A Month of Blessings 3
2 Corinthians 9:6-12
June 17, 2018
Today we
continue a month-long series of sermons, in the midst of so much vile cruelty,
pain, and pettiness, to live into blessing.
It is critical that we speak and act justly, that we demand justice from
systems and structures, that we step into the maw of violence at times to say, “No
more!” and “This shall not be!”
But we
also must hold . . . to practice a different way, to offer a blood transfusion
into the sick and ravaged collective body.
Sometimes, in a moment, we cannot bring about transformation that is so
needed. We must hold—just keep the
violence and cruelty and hatred at bay until the opportunity presents
itself. We practice kindness so that, in
our struggle for justice, we do not become the very thing we abhor. We know ourselves to be blessed by
remembering our favorite things. We
practice like the earth does in sharing and giving indiscriminate
blessings. These were our first two
Sundays. We are practicing different
sizes and shapes of blessing until it gets into our bloodstream and is typed on
every last red blood cell. We do that
until we become what we practice. We
become a blessing.
This is LGBTQ Pride month. Big Sky Pride celebration happened this past
week in Helena. And somethings I think
we get it all wrong. We talk about
inclusion and the need to see gender and sexuality on a spectrum whereby we
might accept everyone on that spectrum.
But here’s what I have told every congregation I have pastored. It is not about the loss the LGBTQ community
will experience if you do not include and accept them. It is about the blessings people like me will
miss out on if they are not a part of my life.
Barb Wenger, Witness for Peace volunteer, saved my life waiting for
United Nations busses in Comitán.
Rev. Timoth Sylvia is not only a
great friend but a mentor who teaches me all the creative ways I can do
ministry. And Aaron Blakeslee not only
is a wonderful truth-teller for this congregation but an amazing gift for our
daughter. I cannot imagine my life
without these incarnated blessings, that the Divine was and is brought close to
me through them.
It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German
pastor and anti-Nazi dissident, who wrote, “A blessing is a visible,
perceptible, effective proximity of God.
A blessing demands to be passed on—it communicates itself to other
people. To be blessed is to be oneself a
blessing,”[1]
“Blessing has a long history of meanings and roots. The
Old English blēdsian based on blōd ‘blood’ (originally to ‘mark or
consecrate with blood’) was used to translate the Latin benedicere ‘to praise or worship,’ or ‘to speak well of.’[2]
The meaning shifted in late Old English toward ‘pronounce or make happy,
prosperous, or fortunate.’ In the Semitic language of Aramaic, the phrase
translated as ‘Blessed’ in the Beatitudes was actually tubwayhun which refers to being ripe, mature; having reached a
stage of the fullness of the person I am meant to be.”[3]
“So what, then, does it mean to offer a blessing, to
be a blessing? To bless something or someone is to invoke its wholeness, to
help remind the person or thing you are blessing of its essence, its
sacredness, its beauty, and to help remind yourself of that, too. Blessing does
not fix anything. It is not a cure… It does not instill health or well-being or
strength. Instead, it reminds us that those things are already there,
[present].”[4]
At the Conference Meeting in Great Falls this
weekend, Rev. Dwight Welch shared one of the things he enjoyed about the
Pavlovitiz book study we did this past spring.
Ending each class, everyone in the room was to share something they wanted
to bless or were going to bless. These
were powerful moments as everyone in the room, some people unchurched or who
had been away from the church for years, suddenly saw themselves with this
sacred power available to them. What are
we going to pass on from the Divine that has been shared with us?
The ability to bless assumes that we are already
powerful spiritual beings. We don’t
become that. We are that. I don’t think we countenance that too often .
. . the kind of power we have—deep, spiritual power. Henri Nouwen wrote, “To give someone a
blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer. To give a blessing is to affirm, to say ‘yes’
to a person's Belovedness.”[5]
This week I am going to send you out
into the world to say “yes” to a person’s Belovedness again and again and
again, to recognize your own power to bless.
I want all of us to work on making it a spiritual practice. I want you to share secret blessings, to bless
strangers quietly. Offer it to people
you see as you pass them in the supermarket, at the library, out on the street. Just silently say to yourself, “My you be
happy. May you be at peace.” Feel that blessing course through your body
and out into the person intended.
Recognize that the blessing not only benefits the person intended but
also how it moves through you and then multiplies in your body.[6] Once you start sharing them, blessings grow
like a muscle within you.
What this blessing practice does is “it
alters our attention, making us scan and become more aware of our
surroundings. It changes our attitude
toward others. Just image going through
your day looking for excuses to wish people well or think the best of them
rather than looking for threats and assuming ill intent. The practice connects us to others, helping
us acknowledge common struggles and hungers.”[7]
Keep the practice simple. Do not get too involved or too wordy with
your blessings. “May you be happy. May you be at peace.” Or something simple like that.
But be disciplined about it. Try for at least two days to offer at least ten
blessings to ten different people. Then,
at the end of the day, meditate on what happened as you blessed and after you
blessed. How did blessing others alter
your day? Or how did blessing others
bless you? If you can write it down[8], journal
about it, I’d love to have you share it in worship next week as we bring this
month of blessings to a close, only to be repeated again and again without
instruction from the pastor. Ten blessings
for ten different people for at least two consecutive days. “May you be happy. May you be at peace.”
You, all of you, are spiritually
powerful people. Affirm that with a
spiritual practice of blessing this week.
Amen.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
“Life’s Calling: Listening to God’s
Voice in the World: June 2018, The Call
of Blessing,” Faith Works, p. 7
[4]
“Rev. Elea Kemler, Life’s Calling:
Listening to God’s Voice in the World:
June 2018, The Call of Blessing,” Faith
Works, p. 7
[5]
Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life’s Calling:
Listening to God’s Voice in the World:
June 2018, The Call of Blessing,” Faith
Works, p. 7.
[6]
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our
Busy Lives (New York: Bantaam,
1999), p. 47.
[7] “Life’s
Calling: Listening to God’s Voice in the
World: June 2018, The Call of Blessing,”
Faith Works, p. 2.
[8]Ibid.
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