'Blessed Be' for Valentine's Day

(Posted February 14, 2019)

It was so wonderful this past Sunday to conclude our Service with eight couples renewing their wedding vows. Through thick and thin, we’ve all weathered the challenges and joys of marriage. This week I came across a moving poem by one of my favorite poets, Rev. Maren Tirabassi, who writes not only about love, but about the blessings and woes that Jesus spoke about, when he gave the Sermon on the Plain. Less known and less loved by the readers of the bible, it challenges us to consider the four blessings, AND the four woes, that Jesus says awaits all of us in the way we express our love and care for others. I share her poem today for our consideration.

All Are Welcome

Services begin at 10 a.m. Come worship with us.

A Valentine’s Day Reading of Luke 6: 20-26 - By Rev. Maren Tirabassi

Blessed are you who are poor
in pink greeting cards and chocolate,
because you love someone with dementia –
for God remembers you both.

Blessed are you who are hungry for a love
forbidden by family or culture,
by law or religion,
by damage sustained in heart or spirit,
or by ICE agents who tear your family apart –
because God promises you
the taste of kisses.

Blessed are you who are shunned or bullied
in person and online,
for you will have a day
when you will see yourself in a mirror
and laugh with joy at your beauty.

Blessed are you when they refuse
to bake your wedding cake,
or let you show your love of country
with military service,
when they call the child you love –
“just a foster kid,”
bar the way of the therapy dog
who holds your heart together,
because your wounds do not fit
their definitions,
or turn you away in tears
from an ex-spouse’s visiting hours.

Re-joy in that day, for you understand
the Corinthians psalm to love
as more than a link
on a wedding planner’s website.

But woe to you who hoard a loving family,
rather than sharing it with the lonely,
for you are consoled now.
Woe to you who expect life
to be all honeymoon,
for you won’t be resilient to disappointment.

Woe to you who laugh at anyone
who is unloved,
or whose love is dismissed –
for you will never be able to take it back
when tears teach you wisdom.
 
Woe to you when all congratulate
your penmanship in life,
for you may forget the teacher
who once told you to make
a Valentine, not just for those like you,
but for everyone in class,

no, not the teacher in second grade --
the one two thousand years ago.