... seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you (into exile.) Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29: 7- brackets mine...
I have been pondering the importance of blessing again, for the third and fourth time yesterday I felt it important to offer a blessings to folk as a possible response to God following a Baptism Service in one instance and a traditional preach at another. Once again people came. At the Baptism service I spoke of the Norway Tragedy, of the China rail-crash and of Amy Winehouse, and of how we might respond to these things and the questions we might ask.... The Baptism followed and then using the backdrop of Tenth Avenue North's "This is where the healing begins" I offered the chance to come and receive a blessing, almost half of the (unchurched) congregation came up. I simply anointed them using the baptismal water and prayed a blessing over them, some of them were moved to tears. Now I may never see some of these folk again, but I don't see that as a problem, they came in response to God, and I firmly believe that God will bless them through it. Also, to be honest it takes guts to get up in front of your peers and to walk to the front of the church for a blessing even if you are "used" to church!
The second offering of a blessing was during an evening service where I had talked about the spiritual hunger that we continue to encounter in others today, and told of the response to the offer of a blessing.
Here is what I think is going on, by offering blessings to folk we open a door for them in what had probably seemed an impenetrable fortress, by speaking to them of the God who breaks down barriers and not of a demanding tyrant we offer a real possibility for folk to begin to see themselves through God's eyes....
Of course this is nothing new, or at least it should not be anything new, and yet for many folk it is new news! It is new news because the church is often portrayed (and sadly with good reason at times) as an oppressive judgemental hypocritical organisation! Even where this is clearly not the case and churches have good relationships with their communities there is often a very real sense amongst folk that this God stuff is not for me!
God of course IS FOR them, and offering blessings displays that in a real and almost sacramental way. The very act of blessing especially if combined with anointing is powerful for the bless-er becomes a bridge between God and the one being blessed.
I also think that it by offering blessings the church begins something new in the community it is placed in, by blessing our community, both individual folk and whole organisations we begin to see them through God's eyes as people that he loves and so the walls come tumbling down because we suddenly inhabit the same space!
The blessing of the people who are"insiders" or churched folk is hardly different, so many do not see themselves as being blessed by God but rather as having to earn/ work to deserve salvation. Once again the church is culpable in this, even in the not so distant past much teaching concentrated on moralisims rather than on the love and grace of God. We have much to seek forgiveness for.
Jesus is of course our model in all of this, for he went to the outsider and the outcast, he blessed and healed and loved them. His greatest challenge was to the insiders and we would do well to remember that...
When God called Abraham he blessed him and charged him to be a blessing (Genesis 12), when we claim to know and love God, to be his followers we follow in the footsteps of Abraham where we find ourselves blessed and charged to be a blessing!
