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Blessing
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…"
1 Peter 1:3
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we read repeated descriptions of God’s character and activity concerning God’s creation. Too often in reading the Old Testament, we focus on humankind’s betrayal of God and, later, God’s action of giving us His Law. However, if we limit God’s will and the nature of these things, we fail to understand the scope of revelation provided by the sacred Scriptures.
One foundational aspect of God’s identity is “one who blesses.” In Genesis 1 and 2, we read of God’s action in creation and giving blessings over that which He created. After creating the physical world, God then brings forth living creatures and, in Genesis 1:22, He blesses them. Upon creating humankind in His likeness, God blesses them, too, in verse 28. And finally, on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3), God rests and blesses that seventh day, making it holy for all of His creation.
Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann speaks of a “theology of blessing … [which] refers to the generative power of life, fertility, and well-being that God has ordained within the normal flow and mystery of life … it characterizes the world. Creation is life-giving in the image of the God who gives all of life.”[1] As so from Him who created us and in whose image we are made, we humans also are to be in the business of blessing.
In the Scripture quote, Peter gives praise and blessings to God for the gift of His son, Jesus Christ. And from that gift, new life has been given to us through the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is a “both/and” kind of new life — it is both now, in this physical life, and in the life that is to come when our physical life is complete. And it is all because of God’s great love for us, “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8, KJV), God gave His son.
During the middle of Lent, the Parish Choir sang an anthem titled, “O Love,” that began with, “O Love, that will not let me go ….”[2] This is the love with which our God has blessed the humankind He created, a love that will never let us go. In response to God’s great love for us, may we live our resurrected lives as blessings to others.
[1] Walter Brueggeman, “Genesis,” IBC (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 37.
[2] Text by George Matheson.
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