Blessed to be a Blessing

• This is the last chance I have to worship with you here at St. Johns. It's the last chance to open the Word with you. It is my last chance to share what the Lord has placed on my heart for this fellowship, this worshipping community.

• How should I use it?

• Is this a time for famous last words?

• To stick my oar in?

• For parting shots?

• To get things off my chest?

• Actually, that's not what I want to do. I'm not sure that I could find anything famous or controversial to say, anyway. I will look back on the last two years with an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

• When I started preparing for today, what I really wanted to do in my heart of hearts was to say “thank you”.

• And that's great. That's a wonderful thing.

• But it's not a sermon.

• It's not what I'm called to do.

• To stand up here and rattle off a roll of thanks would be a wonderful way to end, a fitting & personal farewell speech, but at the end of the day it would simply be a personal greeting. A kind word. Perhaps, at its best, a prayer of blessing.

• But it would not be opening the Word of God among you. And that is what I've been called here to do. That's what I've been called to Timaru to do. I am here to encourage you with the Gospel of truth.

• Planning for today, I resolved to do just that. To stay off my own hobby horse and to preach to you from the set reading for the day.

• So I went to my computer and looked up the readings.

• Ephesians, Chapter 1, it said.

• “Great”, I thought, “some good solid Pauline theology. I'll leave them with a bit of meat to chew on.”

• Then I opened my bible and I read this passage.

• “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (ooh, I like that bit), 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

•

• That's exactly the kind of flowery platitude that I'd been trying to avoid! What on earth is this sort of thing doing in the Bible? Even worse - this is not the only place. Paul's letters are full of this stuff – personal greetings; kind words and prayers of blessing. Why on earth is there so much of it? Thankfully this kind of guff is usually restricted to the last chapter of an epistle – the personal greetings and paraphenalia on the extra paper at the tail end of an important letter. But in Ephesians it's at the beginning as well! I couldn't believe it! A whole chapter of meaningless mush before we get into the good solid Pauline theology of chapter two!

• What on earth is going on here?

• Because it's not just Paul either. These prayers of blessing, these edifying thoughts, and benedictions are all through the Bible, all the way back to Numbers, all the way back to Genesis.

• Why on earth are so many precious column inches in the Bible dedicated to what seems like little more than polite sentimentality?

• So I decided to dig a little deeper. To ask the question “Why is there so muchbenediction in scripture?” Most commentaries simply ignore this stuff, or put it down to the authors being friendly or flattering to their readers. Surely there's more to it than that?

• Well, it turns out that there is.

• There's not an awful lot of study that's been done on the role of blessings and benedictions in the Bible, but from what I could find, there seems to be basically two kinds of benediction or blessing in scripture:

• The first is a prayer for blessing from one person to another. This kind of prayer is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong, it's an example for us to follow. After all, we are called to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. We are called to build one another up in love. We are called to pray not only for our friends, but even for our enemies. There are few things more beautiful than a prayer for blessing.

• But a personal prayer for blessing is open ended. We all know that not all of our prayers are answered, and even when they are answered, they are seldom answered in the way we expect.

• These prayers for blessing are those prayed by the Israelites in exile, prayed by Hannah for her son Samuel, by the centurion for his daughter

• By us for Neil and Rachel

• By Peter and Marion for their son, Michael

• They are prayers made before the outcome is certain.

• When things hang in the balance.

• When the only hope comes from God.

• The second kind of blessing in scripture is a decree of blessing spoken by God for God's people.

• And these blessings from God are different. The outcome is never in doubt.

• God's blessings are never simply kind or hopeful words, though they are full of hope. There is a power and efficacy to God's words of blessing.

• “I will be your God, and you will be my people, and I will dwell among you, says the Lord.”

• These words are not so much a nice thought as a reason for being. A reason to go on living.

◦ They are words that resound at the beginning of the scriptures in the Genesis account of creation when God looked upon everything He had made and saw that it was very good.

◦ Words given flesh in this famous icon painted by Andrei Rublev. Beside the oaks of Mamre Abraham and Sarah's hospitality opens the doors to three strangers, Father, son and Holy Spirit; who bless this old couple beyond their wildest dreams, with blessings that call them out, blessings that require them to have faith in miracles, blessings that promise them that they will be the father and mother of God's future in the world, but only if they can believe and trust in God.

◦ God's Words of blessing are proclaimed by the prophets even as Israel is condemned for her sinfulness and lack of faith.

◦ What a paradox. We are required to have faith, but we blessings are proclaimed in our lives even when we have no faith of our own.

◦ And God's Word of blessing is made complete in Revelation where we will be blessed at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

• And those who are blessed by God are not just “happy”, as we've sometimes translated it in the bible, but truly blessed. Anointed. Changed. Transformed. Transfigured. Redeemed to the very heart of who we are.

• Words have power. Power to bless, power to curse.

• Blessings are words that draw us toward how we're truly meant to be

• Curses are words that drag us down, put stumbling blocks between us and God

• Blessings and curses are two sides of the same coin, and our words are powerful too. We may not know the outcome, but we can curse people just as surely as we can bless them.

• God's blessing is the only antidote, the only cure to the curse of the powerful words spoken over our lives.

• God's Word of blessing is powerful. Potent.

• The Word of God resonates throughout scripture. God's Word is a blessing to us. But God's Word is more than that – God's Word of blessing is Jesus of Nazareth, our Saviour and Lord.

• There has never been anyone so thoroughly blessed by God. He is blessed before his birth, in his mother's womb. He is blessed at his baptism “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” He is blessed at the transfiguration. He is blessed with victory over death and sin.

• Jesus is God's Blessed one, cursed on our behalf. He took our curses and redeemed the on the cross, put them to death. But that's not the end of the story, because on the third day he rose again and he brings us, here, now, the blessings of God's resurrection life together.

• Because Jesus is the bringer of blessings to God's people. In him that ancient prophecy is fulfilled “I will be your God and you will be my people, and I will walk among you says the Lord.” In him it will be brought to fruition and we will be blessed with Him.

• Jesus is God's ultimate word of blessing to creation. Jesus is the Word and the sign and the seal that God loves the world so much, that he has joined himself to us forever. Because JEsus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. This Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to God's right hand. JEsus is God's human word of blessing still.

• Jesus is God's human Word of blessing for all of time, and even beyond time itself. God doesn't just desire to dwell among us, he has committed to us. Boots and all.

• And that thought brings me back to the reading from today.

• That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

• Wow.

• These words of blessing are Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, but they're more than that. These words draw together those two types of biblical blessing. They are Paul's personal prayer for the Ephesians, but they are also God's decree of blessing upon all of creation, all who believe, all who are caught up in the Body of Christ. And that means they are God's Word for us, here, today.

• As I prepare to get on that plane and fly to a new life I can read these words of Blessing and know that they are true yesterday, today and tomorrow. No matter what happens. Even if these doors were to close today, and we all died of a horrible disease, we are heirs to God's blessing. God's living Word is working among us, here and now and forever more, and we are in Him. We are Christ's body and we have a job to do.

• Because the blessing is not just for us, those faithful ones who turn up Sunday by Sunday, week by week. And just as Moses was God's messenger of blessing and hope to the Israelites; Just as Paul brought God's word of blessing to the Ephesians; so we are to bring God's word of blessing to those around us. We are Christ's body, and Jesus is God's living Word of Blessing for all people.

• Think about that as you drive home today.

• Pray about that as you walk down the street tomorrow.

• Act on that as God prompts you and speaks to you, calling you to be a Word of blessing to someone whose life has become nothing but a curse.

• Think about it, pray about it, and in the power and blessing of Jesus, become God's blessing in someone else's life.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

• These are my words for you today. But they are so much more than that. These words are God's blessing for all of creation.

• Let's just take a moment to let that sink in.

• Amen.