The days are growing longer. Light is creeping back into our Truckee Meadows, minute by minute, as we move deeper into Epiphany. In this period of lengthening days, with earlier sunrises and later sunsets, it’s also the liturgical season when we celebrate Christ as the light of the world—and when we ask what it means to walk in that light ourselves.
We brought up the idea of vision and mission statements at our congregational annual meeting. It will be good to revisit what we proclaim together as Faith Lutheran Church.
And it’s just wonderful, and challenging, and… exciting that in our Lectionary on the VERY NEXT SUNDAY we get the beginning of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. We get the beatitudes—the “blessed are” promises. And they run so counter to the way our world, and so our worldly brains and practices and habits, run!
Jesus announces, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
What might this look like in our lives? The person struggling with doubt about their faith—poor in spirit—finds themselves at home in God’s kingdom? The neighbor grieving a loss discovers comfort not in platitudes but in the presence of those who sit with them in silence? The colleague who doesn’t claw their way to the top but treats others with gentleness inherits something far more lasting than a corner office? The person burning with a desire for justice, even when it seems impossible, will find themselves satisfied in ways the world can’t measure?
Believing Jesus, we believe these promises drive us toward God and community. Jesus goes first and embodies these promises for us all. And then we give them to each other and our neighbors!
We revisit this list of blessed ones, like a vision statement, meeting us in our different needs over times and helping us celebrate the diversity of community. We need the mourner and the meek, the merciful and the peacemaker. We need those hungering for righteousness to wake us up, and those pure in heart to show us what love looks like without agenda.
Here’s the beautiful, frustrating truth: we are all always in a walk with God, who redeems us—not the list of things we accomplish or the spiritual disciplines we master. In our daily dying and rising with Christ, we are being made into these promises that serve the world. This is grace at work, shaping us into people who bless rather than conquer, who mourn rather than deny, who seek peace rather than victory.
Thanks be to God for this hard, blessed, life-changing way.
Life growing up! Light in the darkness!,
+ Pastor Shaun