Luke 6:21-23 - What is blessing?

Luke 6:21-23 (NRSV)

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

The blessings continue for those whom Jesus' hearers - including us - would least expect. And not only are they blessed, according to Jesus, but they are blessed now.

We are used to hearing the phrase "I am so blessed" when everything is going well. When in gratitude we look at all we have and take stock in it and feel our good fortune, and attribute it to God.

Yet Jesus is telling us we were blessed when quite the opposite is the case. 

What can we make of that?

Are God's blessings what we think they are?

Are they something that we hold onto? Or are they something that aren't complete until they are shared so that through us others may be blessed?

If that is the case, then when we are poor or hungry or grieving or despised, could it be that our blessings come and are shared when we become a vehicle for healing for someone else?

Are we blessed when someone reaches out to us to clothe or feed or comfort us?

And are they blessed in doing so?

When we remember that God's love doesn't exist in a vacuum maybe we begin to see how blessing works. Love itself can only thrive and happen in community, and so our blessings are not ours alone. They are not individual badges of honor, but instead are ways in which we share that abundant love with others.

And that love isn't something simply for the future heaven. Yes, it is perhaps for "not yet." But it is also remembering that the Kingdom of Heaven is now. 

Help my need, Lord, to be a vehicle of blessing for those around me and let their need be a blessing for me. Amen.