How blissful the destitute!“Blessed are you who are poor,” says Christ in the translation we have just heard. I would like to use a slightly different one:“How blissful the destitute!”The word for “blessed” or “blissful” (makarios) has been translated various ways including “happy”, “fortunate” or “prosperous”. But in my view “blissful” is the best because the original word had connotations of divine or heavenly bliss. Our word “blissful” captures this better than the alternatives.“Blissful” also speaks of a present state. Whatever Christ is speaking of is bliss – joy, happiness, heavenly light in this life now.But it is not long before we run into a problem: “How blissful the destitute!”Again, our translation mentions “the poor”. But “the destitute” captures it much better. For destitution is utter emptiness, devastation, ruin, loss.This is not a state of material poverty but the spiritual and existential reality of one who has realised his true standing in his relationship with God.So the question is: How do bliss and spiritual destitution go together? What is Christ talking about?The answer is that it is in the recognition of our radical need for, and dependence upon, God that we encounter bliss or blessedness. For it is in this recognition that the illusion of the world passes away and we come face-to-face which that which truly is.Let’s consider the different types of destitution that we must acknowledge:Firstly, the destitution of repentance. Sin, most simply, is the wandering of a soul far away from God. Like the Prodigal Son in the far away country. Repentance is the return of the soul to God.Why do we sin? On the deepest level it is because we believe that sin can bring us deeper satisfaction than God. Therefore, repentance is the overturning of this belief and the actions that go with it. It is motivated by desire to find true life, joy and happiness in the place where it can really be found.Be encouraged, therefore, friends, if you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, calling you to repentance. This is simply a calling back to God, to the source of all life and hope. Yield to this conviction, knowing that God will have mercy as a Father has compassion on his children, and that he desires for you to know him again.Secondly, we speak about the destitution of soul. This is the recognition that, without God, I have nothing.The great mystical theologian Meister Eckhart put it like this: we are all created by God and exist within God. All things are held in being by God and shine with his radiance. God has given us powers – the ability to live, to breathe, to sense, to act. But, somewhere along the line, we have forgotten that these powers come from God and that, at every moment, they are sustained by him. We are alienated from God not because God is separate from us. Indeed, God cannot be separate from us because he is present everywhere and is sustaining all things continually. Rather, we have forgotten him. We have strayed from him in our minds and in our souls. We imagine that our powers and abilities are all that we are without. We are like a reflection in a mirror that has forgotten its original image.Destitution of soul, then, is the recognition of this reality. It is the recognition that we so often look to the things of this world for ultimate life, joy and peace and that, yet, the world can give us none of these things apart from God.I think here of the discipline of fasting, that is, of not eating anything. In my experience, nothing brings about this realisation more quickly and efficiently than the attempt to fast. It is not only that the body feels hungry but that the soul begins to cry out: “I must have food or I will never be satisfied. There is no happiness for me in this life without it.”And this is true of so many other things also: we tell ourselves that, unless we have this or this or this, then we can never know contentment and peace. And, yet, were we ever to obtain those things, then the joy would be passing and often trivial.Recognising this is a kind of devastation. For example, when fasting, I look at my soul and I see how radically dependent it is upon food, how it cannot be happy without it, and I am dismayed by this, particularly if I thought that I was a very spiritual person who really loved God. For I am not.So we see that the world holds no deep satisfaction for us, that we, as it were, inhabit a vast and empty wasteland with no sustenance, no life, no light, no joy. And, as we recognise this, something comes to birth within us: the desire for that which truly brings these things, the desire for God. And this desire for God leads us to seek him, to know him, to find him. And this is bliss.“Yours is the Kingdom of God”And this is why Jesus tells us that destitution leads to bliss. This is why he says, “Yours is the Kingdom of God.” Later on in this passage he will talk about future, but here he speaks of a present reality: yours is the Kingdom of God.This reminds me very much of another saying of Jesus in Luke 17: “The Kingdom (of God) does not come as something one observes, Nor will persons say, ‘Look: Here it is’ or ‘There it is’ for look: The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)The original language makes it abundantly clear here that Jesus is not speaking of the Kingdom of God among you or in your midst, but within you. It could also be translated “inside of (you)”. Whatever you prefer, the meaning is clear: the Kingdom of God is not a visible reality out there in the world. Nor is it arriving in that way. But it is already a present reality within you. All you have to do is to recognise it.Let go of all that hinders you from realising the Kingdom of God within you and you will find it. Turn not only from sin but from the desire for things apart from, and outside of, God. Turn from the illusion that you are, or that the world is, without him, and you will see him in all things. Yours is the Kingdom of God.A Word on HeavenAnd, yet, even with all of this, one must also say that there is something greater to be realised: “How blissful those who are now hungry, for you shall feast; how blissful those now weeping, for you shall laugh; How blissful you when men hate you and when they exclude you and reproach you and reject your name as something wicked, for the Son of Man’s sake: On that day, rejoice and leap about; for look: Your reward in Heaven is great; for their fathers accordingly did the same things to the prophets.” (Luke 7:21-23)Here Christ speaks of a future reward. Again, it seems that some of these phrases should be interpreted in a spiritual sense: those who are hungry are those who hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God. Those who weep are those who mourn over their sin and their distance from God. Those who are persecuted for Christ are those who have preferred him to the things of the world. And the world has hated them for it.If then you hunger, weep and suffer, rejoice and leap about! Why? Because a great reward, an unimaginably great reward, awaits you. Imagine the world and all that is in it, transfigured by eternal glory, and that all of this, after only a short time, will be yours forever.And one final word…And one final word, since this is All Saints Day. In our reading from the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Church is the body of Christ, the fullness of the one who fills all in all. What exactly does Paul mean by this phrase?It seems that Paul is saying two things: firstly that Christ is the fullness of God and that he is everywhere present in all of the universe. But, secondly, that the Church (the gathering, the ekklesia) is the fullness of this fullness. This must mean that the Church is the place where the fullness of Christ’s presence is, at it were, fully realised, established and intensified.Think about that for a moment: this place, filled with normal people like us, with all of our brokenness, our sin, our problems, our mess, this place is the place where the fullest fullness of God is realised. This is the place where Christ is, if you like, on display. This is the place where men and women are drawn to him, to know him, to live for him and by him. What an incredible joy and privilege to be in this place.In you, in me, in us together, the Kingdom of God is present and is coming. Rejoice!In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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