in our world today is people trusting each other. After not knowing what to do in our country, today, the next thing that comes out of most people’s mouth is “who can I trust.”
To build trust once again, we have to be reliable, consistent, and dependable people in our daily lives. Our neighbors must know we are safe. This means:
Our LGBTQ+ and Queer neighbors must know we are safe - especially our Transgender and Non-binary children.
Our immigrant neighbors must know we are safe people.
Our neuro-divergent neighbors must know we are safe.
Our elderly neighbors must know we are safe.
Our children must know we are safe.
And the list must go on and on…until every group is covered.
Obviously, we won’t get this perfect every time, we may even show our weaknesses at times and occasionally fail, but as Quakers and Christians, we must not give up, or just expect someone else will come to their aid or to their rescue.
This is OUR calling. Just as it was for the prophets before us. If you want an answer to “What should I be doing today?,” just start with what the prophets sought; Righteousness, Justice, Love/Kindness, and Truth. That is our daily call.
I find it interesting in his final word on the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are YOU.” Did you notice that? He gets personal with his audience. He stops teaching and looks us in the eyes and says, Blessed are YOU.
Not just the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, even though these all could and probably do at times describe you and me – but, now he simply says, Blessed are YOU.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Jesus’ life was a lived example of each of those descriptors and he understood the backlash that comes from righteous living. It sadly was and still is part of our world. But he also knows that when we live this way, there is a great good taking place.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
What we may have been quick to assume is that Jesus is simply saying, do this and your reward will be in heaven when you die. But all along he has used the phrase kingdom of heaven to describe our current condition.
He is not simply been talking about where we go when we die, but the Kingdom that is ours starting, NOW, as we fulfill the work of the beatitudes or what I described last week as Kingdom work. Too many Christians have simply made this an escape plan and refused to take seriously the Kingdom work involved in the present moment.
I think it is far time that we stopped making escape plans and started to live as Jesus called us to live in the Beatitudes.
So, today as I close this series, I want to remind us that Jesus said, “Blessed are YOU.” He didn’t give any of us an easy out, but he challenged us to be better people, better citizens, and better Friends.
He knew it would be hard, and he warned us, but he also reminded us
· That the Kingdom of heaven or God would be ours.
· That we would be comforted,
· That we would inherit the land,
· That we would be satisfied,
· That we would be shown mercy,
· That we would see God in ourselves and in our neighbor, and
· That we would be called God’s children.
Blessed are YOU. Amen!
Now, as we center down and enter waiting worship, I ask that you take a moment to ponder the following queries:
· Am I still feeling as if I do not know what to do?
· How might I work this week to embrace righteousness, justice, love/kindness, and truth in my circle of influence?
· Where have I expected someone else to come to the rescue or speak up, instead of responding myself?