{"id":20145,"date":"2014-11-05T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=20145"},"modified":"2014-11-04T18:20:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:20:52","slug":"blessed-vs-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed vs. Successful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If only the Kansas City Royals would have hit it out of the park as often as our pastor does in his sermons, week after week.\u00a0 On All Saints\u2019 Sunday, with the text of the Beatitudes, he talked about how we confuse being \u201cblessed\u201d with being \u201csuccessful,\u201d and how the Bible gives us a very different picture.<\/p>\n

From Rev. James Douthwaite,\u00a0 St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: All Saints Sermon<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Blessed. Jesus used that word nine times in the Holy Gospel we heard today. But what does it mean . . . really? It\u2019s not a word that has much currency in our world today. Occasionally you\u2019ll hear someone say \u201cI\u2019m so blessed\u201d \u2013 usually when something good happens. And a form of the word gets trotted out every Thanksgiving with the admonition to \u201ccount your blessings\u201d \u2013 as if we could. So it\u2019s good, I think, to take some time today to think about this. What does it mean to be blessed?<\/p>\n

\n

I find it helpful when wondering about the meaning of words to pick out their opposite and think about the contrast. So what is the opposite of blessed? Well, the first word that comes to mind would be cursed \u2013 and I think that\u2019s true. But I think there\u2019s another one, another word that is the opposite of blessed in a very practical sense, and therefore one that is better able to help us understand the readings for today and to understand the day that we celebrate today, All Saints Day. And I think that word is: success.<\/p>\n

Now at first, those two words may seem the same. And I think it true that the word success has replaced the word blessed in our world today and, honestly, even in many churches today. We want to have success. We want to be successful \u2013 however you define that, whether it\u2019s in terms of money, or career advancement, or the number of people you have in your church, the number of people who friend or follow you, or this week, being elected \u2013 whatever you think it is for you. That\u2019s the focus for many, what defines them, and what they put all their effort and energy into, doing whatever it takes to be a success. And if they achieve it, they think they are blessed.<\/p>\n

But that brings me to the reason why I think success is the opposite of blessed \u2013 because the doer is different. Success is what I do, what I accomplish, what I achieve. But blessed is what God does and gives to me. To be a success or a failure is to be defined by the world\u2019s standards; to be blessed or cursed is to be defined by God\u2019s standards. And those are vastly different things \u2013 for God sees things quite differently than we.<\/p>\n

And if you need a demonstration of that, just very quickly run down the list of who is blessed from the words of Jesus we heard today. These are not those we would normally think of as blessed.<\/p>\n

Being poor in spirit<\/strong>, beggars before God.<\/p>\n

Mourning<\/strong>, sorrowful over sin and death.<\/p>\n

Meek, humble<\/strong> \u2013 that\u2019s somebody who gets walked on and taken advantage of, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/strong>, yearning for that right-ness with God that no, we do not have by ourselves.<\/p>\n

Being merciful<\/strong> \u2013 when you have to stop what you\u2019re doing, go out of your way, and give of yourself and what you have to help somebody else out \u2013 somebody who may not even deserve it anyway! Mercy is hard work.<\/p>\n

Being pure in heart<\/strong> \u2013 purity is scoffed at today, the bondage of the past rather than the \u201cfreedom\u201d to follow your own heart.<\/p>\n

Peacemakers<\/strong> \u2013 yeah, right! Ever try to do that?<\/p>\n

Those persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake<\/strong>, for Jesus\u2019 sake. Really, do I even need to talk about this one?<\/p>\n

If your mind is set on success and thinks in those terms, this list really is quite the opposite of that, isn\u2019t it? To our world, and even to us who are bombarded with the thinking of the world everyday, this isn\u2019t blessed. Some might even think that being these things is being cursed. . . .<\/p>\n

So what about you? Are you blessed? And how do you know?<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . . ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If only the Kansas City Royals would have hit it out of the park as often as our pastor does in his sermons, week after week.\u00a0 On All Saints\u2019 Sunday, with the text of the Beatitudes, he talked about how we confuse being \u201cblessed\u201d with being \u201csuccessful,\u201d and how the Bible gives us a very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[2439,3420,1889],"class_list":["post-20145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-church","tag-beatitudes","tag-blessedness","tag-rev-james-douthwaite"],"yoast_head":"\nBlessed vs. Successful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If only the Kansas City Royals would have hit it out of the park as often as our pastor does in his sermons, week after week.\u00a0 On All Saints' Sunday, with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessed vs. Successful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If only the Kansas City Royals would have hit it out of the park as often as our pastor does in his sermons, week after week.\u00a0 On All Saints' Sunday, with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-05T11:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-04T23:20:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/\",\"name\":\"Blessed vs. Successful\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-05T11:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-04T23:20:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"If only the Kansas City Royals would have hit it out of the park as often as our pastor does in his sermons, week after week.\u00a0 On All Saints' Sunday, with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/blessed-vs-successful\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blessed vs. Successful\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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