Becoming a Blessing

"God bless you." "God bless America." "God bless us, every one."

Every day we hear a cacophonous assault of blessings. From right-wing political pundits to well-meaning clergy and even when we sneeze. The invocation of God's blessing has become almost humdrum in its constancy, one can almost imagine a constant rain of blessings pattering across the ground as we go about our days. And yet something seems slightly strange. The manner in which we invoke God's blessing seems to have become almost too common. The classic conundrum of the conflicting sports prayer comes to mind. If a Duke fan and a UK fan each pray for their team to win in an upcoming game, does God choose sides? How would he choose? And even more why would he particularly care to bless a particular sports team with victory?

I fear that over the course of our faith's long journey from a Middle-Eastern Semitic nomad's devotion to a globe spanning institutional religion we have lost sight of how God originally envisaged blessing and his followers. Somehow we've gotten the process of blessing a bit confused. It seems like today we imagine blessing as some kind of good vibe God drops on us out of nowhere for no reason other than we asked for it. Or perhaps because we've been extra good lately, like God is the cosmic karmic Santa. This good vibe gets us what we want, better jobs, better toys, a better life for ourselves. And certainly God does seem to have rewards in mind for those who are willing to follow him but this one dimensional understanding of blessing seems to fall short of what God holds out to us.

Take Abraham for example. The story of God calling Abram contains the first explicit "blessing" in the whole collection of scripture. But God slips a few interesting things into the story:
 ¹Now ^(A)the LORD said to Abram,
         "Go forth from your country,
         And from your relatives
         And from your father's house,
         To the land which I will show you;
    ²And ^(B)I will make you a great nation,
         And ^(C)I will bless you,
         And make your name great;
         And so ^(D)you shall be a blessing;
    ³And ^(E)I will bless those who bless you,
         And the one who curses you I will curse
         ^(F)And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12 NASV)

First, God's blessing is something God initiates. And notice something else here, God doesn't just rain down blessing like a lambasted celestial pinata. God's blessing is firmly intertwined with calling. God doesn't just put blessing into Abram's life, he sends out blessing ahead of Abram. God doesn't want to bless us where we are, simply affirming and validating the thing we are right now. God doesn't want to bless who we are, he wants to bless who we might become. 

Second,  God's blessing is larger than one life can contain. When we come into contact with God's gifts it turns us into something bigger than ourselves, something we can't keep to ourselves. Abraham will be blessed but more than that, or perhaps even because of that, he will, in turn, become a blessing to all of the families of the earth.

But therein is the most amazing thing. Through childless Abram God is going to bless all of the families of the earth. To his ancient Jewish context Abram is cursed by his childlessness. This is perhaps the most amazing thing that happens here, God's blessing is so powerful that even as it fills our needs it turns us into fulfillment for others. This is what Jesus is discussing with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus offers her living water to quench her thirst. He offers a gift, a blessing, to meet the needs in her life. And yet these aren't the only needs. The woman is a pariah, a social outcast, burdened by the pain of her history and the judgment of her community. And yet as she encounters Jesus his blessing on her life not only returns her to her community but in turn makes her the first missionary to her own people. Jesus turned her need for community into a blessing for the very community which rejected her. The blessing that God gave her was bigger than her need, bigger than their judgment and more powerful than pain.


God wants to call each of us into a place of blessing. Right now, in our communities, in our cities and our world there is a call waiting to be taken up. A call that resonates with the needs each of us bear. God is sending his blessing out ahead of us to call us towards what we might become in Him. A call to a blessing that is bigger than our lives.