Holy Name

January 1, 2023

The Rev. Deborah Hawkins

Blessings – pass them on

“Mary treasured these words and pondered them in her heart.”

Have you ever carefully made a decision that had life changing consequences and then, after you moved into this life change, had second thoughts? Wondering, what was I thinking?

Or maybe you knew you made the right decision, wouldn’t change it, but, still, it was difficult and there were times when you found it hard to not loose heart.

Most of us can think of more than one occasion like those.

The person who matters most to us at those times is the one who is able to help us rekindle the sense of purpose that had gotten us this far and find the strength needed to keep going.

They may have knowingly or unknowingly transmitted that power to us but either way what they have been is a blessing in our lives. We treasure what they have given us.

In the gospel story we are not told what the physical and emotional states of Mary and Joseph are at this point.

We know each have each said yes to God and yes to each other. They could have chosen otherwise but they thought about it and they decided that this, this was to be their path in life – to be bearers, protectors, nurturers of the Divine.

And the Divine, through Christ, through the Holy Spirit, has said yes to them. Pretty powerful and life changing stuff.

But the reality of it! All they had gone through, all that lies ahead, all that is right now.

It is  easy to imagine that in the quiet after a long night one or both of them might look around and slowly shake their head at their circumstances and, dropping their head into their hands, whisper, “Oh, Lord, help.”

We hear that today help arrived in the form of some shepherds who had heard from some angels and came to tell a story that finds a place to settle in Mary’s heart. What a blessing it was.

Walter Brueggemann has defined a blessing as, “an act-by speech or gesture-whereby one party transmits power for life to another party.” *

While the ultimate source of blessing, of the power for life, is God, people can mediate that power. People like priests, people like shepherds, people like whomever God chooses to be transmitters of life from one party to another, people who are the bearers of blessing.

Brueggemann adds that the how of blessings is not explained in “clear, explanatory terms, because the power of life is not a commodity to be explained or controlled … only uttered and given.” *

We really hear that uttered and given in the gospel:  the angels tell the shepherds and the shepherds tell Mary and Joseph and it is something to treasure.

And then there is the first reading – “the Lord bless you and keep you…”

Those words are so well known. The Book of Numbers says it was originally given to a people who had asked God to lead them from slavery into freedom and then began to wonder if it was such a good idea after all.

It took a lot of walking to leave Egypt – 40 years of walking and, to be honest, there were many days when the people of God didn’t think they could take one more step.

It is called the Priestly Blessing or the Aaronic blessing because, scripture says,  it was Aaron said over the people everyday. It was a blessing for their journey reminding them who and whose and why they were and helping them find strength for another day.

But it is not restricted to that use. There is this sense of pass it on, pass it on.

God told Moses to tell Aaron, to tell his descendants, to tell the people…

This is a form of blessing that has been used by Jews and Christians – in worship, at home, at other times – for thousands of years.

The Lord bless you and keep you

The Holy One provide for you and protect you;

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you

the Holy One will not abandon you and gives you gifts to treasure;

The Lord lift His face upon you and give you peace.

the presence of the Holy One brings you into the fullness of life.

I know of parents who say this blessing over their children every morning before they leave the house for school.

And someone who claims she says this blessing over whoever it is she sees in the mirror most mornings because, she says, whoever that is really looks like she could use it.

We have all received this blessing in worship at some time or another.

And to that blessing God adds, “and I will bless them.”

These are not empty words or wishful thinking. There is more going on here than we can understand and it is real. It kept the chosen people and many others going through times of wilderness. It is life giving.

I have a friend who says there is POWER in a blessing.

He says it just like that – POWER.

I used to back up a little bit. Think he was a little crazy. We need to tone this down somewhat. Over the years I have come to believe he is right.

I don’t understand it, but he is right. There is power in a blessing.

How many of us have had the blessed opportunity to say to someone or have them say to us, “It was a really hard time. Your words meant more to me than I can say.” Those conversations are as much treasures as are the conversations they refer to. Blessings upon blessings.

A true blessing transmits the power of life, given by God, flowing from one person to another, one being to another,

and perhaps even back from us to God.  After all, the blessing conferred by the shepherds strengthened Joseph and Mary who then passed that strength on to Jesus as he grew. And the Psalmist tells us, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.’ (Ps 103)

Jesus – Joshua – Yeshua.

The name means Yahweh saves or Yahweh/God is our salvation.

Perhaps one of the ways God saves us is through the power of blessings flowing through us, binding us into communion with one another and with the Divine. We are, each of us, asked to say yes to being a participant in the flow of blessings, in the handing on of treasure from your heart to the next, as part of the everlasting cycle of God’s unending love in the world.

This is New Year’s Day. Happy New Year’s by the way.

A time for resolutions.  A good resolution might be to knowingly and willing say ‘yes’ to being a part of God’s sending of blessings through the world.

In this new year may you know the power of blessings in your life and by years end may the treasure chest in your heart be filled to overflowing.

*Brueggeman, Walter, Reverberations of Faith, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p.18-20.)