Blessed are... on the Anniversary of Rachel Held Evans' Death (midweek)

 

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

“Blessed are…”  on the Anniversary of Rachel Held Evans’ Death

May 5, 2021

 

Two years ago yesterday, Rachel Held Evans died at the young age of 37.  She was a superb writer on Christian and social topics.  She started out as an evangelical, but quickly became a progressive Christian as she matured, defending with power the biblical basis of inclusion and broad acceptance of all.     

 

At her funeral, the benediction was given by the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, founder of the House of all Sinners and Saints in Denver, and writer of several books of inclusive, progressive Christianity.  (Nadia came here to Ashland a few years back, sponsored by our Evolving Congregations Group.) I find particularly touching the benediction she gave at the funeral: 

 

“Blessed are the agnostics.

Blessed are they who doubt.

Blessed are those who have nothing to offer.

Blessed are the preschoolers who cut in line at communion.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are those whom no one else notices. The kids who sit alone at middle-school lunch tables. The laundry guys at the hospital. The sex workers and the night-shift street sweepers. The closeted. The teens who have to figure out ways to hide the new cuts on their arms.

Blessed are the meek. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.

Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.

Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.

Blessed are those who “still aren’t over it yet.”

Blessed are those who mourn. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.

I imagine Jesus standing here blessing us because that is our Lord’s nature. This Jesus cried at his friend’s tomb, turned the other cheek, and forgave those who hung him on a cross. He was God’s Beatitude— God’s blessing to the weak in a world that admires only the strong. Jesus invites us into a story bigger than ourselves and our imaginations, yet we all get to tell that story with the scandalous particularity of this moment and this place. We are storytelling creatures because we are fashioned in the image of a storytelling God. May we never neglect that gift. May we never lose our love for telling the story. Amen.”

 

Grace and Peace. 

Fr. Tony+