November 1, 2026 "God Begins with Blessings"

All Saints

Revelation 7:9-17

Psalm 34:1-10, 22

1 John 3:1-3

Matthew 5:1-12

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

 from the one who blesses first. Amen

God begins with blessings. 

This statement is more radical than it seems

You see,

 even if we joyfully proclaim

 that we are saved by grace through faith

a gift from God apart from works (as we did last week),

even if we return again and again to the waters of baptism

where Christ claimed us as children of God,

 there is still a part of us that doubts,

 because the world works very hard to teach us

 that ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’

that to get something you’ve got to give something

or you’ll be in their debt for a favor later.

We’ve learned that power likes to be flattered

before dispensing favors

and when something randomly goes wrong in our lives

 through no fault of our own

 we still have a sneaking suspicion

 that we did something to deserve it

or didn’t do enough to prevent it.

But our God begins with blessings.

In our gospel for today

we get to hear the beginning of Jesus’ first sermon.

 Matthew has told us how he was born and visited by magi,

 pursued by a jealous king,

led to safety in Egypt and back to Israel again

 and then came John the Baptist making a ruckus out in the wilderness

 proclaiming “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

 preparing the way for one greater to come,

who Jesus seeks out for baptism

even though John realizes that Jesus is the one for whom he’s been waiting.

 The spirit descends upon Jesus as he comes up from the water

 and then drives him to the wilderness to be tested,

 and when he comes out of the wilderness

having resisted the devil

Jesus hears that John has been arrested

and he knows it’s time for him to take over

and he begins proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

 and he does this all around Galilee,

along the way he gathers some disciples,

 close followers to help him,

and as they travel

he enacts the kingdom by curing every disease and sickness among the people,

 and because of this

word about him spreads

 and great crowds start to follow him and

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and he taught them”

And he begins with blessings.

As commentator Mathew Meyer-Boulton remarks:

“In the biggest picture, theistic religion — both in the ancient world and in our own

 — is often centrally concerned with divine blessing:

how to get it, how to keep it,

what to do in order to deserve it, and so on.

And so when a religious figure outlines his or her key teachings,

we might well expect the heart of the presentation

to address this fundamental topic —

and sure enough, right out of the gates,

Jesus begins his first major sermon with a teaching on “blessing.”

However, “To the extent that his listeners are expecting Jesus

 to lay out an account of divine blessing

that reveals how to get it and keep it,

 the Beatitudes come as a confounding surprise.

 In the first place,

Jesus paints an utterly counterintuitive picture of blessedness:

 looking around the world, then and now,

it’s easy to conclude that the “blessed” are the rich, happy, strong, satisfied, ruthless, deceptive, aggressive, safe, and well-liked —

and yet here’s Jesus, saying that despite appearances, the truly “blessed” are actually the poor, mourning, gentle, hungry, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaking, persecuted, and reviled.”  https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/10/26/blessing-comes-first-salts-commentary-for-all-saints-day 

Jesus begins with blessings,

actual blessings for those who don’t feel so blessed,

 the majority of the crowds that have gathered around him for hope and healing.

And Jesus pronounces them blessed,

not in a ‘because this has happened to you kind of way’

 but in a ‘God sees you and cares about you way’

The beatitudes are not an instruction manual,

 these are not states we are to seek out

if we want God’s blessing,

rather the blessings are a description of the present reality

 according to the kingdom of heaven,

according to God’s way,

and God’s way starts with blessing.

 Everything else Jesus teaches follows these blessings

 and Jesus does teach plenty of lessons

 on how to act according to the kingdom of heaven,

 lessons he includes in the sermon on the mount

(which remember is all of Matthew Chapters 5-7

our reading for today is only the first 30 seconds of a 20 minute sermon)

including the great hits like love your enemies,

the golden rule,

 and likening those who hear these words and actually follow them

to a wise man who built his house on rock.

“The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.” (Matt 7:24-25)

So there’s definitely a place for doing/ acting in the kingdom of heaven

 in God’s way,

but not to earn blessings,

in God’s way,

out of God’s great generosity

 the blessings come first

 and everything else flows from the blessings.

 It is a reversal of the way the world understands things

And yet the language we use

still tends to reflect the world.

This week I heard a story of such a time,

 two friends were conversing,

catching up on their lives

which included caring for aging parents,

one friend’s mother was declining from Alzheimer’s,

the other friend reported that their parents were still relatively healthy

 and that they felt very blessed by this.

 “Oh and I’m not blessed because my mother has Alzheimer’s?”

the other responded.

Now that’s not what the first friend meant,

and the second friend knew it

but was challenging the sometimes casual way

we use the term blessing

 in a way that seems to highlight one experience as better than another

or a lack of blessing in some area

as one experience and therefore person in a better state with God than the other.

But our God begins with blessing.

In the beginning

 God created everything and called it good

before creation did anything.

At the font often before our eyes are even able to focus

 farther than the face in front of us

God claims us as a child of God

 sealed by the holy spirit and marked by the cross of Christ forever,

 and only after that are the instructions of Jesus

 from the sermon on the mount spoken

“Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)

Blessing comes first,

 as John says in his first letter

 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.”

Blessing comes first,

not so that we live lives without any hardships

 but so that when they come

we know that God is with us,

when the storms come

we will not be destroyed

 but are anchored in the blessings that come first,

the blessings allow us to proclaim with the conviction of Paul

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

We are anchored in the blessings of God

and the witness of the saints that have gone before us

show us what it means to live as blessed children of God

 even as storms rage,

and so today we remember and honor them

even as we miss them so terribly much

 the saints who showed us how to live meek in a world the honors might,

 and as merciful in a world that seeks vengeance,

and as peacemakers in a world that prefers peacekeepers.

Who showed us how to live lives sharing the blessings of God

Rather than trying to earn them

Whose witness reminds us that with our God

Blessings come first. Amen