1 Chronicles 29:10-13
David blessed God in full view of the entire congregation:
Blessed are you, God of Israel, our father
from of old and forever.
To you, O God, belong the greatness and the might,
the glory, the victory, the majesty, the splendor;
Yes! Everything in heaven, everything on earth;
the kingdom all yours! You’ve raised yourself high over all.
Riches and glory come from you,
you’re ruler over all;
You hold strength and power in the palm of your hand
to build up and strengthen all.
And here we are, O God, our God, giving thanks to you,
praising your splendid Name.
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Well...technically it is Christ the King Sunday by most lectionaries. I don’t find royal imagery particularly helpful in my understanding of God but I do, definitely, find gratitude to be both helpful and necessary...so today is Thanksgiving Sunday.
Most of us find it fairly easy to come up with a list of things for which to offer our thanks to God. We share our gratitude each week along with our offerings, as part of our worship, and, even in troubled times I would guess that most of us could come up with a sizeable list of things to be grateful for. We live here in peace and plenty, in comfort and cleanliness. We go to bed at night without fear of bombs falling on our homes.
We are a blessed people – and we acknowledge that our blessing is merely a matter of geography and luck – nothing that we deserve more than any other being on this planet. And we are duly grateful and we do give thanks and we do try to share our blessings with others.
We share food, we share clothing, we support various local agencies and help enable them in their various tasks to make things better for those in need. We do pretty well, I’d say – as individuals and as a church. Could we so better? Of course we could, but we do try to show our gratitude in concrete forms.
But – there is something else that is called for in today’s reading, and that is blessing. Not “blessings,” in the form of ‘things’, but “blessing” – wishes and prayers for goodness and favor and well-being for the person being blessed. Sincere good wishes going out from our heart to their heart. The hope and desire for good things for them. True caring and well-wishing.
In the Old Testament especially, blessing often appears to involve a transference of power – not power in terms of might and dominance but a moral power, a special sense that God is with the recipient. It’s a slippery concept to define clearly because it appears to be used in a number of different settings.
When the aging Isaac, for instance, intends to give his special father’s blessing to his eldest son, Esau, and that blessing is “high-jacked” by the conniving Jacob, the theft of this important blessing destroys the family. This blessing once given is irrevocable - it cannot be taken back – the theft cannot be made right.
This is a “one-time-only” blessing, but other blessings are less restricted and can apparently be given at will. These are the blessings we offer each other most readily – often casually, as when someone sneezes – but these blessings are still in some way a transference of power – a mark of respect – a recognition that someone is worthy of a blessing. And this, I think, is the power we hold with a blessing. In blessing someone, we somehow recognize the worth, the holiness in them.
When we offer a blessing, unless we are just mechanically voicing words we don’t really mean, we are forced to actually see the one being blessed – and, more than just a wish for well-being, our blessing becomes an acknowledgment that its recipient is worthy of our good-wishes and worthy, even, of our respect as a fellow human person.
What if we were to practice blessing others? These blessings don’t have to be spoken out loud, even – just sincerely thinking about what we are doing, and meaning it. Not just saying words, but truly intending that the power of God’s good wishes pass through us to whomever. This is pretty easy when we are thinking of blessing those we love - family and friends – but what about strangers? Loud, dirty, obnoxious strangers?
What about people who steal from us? Or do us violence? What about politicians advocating horrifying, dehumanizing, wicked public policies? Are these not the very people who most need a blessing? A healing? A turn to the right direction? Can we manage to bless them – not the annoying or outright bad things they are doing, but themselves, the pieces of God’s creation that they are – because, try as we might want to deny it, these, too, are God’s beloved children.
And here we end up back where we started – any blessing we have to give was first given to us – freely – by God. And I don’t believe God blesses us without hoping we will share that blessing in our turn. We understand this more easily with “things” -- if we have plenty of food and warm clothing it is no hardship to pass some on to others -- but this also applies to any blessings of understanding and kindness and love that we may possess. If I have an open and welcoming heart, it is because God gave me that heart. That blesses me and so I can, in turn, offer the same blessing to others who need it. To all who need it.
Is a blessing from me really that big a deal? It is, in a couple of ways. First, in that I recognize the other person as a fellow child of God – whether I “like” them or not; and second, that seeing them, whether the person I see is whole or broken, I can honestly wish them well. I can wish them wholeness and healing and hope and God’s active, life-giving role in their lives.
And, one final note on blessing, in our reading today, David blesses God..... I don’t even know what to say about that...does God in any way need our blessing? I suggest the reading does tell us that God desires our blessing. David is out there in front of the congregation -- presumably speaking for the congregation -- blessing God. I have a feeling there is much more power in our blessings than we might be comfortable with, and if that's so, get over it. Go out into the world and truly see and truly bless the kingdom of God and all that dwells within it. Think of the power for goodness if we all did this together.
Imagine our world if every person who calls themself a Christian were to pray blessings on ISIS? Not blessing the hideous things they do or the hatred in their hearts but looking deeper and truly blessing the child God created them to be ... Do we, or do we not believe God has the power to honor those blessings?
Most of us find it fairly easy to come up with a list of things for which to offer our thanks to God. We share our gratitude each week along with our offerings, as part of our worship, and, even in troubled times I would guess that most of us could come up with a sizeable list of things to be grateful for. We live here in peace and plenty, in comfort and cleanliness. We go to bed at night without fear of bombs falling on our homes.
We are a blessed people – and we acknowledge that our blessing is merely a matter of geography and luck – nothing that we deserve more than any other being on this planet. And we are duly grateful and we do give thanks and we do try to share our blessings with others.
We share food, we share clothing, we support various local agencies and help enable them in their various tasks to make things better for those in need. We do pretty well, I’d say – as individuals and as a church. Could we so better? Of course we could, but we do try to show our gratitude in concrete forms.
But – there is something else that is called for in today’s reading, and that is blessing. Not “blessings,” in the form of ‘things’, but “blessing” – wishes and prayers for goodness and favor and well-being for the person being blessed. Sincere good wishes going out from our heart to their heart. The hope and desire for good things for them. True caring and well-wishing.
In the Old Testament especially, blessing often appears to involve a transference of power – not power in terms of might and dominance but a moral power, a special sense that God is with the recipient. It’s a slippery concept to define clearly because it appears to be used in a number of different settings.
When the aging Isaac, for instance, intends to give his special father’s blessing to his eldest son, Esau, and that blessing is “high-jacked” by the conniving Jacob, the theft of this important blessing destroys the family. This blessing once given is irrevocable - it cannot be taken back – the theft cannot be made right.
This is a “one-time-only” blessing, but other blessings are less restricted and can apparently be given at will. These are the blessings we offer each other most readily – often casually, as when someone sneezes – but these blessings are still in some way a transference of power – a mark of respect – a recognition that someone is worthy of a blessing. And this, I think, is the power we hold with a blessing. In blessing someone, we somehow recognize the worth, the holiness in them.
When we offer a blessing, unless we are just mechanically voicing words we don’t really mean, we are forced to actually see the one being blessed – and, more than just a wish for well-being, our blessing becomes an acknowledgment that its recipient is worthy of our good-wishes and worthy, even, of our respect as a fellow human person.
What if we were to practice blessing others? These blessings don’t have to be spoken out loud, even – just sincerely thinking about what we are doing, and meaning it. Not just saying words, but truly intending that the power of God’s good wishes pass through us to whomever. This is pretty easy when we are thinking of blessing those we love - family and friends – but what about strangers? Loud, dirty, obnoxious strangers?
What about people who steal from us? Or do us violence? What about politicians advocating horrifying, dehumanizing, wicked public policies? Are these not the very people who most need a blessing? A healing? A turn to the right direction? Can we manage to bless them – not the annoying or outright bad things they are doing, but themselves, the pieces of God’s creation that they are – because, try as we might want to deny it, these, too, are God’s beloved children.
And here we end up back where we started – any blessing we have to give was first given to us – freely – by God. And I don’t believe God blesses us without hoping we will share that blessing in our turn. We understand this more easily with “things” -- if we have plenty of food and warm clothing it is no hardship to pass some on to others -- but this also applies to any blessings of understanding and kindness and love that we may possess. If I have an open and welcoming heart, it is because God gave me that heart. That blesses me and so I can, in turn, offer the same blessing to others who need it. To all who need it.
Is a blessing from me really that big a deal? It is, in a couple of ways. First, in that I recognize the other person as a fellow child of God – whether I “like” them or not; and second, that seeing them, whether the person I see is whole or broken, I can honestly wish them well. I can wish them wholeness and healing and hope and God’s active, life-giving role in their lives.
And, one final note on blessing, in our reading today, David blesses God..... I don’t even know what to say about that...does God in any way need our blessing? I suggest the reading does tell us that God desires our blessing. David is out there in front of the congregation -- presumably speaking for the congregation -- blessing God. I have a feeling there is much more power in our blessings than we might be comfortable with, and if that's so, get over it. Go out into the world and truly see and truly bless the kingdom of God and all that dwells within it. Think of the power for goodness if we all did this together.
Imagine our world if every person who calls themself a Christian were to pray blessings on ISIS? Not blessing the hideous things they do or the hatred in their hearts but looking deeper and truly blessing the child God created them to be ... Do we, or do we not believe God has the power to honor those blessings?
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