Des Moines March 1, Blessing

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1 Genesis 17:1-7, Matt Mardis-LeCroy Des Moines March 1, 2015 I. Blessing Observed at a dinner party: Ah ah AH CHOO! Bless you. Seen in a Twitter feed: Looks like I have to get FOUR NEW TIRES. And it turns out we owe money on our taxes this year. #blessed. Overheard at a church potluck, somewhere below the Mason-Dixon Line: Did you see what she was wearing this morning? Bless her heart. On this Second Sunday in Lent, we continue our Speaking Christian series looking at different words lifted from the language of faith, asking what these words mean, asking what these words might have to say to us about our lives. Today we take up blessing. Unlike some words we will consider in this series, blessing is a term we actually use here at Plymouth Church. The Stepping Stones program puts blessing front and center, teaching families to bless their children, every night, in every home. Then we call the congregation together to bless families at key moments in the development of their children. And then the whole thing culminates in the Senior Stepping Stone when right here, in this very room, the children will bless their parents. It s great stuff. Never a dry eye. But I wonder if we know what we re doing when we speak so openly, so casually, about blessing; when we throw these blessings around. It s like playing with plutonium. Blessing is powerful stuff. Blessing is dangerous stuff. Have you been blessed? 1

2 Do you want to be? Don t be too quick to answer. II. Sarai and Abram are blessed by God. But being blessed by God messes up their whole lives and the lives of generations to come. Sarai and Abram could tell you: When God decides to bless you, nothing is ever the same. Fun fact about the Book of Genesis: it sometimes tells two versions of the same story. 1 Today we hear the second account of God s call to Sarai and Abram. The Lord appears to them, calling them into covenant relationship: I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. But there is a twist to this story. The couple is there s no polite way to put it, really they re not exactly spring chickens. Abram is 99; Sarai is 90. And that only matters because God promises to bless them, very specifically, with children, biological children. The rest of Genesis the rest of the Bible, really can be read as one long story of how this blessing played out for this family. Sarai and Abram get what God promised. They have a son, named Isaac, who has some children of his own, who have some children of their own, and before you know it, yes, whole nations can trace their family trees back to Sarai and Abram. But that is what God does. God is in the blessing business. When God comes looking for you, you re about to be blessed. And when God wants to bless you, if you re not nervous, you re not paying attention. Because God s blessing changes the course of Sarah and Abraham s lives. It costs them something. The blessing sets up all kinds of drama, for these two and for their descendants: family dysfunction, slavery, Exodus, wilderness, Promised Land, prophets, rebellion, exile, return and on it goes, right down to the present day. All because God came looking for Sarai and Abram. All because of the blessing. Have you been blessed? Do you want to be? Don t be too quick to answer. III. 2

3 I want to say a couple of things about blessing this morning literally. I want to say two things. I know preachers are supposed to have three points, but you re nice people and I ve decided to cut you a break. What do we know about blessing from the story of Sarai and Abram? What have we learned about blessing? Two things, I think. First, when God blesses you, you get a new name. Did you notice this? It is Sarai and Abram when the story starts, but it is Sarah and Abraham by the time the story is over. When you get blessed by God, you get a whole new name. And that is no small thing. Some of the more observant among you may have noticed my son s resemblance to me. I feel bad for the boy; I know it will be his cross to bear. I know because I am the spitting image of my father. When I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania the Alabama section of Pennsylvania a lot of people never bothered learning my name. They just called me, Harry s boy, or Harry. I love my father, but I grew to hate that name. Life is like that, isn t it? People pick out names for you. People impose names on you. Oh, I know you; you re the pretty one, the smart one, the dutiful one, the prodigal child. You re a loser, a nobody, a stuck up, a fake. People pick out these names for us and there is nothing we can do about that. But have you ever noticed what we do when we baptize somebody? We speak their name. We speak their name because your real name your truest name, the name written in heaven, the name that nobody can take away from you your real name is the name spoken by God over the baptismal waters: Beloved. Precious. Child of God. That s who you are. That s your name. When God blesses you, you get a new name. Second, when God blesses you, your life is about to get interesting. I believe blessing is one of those Princess Bride words. I can t really pull off an imitation of Inigo Montoya, but I love to quote him: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. We tend to use blessed as a synonym for privileged. So I might say I have been blessed with my education, my family, my health, my work, my full and luxurious head of hair. 3

4 But the Bible uses blessed as a synonym for chosen. That s a little different. That s a little unsettling. Here is what you need to know about God: God is always up to something. God is always working an angle. God is on a mission from God. But God does not like working alone. So God has a habit of barging in on people: showing up unexpected, dropping in unannounced. And like Harvey Milk, God is here to recruit you. God has got a job for you to do. So when the Bible talks about being blessed, it means being set apart for the sake of God s purpose. It means you ve been recruited to play your part for the sake of the reign of God. So you may be blessed with health and wealth, with family and friends, with fulfilling hobbies and meaningful work to do. But if these things really are blessings if they really have come to you from the hand of God then you have not been given these things for your own sake, or your own private benefit. God has got something for you to do. God is trying to recruit you. And the really alarming thing is that this can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, right in the middle of an otherwise ordinary life. You don t have to ditch your family or quit your job or move to the middle of nowhere. You just have to pay attention. You just have to be ready. Sooner or later, God will come looking for you. You will get a new name. And your life will get interesting. IV. By any definition of the term by any reasonable standard Plymouth Church has been blessed: Blessed with this beautiful space, Blessed with so much creative programing and amazing music, Blessed with the incredible people who sit in this choir loft, who populate those pews, Blessed with an absurdly talented staff and a Senior Minister who can only be described as bald. The point is: we have been blessed. And that should make us nervous. 4

5 Because now we know what happens when you get blessed. You get a new name, and your life gets interesting. I believe God has got a new name for us, a new name for this church. Or, maybe it is more like a new reputation. Maybe we used to be known as the Country Club Church, the Sunday Morning Professional Networking Opportunity Church, South of Grand at Prayer. Maybe that is the reputation we used to have. But I believe that God has got a new name, a new reputation for this church. Plymouth? That s the church were all are welcome. Plymouth? That s the church where they grow in love of God and neighbor, Plymouth? Plymouth? That s the church where over 100 people read the Bible in 90 days. Plymouth? That s the church where they do so much to assist refugees? Plymouth? That s the church doing all of that work to make a difference in our community, in our world. God wants us to bless us with a new name. And God wants to make our life a lot more interesting. Because the blessings that we have been given the incredible resources of this church have not been conferred on us for our own sake, or our own enjoyment or our own private benefit. I believe that God has blessed this church has so richly blessed this church for the sake of the world beyond our walls. There are hungry and homeless people, right here in Des Moines, who do not know that their lives matter. There are prisoners just released from prison who do not know how they will find their way in the world. There are refugees, right here in Des Moines, who have come to our community after seeing so much suffering and do not know if anyone cares. There are people all over central Iowa, desperate for a church exactly like this, but they have almost given up the hope that a church like this exists. Make no mistake, Plymouth Church: We have been blessed. Now what are we going to do about it? Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 4126 Ingersoll Avenue Des Moines, Iowa Phone: (515) Fax: (515) mmardis-lecroy@plymouthchurch.com 5

6 1 The first version of this story is found in chapter 15. The difference is that, in this version of the story, Sarai/Sarah is clearly named, along with Abram/Abraham, as a recipient of the promise. See Dennis T. Olson s commentary in the Access Bible. Edited by Gail R. O Day and David Peterson. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp