#blessed

[Preached at Luther College Baccalaureate - May 21, 2022]
 


Micah 6:6-8
With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?


Luke 6:20-28a, 31
Then [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
 
----
 
Let's talk about blessings.

And let's start at the beginning. At the beginning of the Torah and of the Christian Bible, that is. The book of Genesis.

Partway through this book we meet a character named Jacob. There are many stories to be told about Jacob, and an odd percentage of these stories involve blessings.

Jacob was born a twin, he was his mother's favorite, and he tricked both his twin brother, Esau, and his father, Isaac, out of important familial and ritual blessings.

This led to him fleeing home to escape the wrath of his brother, being tricked into working extra years to earn the blessing of his would-be father-in-law and the hand of his beloved Rachel in marriage, with a whole side plot involving Rachel's sister and their respective handmaids. Eventually, Jacob ends up in a dispute with this father-in-law over flocks and land and inheritance,and so he flees the scene yet again, this time with all his wives and children, back to his homeland, hoping to make amends with his brother and to settle his family in peace.

On the last night of this journey, after making camp for his family and companions safely across the river for the night, Jacob remains alone on the opposite bank. And there, he spends the night wrestling with an unknown and divine figure- maybe a messenger of God, maybe God himself. It's a shockingly even match. The divine figure ends up knocking Jacob's hip out of joint to finally end things. As the sun is coming up and the figure prepares to leave, Jacob demands, "I will not let you leave until you bless me."

It's a bold request for someone who has already schemed his way, twice!, into blessings that weren't his to receive.

Jacob's life has been such a mix of things. He has lived in the shadow of a (slightly) older brother. He has been the trickster, and he has himself been tricked. He has loved, he has worked, he has celebrated and grieved, he has fled for his life. He has been flaky and he has been loyal, underhanded but also faithful, angry and repentant, and has even seen and wrestled God and lived to tell the tale.

So here at the river, at daybreak, with the very presence of God in his grasp, Jacob makes a decision. If he is going to cross the river with a sore hip, he is also going to cross it with a blessing.

The messenger agrees, and bestows upon Jacob the blessing of a new name. From this time onward, he will now be known as “Israel,” meaning, “the one who struggles with God.”

Not quite our usual definition of "blessing," is it?

The author Rachel Held Evans, in her book, Inspired, encourages us to read Jacob's story as way to reframe our search for blessing not as a search for comfort or accolades, but as a search for “a better way of engaging life and the world.” (Inspired, 27, 28)

We need to reframe our search for blessing as a search for a better way of engaging life and the world.

This is a crucial point of understanding for us. If Jacob’s story is going to make any sense, and if Jesus’s proclamations of blessing in our reading from Luke today are going to have any lasting and liberating meaning, we have to understand what a blessing is. We also have to understand what a blessing is not.

Columnist Jessica Bennett wrote a humor piece for the New York Times about #blessed, and by extension, the way that we use the word the word "blessed" in our cultural vernacular. She writes,
“Here are a few of the ways that God has touched my social network over the past few months: [God] helped a friend get accepted into graduate school. (She was “blessed” to be there.) [God] made it possible for a yoga instructor’s Caribbean spa retreat. (“Blessed to be teaching in paradise,” she wrote.) [God] helped a new mom outfit her infant in a tiny designer frock. (“A year of patiently waiting and it finally fits! Feeling blessed.”) [God] graced a colleague with at least 57 Facebook wall postings about her birthday. (“So blessed for all the love,” she wrote, to approximately 900 of her closest friends.) God has, in fact, recently blessed my network with dazzling job promotions, coveted speaking gigs, the most wonderful fiancés ever, front row seats at Fashion Week, and nominations for many a “30 under 30” list. And, blessings aren’t limited to the little people, either. [God] blessed Macklemore with a wardrobe designer (thanks for the heads up, Instagram!) and Jamie Lynn Spears with an engagement ring (“#blessed #blessed #blessed!” she wrote on Twitter). [God]’s been known to bless…Kim Kardashian with exotic getaways and expensive bottles of Champagne, overlooking sunsets of biblical proportion (naturally).
Bennet continues,
“There’s nothing quite like invoking holiness as a way to brag about your life. But calling something “blessed” has become the go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success (without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy. Blessed, “divine or supremely favored,” is now used to explain that coveted Ted talk invite as well as to celebrate your grandmother’s 91st birthday. It is carried out in hashtags (#blessed), acronyms, and even, God forbid, emoji.”
There’s a grain of truth behind the #blessed sentiment, of course.

We have been taught, and rightfully so, to be grateful, and to be mindful in recognizing the good things that happen to and around us. #blessed is, in some way, connected to our desire not to take things for granted.

But this is a very narrow and ultimately unhelpful understanding of what blessing is all about.

The shadow-sides to the practice of "counting our blessings" are myriad:

When we keep a count of our blessings, it becomes easy and tempting to compare our count with others. This does messy things to our self-worth. And it does damage to how we view the worth of others. 
 
When we are always on the hunt for ways to up our tally of blessings, it becomes really easy to confuse privilege for blessing. This means that we run the risk of conflating virtue and blessing. We see blessings as rewards for being the "right kind of person" and this leads us to assume or imply that a lack of blessing proves some sort of unworthiness or moral failure.

When we reframe our search for blessing as a search for better ways of engaging life and the world, then we start to realize that blessing isn't just another name for good things that happen to us. And blessings aren't so much things to be counted or amassed. And blessings aren't rewards for good behavior or hard work. And, as it turns out, blessings aren't particularly dependent upon either our virtues or our failings (thanks, Jacob, for proving this point!).

Blessings, instead, at their heart, are moments of grace that transform and sanctify our orientation to God and to the world.

Let me repeat that:  
 
Blessings are moments of grace that transform and sanctify our orientation to God and to the world.

It doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter our life circumstances, our race, our culture, our faith background, our family history, who we love, what we majored in, what our final transcript looks like, or what our career path will be.

In fact, Jesus pronounces blessing primarily and precisely over those who would never have considered themselves #blessed. Those whom the world would never have considered blessed by standard counting.

Jesus says, "Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you who are grieving. Blessed are you who are hated, excluded, victimized, persecuted."

And what Jesus means is this: Your need, your vulnerability, your complicated self: you are not “less than” because of your life circumstances. You are no less a child of God. You are no less deserving of love and mercy. You are sacred. You are beloved.

Jesus follows up his words of blessing with words of caution for those who are rich, full, and comfortable, who mistake these things as blessings of their own making. The difference between blessing and woe, as Jesus lays it out, is not about having or not having. It’s not about #blessed and #cursed. It is about your disposition. It is about how you understand yourself and everything you have in relationship to God, to others, and to creation. It is a question of stewardship.

Biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine says, “[The blessings and cautions Jesus speaks are] words of encouragement concerning the human condition, and words of assurance that proposer attitudes and the compassionate actions that flow from them both are blessings[sic] and create blessings[sic].” (The Sermon on the Mount, 23)

Blessing is not an end unto itself. Blessing is active. We are not blessed, end of sentence. We are blessed so that and blessed for the sake of and blessed in order to. Blessings don't stand still. They flow.

Blessing orients us beyond ourselves.

As the prophet Micah says, “God has shown you—and given you—what is good. And what is it that God desires of you in return? That you do justice. That you love kindness. And that you walk humbly through this life.”

Dear ones, know tonight that you are, indeed, blessed.

You carry with you the promise of grace and love from a God who isn’t afraid of being grappled with. You carry the promise of hope and justice from a God who seeks out the vulnerable. You carry the promise of reconciliation and provision from a God who continues to transform and shape you, from who you have been to who you yet will be.

Whether you leave this campus dancing or limping, whether your story right now feels like fulfillment or longing. Your story is sacred. Your life is of infinite value. You are never beyond hope.

All that God asks of you is that you open your hands and heart to the world, that all of these blessings might be shared, wherever you go, whatever your path, whatever your journey out from this place into the futures that are being prepared for you.

So now, as you prepare to set out on the road once again, hear these gentle words of blessing from poet Jan Richardson: 
 
A Blessing in the Dust
You thought the blessing
would come
in the staying;
in casting your lot
with this place,
these people;
in learning the art
of remaining,
of abiding.

And now you stand
on the threshold
again.
The home you had
hoped for,
had ached for,
is behind you—
not yours, after all.

The clarity comes
as small comfort,
perhaps,
but it comes:
illumination enough
for the next step.

As you go,
may you feel
the full weight
of your gifts
gathered up
in your two hands,
the complete measure
of their grace
in your heart that knows
there is a place
for them,
for the treasure
that you bear.

Amen.

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