BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING

Gordon E. Ellis
February 22, 2004

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING

There’s a Colorado woman, Melissa Nussbaum, who writes in her book entitled, I Will Lie Down This Night (LTP, 1995, pages 121-125), the story of how EVERY night, AS she was putting her children to bed, she would sign EACH of them with a sign of the CROSS on their forehead, and give them a BLESSING. She writes: I began, nearly 20 years ago now, to MARK my children with the sign of the cross. Lying in bed, just before sleep, they can FEEL my thumb as it TRACES the strokes – now down, now across – of THEIR true shape and rightful BELONGING. I sign them NOW as I did on the DAY of their BAPTISM, a first and final BLESSING.

Melissa ALSO writes of the years when her children began to leave home for longer JOURNEYS – for school trips or summer vacations – and how she would SIGN their foreheads, JUST as she had done as their NIGHT time blessing. BUT, she writes: it is MY experience that teenagers leaving for rafting trips and orchestra tours do not WISH to be signed with the CROSS on their foreheads. They do not WISH it, as they do not wish to have ‘GEEK’ written across their foreheads in RED permanent marker. There is a danger of smeared make-up, of oily thumbs on freshly de-oiled skin, of hooking a careful curl and messing up the mousse… But, I have persevered….and so have my teenage children. I have aimed and THEY have DUCKED and flinched, grimaced, bobbed and weaved…. BUT, when ABRAM left for COLLEGE, the FIRST of our five to LEAVE, he came to me and solemnly, silently, INCLINED his head… I realized WHAT he was WAITING for, what he was ASKING for: his BLESSING. And I was, at LAST, able to reach forward SLOWLY and make that most graceful of Christian GESTURES…. ‘Abram,’ I said, ‘GO with GOD. It had been a long time coming, that bending of his stiff, adolescent neck, that inclining of his HEAD toward my hand UPRAISED in blessing. SO slowly does the heart TURN, that we CANNOT detect the MOVEMENT. And SO little do we TRUST, that we DESPAIR of what we CANNOT see. ‘18 years,’ I…thought, ‘18 YEARS is almost HALF my life, and he just NOW comes to ASK for his BLESSING.’

Friends, what IS this thing we call a BLESSING? In our Scripture Lesson today, Jesus BLESSES the children. WHAT does that MEAN? You know: WE know so LITTLE today about BLESSINGS and their POWER. SO, let’s LOOK at that word, “BLESSING,” for a moment. In ENGLISH, the word to BLESS means to make HOLY by a religious RITE; or to invoke divine favor upon; or to honor as holy; or to confer WELL-BEING or prosperity upon. THAT’S the ENGLISH meaning. But in HEBREW, it’s a much RICHER word -- and a very IMPORTANT word in the scriptures! It means: to convey a GIFT through POTENT utterance. In OTHER words, the SPOKEN word, the giving of a BLESSING, has the power to CREATE the reality of which it SPEAKS! It has the POWER to literally ENDOW the recipient with God’s BLESSING, and God’s blessing is ALWAYS fruitfulness and abundance, energy and WELL-BEING (both physically AND spiritually). Yes, THAT’S what it MEANS to BLESS someone. So, WHAT a powerful WORD it is. It’s a POTENT utterance! The other day someone SNEEZED, and someone else said, “God BLESS you.” And I wanted to say, DO you REALIZE what you’re SAYING? That is a POTENT utterance!

IN the BIBLE, we hear the word blessing FIRST in the book of Genesis, when GOD says to Abram, I will bless you... so that YOU will BE a BLESSING. (Gen. 12:2) And it’s interesting that shortly after this, just a few chapters later, Abram’s NAME is changed, SYMBOLLIC of the fact that, WHEN we receive God’s BLESSING, our identity CHANGES and becomes DIFFERENT, just as it does for JESUS when He is BAPTIZED and receives GOD’S blessing. So, in Genesis 17, the names of BOTH Abram and Sarai are CHANGED to Abraham and Sarah. And they’re CHANGED simply by ADDING an H. You see, the HEBREW letter H is an incredibly POWERFUL letter. It goes UP like this, OVER, and DOWN, almost like a TABLE. Only at the TOP on ONE side, the table leg doesn’t quite go all the way up. There’s a little SPACE there. And that SPACE is the EPHRATA, or the OPENING. And what a blessing does is: OPEN us UP! It CREATES within us an EMPTY space for GOD to fill, so that we BECOME who God CALLS us to become. We become God’s BELOVED children. That’s why, in HEBREW, a blessing is a VERY powerful thing, because GOD is IN the blessing. THEREFORE, blessings were VERY important to the Hebrews.

We SEE that in our Scripture Lesson from GENESIS today. Think of Jacob wrestling ALL night long with the angel. And FINALLY, he has the angel PINNED. And the angel BEGS him, Let me GO! But Jacob INSISTS upon being BLESSED. And like Abram, Jacob’s name is ALSO changed, because he TOO becomes a DIFFERENT person. Yes, blessings were VERY important to the Hebrews. AND as a Jew, JESUS would have known their importance. And so, IN His ministry, He blesses MANY people, including the CHILDREN.

We ALSO know that blessings have been important throughout CHRISTIAN history. In CELTIC Christianity, for example, there are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of BLESSING prayers, one or more for EVERY moment of the day. One of my FAVORITE Celtic blessings is: BLESS, O Christ, my FACE, and let my face BE a BLESSING. Let my EYE bless ALL it SEES. Friends, IMAGINE how DIFFERENT we would all BE, if THAT prayer were CONSTANTLY on our lips. We would, indeed, BECOME a BLESSING.

Well, in the PROTESTANT tradition, we seem to have LOST this powerful understanding of BLESSING. In fact, I remember my OWN first encounter with the POWER of blessing, and it was only about 15 years ago. And I KNOW that I’ve told you this story BEFORE, but it FITS, so I HAVE to tell it again. It was at a time in my ministry when I felt VERY spiritually HUNGRY and THIRSTY for SOMETHING, but I wasn’t sure WHAT. Looking back NOW, I realize that I simply needed a BLESSING. Well, DURING this period, I happened to go to my FAVORITE place for spiritual renewal, Weston Priory, in Weston, Vermont, a Roman Catholic MONASTERY. And WHILE I was there, the Brothers set up what they called a BLESSING station. It was a BOWL, in the BACK of the sanctuary, OVER which they had said a special PRAYER. And then they said, ANYTIME during worship -- even if somebody is speaking or singing -- or even AFTER worship, you are WELCOME to GO to our blessing station, DIP your hand into it, and receive the BLESSING of God. Now, BECAUSE the bowl was in the BACK of the church and I was in the FRONT, I couldn’t SEE the others who WENT to it. BUT, about halfway through the service, I decided to go to the BLESSING bowl. And when I GOT there, it looked like a bowl of WATER, just clear LIQUID. SO, knowing how spiritually HUNGRY and THIRSTY I felt, I DIPPED my hands into it REALLY deeply, put my head down, and gave myself a great BIG splash. Well, little did I know that it was OIL! And I had this oil DRIPPING down my hands and my arms, my FACE and my COLLAR. And I thought of Psalm 133, where the OIL drips down Aaron’s BEARD, and the COLLAR of his ROBE. And you know, I actually started LAUGHING out loud, right there in the middle of worship. And AS I laughed, I began to feel ALL this pent-up STRESS and ANXIETY flowing OUT of me. It was as if God were saying, ELLIS, you don’t KNOW what blessings ARE! And you’re always SO MISERLY and CLOSE-FISTED about BLESSING people! Well, I want to give you a HUGE blessing! I want to BLESS you SO abundantly, like ALL that OIL running down your FACE! And you know: I DID feel DEEPLY blessed that day! And believe it or not, my SPIRIT, and my MINISTRY, have NEVER again sunk so LOW again.

Yes friends: blessings are POWERFUL! And THAT’S why I’ve begun USING them MORE and MORE in my ministry. I remember when we were planning T.G.I. Sunday, our CONTEMPORARY service, and Rick went to a workshop that suggested the idea of using a BLESSING station during worship. Well, I JUMPED at that idea. NO bowls of OIL, however! In fact, I think it’s even MORE special to have people come forward and KNEEL on the kneeling bench, have a SIGN of the CROSS made on their forehead with OIL, and HEAR their pastors call them by NAME and say: ________, may God BLESS you with the knowledge that you are LOVED and valued JUST as you are, OR, May God BLESS with STRENGTH, HEALING, and WHOLENESS this day. It can be a very MOVING, life-giving moment, especially when we realize how POTENT blessings ARE; how they can CREATE the reality of which they speak; and how they can touch the original GOODNESS within us and call forth our identity as the BELOVED sons and daughters of God!

Yes, blessings ARE powerful things! And THAT’S why we ALL need to, not only RECEIVE blessings, but GIVE blessings as well. Friends, we just don’t BLESS people enough these days! My teacher, Henri Nouwen, would say that THAT’S because we don’t claim our OWN blessedness. He would say that, ONCE we truly understand and feel BLESSED, we will have a deep DESIRE to bless OTHERS. He says that BLESSED people ALWAYS bless others. WHEREVER they GO, they offer words and deeds of BLESSING. They say GOOD things TO and ABOUT people. They call forth the BEAUTY, the TRUTH, and the GOODNESS, which lies deep WITHIN everyone they meet. Friends, you KNOW people like this, and so do I, people who are gentle reminders to EVERYONE they meet of that strong and beautiful, but HIDDEN voice of the One who calls us ALL by name and BLESSES us, saying: YOU are my beloved SON or daughter. On YOU, my favor RESTS! Yes, WE need to claim our OWN blessedness, just as JACOB did with the angel, so that WE can BECOME a blessing to OTHERS! After all, THAT’S what God promised ABRAHAM, isn’t it? I will BLESS you.... that you might BE a BLESSING! And the promise God made to Abraham, to Jacob, and to Jesus, was UNCONDITIONAL. We don’t HAVE to be PERFECT, because in SPITE of our brokenness, in spite of our pain, and in spite of our sin, God STILL says to us what God said to Abraham, Avorecaca (I will BLESS you), tha-ya-braca (that YOU will BE a blessing). Friends, let us CLAIM God’s blessing, that we might BE a blessing wherever we go! THAT’S our CALL as disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen.