Come Learn Rest Ministries

This expanded version of the Beatitudes written by Macrina Wiederkehr, OBS, paints a picture of what Jesus taught about living in the Kingdom of God.

Blessed are those who are convinced of their basic dependency on God, whose lives are emptied of all that doesn’t matter, those for whom the riches of this world aren’t that important…the Kingdom is theirs.

Blessed are those who know that they are a gift from God and so they can be content with their greatness and their smallness, knowing themselves and being true to themselves…for they shall have the earth for their heritage.

Blessed are those who wear compassion like a garment, those who have learned how to find themselves by losing themselves in another’s sorrow…for they too shall receive comfort.

Blessed are those who are hungry for goodness, those who never get enough of God and truth and righteousness…for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, those who remember how much has been forgiven them, and are able to extend this forgiveness into the lives of others…for they too shall receive God’s mercy.

Blessed are those whose hearts are free and simple, those who have smashed all false images and are seeking honestly for truth…for they shall see God.

Blessed are the creators of peace, those who build roads that unite rather than walls that divide, those who bless the world with the healing power of their presence…for they shall be called friends of God.

Blessed are those whose love has been tried like gold in the furnace and found to be precious, genuine, and lasting, whose who have lived their belief out loud, no matter what the cost of pain…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

May God be gracious to us as we learn from Jesus day by day!

As I sit on this early Sunday morning waiting for the sun to rise once again, I am drawn to remember the teachings of the One who died and rose again. Like the disciples of long ago, there is the reality that though he is alive, my Lord is not here with me. But I am convinced that the words Jesus spoke echoed through the loneliness of those first followers.   And because they had the courage to record his life-giving words, they speak even into the silence of my waiting prayers.

So, I am drawn to the Sermon Jesus preached. I feel invited, even as the crowds and the disciples felt invited to follow him to the hillside to simply listen. For just as their lives were in a state of political, personal and spiritual chaos, my soul longs for renewal. How is your soul doing?

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain,
and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Matthew 5:1

The Good News is even as he saw the crowds, the Son of the living God sees us. Moreover, he understands the courage it takes to wake up to the reality of our chaotic lives and simply come and listen. Will you, will I, join Jesus on the mountain?

I Praise You for This Resurrection Madness
By Ted Loder

Lord of such amazing surprises
as put a catch in my breath
and wings on my heart,

I praise you for this joy,
too great for words
but not for tears and songs and sharing;

for this mercy
that blots out my betrayals
and bids me begin again
to limp on,
to hop-skip-and jump on,
to mend what is broken
in and around me,
and to forgive the breakers;

for this YES
to life and laughter,
to love and lovers,
and to my unwinding self;

for this kingdom
unleashed in me and I in it forever,
and no dead ends to growing,
to choices,
to chances,
to calls to be just;

no dead endings to living
to making peace,
to dreaming dreams,
to be glad of heart;

for this resurrection madness
which is wiser than I
and in which I see
how great you are,
and full of grace.
Alleluia!

Jesus mercifully invites you and me into this life of “resurrection madness”!  May we offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving moment by moment to our Lord, as we step out of Lent and out of Holy Week but into grace-filled ordinary days.

Throughout Jesus’ life and ministry he invited others to follow him on a journey. The events of Holy Week remind us just how dangerous this journey was for our Lord.

A strange life-giver, the Holy Spirit, for the life given is compassed
about by desolation. They story of the birth Jesus birth bears
stark testimony to the unsettling truth. At the birth of Jesus the
Spirit-guided words of Simeon prophesied desolation for Israel
and for the heart of Mary as well (Luke 2:34-35). Immediately
after his baptism, during which God calls Jesus, “My Beloved,”
the Spirit drives him into the wilderness of isolation, vulnerability
and temptation (Mark 1:12-13). And at the end of a life exquisitely
responsive to every rhythm of the Spirit’s leading, Jesus chokes
out the unthinkable word, “My God, My God, why have you
forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
~John S. Mogabgab
Source: Weavings September/October 1992, “Editor’s Introduction”

Between now and Sunday morning, we are invited to wait with these words crying out for a deeper understanding. The Psalmist gives us glimpse of this waiting time.

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you.
Deliver me from all my transgressions,
Do not make me the scorn of the fool.
I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
~Psalm 39:7-9

Indeed, the forsaken Son of the living God has done it all for me and for you. May this be the hope we wait for as we journey toward Easter and beyond.  Amen and amen!