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Dear Covenant Family,
A recurring dream for most preaching pastors involves being in the pulpit on Sunday morning and unable to find part or all of one’s sermon text. It’s only happened a few times in real life for me, but one of them was this past Sunday when my printer apparently ran out of paper. When I turned over page five of my “House of Prayer” sermon, there was no page six to be found, so I went from memory. Included below is the last page, in its entirety. Thank you to a few people who specifically mentioned you are praying for me, obviously I need it!
"The most unique blessing I’ve done was the request in a remote village in Guatemala to bless the latrine. Our presbytery had provided funds for village workers to install a latrine, but it sat unused for a few weeks until they could find a pastor to bless it. I was the next one to come along, so the task fell to me. Holding a fresh roll of toilet paper in one hand and placing my hand on the latrine door with the other I prayed God’s blessing for all who entered, for health and wellness for the village and for proper functioning of all the…systems. Guatemalans were giggling when I finished so I hope I used all the right Spanish words.
By telling that story, I don’t want to imply that you must wait for a pastor in order to speak a blessing. God’s people have always been called to bless one another and in protestant churches we call that “the priesthood of all believers”. Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor tells a story of her ordination more than three decades ago and how her bishop at the time tried to talk her out of it by asking- Why do you want to narrow your ministry? In the concentric circles he drew on a piece of paper for her, the ministry of the laity was by far the largest, active in business, education, medicine, and law. The ministry of Episcopalian deacons was smaller, focused on assisting bishops and priests to engage the needs of the world. The ministry of priests was even smaller, focused on preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments. By the time you get to my job, he said, tapping this tiny circle, it’s hard to get out of the building. (Christian Century, 9/15/20).
Every Christian is called to do justice and love kindness and to make their home a house of prayer, as well as our churches and our natural spaces. I encourage you to think of ways you can bless someone creatively and imaginatively. What life transitions are happening which you can mark with a blessing? What calls for justice and peace can you respond to with the blessing of your time and resources? What ideas do you have within and outside the church to practice blessing our neighbors and workplaces and immigrants among us? How can we communicate blessing for those outside our walls who may never enter these doors?
Dr. Taylor again, with her encouragement for blessing prayer, says… Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized you to do it or not. All I am saying is that the world needs you to do this, because there is a real shortage of people willing to kneel wherever they are ….That we are able to bless one another at all is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very stars."
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