Who Is Blessed? Who can we bless?

Micah 6 & Matthew 5

Last Sunday, I went home after our Pre-Annual Meeting Budget meeting energized. I can’t say that I remember feeling this way before but I was moved by something that happened as the conversation turned from money specifically to gratitude for the leaders of the congregation, leaders who have had a really tough financial year to manage. Some of the past leaders thanked the present leaders for their work and then one of the present leaders said, “Well, you know, I’ve been in this congregation for a decade and there have been ups and downs but somehow, it’s always worked out. God has never left us.”

And then another member said it out loud, “And we need to remember this next year, when we won’t necessarily have the resources that are coming this year—that God hasn’t left us.”

And then people were reminding each other how God is present and faithful, week after week, year after year, even though we can’t always see it clearly.

 

It was really beautiful to witness this outpouring of faithful words of encouragement to one another arising out of a budget meeting. I really needed to see and hear that. I left feeling like I had seen a miracle.

 

Like Pastor Edward preached last week, we all have many diverse ways that Jesus calls us and how wonderful to see people in awe of God taking care of us in unexpected, abundant ways. So many congregations, our congregation included, are having to learn to trust God more fully than ever as we cannot necessarily measure anything we do by the usual cultural measurements anymore. We are having to learn to navigate a whole new reality, where the things we’re practicing here are not necessarily supported anywhere else in our lives, where we’re being invited to learn things we didn’t know before.

 

In the new film out at the turn of the year, Avatar: Way of Water, a family of forest Na’vi have to escape for their lives and make a new home with the water Na’vi. It is not easy for any of them to change their ways from forest to water, but the teen members of the forest family have a somewhat easier time learning how to adapt from the water teens. For example, Tsireya (the most welcoming of the water people to the newcomers) teaches them how to hold their breath under water for longer and longer periods of time by showing them how to deepen their breathing and quell their fears. She says, “The way of water has no beginning and no end. The sea is around you and in you. The sea is your home before your birth and after your death. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world.” 

 

When Four12 youth gathered with Sam Rahberg last week to learn Christian spiritual practices, they practiced breathing in the presence of God, which sounds a lot like this, doesn’t it?

The way of God has no beginning and no end. God is around you and in you. God is your home before your birth and after your death. Our hearts beat in connection with God and God’s beautiful world.

 

Recognizing our connectedness to God and the whole creation is like learning to breathe in a new way. But learning to trust, learning to breathe, in a new way is not easy and takes practice and we can be thrown off from practices, especially when faced with obstacles.

 

In the film, humans are trying to kill the Na’vi and exploit the animals and resources of their planet because their own earth is dying and because of their deep fear of death. This is a fictional story but clearly so true to life. We carry around in our bodies the pain and trauma of generations of people who have feared death, who have exploited and been exploited, who have perpetuated and received violence… 

And into this context of present and generational pain and brokenness, Jesus teaches us a whole new way of interpreting life. 

 

Blessed are you…Jesus looks around at people who probably feel anything but blessed, and breathes love and blessing into them. Jesus fills them with hope to sustain them. Jesus gifts them with something new within, a new interpretation, a new way of moving in the world.

 

If we can see ourselves as loved and blessed by God through the most challenging of circumstances, I wonder how we can move into 2023 differently? Yes, it has been very hard and we can be honest about that, and at the same time, God is blessing us week after week… so who can we bless in 2023?

 

Today’s meeting, where we thank our leaders, recognize milestones of 2022 and pass a budget for 2023, is a first step in imagining who we can bless in 2023 and there are going to be many more steps. During February, we’ll continue hosting advocacy groups who come for their Day on the Hill and there will be invitations to support our guests. In Lent, we’ll gather and deepen in faith, explore how to make changes and do intentional visioning work together.

 

We have been given star words this Epiphany, a tiny focal point for listening to God in a new way in 2023… God’s call to trust, God’s call to practice relaxing, God’s call to rise up… God’s call to us is personal and also, God calls us as a community to see that “we are a diverse people brought together by the grace of God to share with others what we ourselves have received.”

Those words—“diverse people brought together by the grace of God to share with others what we have received” have been this congregation’s mission statement for a very long time and still, we are continuously learning how to live them fully, aren’t we?

 

It may be that in the course of this year, we find new words that better describe God’s call for us for this time—that give us a new visioning image—that give us new action steps, but whether or not the words become new, God looks at around and wants us to know… 

 

You are blessed—just as you are right now, in all kinds of situations that might not feel anything like blessed—still, you are blessed because God breathes love and blessing into you. Jesus fills you, sustains you. And gifts us together with something new within that empowers us to ask in this new time, who can we bless? Who will we bless? I am so excited for what we will do together in 2023—how we will give and receive and give again, and how in practicing Jesus’ new way of interpreting life, we will become new.