Journey Koinonia ~
Blogs, Sermons & articles
These are some of the sermons and homilies which have been preached recently, as well as articles from community members.
Please give full credit to the author and our community if you copy or use any of these. Thank you!
"Blessed"
Homily by Laura Jaquith Bartlett
Journey Koinonia
Feb. 1, 2026
Matthew 5:1-12
Most of you know this by now, but just to be completely honest: I’m United Methodist,
through and through! I was raised United Methodist by parents who had grown up
Methodist, I’m an ordained clergyperson in the UMC…and I don’t have even the tiniest
bit of Catholicism in my background. And yet, here I am, not just offering the homily as a
visitor, but helping to lead in my faith community, Journey Koinonia.
When we started visiting here, early last spring, Todd and Megan and I were all struck
by how welcome we felt on Good Friday (who visits a new church on Good Friday??).
Throughout the next several months we kept coming back every so often, and it
became crystal clear that we were truly in a house where love can dwell, where all are
welcome. It’s not that my denominational background doesn’t matter here (or my gender
or my sexual orientation or my ethnicity or my economic level or my educational
background)--those things do matter, because they’re part of who I am, but they are
NOT obstacles to my acceptance here. My United Methodism does not prevent me from
being welcomed into relationship here in this community of people who are all in
relationship with each another, and with God. I am deeply blessed by being part of your
lives, and you have communicated to me that you are blessed by me as well. There’s a
word for that, and that word is beatitude.
The word beatitude can actually mean either blessing or happy, and you probably know
that some versions of The Beatitudes use happy: “Happy are those who….” But for me,
blessing (or blessed) is a much richer and more layered concept. Blessings can be not
only received but also given, especially in relationships, when the blessings are a two-
way street.
Of course, “beatitude” leads us to the very familiar gospel passage for today. As you
may know, there are two versions of this scripture, one here in Matthew and the other in
Luke 6:20-26. They are very similar, often using the exact same wording, but there are
a few key differences. Matthew lists more “opportunities” for blessings, but they’re also
a little less earthy, less concrete than in Luke’s version. Matthew says blessed are the
poor in spirit, but Luke just spits in out: blessed are you who are poor (with the subtext:
“those below the government’s poverty line”). Luke says “blessed are you who hunger
right now,” and Matthew makes it a little more esoteric: “blessed are those hunger and
thirst for righteousness.” Also, minor detail: Luke includes a long list of woes, which
stand in contrast to the blessings, “Woe to you who are rich, whose stomachs are full,
who are laughing.” I attended a workshop once where the leader, a down-to-earth
pastor named Janet Wolfe, said that most of us who read the beatitudes should not be
considering them as good news--because we’re the ones who are rich and full and
laughing. She’s not wrong. And I believe that these blessings are also a message from
Jesus about making sure that our communities, our work, our relationships are focused
on building a house, building a world, where all are welcome.
Jesus was talking to a group of folks some 2000-ish years ago, using language that
would have described a cultural context that was familiar to his audience. Hungry
people, poor people, voiceless people, grief-stricken people: these are the ones who
stood outside the places of power and privilege, but Jesus was reminding the people
(as, incidentally, he did over and over again in the gospels), that these folks from the
bottom of the society are actually at the top of God’s list of people to be loved--so the
people he was teaching (meaning, the people Jesus was talking to 2000 years ago)
needed to start expanding their ideas about who would be their neighbors, who were
those it was “ok” to be in relationship with.
And, a little side note. I’m pretty sure we all get this, but just to be clear: God’s love is
not a limited commodity. So saying that God puts the poor and oppressed at the top of
the list does NOT mean that God is going to run out of love by the time the bottom of
the list is reached. Think of a new mother telling her oldest child, “This new baby in our
family does not mean that I love you less than I did before.” The new baby likely has
urgent needs that put it at the top of the list, but there’s no diminishing of the mother’s
love for her first-born. That’s just not how love works--even our imperfect human version
of it, and certainly not the divine version of love.
So. That’s what Jesus had to say 2000 years ago. How can we avoid the attitude that
“that was then, this is now”? I’ve actually heard stories (not sure if they’re true, but these
days, it seems likely) that some folks have been saying that Jesus may have said those
things, but they no longer have relevance for us because they’re just too “woke”! Wow.
Jesus is too “woke” to be relevant. And what about Jesus’ mother, who understood
even before Jesus was born that he was going to turn the world upside down. Mary
sings her heart out, proclaiming her belief that the hungry will be filled, that the powerful
will tumble off their thrones, that the world is about to turn.
So, once again, how can we translate the biblical beatitudes into a cultural context that
would be familiar to us, that would make it clear that Jesus’ message is absolutely
relevant for us today, in 2026? This past week, Carol sent me a version of the
beatitudes written by Steve Garnaas-Holmes, who happens to be a retired United
Methodist minister whom I’ve known for many years (he used to be a member of the
Montana Logging and Ballet Company, which was a comedy and political satire troupe--
google it!). I love Steve’s daily blog, called Unfolding Light, so I went there to find his
beatitudes, but it turns out he’s actually written many versions (and by the way, he
encourages others to write their own version as a sort of spiritual discipline). The
version that popped up first for me on Steve’s website was not the one Carol sent, but
one that he posted on Jan. 28, 2026, which he calls Beatitudes for the street. I want to
share it with you tonight:
Blessed are you who are vulnerable or undocumented,
for you belong to God.
Blessed are you who are pepper-sprayed,
for your eyes see most clearly.
Blessed are you who respond to brutality with kindness,
for kindness alone will change the world.
Blessed are you who are neighborly amid terror,
for you are at home with God.
Blessed are you who protest injustice,
for this is God’s voice.
Blessed are you who shoot with cameras instead of guns,
for so does God.
Blessed are you who are harassed and arrested,
for you are most at peace, and most free.
Blessed are you who are shot or maimed,
for so they treated the martyrs before you.
Blessed are you who are despised and deported,
for so God’s beloved are always treated,
yet you never leave God’s loving home.
(Steve Garnass-Holmes, 1/28/26)
This is how the beatitudes are blessings for all of us, everyone. When we proclaim with
our voices and our actions that the world is about to turn, because we know the
difference between injustice and God’s justice; when we believe in our gathering around
this table every week that the world is about to turn, because we know with every fiber
of our being that God’s love will always bring light to the darkness; when even as our
hearts are breaking we rejoice that the world is about to turn, because our neighbors,
our beloved siblings, the people we recognize as children of God will flip to the top of
the list, then the beatitudes are good news for us because we will be celebrating our
relationships together as we become both the blessing and the blessed, flowing and
overflowing with the abundance of God’s love.
'Twas the morning of Pentecost -
A poetic homily for the Birthday of the Church
by Kevin Yell.
‘Twas the morning of Pentecost, and locked in the house
the disciples were hiding, all scared as a mouse.
The door, it was locked and the bolt it was slid
in fear of the guards from the Temple, they hid.
While Jews filled the city from all over the world,
the remnant of Jesus ‘round his mother they curled.
And she thought, as she sat, with these insecure men,
“It’s just like this started, though in a barn, back then.”
“I know what it feels like,” she wanted to say,
“To be unsure of your feelings and the future, but hey,
I’ve learned if you trust that what God says is true,
Life falls into place. Let the Spirit come through.
”For, though she was sad at the death of her son,
She trusted their experience of the now risen one.
And whatever her God and her Jesus were planning,
She knew ’twould be bigger than they could imagine.
Then all of a sudden a great wind arose!
It swept through the room and ruffled their clothes.
And as each of them, wide-eyed and trembling, looked,
it seemed like a flame in their being got tucked.
And Mary exclaimed, as she did long ago,
“We’re pregnant with God” and her face it did glow.
The women, of course, understood her loud cry,
But the men were still speechless, (you can understand why!)
For to be pregnant with God, to bring forth God’s child,
Made them open their eyes, their minds were beguiled!
Then Peter stood up and, with tears on his face, said:
“Unlock the door, people need to be fed.”
And just like a parent filled with love concerned
He led them all out, and into the world.
Now, as you all know, this was long in the past,
and others made sure that the story did last.
Luke is the one who gives not one birthing but two,
The first is the savior’s, this second: the crew!
And just as a stable saw the new-born Messiah,
So a locked room of misfits birthed the church’s first choir.
Their song, like the angel’s, spoke to all who would hear,
Shepherds on hillsides and folks far and near.
All were amazed at the message they heard,
And came to believe that God’s grace had occurred.
So, for two thousand years the word has gone out,
Inviting the many, no matter race, creed or clout.
Until, to this place the challenge remains
Asking “who’ll be my witness, my message proclaim?”
The Good News is you don’t need a degree,
No previous experience, young, old, slave or free,
The original twelve, you might remember I’ve said,
Were more like “Duh-sciples” than bright in the head.
What’s more, and I’ll say despite their en-flaming,
They weren’t suddenly perfect and still needed some training.
They each had agendas about what to do next,
Their lives and their letters still leave many perplexed.
Mary, of course, understood God’s old strategy,
To implant the call and then see what is brought to be.
For grace is in the moment, the present, the “now,”
God’s way is an Improv, a relationship, then “pow!”
St. Paul understood more than most, you could say,
Writing “all things work for God’s glory each day.”
The Creator plants seeds, starts motions, calls prophets,
But where it all ends is not clear on God’s dockets.
It’s a relationship, a process, a game if you like,
It’s a training for teaching us, like riding a bike.
At first, we might fall or need training wheels,
But in time they come off and we see how it feels …
To be like a Christ in a world needing healing.
To carry that flame in our hearts’ a strange feeling,
‘Cause we know we’re not ready for the role or the outcome,
Yet the flame leaps to love, making all strangers welcome.
Like that French priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
said as he reflected on the earth’s stones and God’s Garden,
“The day will come, when, after harnessing the ether,
The winds, and the pull of earth mantle beneath us
We shall harness for God the unbound energy of love,
And that day it’ll seem like fire has, once more, come from above.
”For we’ll have discovered and learned how to use
The power that transforms and, with our own life, can fuse.
God’s patience can cope as we drink from Love’s vat,
Like Peter and Andrew, James, John, Thom and Matt.
It’s a journey, a process, as I mentioned just now,
All it takes is a step, then let the Spirit teach how.
For it was as Disciples those scared men had hid,
But they came out as Apostles and proclaimed as they did.
So with us, it’s the same, all baptized as a first grace,
But since then, we’ve all grown, and each learned at our own pace.
So once more trust the Word that is spoken upon you,
We are each God’s own child and there’s still much to do.
A new Pentecost fire in our hearts is descending,
For a world full of hurt still needs much up-ending.
So, open the gift that’s been given to you
And share it around, as God asks us to do.
Then we’ll hear God proclaim, when we stand in God’s sight
“Happy sainthood to all, for you all have done right!”
Copyright Kevin G. Yell 2025.