Philippians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of
peace will be with you.
Matthew 5:3-12 (GNT and The Message)
3 “Happy are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you and your ego there is more room for God and God’s will for you.”
4 Happy are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5 Happy are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
6 Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
6“You’re blessed when your greatest desire is to do what God requires;
God will satisfy you fully!
7 Happy are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of needing care; you find yourselves cared for.
8 Happy are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
9 Happy are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
9“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of
peace will be with you.
Matthew 5:3-12 (GNT and The Message)
3 “Happy are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you and your ego there is more room for God and God’s will for you.”
4 Happy are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5 Happy are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
6 Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
6“You’re blessed when your greatest desire is to do what God requires;
God will satisfy you fully!
7 Happy are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of needing care; you find yourselves cared for.
8 Happy are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
9 Happy are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
9“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
Reflection
Happiness, it’s such an illusive state of being and yet we all yearn for it. We all want to be happy!
So the other day, while we were in Comox for a medical appointment for Ryk – all good by the way – and we were parking in front of my favourite department store, Value Village, Ryk noticed a decal decorating the Jeep next to us “ Today I choose Happy” it proclaimed.
Well, that sounded pretty neat – I never thought about choosing happiness before. But, why not?
Then the other day I was watching one of those little video clips they put on Facebook and the comedian, Bill Bailey, is there explaining the difference between how the British and Australians respond when asked “how are you? The British most likely response is “Not too bad!” but ask an Australian person the same question and the response is likely to be “Awesome”. Where do we fit in in Canada well I’d say we’re most likely to respond with a range from “O.K.”, to “Not bad, could be worse” or if it’s going really well you could get a “Fine”. I don’t think I have ever been guilty of an “Awesome” myself and I consider myself to be a fairly happy person.
So the very idea of “choosing happy” put a little smile on my face and got me thinking about happiness. You see the bible is very big on blessings but a little skimpy on happy. Even though it’s the same word in Koine Greek – makarios: happy, blessed, fortunate.
Now in ancient Greece, makarios referred to the gods. The blessed ones were the gods. They had achieved a state of happiness and contentment in their lives that was beyond all cares, labours, and even death.
Or it could refer those who had died, they were blessed because they had reached the world of the gods and were beyond the cares and problems of earthly life.
And, of course, it referred to the elite of a city or society, those who had money, riches, power whose lives were removed from everyday cares and worries. As the ancient Greek world expanded with Rome this word acquires another meaning especially in the translating of Hebrew scripture where it was seen as blessing or happiness that accrued from right living, the kind we encounter in the Book of Job) where Job as evidence of his righteousness has many possessions, wives, children, abundant crops, wisdom and good health and friends of a sort. Although everything is taken away by God not fate, they are restored again because he was righteous.
He was blessed and you could tell because once again he had the possessions, and crops and animals and new wives and new children to prove it. So the crowd listening to Jesus that day on the side of a hill, this would have been their understanding and few would have been in this blessed status.
So Jesus is using this word “makarios”, blessing – happiness, but it is not the elite, it is not the rich, it is not the powerful, it is not even the “righteous” that the word is describing.
Jesus is talking to a crowd of people just like you and me, people who have worked hard to have what they have, people who wouldn’t be noticeable in a crowd, - it is not the high and mighty who are blessed, it is not the rich and powerful who are blessed, - Jesus is showering these blessings on the the poor and the poor in spirit, on the hungry and thirsty and those seeking God, the meek and the peacemakers, those in mourning because they have lost someone or everything.
Jesus is turning the world upside down. He is taking who are raised up in society and says “look around” for these are the blessed; the ones you don’t even notice – they are the ones God is busy blessing.
Matthew is reminding the people in his community that God is blessing them, Paul is reminding the people in the faith community in Philippi that God is blessing them, and when we read these scriptures we are reminded that God is blessing us. It is something that happens to us, a gift of God’s grace.
We read two different versions of the beatitudes today, because sometimes when we just read what we are most familiar with we kind of skip over the thinking part. It’s like our minds go “ Oh, I know that one” so we just go on to the next one without stopping and saying “what did that mean?” because the poor in spirit doesn’t really include me, - it refers to those people who don’t even bother coming to church” but when you hear:
3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you and your ego there is more room for God and God’s will for you.”
You kind of perk up and say “ego” – Matthew’s talking about ego and making room in our lives for God! Wow I never thought about it that way before!
But you are right these blessings don’t all fit every one of us all of the time. Not everyone is poor in spirit, not everyone is mourning, not everyone is a peacemaker but, I think, we all have our time and place where the blessings that Jesus announced bring real peace and real contentment and real happiness into our lives.
Paul has been telling Christians all along about how to “Be Happy” and it fits right in with that “Today I choose Happy” He says:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Because being happy isn’t about where we live or what we have, it isn’t about status or profession or fame, it isn’t about what we have done in our lives and it isn’t about getting the next something that will make us happy and complete.
Take “ Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”, for instance, when we look at the translation in The Message it reads:
5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
I read that and all of a sudden my world explodes because while I was very happy being meek and mild, now, I am confronted with the difficulty of being content – not so easy when I look at my life and well - myself and say: “ no- I want this to change and that and wouldn’t it be better if …..”
It is difficult to really understand that God has blessed us whatever our situation, whatever our circumstances, and that our job is to be the best person we can be. To take all that God has given us and use it to make the Kingdom of God alive in the here and now.
The happiness that Jesus promises comes with the acknowledgment of the blessing. That is how God works.
It is like we have to stop and look around us and remember that we don’t get here, to be the person we are without all good stuff and all the bad stuff, all the things we wish could have gone on forever and all the stuff that we wish we had a do-over because then it would have been different.
We “are” because of it all. And it seems to me the trick is to look at it all and to accept and love ourselves. Then, to use what we see, what we know, what we learn, to meet others where they are, because the kingdom of God is not a world in which just ourselves and God exist in a vacuum.
We are always called to love God with all our heart, and mind and soul and to love others as ourselves.
It is when we can get past our own fears and anxieties, when we can give our worries over to God, as Paul suggests, that we are freed to live in the way that God calls us to live in community, in communion with creation and each other.
If we get to choose, then “Today I choose happy.”
Nothing changes except our perception of today, our attitude right now – then everything changes because we have opened ourselves to something greater, and the God of peace is with us. So Today I choose happy!
Amen
Happiness, it’s such an illusive state of being and yet we all yearn for it. We all want to be happy!
So the other day, while we were in Comox for a medical appointment for Ryk – all good by the way – and we were parking in front of my favourite department store, Value Village, Ryk noticed a decal decorating the Jeep next to us “ Today I choose Happy” it proclaimed.
Well, that sounded pretty neat – I never thought about choosing happiness before. But, why not?
Then the other day I was watching one of those little video clips they put on Facebook and the comedian, Bill Bailey, is there explaining the difference between how the British and Australians respond when asked “how are you? The British most likely response is “Not too bad!” but ask an Australian person the same question and the response is likely to be “Awesome”. Where do we fit in in Canada well I’d say we’re most likely to respond with a range from “O.K.”, to “Not bad, could be worse” or if it’s going really well you could get a “Fine”. I don’t think I have ever been guilty of an “Awesome” myself and I consider myself to be a fairly happy person.
So the very idea of “choosing happy” put a little smile on my face and got me thinking about happiness. You see the bible is very big on blessings but a little skimpy on happy. Even though it’s the same word in Koine Greek – makarios: happy, blessed, fortunate.
Now in ancient Greece, makarios referred to the gods. The blessed ones were the gods. They had achieved a state of happiness and contentment in their lives that was beyond all cares, labours, and even death.
Or it could refer those who had died, they were blessed because they had reached the world of the gods and were beyond the cares and problems of earthly life.
And, of course, it referred to the elite of a city or society, those who had money, riches, power whose lives were removed from everyday cares and worries. As the ancient Greek world expanded with Rome this word acquires another meaning especially in the translating of Hebrew scripture where it was seen as blessing or happiness that accrued from right living, the kind we encounter in the Book of Job) where Job as evidence of his righteousness has many possessions, wives, children, abundant crops, wisdom and good health and friends of a sort. Although everything is taken away by God not fate, they are restored again because he was righteous.
He was blessed and you could tell because once again he had the possessions, and crops and animals and new wives and new children to prove it. So the crowd listening to Jesus that day on the side of a hill, this would have been their understanding and few would have been in this blessed status.
So Jesus is using this word “makarios”, blessing – happiness, but it is not the elite, it is not the rich, it is not the powerful, it is not even the “righteous” that the word is describing.
Jesus is talking to a crowd of people just like you and me, people who have worked hard to have what they have, people who wouldn’t be noticeable in a crowd, - it is not the high and mighty who are blessed, it is not the rich and powerful who are blessed, - Jesus is showering these blessings on the the poor and the poor in spirit, on the hungry and thirsty and those seeking God, the meek and the peacemakers, those in mourning because they have lost someone or everything.
Jesus is turning the world upside down. He is taking who are raised up in society and says “look around” for these are the blessed; the ones you don’t even notice – they are the ones God is busy blessing.
Matthew is reminding the people in his community that God is blessing them, Paul is reminding the people in the faith community in Philippi that God is blessing them, and when we read these scriptures we are reminded that God is blessing us. It is something that happens to us, a gift of God’s grace.
We read two different versions of the beatitudes today, because sometimes when we just read what we are most familiar with we kind of skip over the thinking part. It’s like our minds go “ Oh, I know that one” so we just go on to the next one without stopping and saying “what did that mean?” because the poor in spirit doesn’t really include me, - it refers to those people who don’t even bother coming to church” but when you hear:
3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you and your ego there is more room for God and God’s will for you.”
You kind of perk up and say “ego” – Matthew’s talking about ego and making room in our lives for God! Wow I never thought about it that way before!
But you are right these blessings don’t all fit every one of us all of the time. Not everyone is poor in spirit, not everyone is mourning, not everyone is a peacemaker but, I think, we all have our time and place where the blessings that Jesus announced bring real peace and real contentment and real happiness into our lives.
Paul has been telling Christians all along about how to “Be Happy” and it fits right in with that “Today I choose Happy” He says:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Because being happy isn’t about where we live or what we have, it isn’t about status or profession or fame, it isn’t about what we have done in our lives and it isn’t about getting the next something that will make us happy and complete.
Take “ Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”, for instance, when we look at the translation in The Message it reads:
5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
I read that and all of a sudden my world explodes because while I was very happy being meek and mild, now, I am confronted with the difficulty of being content – not so easy when I look at my life and well - myself and say: “ no- I want this to change and that and wouldn’t it be better if …..”
It is difficult to really understand that God has blessed us whatever our situation, whatever our circumstances, and that our job is to be the best person we can be. To take all that God has given us and use it to make the Kingdom of God alive in the here and now.
The happiness that Jesus promises comes with the acknowledgment of the blessing. That is how God works.
It is like we have to stop and look around us and remember that we don’t get here, to be the person we are without all good stuff and all the bad stuff, all the things we wish could have gone on forever and all the stuff that we wish we had a do-over because then it would have been different.
We “are” because of it all. And it seems to me the trick is to look at it all and to accept and love ourselves. Then, to use what we see, what we know, what we learn, to meet others where they are, because the kingdom of God is not a world in which just ourselves and God exist in a vacuum.
We are always called to love God with all our heart, and mind and soul and to love others as ourselves.
It is when we can get past our own fears and anxieties, when we can give our worries over to God, as Paul suggests, that we are freed to live in the way that God calls us to live in community, in communion with creation and each other.
If we get to choose, then “Today I choose happy.”
Nothing changes except our perception of today, our attitude right now – then everything changes because we have opened ourselves to something greater, and the God of peace is with us. So Today I choose happy!
Amen
