Last Wednesday's Message (November 14)

Genesis 12:1-4

Blessed to Be a Blessing

There are certain things that you have to see through to the end to get the full experience. My husband once left a professional football game early because one team had clearly run away with it. He awoke the next morning to learn that he had missed what was being called the biggest comeback in NFL history. I remember one time remarking to an aunt of mine how much I like the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” She said, “What a terrible movie! I can’t believe you enjoyed it.” I said, “Didn’t you just love the end?” To which she admitted, “I never got to the end. After two hours, I was so depressed, I just turned it off!” Imagine if what your experience of Germany would have been like had you left after only a month here?

Sometimes you have to struggle through a rough beginning to get to the good stuff. So it is with The Bible. If you ever happen to have a friend who is about to embark on a study of the Bible and is seeking your advice on where to start, don’t go for the easy answer and tell them to start at the beginning. They’ll be lucky to make it out of Genesis before they toss it aside thinking that any book that begins this badly can’t have a very good outcome.

Let’s look take a quick glance at the first 11 chapters in the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve blow it in the Garden of Eden and Paradise is Lost. The humans God has created are so toxic that God has to flood almost all of them out and start over. THEN, the people get the crazy notion to build a tower so that they can be as great as God. We end up with God’s people scattered and confused by the end of the 11th chapter, and while we’re introduced to Abraham, we learn that he is old and that his wife is barren—so we’re not pinning any great hope on them either.

But then in Chapter 12, it all begins to turn around with God’s promise to Abraham. At the center of this promise is the use of the word “bless”. It’s important that we understand just how powerful a blessing was in the world of Ancient Israel. In that world there was no concept of what we would call luck, nor was there any idea in a set of natural law operating on its own. In that context, a “blessing” was a way to describe all human well-being in relation to God as creator. There is the call of Abraham to leave what he knows and to venture out into the unknown. It is a call that is followed by a blessing. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make you great. And here’s the kicker—so that YOU WILL BE A BLESSING.

Not I will make you great so that you might eat, drink and be merry. Not I will make you great so that the world can see what I the great and powerful Yahweh can do. But I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.

This is one of the most profound theological concepts in scripture. Here is the revelation from God that God has chosen to work in the world through human agents—through a chosen people. Not that God is helpless without humanity or that humans are given some sort of divine status. But that God has chosen to give humans the responsibility of mediating the blessing of God to the world. Whoa.

Blessed so that we will be a blessing.

How does that play into how we think about blessing or how we pray and worship?

What if our children learned this idea early on—blessed so that we might be a blessing. Can you imagine how prayers might change? Instead of a nightly prayer of God bless me and mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa, the prayer might become God bless me so that I will bless my friends. God bless mommy and daddy so that they will bless each other. God bless grandma and grandpa so that they will bless their children and grandchildren. Not only is that a different kind of prayer, it’s a different kind of relationship with God.

What if—as a nation—we sang “God bless America so that America will bless the world?” It would be a very different kind of song indeed, wouldn’t it? Instead of being a super power, we would have to become a serving power. Can you imagine a world in which Americans saw our prosperity, our technology and our standard of living as a mandate to serve the world at large? Such a world might come the closest we humans could get to creating the Kingdom here on earth.

Blessed so that we will be a blessing.

What about us as individuals? I hesitate to tell wives and mom to pray to be blessed so that you will be a blessing. So often, this particular population translates "being a blessing" into making sure everyone but YOU is taken care of. But wanting to be a blessing doesn't mean being a better cook, maid, bellhop and chauffer. It means living into all that God has called you to be. It means you desire to be fully you.

Blessed so that we will be a blessing.

Many centuries ago, an old man received a call. In a bold move, he left what was familiar and what was comfortable and ventured out into a new frontier with only a promise. He set out with weary legs, a barren wife and only a few possessions.

But this man, who was faithful enough to venture into uncharted territory, gave birth to a nation, and from that nation came a savior, and from that savior came a church and from that church come people who are committed to following Christ and answering Abraham’s call.

One man who knew that he was blessed and was willing to venture into the unknown in order to also be a blessing.

We gather here today a blessed people. We are also a bold people, having already left our home for a foreign land. Where are we willing to go? What are we willing to risk? How will we be a blessing to the world?

Prayer:

Close your eyes and think of someone who has been a blessing to you. It can be someone who blessed you long ago or someone who blessed you just yesterday.
Offer thanks for that person.
Now think of a person for whom you have been a blessing. Offer thanks for that person and for the opportunity to make a difference in his or her life.
Now imagine a door before you. Imagine that behind that door is the path through which you will encounter your next blessing. Ask God to open that door for you and help you to be open to all the possibilities that lie ahead.