Skip to main content

Receive My Blessing


I was asked to speak at my friend’s church.  It was not the first time I have done that, but each time is special.  It’s something I can do for him and I like doing things for friends.  Who does not like doing things for friends?  It does not cost me anything but some time and effort.  And it does not cost him anything.  It’s a gift---a gift of talent and friendship. 
           
The theme of the day was Receive My Blessing.  I did not have to focus on that, but it seemed like an appropriate thing to do.  As I began to think about it, my mind wandered in any number of directions.  It was obvious to me that the key idea was the notion of blessing.  I laughed when I thought that blessing is not something that plays much of a role in our culture except when someone sneezes!
           
It always amazes me when someone sneezes, more than one person jumps in with assurance, “Bless you!”  Even when I am in a room of twenty-seven students, a sneeze always brings this blessing.  I am not sure all the blessers in the room are religious, but I don’t know that that matters any more.
           
What’s probably the case is the fact that blessing has been secularized along with so much else in our culture.  Sadly people bless the sneezes in the world and curse everything else!  I know I am much more likely to hear “God damn you” than I am “God bless you!”
           
So I thought about what I would bring to my message.  I figured it would be important once again to locate the idea of blessing in its religious context.  That would be fairly easy.  I know the religious context was the covenant that God made with certain groups.  It has an Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) focus that is, then, carried forward in the New Testament.  Let’s look quickly at this.
           
Perhaps the earliest occurrence is the covenant God made with Abraham (although he was still Abram at the time).  God says to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 1:1-3)
           
The covenant-blessing relationship is clearly portrayed here.  Keep the covenant and be blessed is the theme.  But then I looked more closely.  I realized blessing is used in three different ways.  It is a verb, a noun, and a gift.
           
In the first instance, God indicates that God will bless Abraham.  Blessing is a verb.  But God is not the only blesser.  You and I can also be verbal blessers!  My aspiration is to bless more and curse less.  In my daily encounters I want to find ways to bless both people and situations.  Blessings should bring more peace and joy and cause less strife and sadness.  I will seek ways to dissipate anger and inspire awe.  I want to help situations be more splendid and less sordid.

The second way blessing happens is as a noun.  When verbs become nouns, actions become states of being.  In Abraham’s case God made him a blessing.  This is powerful.  If Abraham or you or, even I, can be a blessing, then we are living in a state of blessedness.  I know at one level that sounds saintly, but that is to make it too pompous.  I prefer to see it more at the mundane level.  To live as a blessing is more like living gracefully instead of grumpily.  I want to grow to the place where my simple presence is a blessing to the people and the situations into which I come.
           
This already anticipates the third way blessing functions.  When I can be a blessing to any other person and within any situation, then I come as a gift.  I consider blessing always a gift.  At its deepest, blessing is always a representation of God.  Indeed, it is an incarnation of God’s Presence in the world.  With this understanding blessing is a profound way of saying, “See me, see the Holy One!” 
           
That is audacious, but true as I see it.  If I can learn to bless, if I can become a blessing and if I can be a blessing in the world I inhabit, then truly I represent and incarnate God’s abiding Presence in the world.  I can be a gift that keeps on giving.  In my own way I go through my day saying, in effect, “Receive my Blessing.”
           
And if you, too, opt for this blessed way of living, the world can be transformed.  Jesus calls it the Kingdom.  If we actually believe it is possible and are willing to actualize the possibility, we become co-creators of that Kingdom.  We begin building “heaven on earth.”
           
I’m willing.  Hope you are willing, too.  We’d make a good team…indeed, God’s team!  That’s nothing to sneeze at!!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-Thou Relationships

Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber.   I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s.   It was already a famous book by then.   I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it.   It has been a while since I looked at the book.             Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks?   I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece.   I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation.   I wish more people read him and took him seriously.             Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election.   He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!”   I think Brooks puts
1 comment
Read more

Spiritual Commitment

I was reading along in a very nice little book and hit these lines about commitment.   The author, Mitch Albom, uses the voice of one of the main characters of his nonfiction book about faith to reflect on commitment.   The voice belongs to Albom’s old rabbi of the Jewish synagogue where he went until his college days.   The old rabbi, Albert Lewis, says “the word ‘commitment’ has lost its meaning.”    The rabbi continues in a way that surely would have many people saying, “Amen!”   About commitment he says, “I’m old enough when it used to be a positive.   A committed person was someone to be admired.   He was loyal and steady.   Now a commitment is something you avoid.   You don’t want to tie yourself down.”   I also think I am old enough to know that commitment was usually a positive word.   I can think of a range of situations in which commitment would have been seen to be positive.   For example, growing up was full of sports for me.   Commitment would have been presupposed t
6 comments
Read more

Inward Journey and Outward Pilgrimage

There are so many different ways to think about the spiritual life.   And of course, in our country there are so many different variations of religious experiences.   There are liberals and conservatives.   There are fundamentalists and Pentecostals.   Besides the dizzying variety of Christian traditions, there are many different non-Christian traditions.   There are the major traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on.   There are the slightly more obscure traditions, such as Sikhism, Jainism, etc.   And then there are more fringe groups and, even, pseudo-religions.   There are defining doctrines and religious practices.   Some of these are specific to a particular tradition or a few traditions, such as the koan , which is used in Zen Buddhism for example.   Other defining doctrines or practices are common across the religious board.   Something like meditation would be a good example.   Christians meditate; Buddhists meditate.   And other groups practice this spiri
3 comments
Read more