Blessings

My time as minister of First UCC has been filled with blessings, so that’s what I preached about on my last Sunday.

Blessings

Numbers 6:22-27;Matthew 5:1-10; Psalm 23 (choir; arranged by Bobby McFarrin)

There are two things that Ministers can do at the end of worship: they can send you forth with instructions about changing the world, or they can offer a blessing. Last week I gave you plenty of instructions (and copies of the handout are available for those of you who missed that sermon), so this week I will speak to you of blessings.

I have had many opportunities to ask for God’s blessings on your behalf, and this morning I want to revisit some of them. I will have a few words to say about each of the blessings, but my real aim is to offer these cherished words again to all of you.

We begin, as Christian life does, with baptism. I have presided at 116 baptisms in my time here. Six or eight of them have been for adults, and another dozen or so for confirmation youth who had not been baptized as infants; the majority have been infants or young children.

So after I have marked their foreheads with water and spoken the ancient words of baptism, and before we process around the sanctuary, we have said these words together:

The Holy Spirit be upon you … child of God, disciple of Christ, member of the church.

In the teenage years, the time comes for our youth to make a personal choice to follow the way of Christ and to be a member of this company of Christ’s followers. We call that time confirmation, and we have marked this event together 96 times with both solemnity and celebration. Each young person comes forward with her/his family, kneels on the steps, and receives this blessing:

May the God of all Grace, who has called you to Christian faith and service, confirm and strengthen you in the Holy Spirit and keep you a faithful disciple for all of your days.

As time passes, young adults – and some who are not so young – choose to unite themselves in marriage, making a sacred covenant of love, care, and fidelity; I have presided at 99 weddings and covenant services since I came to Northfield. The blessing that we offer to them names Abraham and Sarah as watching over all the families of the earth. I want to remind you that the descendants of Abraham and Sarah had some very interesting, complex, and blended families – for example, that the 12 sons and 1 daughter of Jacob had four different mothers – two wives and two servants. So although I have often offered this blessing at weddings, it is also offered to all of those who make a home for themselves …

May the God of Sarah and Abraham, who watches over all the families of the earth, bless your new family and establish your home in peace and steadfast love.

We offer a blessing, too, to all of the people who find their way to our congregation and choose to become members with us in this manifestation of the Body of Christ. There have been 251 new members (in addition to the Confirmands) since October of 1997. People come to our church along many paths: some from other churches where they have been active, some from churches where they have been disappointed or angered, some from no church background at all. And wherever they come from, we offer them these words:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

build upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

The blessing that affects me most profoundly each time I offer it is the one that comes at the end of a funeral or memorial service; I have offered it 131 times as I served as your minister. Technically these are “The Words of Commendation,” but I think of them as a blessing for the one who has died and the ones who grieve:

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant ….. Acknowledge, we humbly pray, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a son/daughter of your own redeeming. Receive him/her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed est of everlasting peace, and into the company of all the saints in light.

The blessing that we have shared most often, week in and week out, is the one that comes at the end of the Sunday worship service. I do not know where these words came from, though I think I cobbled them together. I wanted them to be loyal to the historic understanding of the Triune God, but I also wanted them to be unconventional enough to catch your attention each week as you returned to the world. I offer them now, and will again at the end of today’s service:

And now may the power and abundance of God our Creator, the mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and the courage and vitality of the Holy Spirit of Our Sustainer, go with you this day and always.

I have always believed that the members of this congregation know what the world needs, and are ready to go out and get to work. I still believe that. So this week, I do not offer any more words of commissioning, but only these words of blessing, which I offer with all my love and gratitude for our time together.

Amen.

Prayer for June 27, 2010

Almighty and everlasting God, creator of all things seen and unseen, hear now our silent prayers, as we open our hearts to you in the sacred quietness.

God of faith and hope, we bring before you our prayers for those we have named this morning – we especially remember … Bring to each of them the gifts of mercy and grace that are most needed, according to your wisdom and love.

God of all times and places, we offer our prayers today for our own congregation.

We thank you for the pioneers who came before us and established a church here in your name and in the Congregational tradition. We remember their faithfulness, their determination, and their generosity, and we pray that we may be their spiritual heirs in all of these virtues.

We thank you, too, for the women and men who carried forward these ideals through the years, who invested their talents and energies in the congregation and the community. We are grateful, too, for the bonds they formed with other churches, and for the worship, education, and outreach we have shared with our sisters and brothers. Let our continuing work and support for the church, the community, and the world be a living prayer of thanksgiving for their legacy to us.

And we thank you for calling us, in this century, to be part of the Body of Christ in this place. Inspire us, we pray, to honor the traditions of the past while moving boldly into your future. Help us to speak your word in today’s words, and to follow your way in today’s ways.

But we remember too, O Holy One, that being your church is easy on days of celebration; grant us the courage and stamina to be your church on the ordinary days, the days of challenge and crisis, the days of sorrow and blessing, the days of abundance and of need.

We confess to you our temptation to allow our congregation to be a theological debating club, or a community betterment society, or a social service agency. These are worthy activities, but they are not enough to make us your church. When we are tempted to be less than you call us to be, shake us back into clarity about our vocation as your hands, your voice, your feet, your heart. Interrupt our preoccupation with meetings and events, startle us out of our tired habits of worship, and scuttle our careful plans for the future. Ignite us, instead, with the power of your spirit, that it may fill us with the fire of our love for you and of our longing for the promised world of your Shalom.

All this we pray in the name of the one who lived among us as our brother, and lives among us still as our Risen Savior, even Jesus the Christ, and we pray together now in the words that he taught us ….