Genesis: Power of Blessings

Her name was Miss Ruth.  We were working on her home with Good Works for a summer mission week.  She sat in her wheelchair with limited  access, in a house without the width to navigate such a device.  She watched with gratitude, chatting kindly with us, and offering us Kool-Aid. Our job that week was to make her bathroom and bedroom accessible to her while she was in her wheelchair.  But what I remember most was on Thursday of the week, she pulled me aside and offered me a blessing.

She laid her worn hands on my shoulders and spoke these words: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  The words of the beatitude became my blessing as I received from her a bookmark and a blessing at 15.    Her blessing became a prophetic call for me to lean into.

Blessings have that kind of power!  Blessings can chart the course of a life and a heart.  As we continue in Genesis, our biblical story zooms in from the widescreen of the fall of the tower of Babel into one specific man in Ur.  We hear in the previous chapter that Abram is the son of Terah, brother of Haran, uncle of Lot, and husband of Sarai.  Otherwise, we know little else at this point, besides God calls and blesses Abram.  Last week, we heard that the people had tries to make a name for themselves, but in Abram, God will make Abram’s name great.

God who has been for the first 11 chapters of the Bible, involved in the big events and experienced disappointment in humanity, turns to one individual – a foreigner, Abram.  God starts God’s great covenant with  someone other.  God calls Abram to go!  Without a lot of detail, Abram responds to God’s blessing with action.  We can imagine that there was lots of other conversation, but that was not recorded.  And in fact, the rabbis and early church writers imagine Abram as an active conversational partner with the God who calls him to go!

Abram chooses to believe God’s blessing, even though it sounds unbelievable.  A great nation, even though, he was an old man with no children.   Journeying without a clear destination, even though, by all accounts, he was established in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram could have pointed to the fear of the unknown that we cannot control, fear of others who are different from us, and fear of personal powerlessness in the face of  impossibilities.  “Instead of lamenting his ignorance and the loss of control, he embarked upon a journey into the unknown. Instead of fearing inclusion of the strange and the outsider, he gave himself to God’s promise of universal blessings for the whole earth. In the face of his own profound impotence, he believed that God could do the impossible.”1

The call and blessing of Abram is our call and our blessing.  It is each and every time we respond to God’s voice and nudge that we would say respond with action.  We would go where God calls.

Go, where I show you.

You will be blessed

Those who you bless, I will bless

Those who you curse, I will curse.

Throughout the Bible, blessings are spoken.  God speaks blessings to people.  People offer blessings to God.  People give blessings to one another.

In worship, each week, our benediction – our good word, is the blessing that we take with us for the week.  I wonder how many of you grew  up hearing this:

“The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious onto to you.

The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

From the book of Numbers, this was Aaron (Moses’ brother’s) blessing as priest to the people of Israel.   We, today, use that very benediction, blessing for people as they take leave of us.  We ask God’s greatest blessings upon them.

Clergy are given the privilege to pronounce blessings in others’ lives.  In being present in both the difficult moments and the tender moments, we are called to speak blessing across the life span and experiences.  But blessings are not only the realm of clergy, God invites all of us to offer them.

In the Jewish tradition, God is always blessed first, regardless of who or what else might be blessed.  All blessings begin in some variation of Blessed be the Lord our God, King of the Universe.  In the Old Testament, all those who offer blessings, first bless God.

Blessed be the Lord for the crop of zucchini that is abundant from the garden.   Blessed be the Lord when I am found outside my house with the keys locked inside, may I notice the creativity of God’s incredible design of creatures who wait with me.  Blessed be the Lord when I am cleaning out the couch and find an extra ten dollars.  Being in the mindset of offering blessings, changes us.  Blessings attune us to God.  Blessing change our perspective.  Bidden or unbidden, God is present.

Imagine how our perspective changes when we see the screaming toddler in the Walmart parking lot as an opportunity to offer blessing to a parent who is pulling out their hair after another sleepless night with a child who is getting teeth. Imagine how our perspective changes when encounter a car cutting us off changing lanes and we choose not to scream and demonstrate our collection of expletives, but rather offer blessings of safety for one most in need of it.  Imagine how our perspective changes when we see an older man challenges by walking ahead of us and we pause to offer blessings of strength and peace to him as one who has accumulated years and experiences.

Blessing radically claims that the ordinary, the quotidian is holy.  One of my favorite privileges is the blessing of a house.  From room to room, we offer blessings and prayers in each space reflective of its purpose.  Some people have not thought of the act of blessing their homes.  But holiness is a gift for all.  Noticing God’s presence and incarnational presence is the very calling that we all have.  From the kitchen to the bedroom, through our common spaces and even in the bathroom, the blessing of a home meanders.  Did you know that both Martin Luther and Julian of Norwich were said to have done some of their most reflective thinking on the commode?  The Episcopalians even wrote a special blessing for the bathroom calling us to be aware of the gift of our bodies.

Blessings do not confer holiness.  Holiness is already present.  It is in noticing that we become aware.  In offering a blessing to the industrious spider beside us or proclaiming blessings of distance to the caribou you see  from the tour bus, we draw our own attention to what God has already done.

Blessing is not to sugar coat difficult situations or ignore the complexity of any issue of our time.  Blessing simply decides that between blessing or curse, blessing has more possibility.  Blessing gives more power to the transform, if transformation is where it is headed.  Blessing is not choosing good or bad, virtuous or evil.  Blessing is living and pronouncing such that God is still the One who decides.

Blessing draws us nearer to God.  In blessing, we glimpse God’s delight in humanity.  “To pronounce a blessing on something is to see it from the divine perspective. To pronounce a blessing is to participate in God’s own initiative. To pronounce a blessing is to share God’s own audacity.”  Our responsibility is to extend God’s blessings.

Like Miss Ruth, we follow a hunch, we pray for guidance, and then we offer words of blessings, not because we are the ultimate authority of adjudicating good and evil, right and work, but because we who seek to draw near to God, know the power of blessing in noticing holiness and in calling others to see God.  So, step out of your comfort zone, today, and offer a blessing.  Perhaps, bless Jamie and her family as they seek to answer God’s call to go, without knowing exactly how or where.  Perhaps, bless your children as they seek to know God by exploring mud and dirt.  Perhaps, bless the one seeking your money for food.

God is calling you to go and bless!   Those who you bless, God will bless.  This is the Good News, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

1https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20050530JJ.shtml

 Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 12:1-9

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your    father’s house to the land that 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.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was     seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the      persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages towards the Negeb.

New Testament Lesson: James 1: 2-12

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and          ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the    doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to      receive anything from the Lord.

Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, July 30~ Saturday, August 5

Sunday: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that 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.” Genesis 12: 1-2.  God’s call to Abram was a call to go!  Consider God might be calling you outside of your comfort zone and blessing you there!

Monday:  “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.’” Genesis 12:3.  Pray for those who curse you, today.

Tuesday: “Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.” Genesis 12:5. Abram’s call was for the blessing of his family and his wider community.  What God’s call for you, means you are serving our community.  Pray today for strength to follow God’s call.

Wednesday: “From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord.” Genesis 12: 8.  Abram invoked the name of the Lord everywhere he was.  Where are you praying to know God’s presence?

Thursday: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4.  Trials are not sent by God, but redeemed by God.  Offer your trials to God.

Friday: If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” James 1:5.  In what area of your life, do you need to pray for wisdom?

Saturday: “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12.  Receive the blessing of God as you endure temptation.  Ask God to strengthen you.