Taking a cue from St. Paul’s writing on the foolishness of God, and with your permission, I’d like to start with a little "Film Friends" foolishness, that I hope will lead us all to some wisdom.

Sometimes we hear the Beatitudes the way it was heard in the Monty Python movie, The Life of Brian. Jesus is speaking to the crowds. And on the edges of the crowd, where Brian and his Mum are standing, people are having trouble hearing. So the words of the rabbi are passed along.

Jesus says, Blessed are the meek...

And the crowd at the edges asks, Who is this Greek and why does he get to inherit everything?

Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers...

And the crowd at the edges asks, Cheese makers? Does that mean just cheese makers or are all producers of dairy products included?

Then as Brian and his Mum leave the area, Brian overhears a group grumbling about the "speech" and they conclude that it can be summarized as "blessed is anyone with a vested interest in the status quo."

Well, obviously they have been well beyond where the crowd at the edges had trouble hearing. And that's exactly where most of us stumble when we hear the beatitudes...

The Beatitudes don't go with the flow. They don't hold the status quo. They call us to look somewhere else... somewhere beyond conventional wisdom. They look at future promise and we are a people who live in the very present moment.

They are both familiar to us and difficult for us to hear. So much so that we might be tempted to say, Blessed are those who don't get it now, for they will hear and know in God's future.

See what I mean? Now, on my good days, I like to think of myself as merciful, as pure in heart, and as a peacemaker. But really, I ask you  >> Who wants to be poor, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst -- let alone to be persecuted and reviled.

"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven...." I've heard that called "high in the sky, by and by" piety.

It's a kind of piety that has us all eating our pie in heaven. You know, like the White Queen in Alice and Wonderland... jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but never jam today.

So what is a Beatitude anyway? And what does it mean to be blessed?

Is the person who wins the Powerball lottery today, blessed?

Is that what it means -- are the people with big, expensive houses the ones who are blessed in this country?

Big paychecks with stock options as bonuses.

Vacation homes. Travel.

Wardrobes with gowns from Donna Karen.

Being able to rent a luxury skybox for 1/4 million $.

And here’s one I heard just this morning on the radio—

Are you blessed if your parents can and do buy you a $250 jewel encrusted cover for your cell phone?

Do these things show that a person is blessed? 

The world would say so. Check out the Super Bowl game if you think I'm off track here. We’ve heard of tickets going for thousands of dollars..

Speaking of the Super Bowl. . . Do you think we should sing

"And I will raise you up on Eagles’ wings" next Sunday?

All this hype. Some of it is just fun. But sometimes don’t you wonder?

For example, there’s all this buzz about the commercials that will be aired and some have already been featured in news stories. Doesn't that strike you as odd? As the tail wagging the dog?

The world would say, possessions are good and mark a successful person.

What would people of faith say?

Perhaps, we'd say, it's good to have a secure home, good health, good work, and relationships of love and care with those we love and those around us. We'd hope to have enough to share. That would mean we are blessed.

I know that's what I say many, many days.

But it's not what the Beatitudes say.

One Church School teacher asked what does beatitude mean and slowly the answer came back -- "it's the attitude we are supposed to have."

Pretty smart. Be of this attitude. Beatitudes. And I know that there are books at The Way to Emmaus and Hackman's written by learned, prayerful people that flesh this all out.

But I'm not sure that's what the beatitudes are... prescriptions for setting our emotions and minds. It sounds just a little like Bobbie McFarren is whistling "Be Happy" in the background.

I have a much more basic view which I want to share. So listen up. This collection of sayings of Jesus, probably gathered up from several sermons, is well translated... Happy are those who...

Simple. Yet real. Happy is an adequate translation for blessed. So I think that rather than a prescription for how to live... rather than a do this and don't do that list... The Beatitudes are statements meant to encourage us and give us comfort when things seem to be falling apart. Especially when we can't pray, when we are sad, discouraged, when we feel distant from God and most especially when we are not sure that we are doing God's work or following God's will.

Listen to how different it sounds...when you read the scholarly translation of Eugene Peterson’s "The Message" or look up Matthew 5 in the very scholarly translation in the Jerusalem Bible.

They both translate the Greek as "happy", not "blessed".

Happy are those... who can hold unto the spiritual truths and reality when things are bad.

Here's how I translate it for myself.

Even as I mourn, sorrowing, sighing, I can reach for the happiness of knowing life continues and does not end. My loved one is in the nearer presence of God. Where I also long to be.

Even as I struggle to forgive, I can be happy that God is with me. An Indian saying says that you become what you hate. Jesus teaches us to hate nothing, not to judge and to forgive 70 times 70.

Even as I pray for fellow Christians who risk homes and lives for their witness, I can be happy when people murmur and mutter "who does she think she is" because I know I am a child of God.

Now, I don't what to make this "happy" seem too much like a Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot and Puff kind of thing.

The Greek word for blessed, which is makarios, describes the joy which has its secret within itself, sort of like those Russian nesting dolls. One inside another. Makarios is that joy which sorrow and loss, and pain and grief, are powerless to touch, that joy which shines through tears, and which nothing in life or death can take away.

We teach a song to our youngest-- young by the calendar and young in heart-- which brings this secret joy into the light and lets it be contagious. So we teach them to sing...

++++ If you're happy and you know it clap your hands...

+++++ If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet...

++++++ If you’re happy and you know it shout hurray...

+++++++ If you’re happy and you know it do all three.

The prophet Micah says it just a little differently...

He says If you're happy and you know it,

do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.

Let us Pray:

Most loving God, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our cares on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that eternal love which you have made known to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN.