07/25/2026
Reposting from our Bishop
" I read this meditation several days ago, but it’s come up again for me in my prayers today, particularly in the context of our war against Iran and continued violence against immigrants by federal agents. I am sitting with these images today and putting my hope in Christ Jesus, who leads us into love."
Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber shares her restatement of Jesus’ Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.
Blessed are they for whom death is not an abstraction.
Blessed are they who have buried their loved ones, for whom tears could fill an ocean.
Blessed are they who have loved enough to know what loss feels like.
Blessed are the mothers of the miscarried.
Blessed are they who don’t have the luxury of taking things for granted anymore.
Blessed are they who can’t fall apart because they have to keep it together for everyone else.
Blessed are the motherless, the alone, the ones from whom so much has been taken….
Blessed are those who no one else notices. The kids who sit alone at middle-school lunch tables. The laundry guys at the hospital. The s*x workers and the night-shift street sweepers.
Blessed are the losers and the babies and the parts of ourselves that are so small, the parts of ourselves that don’t want to make eye contact with a world that loves only the winners.
Blessed are the forgotten.
Blessed are the closeted.
Blessed are the unemployed, the unimpressive, the underrepresented….
I imagine Jesus standing there blessing us all because I believe that is our Lord’s nature. Because, after all, it was Jesus who had all the powers of the universe at his disposal but did not consider his equality with God something to be exploited. Instead, he came to us in the most vulnerable of ways, as a powerless, flesh-and-blood newborn. As if to say, ‘You may hate your bodies, but I am blessing all human flesh. You may admire strength and might, but I am blessing all human weakness. You may seek power, but I am blessing all human vulnerability.’… [Jesus] was God’s Beatitude—God’s blessing to the weak in a world that admires only the strong.”
I pray for all who seek to be blessed community for and with the people around them, especially those who need it most. And I’m grateful for the ways our church and others are committed to this life.
