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Makarios

The amazing and gloriously provocative Nadia Boltz-Weber,  who has just started a new web presence on substack , has kicked it off with a piece which she has used in different forms in different places, riffing on the Beatitudes, focusing on how God wants to bless those with whom she regularly works, who are those that the wider church often avoids like the plague.
I've loved her treatment of this already provocative list, and as it appeared in the lectionary for today I went back to her somewhat longer version and looked at how it might apply to my context... and the answer is that it doesn't. But at least one of the times she has used it she has challenged others to come up with their own Beatitudes or Benedictions in like vein. 
So that's what follows... I start with my own rendering of the original list before spiraling out from there (shamelessly pilfering some of Nadia's words, but then if I've stolen from Jesus, why shouldn't I steal from her too). I've used both the words Blessed and Happy because both are implied in the original Greek word "Makarios" which was originally used for a state of bliss only enjoyed by the gods and therefor beyond the reach of you and me. But thanks to God's grace we can all know that blessing and be a channel of it to others:

Blessed are you who are poor and powerless, for you have a passport to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Happy you who are hurting in heart or mind or body for you will know real healing and wholeness.
 Blessed are you who are voiceless and vulnerable   for you will win God’s lottery.
Happy are you who are hungry, whether it be for food or for fairness, for you will eat your fill.
 Blessed are you who forgive for you will be given to.
Happy are you whose hearts are spotless (whoever you may be), for you will see God face to face.
Blessed are you who are peacemakers for you have proved that you have God’s DNA.
Happy are you who are persecuted, be it because of your righteousness,
or because of someone else’s sense of righteousness
 for you too are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But blessed too are you who are plagued with doubts, for you will be pleasantly surprised.
Happy are you who think you have nothing to offer for you are more ready to receive and to share.
Blessed are you for whom death is a daily reality
You who see it in the face of a loved one,
or immanently, intimately in the mirror.
Happy are you for you will know real life.
Blessed are you who have loved deeply enough to know the real depths of loss,
For you will come to know that such love cannot be conquered by death.
Happy are those who feel unloved, un-noticed, unimportant
For you are due to sit at God’s top table.
Blessed are you who are society’s unmentionables
Those who are unclean and unwanted, the unemployed and undesirables,
For you will be at the head of the parade when Christ comes into his own.
Happy are you who are depressed and anxious, anorexic and/or suicidal
For you will know that you are truly beloved.
Blessed are you who are undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers
For you will find a place to call home.
Blessed are you who have been slandered and misrepresented
For you are in good company and your good name will be returned to you.
Happy are the homeless and those from dysfunctional families
For God welcomes you into his home and family.
Blessed are you who are burned-out and the overworked picking up the pieces
Of broken lives in a broken world
Because you will know the breath of God filling your lungs and spirits.
Happy are you who say “Stop! This is not right!” in the face of impossible odds
Because God’s got your back.
Blessed are you in the midst of the brokenness
Happy are you, not hereafter, but here and now.

Shalom

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