A couple of things recently caused me to
reflect on the topic of blessing, on which I may have written before. It seems to me an important topic but one
that is not given much serious thought.
So, what do we mean by blessing, who may bless, what may we bless, and what
does it achieve?
We use the expression as Christians in
various ways. We may use it in
connection with starting a meal. We may
use it at the close of a meeting when we might be asked to “say the blessing
together” or someone may dismiss the congregation with a blessing. The word “grace” gets somewhat confused with
both these aspects.
I knew a man who would respond to any
criticism of himself or his actions, by saying in a jovial way “Bless you”. I suspect it was his way of applying Romans
12:14.
There are subtle differences between the
Hebrew Scriptures use of blessing and that of the New Testament, though there
are also important similarities. The Hebrew
word translated bless is barak. It
has the sense of enriching someone’s life.
It was the custom for heads of families to pray for a blessing upon
their descendants. In Numbers
6: 22-27 God sets out specific words of blessing that Aaron and his descendants
were to use in their priestly role to bless the people of Israel and to mark
them out as God’s people.
But we cannot assume that merely saying
words of blessing do not of themselves achieved anything. It would seem more like a prayer seeking the
favour of God. We also sometimes confuse
the concept of dedication with blessing, and we need to careful in that
respect. For example, dedicating an
object for use in worship would make sense.
But blessing it seems rather nonsensical to me.
In the main, the OT use of the word barak will be found describing the conditions that bring about an enriching
from God. The Psalms provide many
examples, such as in Psalm
1.
The New Testament uses two different
Greek words for blessing. These are Makarios and Eulogia. The former has the
sense of happiness, and this is how some versions of the Bible translate “blessed”
in the beatitudes in Matthew
5. This often reveals a paradox
where two different experiences come at the same time. For example, God
declares people as happy who are persecuted!
This is because the persecutor will not have the last word.
Eulogia, and its derivatives, are more often translated “praise”. But we note that it is this Greek word that
is used to translate the Hebrew word barak
in the Septuagint (The Greek
version of the OT). So, it also carries
the sense of enriching. Paul uses this
in Ephesians
1:3 where he writes that God has “blessed up with all spiritual
blessings”. Read on in the chapter to
see how these blessings are described.
In almost every situation where food and
blessing are mentioned in the Gospels, it is eulogia that is mentioned.
In this context, it expresses not a blessing on the food but praise to
God for the provision of food. An
interesting exception occurs in Mark
8 where in the account of the loaves and fishes, Mark says that Jesus
blessed the food before it was shared. So, when it comes to eating today, it
should always be God who is blessed or praised not what we are about to eat!
It is Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians
that ends with the prayer in a trinitarian blessing, commonly used today. Paul’s letters always opened with words of
peace and grace as a greeting. Sometimes epistles also ended with a similar salutation,
but these are more prayers than priestly bestowment, and reflect the culture of
the time. In our own contemporary culture,
we use common greeting and farewells, some of which, like goodbye (God be with
you), have a Christian derivation.
In some Christian traditions, only an ordained
priest can say “the blessing” and lay preachers or readers are under an
obligation to use inclusive language (“us” rather than “you”). My own understanding of ministry causes me to
prefer using inclusive language.
All blessing comes from God and is God’s. We can and should seek it for others and not
just for ourselves. God promised to
bless Abraham and his descendants and through them to bless the whole world (Genesis
19:18) One of the triggers for
this reflection was recalling precious and moving words that were sung by staff
and students at the Bible College of Wales after a colleague and I had spent a
weekend ministering to them. As we were
about to leave they sang, “Bless them
Lord, and make them a blessing……”, which was an adaptation of an old gospel
hymn
So often, we become selfish as we seek
God’s blessing in our lives. But God
blesses us so that we might be his instruments to bring his blessing to others. He wants us to be channels of blessing. So, the prayer, “God bless me and my wife, my
son John and his wife, us four and no more for evermore!” is the opposite of
what God wants.
My final thought is how we work out blessing
others in our relationships with those who do not share our faith, either because
they have a different faith or none. Far
too often they become treated as if they are enemies. My ministry in prison chaplaincy causes me to
work in partnership with earnest people
of other faiths, so I seek to be a blessing to them, not despite being a
committed Christian but because of being a committed Christian.
In the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry
his only condemnation of people of faith seem to have been reserved for those
who were hypocrites, rather than for the many who worshipped idols. What he did on one occasion, was to set himself
in a location of extreme idolatry and simply ask, “Who do you say I am?” (See
Matthew 16:13-17)
Asking God to bless when we pray is
often far too casual. Could we be more
thoughtful and specific? Perhaps, when
we next say, “God bless you” we should also put a little more thought into it,
and consider whether by our actions we might become the instruments of God’s
blessing to those whom he loves as much as he loves us!
So, may God bless you in 2018…… and make
you and your church a big blessing to others in his name.
Barry. 5th January 2018
From
the Diary
One of the main tasks at present is
setting out the agenda for the ten webinars we will be running through
2018. Linked with this is writing the
script for a series of short reaching videos on rural evangelism. I hope to see these develop into a useful
library that can be used by any church anywhere and at any time.
New regulations on data protection come
into force in May this year. To prepare
for this, we must obtain explicit permission to hold personal information,
including names and contact details.
Those who read this via the Praise & Prayer News can unsubscribe
from this list at any time (see below).
But we will need to ask you and many more for that explicit
permission. There are many hours of work
to be found to ensure we comply with the incoming tighter regulation.
This additional work must not be allowed
to hinder the essential writing currently being undertaken. Pray for wisdom in time management.
Last Sunday 31st December the
ministry at HMP Gartree was well received.
I also had a useful time in the prison on Tuesday. On Thursday, I joined
my friend and colleague, Brian Kennard, who led the weekly Bible Study. I am taking on that responsibility for the
next seven weeks. This is the first time
of leading Bible Study in a prison and I value your prayers as I plan.
This week will also include…
Sunday 7th January, I have
the opportunity of attending my home church.
Monday 8th – School Assembly
Tuesday 9th – regular activity
in HMP Gartree
Wednesday 10th - Following a Men’s Breakfast, I will be
attending a meeting of the Churches Rural Group.
Thursday 11th – Session One
of the new Bible Study series at HMP Gartree and attending a meeting of Harborough
Churches Together.
Sunday 14th – Elstow Christian
Fellowship, Bedfordshire.
Please pray that I will be a blessing.
Barry
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