Praying the Beatitudes

 

At the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, is the question, what kind of world do we want to live in? 

 

Wait, don’t rush or race through that question!

 

What kind of world do you want to live in?  Hold that, turn that different directions to let the light reflect through the prism of life, lean in, and listen to additional questions can provoke/evoke.

 

Jesus’ opening wisdom about blessings and where God’s presence can be found points to a different world that doesn’t make a lot of sense and there is not a lot of evidence that Jesus words equate to what we know as “success”.  A few weeks ago, we hovered with the question, does your life or mine give evidence of an encounter with God? 

 

Jesus is saying these are people/places/spaces of poverty, pain, persecution, and pushed to the fringes and fray ~ that is the place God hangs out. 

 

Do we really want to live in a world where the poor, weeping, wounded, hurting, hungry brothers and sisters are the location of where God’s blessings show up?  Are you and I willing to step down so that someone can rise up?  Are we willing to share or do we cling to what is ours?

 

For me, these questions could be asked every day for the next eleven months, and I’d never exhaust or fully embrace all that is prompted in my head/heart/soul.  These questions could be asked the next eleven years of my life, and I’d never exhaust or fully embrace…which is why God’s grace helps fill in the gap between who God creates me to be and how I live. 

 

Please pray with me: O God, help me move past easy to swallow answers where I think I have it all figured out.  O God, help me do more than nod or give a polite, passing, “Amen” to what Jesus is saying.  May these words create a world in me where Your vision and presence can dwell always.  Amen.