“The Gift of Blessing”

         Offering a blessing is probably my favorite duty of being a minister. It was not always this way; I used to feel unprepared or lacking of the authority to pray when I was confident there were others at the gathering that could do a much better job than I. But then, I don’t know, I began to like it, feel empowered by the opportunity, relish the thought that I have been called upon to invoke the Divine Spirit to bless something; food, marriage, a new house, the infant, the dying. I began to sense the importance of such a thing and embrace what is considered a part of my calling.

         Throughout my career as a pastor and chaplain, I’ve been asked to bless a lot of things: a baseball hat, an outdoor swing, a manuscript, a hospital bed. And I’ve been asked to bless people on their death beds, the grandchild at their side, the water for baptism, the elements for communion. All of them holy and important. All of them not just about words I might say but the nature in which I was being asked or expected or called to approach an event, see someone, call forth something.  

         Barbara Brown Taylor writes that it’s pronouncing a blessing that puts you as close to God as you can get. She writes, “To learn to look with compassion on everything that is, to see past the terrifying demons outside to the bawling hearts within, to make the first move toward the other, however many times it takes to get close; to open your arms to what is instead of waiting until it is what it should be; to surrender the justice of your own cause for mercy; to surrender the priority of your own safety for love, this is to land at God’s breast.”

         Of course, one need not be ordained to be a person who presents the blessing. This can be a choice of how to live your life. This can be the way we begin and end the day. We can choose not only to be a blessing but to offer the blessing, to see what is sacred and beautiful and to name it as such, to recognize the Divine in all things and to call it forth.

         As people of faith, we are not just anointed to serve the poor, to live in generosity, to show love and mercy, we are also anointed to bless. To bless the world and all its beauty, to bless those around us, to bless the food we enjoy and the companionship that makes all of life sweet. We are the ones that look beyond what others may see and recognize something more. We are the ones with the blessing on our lips and in our hearts. We are the ones who bless. May it be so.

You are the light of the world.

Yours,

Lynne