“Blessed are you now . . . ”

Notice that the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are not “Blessed shall you be” but “Blessed are you . . . now.”

In her book Always a Guest, minister Barbara Brown Taylor writes that the Beatitudes “describe a view of reality in which the least likely candidates are revealed to be extremely fortunate in the divine economy of things, not only later but right now . . . Whatever you believe about [Jesus], believe this about you: the things that seem to be going most wrong for you may in fact be the things that are going most right. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to fix them. It just means that they may need blessing as much as they need fixing, since the blessing is already there. If you can breathe into it — well, that’s when heaven comes to earth, because earth is where heaven starts, for all who are willing to live into right now.”

So if you’re poor in spirit or wealth, you know the blessedness of embracing God’s compassion in your life and your ability to helping others do the same.

If you’re “hungry,” you know the blessedness that comes from sharing what little you have with someone worse off.

If you’re “weeping,” you know the blessedness of giving comfort and solace to the grieving and struggling.

If you’re hated and pushed to the margins because of your nationality, culture or gender, you know the blessedness of standing up for the justice of God’s Kingdom.

Rejoice and leap for joy, Jesus says. The Kingdom of heaven begins with such blessedness as yours.

To be the among the “blessed” envisioned by Jesus means to put aside our own poverty and hunger and our own positions and reputations to extend the compassion of Jesus to others; to provide, regardless of the cost, safe places for the lost to return, for the grieving to mourn, for the wounded to heal. Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain articulates a new vision and attitude in approaching life: the treasure of life and time itself, the hope that can be realized in compassion and generosity, the fulfilment that is experienced in freeing ourselves from the pursuit of the things of this world so as to embrace the small but lasting “miracles” of the kingdom of God.