By Reverend Laurie DeMott

I remember that graph to this day whenever I’m working with teenagers – it’s good for us to recall that adolescence is literally a roller coaster – but I also think of that graph as a microcosm of all of our lives. Maybe as teens the ups and downs crowd upon one another in a wild daily fluctuation but if we were to take that same graph and stretch it out so that the ups and downs covered months or years instead of days, we would still recognize it as a legitimate representation of our adult lives. The highs of new exciting relationships, job successes, family events and celebrations, and milestones achieved contend with the lows of embarrassing failures, family frustrations, unemployment, lost friendships, or even grief. The Peanuts’ character Lucy once complained about her bad day to Charlie Brown who replied, “Well, you know, life is full of ups and downs,” to which Lucy protested, “Why can’t I have all ups? I want ups, ups, and more ups!” We laugh because we recognize ourselves in Lucy – our impossible desire for only good things in the midst of a world we know is unpredictable.

When I read the Beatitudes, I read a description of the full spectrum of life as we experience it. In these short verses, Jesus runs through all of the good and the bad of human life. Here are the days when we are poor in spirit, depressed with a world that doesn’t seem to want to go our way. Here are the nights when we quietly mourn for those whom death has taken away. We have at times been the meek, the victims of events beyond our control, and we are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who grind our teeth in frustration when we read of continuing injustice, bigotry, and the petty cruelties we inflict upon one another. The low points of our lives are laid out for us in these verses. But here also in Jesus’ words are those high moments. Here is the surprising mercy we have encountered: times when we expected others to judge us but instead they held out their hands in smiling acceptance. Here are the wonderful moments when the purity of another’s heart, the innocence of a child, the steadfast commitment of a friend, infused us with such joy. Here is the amazing courage of people who turn the other cheek and give us hope in the reality of peace even amid our many differences. Here is the inspiring faith of those who insist on following Christ no matter what is thrown at them.

The Beatitudes paint a picture of life as we know it – the ups and the downs, the good and the bad. But the Beatitudes are more than just a still life of our experience – Jesus didn’t say, “There are those among us who are poor in spirit; there are those here today who mourn.” Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn.” Jesus describes the diversity of our human experience and then, with confident broad strokes paints God right across the canvas. To say that we are blessed whether we are down or up, meek or courageous, persecuted or loved, is to say that God is right at our elbow through it all.

What powerful words these are: no matter what happens, God will be with you. When cruddy things happen to you, God will stick by you even if the rest of the world turns against you. And even more amazing, when you are cruddy yourself – when you mess up and make mincemeat of your life, when everyone else gives up on you, God will stand you back up on your feet and say, “Remember, I made you and you are mine. Just take my hand and we can walk forward out of this together.” The Beatitudes declare what Paul later told the church in Rome: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 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.” Not even our worse selves.

The declaration of God’s favor and presence with us throughout the mountains and the valleys of our lives is amazing enough but Jesus tells us something that is even more incredible. Jesus tells that when all people all fully in God’s embrace and God has been able to remake the entire world into the way God intended it for us, we will have the ups, ups, and more ups that Lucy craves. Those who mourn will know comfort. Those who hunger will be satisfied. The meek will inherit the earth. The way God runs the world, Jesus assures us, is very different from the way we run it. In God’s world people will forget how to judge one another. In God’s world, we won’t be afraid of each other’s differences. In God’s world, we will want to share all things with all people and in God’s world, each of us will discover an inner strength that we never knew we had. In God’s world we will bold on behalf of one another, and all of the hurting torn places in our hearts will be healed.

Jesus’ promise is a promise for a day yet to come but I have, in blessed moments, stood squarely in the midst of God’s world already partially present among us. I have seen people whose faith in God’s promise was so strong that they couldn’t wait until tomorrow to live in that world and so started living in it this very day. I have seen people in this church open their arms to those that everyone else had rejected. I have seen people devote themselves to caring for those in poverty that everyone else would forget. I have seen unassuming commitment and dogged persistence for the causes of righteousness and justice. I have seen people struggle to forgive and work hard to learn mercy. And I have seen the deepest of compassion for others. I have seen the pure in heart.

These are the saints, the ordinary men and women among us who believe so strongly in the blessing of God’s promise that they choose to live that blessing right now every day of their lives. And in so doing, they bring hope and healing to all of us.

May we all be among the saints.