Important experiences in your life  ones that have an impact upon your system and you in that system, are called nodal events. These include births, deaths, and marriages. They can also include significant illnesses, job loss, career promotions, and spiritual experiences. Sometimes, a sudden clarity of thinking or feeling can be a life-changing event.

This past week, I saw the new Michael Moore film Capitalism:  a Love Story.  I really liked it - especially the integrity with which Moore took both political parties to task for their complicity in the economic collapse that has culminated in our current deep recession. What struck me most profoundly in this movie was the perspective it revealed - the attitude of unrelenting greed and seemingly amoral manipulation of the economic system in an attempt to satiate that greed. Virtually all of us recognize the evil of such practices that resulted in so many losing so much to so few. Apparently the greed continues today and we should not be surprised.

The significance of Moore's film for me was the way he revealed that rampant greed. But I do not see capitalism per se as the cause of our global financial predicament. Rather, it is greed that has corrupted the system. Greed is much older than capitalism, but it has inundated a lot of the practice of free enterprise and is distorting it! When a few manipulate the rules so they can cheat the system for their own benefit, the enterprise is not free. This is at heart a spiritual matter and it affects each one of us. We may not control millions of dollars, but our attitudes toward life affect others around us every day.

One of the best known passages of New Testament scripture is found in the Gospel According to Matthew (ch.5) -- Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, especially the opening statements of that sermon called the Beatitudes. These eight statements each begin with "blessed" and identify the priorities of God according to Jesus and the early church. They reflect a perspective on life that is very different than the greed revealed in Capitalism:  a Love Story.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit" is a message to the affluent who often actually suffer from an inflated sense of our own needs.  It is a gift to clarify and simplify our needs. The ability to be poor in spirit is to know you can't earn God's love and the blessing of choosing God's love as your treasure.

"Blessed are those who mourn" speaks to the process of transformation through what is hard -- not avoiding sadness and not clinging to the familiar, but learning to be open to the new.

"Blessed are the meek; they will inherit the land" brings images of Jubilee:  the cancellation of debts and the restoration of freedom.  Inheritance of the earth is not a reward, but the opportunity to embrace this earth and make God's Spirit visible. 

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" points to a dream where all are free, a dream of healing for all.  They hunger and thirst for the truth to be known and told. They are filled as they see the whole creation filled with this justice -- all made whole. 

"Blessed are the merciful."  not passive submission, but rather active nonviolent resistance.  not fight or flight, assertive engagement without violence.  The merciful hold no grudges, Be merciful and you can receive mercy.  accept that we are accepted and acceptable.

"Blessed pure in heart" involves purity of thought, how we look at anything.  It is the ability to see God in others.

"Blessed are the peacemakers."  You cannot be a maker of peace when hostility fills you within.  The danger of anger is how close it brings you to the loss of love.  Anger quickly turns to judgment and judgment to condemnation.  Makers of peace put relationship ahead of everything

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake."  Efforts to seek what is just can put you in conflict with powers that be and you suffer because of it, but that is the time to be happy!  Don't be happy because you are suffering, but because you are faithful.  You belong to God's new creation and that is true without a doubt.

This is a radically different way of looking at life in general and of living our own lives. It is what it means to follow Jesus. It is what it means to be alive!

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

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