Just for kicks, I went to one of my favorite cyber haunts, bn.com. That’s Barnes and Noble, one of the last standing bookstore chains in America, and the source of more books and ideas than the law allows. The day I discovered I could go from “that looks interesting” to “that’s ready to read on my iPad,” true danger emerged. The curious meaning-monger in me can go on book binges without leaving my couch or desk. And by the brilliance of web browser “cookies,” they always seem to know how to recommend something that, if not always on my mind, at least had been recently. Clever marketing – clever like crack to an idea-chaser like me.

Since I’m preaching on “Living Happy in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” I entered “happiness” into the cue. Eight thousand, two hundred and three book suggestions later, I was back where I started. Thousands of derivations on a theme preached on a Galilean hillside two thousand years ago still can’t say it any better. “Blessed are” followed by the principles that precede the promise. And judging by the titles and themes on my cursory product reviews, we seem a lot further from it now than then.

Blessed are – get this for starters – poor-spirited people, mourners, and the meek among us. Hardly a construct for self-improvement seminars and New York Times best sellers. Next stop on the train to glory is merciful. Someone should have told Jesus to give them what they wanted. Rich beats poor in anything. Most folks just don’t deal with death very well, nor do they want to. If you want something, take it. The meek don’t inherit, they get fleeced. And this mercy thing, it’s just not in vogue these days.

Yet His message endures. And in keeping, so does my series. I’m skipping over hunger for righteousness, not because I’m not a fan, but to hold something back for a special sermon in a couple of weeks. Besides, mercy, or the fashionable lack thereof, is the stuff of headline news. So it’s a pretty good time to go back to the source of love mobilized and see what He has to say. I hope you will join me or at least look in. Living this way in 2017 is pretty radical stuff. Was then, too. I think that was His point.