There's a good chance that............

........you'll be persecuted.  Or at the very least, things are not going to go the way you had planned.

This upbeat message (of truth, I might add) was brought to us by Pr. Chris Boerger at the Upstate NY Synod assembly.  It is easy to see why the church is not in the advertising business. This kind of motto won't sell anything to anyone.

Pr. Boerger was preaching from the gospel of Matthew, beginning here  "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account......."  (Matthew 5.11)

Thousands of people were gathered 'on the mount' as Jesus delivered this, the final beatitude.  Blessed are you when people revile you......."  No one ever thinks that this is good news.  I can't imagine anyone feeling blessed as the dust storm envelopes them.

Perhaps that is because we have a skewed definition of 'blessed.' We tend to equate blessed with 'happy' ("I'm so happy").   Perhaps it's because we fail to realize that what Jesus is teaching and preaching in this famous Sermon on the Mount is founded on his very presence as the Son of God.

We are not blessed by the world.  We are not blessed because of the world.  The world is very stingy when it comes to handing out blessings.  No, we are blessed because of Jesus, present in our world in the most real way, and continually present in our world today.....when the persecutions come.

Blessed are you because of Jesus, the one who is source of light and life, the one who can mend the broken places of our bodies, our minds, our relationships and our lives.  Blessed are you (and me too!) because of Jesus leaning into us, carrying us and leading us toward the light.

But we are not just passive recipients of this blessedness; we are at the same time 'the salt of the earth.'  Salt is essential to life.  Without enough salt, the heart stops beating.  With too much salt, the body becomes water logged (a non-medical term).  Now, through Jesus, we are the salt of the earth and are called to be salt wherever we are and whatever befalls us.

The truth is: things are not going to turn out as you had planned.  What are you going to do then?  How are you going to face the trial or persevere into the future?  How could you be salt in that place?  How will your presence bring light into a dark situation?  How will you point others to a life giving relationship with Jesus?

You are blessed; you are salt.  Shake it out for the good of the world!