Hashtag Blessed

 Matthew 5:1-12 February 8, 2026

 

This is the first part of Jesus sermon

on the Mount, it’s called the Beatitudes.

or the Blessings.

 

What does it mean to be blessed?

The dictionary was no help.

But I think we know.

I think it means having God’s favor,

experiencing God’s grace,

feeling happiness, peace, and contentment.

It’s a great reminder that God is active in our lives.

 

But I think a lot of people confuse being

fortunate with being blessed.

I’ve had some people say to me,

“I was lucky,” then they remember that I

am a pastor and say, “oh no, I was blessed”

 

We say, we’re blessed with good health,

or wealth, or good looks, or a good spouse, or whatever.

Sometimes it’s things that we worked for,

and sometimes its come just because we’re lucky.

Blessed.

 

Actually ‘hashtag blessed’ is kind of a joke,

Because so many people -especially

social media influencers— use it for whatever

gain, or free thing, they’ve gotten.

 

When you look up hashtag blessed

on social media, you get some religious

comments, “blessed to have another day”

“blessed to be sober”, “blessed to be a blessing”.

 

But you also get a lot of people talking

about other things too:

I got these premium lulu Lemon leggings

for free. Best quarterly sales so far.

Hashtag blessed.

It’s used for college acceptances,  sports victories, vacations –

“We’re blessed to be able spend a week in Cabo

and see this sunset.”  - Hashtag blessed

“Someone was upgraded to first class on a flight”

hashtag blessed. 

 

Now, if saying you’re blessed is your thing,

I’m not trying to take it away,

I think it’s great to remind yourself

that everything comes from God

and we should be thankful for everything.

 

But I’m personally kind of uncomfortable

with the concept of saying I’m blessed

when I just feel fortunate or lucky.

It’s probably just Lutheran guilt,

but I feel like if I say that God has blessed me

because of what I have, then what about the people

who don’t have those things.

 

If I’m blessed with a house, or I’m blessed

with good health, what about the people

who don’t have a house or don’t have good health.

Is God’s blessing not for them too?

 

I’m probably thinking too hard about it.

But I guess that’s my job

to think too hard about this kind of thing.

 

In Jesus time, how fortunate you were,

or how many good things you had here on earth

(whether you were hashtag blessed in life or not)

was seen as an indicator of God’s favor.

 

Meaning that, whether you were rich or poor

healthy or sick, was taken as a direct sign

as to whether you had pleased God or

you had disappointed or angered God.

Or maybe if your parents or ancestors

had pleased or angered God.

 

 

They believed in what theologians call

“divine providence”. Which means that God

directs every iota of what happens in the

earthly realm.  To believe in “divine providence”

or determinism (which is just about the same, but

a little different) is a belief that everything that

happens in the world is determined by God,

and God uses the  things in life like money or health

as a blessing, or a trial, or as instruction, or as a punishment.

By that logic, we can see what God is

thinking just by seeing what happens in the world.

So if I got a free pair of Lulu Lemon Leggings,

then God must think I’m doing okay.

 

That might sound like good theology.

if you don’t think too hard,

But like I said, my job is to think too hard.

 

If you follow that logic, that would mean that every

billionaire who has money to waste on their seventh car and

their fourth yacht has really pleased God.

And conversely, God is angry at every person who doesn’t

have enough to eat, or is sick, or without a home.

 

This theology breaks down really quickly.

And It’s actually disturbing way to view God’s

work in the world. But somehow this “hashtag

blessed”  theology has prevailed

And it actually was the dominant Christian theology

throughout most of American history.

And Christian theology was very important in shaping

the world in the 18^th and 19^th century.

 

At the founding of the United States,

the European settlers believed in “Manifest Destiny”

Meaning that because of the superiority of

European/American culture and government,

God gave people a divine right to take over

the land in the US. Even if that meant

destroying Native Americans and taking their land.

 

White people thought it was Europeans’

divine right to take over land because it was

“Allotted by Providence” meaning

because they could they should.

And God made it possible.

In other words, they were blessed by God.

 

And “God’s providence” was the most prevalent

theological defense for American Slavery of

Africans in the US. If you read letters and sermons

from the time, there’s this circular logic used to justify Slavery

People basically said that it had to be ordained by God

because it wouldn’t have happened

if it wasn’t ordained by God.

 

So what you see in the world is exactly God’s will.

White people were blessed to be slave masters,

and God had cursed black people to be slaves.

 

It’s an absolutely disturbing and wrong way to understand

God’s work in the world when used in that way,

But it was the absolutely accepted way to

think about the happenings in the world at the time.

If you didn’t believe that, you looked strange and radical.

 

And it was the prevalent way to think

about God’s work through the 19^th century.

and even if it wasn’t overt, it still hung on

even through the first part of the of the 20^th century.

 

That is until people started to grasp the holocaust.

Then people could no longer look at the horrors

of human cruelty and say that God’s hand

had a part of that. Then people were forced to realize

that maybe everything that we saw in the world

was not an indicator of God’s will.

Since that time, God’s providence

has not been as dominant in

main-stream theology.

 

But it still lives today.

It lives in the prosperity Gospel that says

overtly that God rewards your righteousness

with cold hard cash and good health.

New Jerusalem
Dirk Walker

It lived every time Pat Robertson 

or Kenneth Copeland

told people why a hurricane hit 

Haiti or New Orleans.

That’s the overt. But the less overt way

it is still in the economy of this world.

 

I really think that is why we’re seeing

so many people who identify as

Christian advocating against any kind of government

services for the poor, or healthcare for everyone,

or debt relief, or emergency aid for foreign countries,

and have such toxic attitudes about immigrants.

I think it’s because some people feel like they have

a divine right to their privilege.

They believe they are hashtag  blessed above others

and they want to maintain that.

 

We’re living in a time where people are arguing

about who has a right to have basic rights,

who has a right to live and who doesn’t.

A few months ago, a guy on Fox news suggested that the

US should just euthanize anyone who is homeless.

 

We’re living in a time where the privileged are not just trying

to maintain their privilege, they want to prevent

those that they deem unworthy from getting anything themselves.

I mean if everyone had it, then we couldn’t tell

who was hashtag blessed. Who God favored, and who God didn’t.

 

There is a corner of Christianity that is dominating

politics right now that seems to relish in the fact

that some people are hashtag blessed, and other people are not.

 

They seem to want to maintain that.

And because of that they’ve built up a resentment

towards those that they don’t see as worthy of God’s favor,

those who share their privilege.

 

 

This is leading to resentment for immigrants,

for Haitians and Somalians and Latinos

for African Americans, and gay, lesbian, and transgender

and anyone who is not in the privileged classes,

but would have the nerve feel like they

might want also a part of the American dream.

 

I really think that what drives this competition

and resentment in American life against certain

groups is based on this idea that we can  

tell who is blessed by God and who isn’t

and people want to reserve those blessing for themselves.

 

We’re living in this economy of resentment

right now and it’s tearing our country apart.

It’s literally killing us right now.

 

And as usual, Jesus is trying to save us

from the stuff that is trying to kill us

 

In the Beatitudes, the blessings, Jesus makes

this alternate economy of blessings which probably

seemed really radical at the time.

In Jesus economy, blessings are not about how much

money you have or what comfort or privilege

or health you might have.

Blessings are really God’s grace and love.

And the more you need it the more you get it.

So the most needy among us become the most blessed.

 

In Jesus economy, God’s blessings do not demand anything of us.

Jesus says to that crowd, who seemed like some

of the least blessed people around at the time,

that they were already blessed.

 

You are blessed, just because you care.

Just because you’re poor in spirit,

just because you’ve lost hope or you’re suffering,

or your heart is breaking at the suffering

of another person, or you’re struggling to find

a reason to get up in the morning,

that is you being blessed.

Just because you mourn for losses, for your own

losses and for the loss of other people you might not even know.

You are blessed.

 

You are blessed just because you worked to make peace

instead of building up resentments and competition,

you are blessed.

Just because you want justice in this world.

Just because it bothers you to see people being treated unfairly.

You are blessed.

Just because you are persecuted, or talked bad about,

or even killed, you are blessed, because you stuck up for

someone else or defended them, or even put yourself

in harms way for them, you are blessed.

You don’t have to do it, but if you have yourself in that situation,

you are blessed.

 

In Jesus economy, these blessings

don’t belong to the ones with the earthly privilege

or the power, they don’t just belong to

the rich or the healthy, or the citizen in good standing.

No one is left out of God’s economy.

 

And you can’t tell by looking if someone is blessed or not.

Just because you have a nice house,

or a nice car, or nice healthcare, just because

you have free time, no debt and self determination

doesn’t mean that you’ve been blessed by God

more than someone who has none of those things.

Being blessed is a condition of the heart.

It is a condition of the soul.

 

Jesus was telling those people listening

and telling us now, that we can’t tell what

God is thinking based on someone’s state in life.

 

The message of the Beatitudes and the message of the cross

is that God does not cause suffering,

but God is present wherever there is suffering.

 

Jesus is telling us that God’s blessings

are here for everyone. It’s not just for the ones

with the first class upgrades, or a nice house.

Everyone is hashtag blessed.

 

What would it mean if even just the

Christians really believed in that message?

What would it mean if we truly believed

God’s blessings were for everyone?

Follow Jesus

Matthew 4:12-23

January 25. 2026

 

When I was a kid, I went to a Catholic church

and we would read most of the same readings

that we do now, and I remember hearing this

and being very jealous of the disciples.

 

I remember the hearing about those fishermen

who immediately left everything behind and followed Jesus.

I thought that they were so lucky to have

Jesus come to them personally and ask them to follow.

The original disciples had it easy.

 

I thought that if Jesus himself walked up to me

and looked at me and said,

“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

I wouldn’t have had any second guess

about leaving everything behind.

I would even have left all my stuffed animals right then.

 

But we didn’t have Jesus.

All we had was Father O’Hearn.

 

He was an elderly priest – although I realize

now he probably not much older than I am.

He would hold his sermon up in front of him and read it,

“Follow me, Jesus says.

And we can still follow today. 

Join the Offering Committee.

See Alma Rodriguez at the back of the narthex

After Mass is over.”

  

Not really a compelling call to discipleship.

And as a 9 year old, I was not joining

the offering committee whatever it was.

 

Yes, I think the disciples had it made.

They had the compelling leadership of Jesus himself.

And besides that, they had a clear call.

Jesus said, “Follow Me”

and they could follow him and

do what he did and what he told them to do.

 

But today, we don’t have that luxury.

We don’t have Jesus here with us

to explain and interpret, even in those

vague and sometimes infuriating parables.

 

We just have each other and

and our own conscience and reason,

and this nebulous Spirit to guide us.

And we also have some smart people

who’s words resonate with us.

 

So what are we called to, as disciples in the

tradition of Peter and Andrew and James and John

and all those who have come after them?

What does it mean to be called in

this very time and place that

we’re being called in?

 

One of those smart people that I look to often

is Martin Luther King Jr.

He was a brilliant mind and had a solid theology,

and he was able to apply it directly to the

situation he was living in.

 

He was also such a prolific writer that we know

at most junctures what he was thinking.

And since we celebrated his birthday

this week, I was thinking about him.

I think he is more relevant now than ever.

 

I think these are very dark times that we’re living in.

And I think that there are lots of similarities

with the times that Dr. King was living in.

Not completely the same, but very similar.

And he is a good guide for us through this time.

 

Right now, the people of Minnesota

feel they are under siege.

Minneapolis Protests 1-24-26

Not from gangs or enemy forces

but from our own government.

ICE agents are going door to door

and in and through neighborhoods.

 

These new, untrained, 

bounty hunters are making

law enforcement, military, and even

more established and trained ICE agents look very bad.

They’ve killed two observers and protesters

and detained countless others in  

many neighborhoods.

 

A pastor in a suburb outside of Minnesota described it like this:

No community is safe from ICE.

Worried parents are keeping kids at home,

especially any who are (or appear to be) immigrants,

regardless of immigration status.

 

Another pastor wrote:

I echo the earlier comments about the pain of ICE presence here.

Many of our immigrant businesses are shutting their doors. 

restaurants if they stay open are transitioning to take out

only so that non-employees cannot easily enter the building,

people are trying to hide out in their homes

and skipping medical appointments.

Non-immigrant members of the community

have been maced for just standing by

and observing. It is a lot and it is exhausting.

 

And another pastor:

Our small rural towns are experiencing

extreme pain from ICE abductions:

children are being orphaned;

immigrant businesses are closed;

people are in hiding.

My heart is breaking now more than it did

during the dark days of the pandemic.

It is all JUST. SO. MUCH.

 

It's frightening and sad and horrifying.

It should not be happening in this country.

But  it’s really unclear what our response

as people of faith should be.

 

We might feel here like it’s none of our business

it’s happening over there so it doesn’t

really affect us here in Hilton Head.

 

But as Martin Luther King wrote

in A Letter From a Birmingham Jail

when he was basically told by pastors,

that what happened in Birmingham was none of his business.

 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,

tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

We are all tied in a single garment of destiny.

And we are all affected indirectly.

Doubly so as Lutherans.

Minnesota is the epicenter of Lutheranism in the US.

These are ELCA pastors and congregants who are

experiencing these things.

Many of the immigrants in Minnesota have been resettled

through Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.

We are close in that network of mutuality.

 

So in the least, we are called not to

turn away and ignore the cries of the people.

And more than that, we are called to

have compassion for those who are hurting.

 

I think when things like this happen,

the initial instinct of nice middle-class church people

is to get kind of sentimental and quickly call for peace and unity,

and say, “can’t we all just get along?” I understand that.

It’s wrenching and painful and we want it to stop.

 

But I don’t think that these times are calling

us to do that. Not right at this time.

I think we do pray that the situation would alleviate so

peace can be possible, I think we should pray that

ICE would leave Minnesota.

But we shouldn’t just pray for peace and unity

when part of the people are still under threat.

 

The chaplain on the Minnesota Timberwolves

prophetically said this weekend :

“Peace isn’t what you ask for

when the boot is already on someone’s neck.

Peace is what the powerful ask for

when they don’t want to be interrupted.”

So I don’t think we’re called to ask

or pray for cheap peace and unity.

We should be asking for justice to be done

and for the threat to be removed.

 

As Martin Luther King wrote

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension.

it is the presence of justice."

 

So I believe the church is called right now

to ask for Justice before it calls for peace.

 

So we’re called not to be indifferent,

and not to just ask for unity and peace.

But what is the church called to do?

 

In his book, A Knock at Midnight,

Martin Luther King writes:

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”

 

We are not called to take control of the

government like Christian Nationalists want to.

And neither are we supposed to just fall in line

with the mandates of the government,

like other people, and count everything they’re doing as righteous.

 

And we are not supposed to avoid what’s happening,

and flippantly say, “Separation of Church and State”

so we can ignore what’s happening in the world.

We are called to be the guide and critic to the state.

 

This week, many pastors and congregants 

from many different churches and religions 

went into the streets to protest this week. 

They were among  more than 50,000 people there.

 

My friend, who is a pastor in New Hampshire,

went to Minnesota just to protest and to be a clergy witness.

He was out in the negative 20 degrees weather.

This was a call he felt to follow Jesus and live out his faith.

 

Some people are following that call by

protesting here and in their own cities.

Some are doing it here today, 4-5:30 in front of Parkers.

 

Some people are putting themselves

in harms way to protect their immigrant neighbors.

And some have paid a great sacrifice for that,

like Renee Good who was murdered two

weeks ago and Alex Pretti yesterday.

 

Protests are a perfectly acceptable way of effecting social change. 

It’s a method that is protected by our constitution by the first amendment. 

Tyrants and dictators hate protests because it does effect change in our world.

It’s the voice of the people.

 

The purposely non-violent protests and walks

that were part of the civil rights movement in the 60’s

are now heralded as moving and stellar moments

in our country’s history.

 

But in Martin Luther King’s time,

Those same peaceful marches were called riots.

He wasn’t seen by the majority of the public

as a hero and the cultural icon he is now.

He was blamed for stirring people up.

he was called a “rebel-rouser” and an “outside agitator”

and a “radical”.  He was harassed repeatedly by

law enforcement. He was arrested 29 times.

Once for going 30 in a 25 mile and hour zone.

 

Protests make people feel uncomfortable.

That’s what they’re supposed to do.

It is one way that normal people can make a difference.

And some of us are called to do that.

 

And some people that aren’t called to protest in

Minnesota are feeling called to deliver food to

immigrants and Latino people so they don’t

have to leave their homes and risk being detained.

 

They’re being told not to put addresses of

the people they’re delivering to in phones because

ICE agents can take their phones and look up immigrants location.

 

They’re being told to write it on a piece of paper

and if they’re stopped by ICE, they should swallow the paper.

Regular church people are called to do this.

 

Martin Luther King believed in service

In his book “The Strength to Love”

he wrote “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is,

'What are you doing for others?”

 

At all times, but especially in difficult times

we are called to serve our community with 

and at this dark time in our nation’s history, 

just giving poor people food seems to be a controversial subject. 

I’m glad that we can offer our neighbors

a safe place to come and get food.

 

We all have different roles and different callings

like Paul said, we’re members of

the whole body, but we have different

duties and responsibilities.

 

Some are called to protest, some are called to write letters,

some are called to run for office, some are called to

preach, some are called to feed people, and give medical care

“What are you doing for others?”

 

We are all called to pray,

And I’m called to preach to you, and I feel called today to tell you

what I’m hearing from my colleagues in Minnesota.

That’s why I’m telling you this now.

But we’re all part of the same body.

 

And as Pastor Mary said last week,

that body as a whole, as the church, is called

to be the ones pointing to Christ.

Revealing Christ to the world

 

And our call as the body of Christ is

very vital in our current situation.

Because some segments of Christianity are using

Jesus name for the power it brings,

but not using his words or teachings.

 

Actually they use the opposite of his teachings.

They say the name of Jesus and then

try to use that as a basis for their

authoritarianism, and hate, and cruelty,

they try to use Jesus as a justification for their

condemnation of other people.

  

That’s why our clear witness to the

real Jesus that we find in scripture

is so important right now.

 

We’re all called to point to the Jesus

that fed the hungry, and ate with the outcast.

The one who urged us to love one another,

and to serve others.

 

The one that challenged the authorities and

The one that reminded us that God so loved

this world that he gave his life for everyone.

Each one of us is called to bear witness to

that Jesus that we know.

 

And we are all called to act on that and

be try to see everyone as a child of God.

Our neighbor and our friend of course,

but every stranger too.

 

And we’re called to see people of

every color and race and religion, gender,

and immigration status, and sexuality

and gender identity as a child of God.

 

Everyone. As disciples, we’re all called

to embrace diversity. I don’t think this is optional.

We all have our shortcomings and judgmental thoughts.

But let me be clear, there is no place in Jesus’

church for white supremacy, or bigotry,

or intolerance, or segregation, or hatred.

 

We are called to see everyone as a child of God.

And that includes those who are doing wrong.

 

Jesus we know calls us to love our enemy

As Martin Luther King reminded the his congregation at the

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,

“it’s significant that Jesus does not say, “Like your enemy.”

 

We are not called to like everyone

or approve of what everyone does,  or coddle them,

or ignore what their doing, and forgive them instantly

because we’re being good Christians.

 

But we are called to love every one.

That is to see the humanity in each person,

as misled and wrong as we might think they are.

As Jesus followers, we are called to even see the

humanity of ICE agents and those the deploy them.

 

And this really is the crux of our call.

Whatever we are called to do,

we are called to do it in Christ’s way.

We’re not supposed to shy away from

difficult subjects and pointing out injustice,

but whatever we do, we are called to do it like Jesus would do it.

In the process of dealing with the hate in this world,

we should not become hateful ourselves.

 

As Martin Luther King said,

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness:

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that”

We should be always pointing to Christ

and Christ’s way in everything we do.

  

And finally, even though these days are dark,

we are called not give into fatalism.

Good people cannot give up

just because things look dark right now.

As Martin Luther King said,

“only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”

 

We have one distinct advantage over

those disciples that Jesus called away from

their fishing boats that day:

We know how Jesus’ story ends.

Andrew and Peter and James and John,

they all thought that Friday was the end

of their ministry and their efforts.

They had no idea what Sunday

had in store for them. But we do.

 

King said in order to do the what Jesus calls us to:

“the answer lies in developing the capacity

to accept the finite disappointment

and yet cling to the infinite hope.”

 

Clinging to infinite hope.

That is what the disciples were called to then.

That’s what made them drop their nets.

 

And that’s what we’re called to now.

We are called to follow Jesus to ventures

of which we cannot see the ending,

by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.

 

Jesus, give us faith to follow your call

and take that first step

even when we can’t see the whole staircase.