Several
years ago when my family still lived in Caledon, my son and I (he was about
two) were checking out at a Home Depot and the cashier who seemed to be of
Hispanic background just went on about how cute William was. Then, in the middle of her praises she said,
“God bless you”. You don’t hear “God
bless you” too often except from politicians so I found this blessing quite
touching. So, I said, “And you too.”
Just
days after that happened I was down at Toronto area mall donating blood. It is procedure that when you’re done they
walk you over to the cookie table for a snack.
I remember the volunteer at the table that day was an elderly woman of
Indian background. She didn’t say
much. When I finished my snack, she
said, “Thank you” and made sure I knew to pull the straw out of my juice box so
the box could be recycled. After I
garbaged my trash I turned to her and told her bye and she then unexpectedly
and quite loudly and in a tone of seriousness exclaimed, “God bless you.” Once again quite touched, I said, “And you
too.”
Though
several years ago those two blessings stick out to me as powerful examples of
what we the followers of Jesus are about in this world – to be a blessing; to
bless people. Oddly, words of blessing
are not what we are typically known for.
Most of what people hear publicly from Christians are complaints about
how secular our society has become and how nobody comes to church anymore. They hear rants from us about immorality and
so forth. But rarely, do they have a
Christian just out of the blue say, “God bless you.” Yet, that simple desire and, indeed, prayer
and the act of saying “God bless you” in my opinion is the heart of what
Christian presence in a community needs to be; indeed, what we Christians need
to be. We are those who Jesus has
blessed with his presence and his favour so that we might bless and be a
blessing to this world. God blesses
people so that they might be a blessing to others. God’s blessing does not end
simply with the well-being of an individual.
The blessing comes to a person and through that person to others. Therefore, blessings are meant to be
shared.
The
call of Abraham is particularly clear on this.
God blessed Abraham with numerous descendents and a land saying, “I will make of you a great
nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless
you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12:2, 3).”
So, when we say God bless you we are really saying “God make you to be a
blessing”. This should make us think about
what we mean when we say we have been blessed with wealth, a home, family,
friends, or health. For those things to
truly be a blessing we must share them with others that they might be
blessed. Maybe God means for wealth to
be shared with the poor, our homes with the homeless, our families with the
widowed and orphaned, our friendships with the friendless, and our health with
the disabled.
Today’s passage comes immediately following the
Beatitudes, which are Jesus’ “God bless you” to his disciples. They are Jesus saying to his disciples, “You
are blessed by my Father, our presence and favour are upon you, so that we,
through you, may bless others”. This is
behind what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the
earth” and “You are the light of the world.
How? It is through the working of the Holy Spirit who
makes us hear God’s calls us to be Jesus’ disciples, who awakens in us the
awareness that we need God’s grace, who reveals God’s very self to us as
present loving-kindness, and sends us forth to be peacemaking Kingdom-bringers
manifesting Jesus’ reign even if it means persecution. God’s movement among his people is a blessing
imparting a great reward to those who receive it. Indeed, the actual content of the blessing is
our truly coming to know God personally in himself and this in turn makes us
able to serve him fruitfully.
But, we need to also not be naïve, this blessing is also
a gut-wrenching revelation of ourselves as sinners and moreover the result of
living in God’s blessing is so often persecution. (I wonder how long it will be
before both of those women are told by their employers to stop blessing people.) Nevertheless, the intent behind the blessing
that Jesus gives to us, his disciples, is that since we are being blessed with
coming to know God the Father through the Son in the presence and working of
the Holy Spirit and are being changed by him, we will and must in turn become a
blessing to others. We must live to
reveal God’s loving-kindness and mercy to others not only as individuals who
show the love of God, but also as an authentic community of humanity made new
in Jesus Christ. Our life together will
and must be a blessing to others.
Let’s look briefly at being the salt of the earth. Most commentators will define what it is to
be the salt of the earth by describing how we use salt: seasoning,
preservative, cleansing agent, or medicinally.
I found some interesting things when I looked at how salt is used in the
Bible. Salt was a required ingredient in
the incense that they burned in the temple to represent the prayers of the
people in every sacrifice offered to God as an anti-corrupting agent. We are what God has given his creation to
keep it a pure and pleasantly good offering of praise in God’s eyes. Our prayers in the name of Jesus are the salt
mingled with the pleasant aroma of the prayers of all peoples. There was also a “covenant of salt.” Two friends when making an agreement would
eat salt together as a symbolic gesture of the desire that nothing would
corrupt the friendship and nullify the agreement. That in mind, as the salt of the earth we are
the anti-corrupting agent God has given to keep the bonds of human community
authentic. What makes us salty is our
relationship with God through Christ in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Moving on to light, in the Bible you will find that more
often than not that light means something more than just plain light. Light is what makes God and his actions
see-able. Light is knowledge of and also
the knowing of God. In the Psalms, the
psalmists often speak of the light of God’s countenance, the felt brightness of
his smiling upon us. In other places,
light is God’s salvation shinning out to those who live in darkness. In the Gospel of John Jesus refers to himself
as the light of the world. The light we
share in our fellowship is Jesus himself abiding in our midst in the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the light
of the world in and through us. Those
who live in the darkness of this sin-broken world should be able to look into
our community in this congregation and see the communion of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit who has blessed us with his own loving kindness. They should be able to look at us and see an
authentic human community that shines forth the forthcoming of the new heaven
and new earth that Jesus is bringing with him.
This world needs precisely what God has blessed us with.
God is blessing us.
He is blessing us to be a blessing to others. Let’s take this God-given community forth and
give it to the world around us, unselfishly, expecting nothing in return. This will require that we stand in faith on
the knowledge that God is moving here.
This will also require patience and the expectation that the results
maybe quite different than what we expect, hope for, or even dream of. God is moving here and he will produce fruits
from us. Let’s take the risk of letting
our little light shine. After all, it’s
God’s light and it is brighter than the sun.
Finally, let’s not be so timid and make it a point to say “God bless
you” to people. Amen.
