The scriptures referred to are in the text.
You don't hear the word “bless” outside church unless somebody sneezes. Or a Southern lady softens her criticism of someone by adding “Bless her heart!” When we use the word “blessed” what do we mean? It depends on whether you are using it as a verb or as an adjective, as what a person does or what someone or something is.
Altogether some form of “bless,” “blessing” or “blessed” is used 78 times in Genesis, more than any other book in the Bible. Even the Psalms fall short of that number. And the verb “blessed” shows up twice in the very first chapter. After God created the birds and all the inhabitants of the sea, he blessed them. (Genesis 1:22) And after he created humans in his image, he blessed them. (Genesis 1:28) To bless in this sense is to bestow divine favor on something or someone. A blessing is a divine gift. It has a purpose and an effect. When God blesses his creatures it is so that they are fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. It is the only thing God has told us to do that we have done wholeheartedly.
In Genesis 12 God tells Abraham that he will make him a great nation and bless him “so that you will be a blessing...In you will all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) We often get wrong the idea of God's people being chosen. They are not chosen because they are inherently better than others. (Deuteronomy 7:7) They are chosen and blessed so that they may be a channel of God's blessing to others.
There is a difference in what the verb “to bless” means is when we bless God. Here we touch on the root of the Hebrew word “to bless” which is “to kneel.” We are not bestowing divine favor on God; we are humbly acknowledging his greatness and graciousness. It also reflects the Greek word for “to bless” which means “to speak well of.” Again we are not bestowing divine favor on God; we are praising him.
When the word “blessed” is used an an adjective, it means the person or thing is considered valuable by God. Being blessed is also good for one's well-being, if not now then in the future. It is in this sense that “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” (Acts 20:35). It is a good thing to be a generous person. It is also in this sense that being poor in spirit, or in mourning, or meek, or hungry and thirsty for righteousness, or merciful, or pure in heart, or peacemakers, or persecuted is blessed. (Matthew 5:3-12) These things do not feel as if they are good for us at the time. It takes a real shift in perspective to see these as blessed states of being. You have to see them from God's point of view.
I have met inmates who came to see their time in jail as ultimately a good thing. They see it as God pulling them out of a bad situation or taking them off of a path that was leading to a terrible and perhaps fatal end. It gave them time to rethink their life and start anew. As with things like surgery or physical therapy, not everything that feels bad at the time is bad for us. It can be a blessing in disguise.
As we said, blessings have a purpose. They are given for our good and for the good of others. God blessed his creatures with fertility, so they can be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God blessed humans not only with fertility but also with agency. We are guided not merely by instinct but by knowledge and wisdom. Furthermore we are to rule over the creatures of the earth. (Genesis 1:28) We are told that humans were to be gardeners in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:5) But instead of taking care of the earth and its creatures, we used our position, given to us as a blessing, to destroy the earth and to destroy each other. The reason given for the flood and the rebooting of creation is that “the earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:11) One definition of evil is the misuse, abuse or neglect of the good gifts God has given us.
But God doesn't give up on us. After that first disaster, he gives Noah and his family the same blessing he did to the original humans. In addition we are not to murder each other. (Genesis 9:1-7) And though we don't keep that one commandment very well, God still doesn't give up on us. God goes on to bless Abraham and works through his descendants until he enters human life himself in Jesus. Jesus blessed the world through his teachings, life, death and resurrection. Although even for him, death on the cross did not feel like a blessing at the time. Still he went through with it. (Luke 22:42; Mark 15:34)
Luke's gospel is the only one that takes us right up to Jesus' last moments on earth. He writes, “Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. Now during the blessing he departed and was taken up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-51) So the last thing Jesus did was bless his followers.
And he expects us to pass on the blessings he gave us. One way is by telling others the good news of what God has done in Christ. When Thomas sees Jesus after the resurrection and calls him “My Lord and my God!” Jesus says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) But, as Paul asks, how are people to believe in Jesus if they haven't heard the good news? (Romans 10:14-15)
Unfortunately, a lot of what passes for preaching is not proclaiming the good news. In the latest Batman film it begins with him telling us he uses fear as a weapon in his fight against criminals. But in the end he finds that if he is only an object of fear, he cannot help the victims of crime. They won't trust him. He must become a symbol of hope. And some so-called Christians think that the gospel is just about condemnation and fear. But the good news is, as Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) And he says, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) And 1 John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” (1 John 4:18) God is love (1 John 4:8) and it is because of his love that he has sent Jesus. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.” (John 3:17) God is not interested in destroying bad guys but in saving them by turning them into good guys.
God is the lifegiver, the healer, the rescuer, the redeemer. And Jesus, who raised the dead, healed the sick, rescued the lost and redeemed a world of sinners, is God Incarnate. You want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. That is the good news. And that is a blessing we can share with a sick, dying and lost world.
But just as a faith that doesn't result in actions is dead (James 2:17) blessings are meant to have an effect. If I give my granddaughter a gift, I mean for her to use it, not leave it in its box untouched. As we said, evil can come from abusing or misusing God's gifts but it can also come from neglecting them. We are to share our blessings. In his parable on the last judgment, Jesus focuses on sins of omission. He says “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was an alien and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” (Matthew 25:42-43) Now obviously you cannot be expected to share food or water or clothes or a home if you do not have them. So Jesus is talking to those who have been blessed with these things and yet do not use them to help others. Blessings are meant to be shared, even material blessings. In God's eyes, he who dies with the most toys definitely does not win.
In speaking of what we are to do while waiting for his return Jesus says, “Who is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his household servants, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is the slave whom his master finds at work when he returns.” (Luke 12:42-43) He contrasts the servant who feeds and helps others with the one who instead gets drunk, indulges himself and abuses the other servants. That person is not blessed by Jesus. In other words, we are not merely to preach the good news to others, we are to be good news to others.
After hurricane Irma, people were glad to see the Salvation Army and Lutheran Disaster Response and Episcopal Relief and Development and Catholic Charities and the United Methodist Committee on Relief and all the other groups that came to help. But even in everyday life, people ought to be glad to see any Christian, knowing we are going to be a blessing to them. If they don't see us that way, it means we have not been doing what Jesus clearly wants us to do. Worse, it often means that we are feared as just more people who ruin and destroy lives and who condemn those who need help.
There is another explanation of why people may not see us as folks who bless others: they just don't see us. We don't identify as followers of Jesus outside the confines of the church. What happens in church stays in church. After all, we don't want to look like fanatics out there.
But before leaving Jesus told us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Remember how we talked last week of how Christians didn't have sacred spaces in which to meet and worship for the first 300 years of Christianity? Now we have had church buildings for the last 1700 years and we have gotten a bit too comfortable about that. We have adopted an “if you build it they will come” attitude. But that is no longer true. People are not coming to churches as they used to and the pandemic has made that worse. According to one study, more churches are closing than opening these days. Maybe this is our Father's way of saying “Leave the house, go outside and make friends.” We need to go spread the good news, not merely by words but by deeds as well.
I don't think as many people would have sought Jesus out if he just preached. They came for the healing and the feeding and stayed to hear where his goodness came from. We need to do the same. Unfortunately with the church “when all is said and done, there's a lot more said than done.” We need to be doers of the word, not just hearers or speakers. And we need to go to where people don't usually hear the good news or see it in action.
In his book The Way of Love Scott Gunn points out that following someone implies movement. To follow Jesus is to go like Jesus to those whom society rejects or ignores. Gunn writes, “In our time we are meant to go and share God's love with prisoners, migrants, the poor, the desperate, the lonely, and so on. If there is an imaginary line that we might hear ourselves saying, 'We should not go there,' then it is quite possible Jesus' call is for us to go exactly there.”
Gunn quotes Lelanda Lee on how to go into the world as a follower of Jesus. She says, “When you are out in the world, notice when someone appears to need a word or gesture of kindness. Be the one who says or does something comforting or affirming. Ask: 'Would you like a hand with that?' Empathize: “I'm glad we don't have to stand in this line everyday.' Affirm: 'You were patient with that customer.' Appreciate: 'I count on your helpfulness here.' Comfort: 'I'm sorry things are so tough right now.'”
Because the disciples followed Jesus' command to go, they saw the church grow. And that's still true today. We can't wait for people to stumble across us and discover us. We need to go out and meet people and introduce them to Jesus. A recent survey found that while a lot of people are disillusioned about churches, the vast majority hold Jesus in high esteem. So we need to think, speak and act in a way that people see in us not Lutherans, or Episcopalians, or Baptists, or Catholics, or Methodists, or Orthodox or Presbyterians, but Jesus. If people see Jesus in us, they might hear his call to follow him.
And another thing: if we go, not only will the church grow, but we will grow spiritually. If we keep the faith bottled up in a building or a group, it will stay largely abstract and theoretical. When we follow Jesus into the world and apply the commandments to love our neighbors of whatever class, race, religion, ethnicity, or orientation, and when we apply the commandment to love even our enemies, things get real. How do we love other people, real people, with real problems and real differences and real experiences that we have not had? That's why God gives us his Spirit. Because he couldn't put every detail and variation of how to love others in his book. We need to learn how to apply his principles in every situation. One size does not fit all. We need to expand the number of tools in our spiritual toolbox and grow in our skills in using them to help others.
God gives us blessings and he bids us go and share them with others. But the world never stops. God knows we also need rest. We will talk about that next Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment