The Chapel Without Walls is an interdenominational congregation. What on earth does that mean? It doesn’t mean we were chartered by two or more denominations at our inception, like some interdenominational churches. We weren’t. We weren’t chartered by any denomination or denominations. Like Topsy, we just started. We were legally established as a 501C3 organization. Thus we are officially recognized by both the State of South Carolinas and the Internal Revenue Service as a not-for-profit institution. We have a set of by-laws, because becoming a 501C3 requires that, but we don’t have any ecclesiastical laws or statutes or regulations. For better, none. For worse, none.

Today we come to the eighth and the last of the Beatitudes of Jesus. The word “beatitude” means “blessed or bless-ed,” depending on how you choose to pronounce that word. Various people are blessed for various things they do or are, said Jesus. People are blessed who mourn or who make peace with everyone around them, especially their enemies, and they are also blessed for being poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, and for hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

When Jesus said in the seventh beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” the absence of international hostilities was not the kind of peace he was talking about, even though it is what we usually think about when we contemplate what peace truly means. The peasants who listened to Jesus had no ability to create peace among nations. But they, and all of us, do have the capacity to establish peace on earth, starting with us.

In the sixth Beatitude, I suspect Jesus was not referring to something we can work to acquire. Either we have purity of heart, or we don’t. And, unless I am too jaundiced in my assessment of most of the human race, I think most of us don’t have it on a permanent basis, nor can we effectively work to create it in ourselves. It would be wonderful if we could do it, but we can’t. Getting purity of heart is like getting great athletic prowess or extraordinary intellectual ability; either you have it, or you don’t. You might make some improvements in the purity of heart department, but it isn’t a quality one can truly attempt to emulate.

Mercy is not normally considered to be a requirement in the behavior of anyone who seeks to live a Christian life. Instead it is thought of more as a bonus, an add-on, a second-mile gift to someone who may not deserve mercy, but who nonetheless would benefit greatly from it.

In the third Beatitude, Jesus said something which, on the face of it, sounds absurd: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Why would he who was deliberately anything but meek say that the meek are blessed so much that they shall inherit the earth? And what does the word meek mean, anyway? And what did Jesus mean when he said that the meek “shall inherit the earth”?

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Mourners are blessed because they mourn! At such agonizing times, they know they have no one other than God to lift them out of their chasm of grief! Furthermore, they shall be comforted! It is a guarantee from God! However, we must internally allow it to happen if it is to happen. We can thwart God’s gentle blessings if we refuse to accept His beatitudes.

Today we are beginning a sermon series on what have always been known as the Beatitudes. The word beatitude simply means blessed. And you can pronounce that word either “bless-ed” or “blest.” I say “bless-ed” when reciting the Beatitudes because that is how I heard them pronounced as a young child, and it has stuck with me that way ever since. But either pronunciation is correct, especially in 2016, when anybody can say anything any way and it will probably be OK, at least with somebody else.

In none of the Gospels is the purportedly empty tomb the end of the story. That can’t be the end of the story. And why? It is because Easter is never over. It is because we are confronted by the claims of Easter every time someone close to us dies, and when we contemplate our own deaths. It is because every Easter we must question it all yet again.

y Chapter Two of Mark’s Gospel, however, and from the very first verse, Jesus was deliberately challenging long-accepted and widely-approved religious notions. He healed a man who was paralyzed. Maybe it was from a stroke, maybe from a disease; it doesn’t say. But instead of healing him directly, Jesus instead told the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Now why would he do that? It may be because he sensed the paralyzed man thought his paralysis had inflicted him because of his sins. We of course would not see it that way, and I trust Jesus didn’t see it that way either. But perhaps the man did. If so, Jesus wanted him to be healed in the only way he, the man, thought healing was possible, and that was to have his sins forgiven.

Throughout the Old Testament, there are scattered references, especially in the prophetic writings, to what is called “the day of the Lord.” When the day of the Lord would come, these verses proclaimed, God would enter directly into human history, and the good people, presumably worthy Israelites or Jews, would be saved, and most other people would be either be shunted aside or destroyed. It was never absolutely clear what the idea of “the day of the Lord” entailed, but it was sufficiently formulated in the minds of the prophets that they felt compelled to proclaim that God’s grand and glorious day was surely coming.

There is one event in the life of Jesus which initially seems so unpredictable and enigmatic as to be either inexplicable or incomprehensible --- or both. And that event is the one which ended Jesus’ life, which is, of course, the crucifixion. Today I shall not be addressing the theological implications of the cross, but rather the historical factors which seemed to render it inevitable, even though to anyone other than Jesus the crucifixion was utterly unimaginable.

Trudy Yates was not a conventional Christian, but she was among the most committed of Christians whom I have ever known. She thought through every facet of her faith. Surely it is not necessary or even possible that every Christian should be steeped in deep thought for a lifetime, but she was one for whom deep thought about everything was her life’s passion. She was a woman who lived in two worlds --- for three-quarters of her life in the New World, and then for the last quarter in the Old World. Because she was Trudy, she fit in wherever she was, making many friends who respected, admired, and loved her for the rich depth of her personality, even if they might not always agree with her.

An earthquake and tidal wave kill thousands of people in Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and as far away as the east coast of Africa. Why? The epicenter of an earthquake is underneath the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Two hundred thousand people are killed, and millions are left homeless. Why? Tornados and floods rip through the American Midwest at Christmastime, 2015. Why? An ebola epidemic sweeps through West Africa, and thousands die or are sickened. Why? A three-year-old child is diagnosed with a virulent form of cancer, and within six months she is dead. Why? A man walking down a city street is killed by a bullet from a bungled drive-by shooting. Why? Muslim terrorists attack the editorial offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, killing several people and wounding others. Why?

Today I want for us to ponder some of the observations Jesus made about wealth. But first let us note that the word “wealth” has great flexibility of meaning in the minds of everyone who ever lived. Most of us would consider anyone whose total assets are a million dollars is wealthy. But such a person might consider someone wealthy who is worth a hundred million dollars. And those folks might assume truly wealthy people are like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or Donald Trump. There are many people living on Hilton Head Island who would consider anyone who attends The Chapel Without Walls to be wealthy. We may not see them often, but they’re here. There are people living in small one-room apartments in many American cities who would think the people on Hilton Head Island who think we are wealthy are wealthy. And there are people living on the streets of Mumbai or Lagos or Rio de Janeiro who would think those people were wealthy. In other words, to some extent “wealth” is in the eye of the beholder.

So which is it: Does God cause us grief, or does God not willingly afflict or grieve us? Are our troubles in life the result of our own doing or the doings of others, or are they clearly punishments or adversities which God thrusts upon us, and only God can explain them?