Happy (in) Lent! Happiness

Beatitudes are regarded as one of Jesus' most significant teaching moments, with the phrase, "Blessed are those who...". However, there are several ways to translate the original language into English. We tend to associate the word “happy” with positive circumstances in our lives, but if we read the Beatitudes in this way, we may find that Jesus is pointing to the opposite kind of circumstances. The purpose of our discussion this week is to examine how the change from blessed to happy affects our interpretation of happiness and the Beatitudes. Sermon based on Matthew 5:1-12 NRSV.