Today, we begin our series on Becoming a Blessing Church—I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the word “blessing”. We use it a lot, throw it around some--Well, bless my soul…bless your little heart…bless God. God bless you…
My spiritual mentor on my pathway through blessings is Fr. John O’Donohue—I’ve quoted from his works once before--, the late Irish priest who has done some phenomenal work on the nature and necessity of blessing. He says: “What is a blessing? A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The beauty of blessing is its belief that it can affect what unfolds.” Kinda stops you dead in your tracks—imagine believing that we can affect what unfolds in this constant flow of life.
And he then continues: “Our longing for the eternal kindles our imagination to bless. Regardless of how we configure (or think about) the eternal, the human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, a place where everything comes together, where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise, where the travails of a life’s journey will enjoy a homecoming, to invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a person now.” When we combine these words, especially that part about calling wholeness upon a person with today’s scripture passage from Ephesians we are sent on our way to discuss the very depth and breadth of our understanding of the role that “blessing” plays in our lives.
The passage in Ephesians is a mini-study on the New Testament concept of blessing. There are three New Testament Greek words related directly to the English word "blessing". Eulogeitos is an adjective meaning "well spoken of; praised" and we can all identify a word that comes directly from this word. Secondly, eulogew is a verb: "to speak well of; to praise; to call down God's gracious power". Finally eulogia is the noun form, meaning "praise; fine speaking". Because these concepts are basically Hebrew in origin, these words show up very seldom in Greek classical writing. When one searches through a concordance or topical index under the word ‘blessing’ 85% of the results come from the Old Testament. The New Testament Greek words are literal translations for the Hebrew words. It is important to note that blessing must be defined as a description, the adjective; an act, the verb, and a thing, the noun. Blessing is so powerful that it will not do to assign only one figure of speech to define it. We will, over the summer weeks, look at blessing from these three perspectives as well as others—describing, being, and praising.
Old Testament Jews believed that all blessings were owned by God and, therefore, dispensed by God. The patriarchs such as, Adam, Noah, and Moses were all blessed by God. For his part, Moses passed on a parting blessing to the Twelve Tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy. In the Old Testament, the idea of "blessing" was also closely related to the question of inheritance, passing blessing from parent to child. Jacob blessed Joseph in Gen. 48:15, and Joseph's two sons. We must also remember that Old Testament Jews had a very sophisticated understanding of the sacred. God was so sacred that you dare not speak the name aloud. Places became sacred when God was encountered there. Names were given to commemorate God’s visitation. You may remember that Jacob names the place where he encounters the sacred “Bethel”. This naming, the blessing of sacred space is consistent with our need to speak the blessing.
Unfortunately, when we attempt to understand passages such as the one from Ephesians, we English-speaking folks have a problem with defining the word ‘blessing’ for many reasons, but also because it is not a direct translation from the Greek. Our word "blessing" is a borrowed word which finds its meaning because it has been used a long time, not because it is accurate. We may wonder why the English word “blessing” was chosen to represent (eulogeitos). Some believe that the English word is related to the German blestian which comes to us by way of heathen blood sacrifices. More modern German renders the word das Blut which in turn becomes the English word blood. Now, early Latin writers used the verb form (benedicere) to translate the Greek, preferring to offer the literal sense of the Greek. Whatever the exact path, there is a long history--Jewish, pagan, Christian – that blends into the English use of the word "bless". This diversion, more interesting to the English teachers among us, than others, nevertheless, leaves us in the challenging place of not knowing exactly what Paul was speaking of when he penned that passage to the new Christians in Ephesus.
One thought provoking study on the passage points us to the Spanish translation of in the Spanish, the word (bendito) is the past participle of the verb (bendecir). Bendito means "to say good things or good words". And so, we have come full circle. The English equivalent to bendición is "benediction", also from the Greek by way of Latin. To pronounce a benediction is to call upon God to send grace, peace, and mercy. And we, and every other Christian church around does this almost every time we meet. I suspect that most of the time we fail to grasp the significance of the act of proclaiming a benediction—coming at the end of the service as it tends to do. I know for myself that my study of blessing has caused me to look squarely at my former willingness to pronounce a benediction upon a congregation while failing to step fully into the power of claiming that blessing from God.
Unfortunately, when we attempt to understand passages such as the one from Ephesians, we English-speaking folks have a problem with defining the word ‘blessing’ for many reasons, but also because it is not a direct translation from the Greek. Our word "blessing" is a borrowed word which finds its meaning because it has been used a long time, not because it is accurate. We may wonder why the English word “blessing” was chosen to represent (eulogeitos). Some believe that the English word is related to the German blestian which comes to us by way of heathen blood sacrifices. More modern German renders the word das Blut which in turn becomes the English word blood. Now, early Latin writers used the verb form (benedicere) to translate the Greek, preferring to offer the literal sense of the Greek. Whatever the exact path, there is a long history--Jewish, pagan, Christian – that blends into the English use of the word "bless". This diversion, more interesting to the English teachers among us, than others, nevertheless, leaves us in the challenging place of not knowing exactly what Paul was speaking of when he penned that passage to the new Christians in Ephesus.
One thought provoking study on the passage points us to the Spanish translation of in the Spanish, the word (bendito) is the past participle of the verb (bendecir). Bendito means "to say good things or good words". And so, we have come full circle. The English equivalent to bendición is "benediction", also from the Greek by way of Latin. To pronounce a benediction is to call upon God to send grace, peace, and mercy. And we, and every other Christian church around does this almost every time we meet. I suspect that most of the time we fail to grasp the significance of the act of proclaiming a benediction—coming at the end of the service as it tends to do. I know for myself that my study of blessing has caused me to look squarely at my former willingness to pronounce a benediction upon a congregation while failing to step fully into the power of claiming that blessing from God.
Today’s conversation is one of several where we will look at the role of blessing in becoming a mature faith community. If we are to spend the next several weeks talking about blessing, it is helpful for us to understand something of the journey one must traverse to reach our current understanding of blessing. And so we have it: from eulogeitos => benedicere => bendición => benediction => and, even to "praise"
If we begin in today’s scripture, the word "blessing"—this “speaking well, this praise” recognizes the existence and deity of God. It suggests that our blessings, inner happiness and peace come from knowing who and what God is. It also tell us, from the Greek, that God views us in favorable terms, and that this positive attitude of love, grace, and mercy is extended toward us from before the beginning of time. God blesses because God loves. The spiritual gifts spoken of in Ephesians 1 are given because of God’s grace, the gift of salvation, and all other manifestations of God’s love towards us. These are, in some sense, the good words, the blessings that God sends our way.
This passage deals with God's initiation and our response. With our “good words” we in turn bless God. You remember Fr. John O’Donohue from the beginning of this conversation. He states this about blessings: “The Bible is full of blessings. They are seen as a communication of life from God. Once the blessing is spoken, it cannot be annulled or recalled.”
If we begin in today’s scripture, the word "blessing"—this “speaking well, this praise” recognizes the existence and deity of God. It suggests that our blessings, inner happiness and peace come from knowing who and what God is. It also tell us, from the Greek, that God views us in favorable terms, and that this positive attitude of love, grace, and mercy is extended toward us from before the beginning of time. God blesses because God loves. The spiritual gifts spoken of in Ephesians 1 are given because of God’s grace, the gift of salvation, and all other manifestations of God’s love towards us. These are, in some sense, the good words, the blessings that God sends our way.
This passage deals with God's initiation and our response. With our “good words” we in turn bless God. You remember Fr. John O’Donohue from the beginning of this conversation. He states this about blessings: “The Bible is full of blessings. They are seen as a communication of life from God. Once the blessing is spoken, it cannot be annulled or recalled.”
Think of the impact on our lives if we begin to view God’s blessings as a “communication of life from God.” If every time we meet and share the good news of God’s radical love and acceptance of us, we bless each other and ourselves, we begin to open up a floodgate of God’s gracious gifts that we best be ready to accept and pass on. If every time we meet, we remember to bless the God who created and first blessed us, we begin to live into a place of constant communication of life from God and to God. As we mature into a fuller understanding of the role of being blessed, accepting and living into God’s richest blessings, and desiring to reach out into the lives of others to bless them similarly, we will experience the grace of God to a depth, heighth, and breadth formerly unknown to us. And this blessing transcends our meeting together, and becomes part and parcel of our walk in the world. I leave you with one last word from Fr. O’Donohue: “The beauty of blessing is that it recognizes no barriers—and no distances.” Let’s walk together into this beauty of blessing—let’s discover what God really wants Open Circle to become. Let’s welcome the moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst—releasing the blessings of God beyond our wildest imagination.
May the blessings of God be with us all. Amen and amen.
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