The Grim Reaper came for me last night, and I beat him off with a vacuum cleaner. Talk about Dyson with death… Yeah, I was thinking about a career change to become a stand-up comedian. I’ll probably stick with being a vicar...
In these next three or four weeks following on from Easter we’re going to be asking ourselves “What do Easter people look like? What is it that makes Easter people stand out from the crowd?”
One of the first things you’d probably say is “Joy.” The disciples were filled with… joy when they saw the Lord. God forbid that Christians should be miserable and Scrooge-like! So in two weeks’ time we’re going to be thinking about joyful giving. God loves a cheerful giver.
What are Easter people like? I suppose another thing you might say is “Energy.” Easter people have a buzz about them. Just think about how the doleful mood of the 11 disciples was swept away so suddenly and so enduringly by that newfound vigour that sprang from their encounters with the risen Christ. So we’re going to talk about enthusiastic serving three weeks from now. “I live” said the apostle Paul, “yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”
Praying as an Easter People
But today, we’re going to talk about praying, and a particular aspect of prayer that you might not be very familiar with. Praying takes many shapes and forms; contemplative prayer, silent prayer, intercessory prayer, meditative prayer, open prayer… But what is the positive, grace-empowered and affirming praying that you’d expect to hear on the lips of people who have gone from death to life? I want to talk about blessing others through prayer, which is the subtitle of this book “The Grace Outpouring.” I read this a few months ago and it had quite an impact on me – and several others in this church as well (and there’s a copy available on the bookstall)…
This book is about a house of prayer in the back of beyond in rural Wales. It’s called Ffald y Brenin which is Welsh for “Sheepfold of the King”. Things started to change there when one day they said to God, “Lord, teach us more about how to pray in the way you want us to pray.” So they started to explore ways of praying that reflect the heart of God rather than the methods of man. And they were led to bless their local communities; not just to pray for blessing, but to speak out blessing from their hearts (I’ll explain a little more about that later on).
It led to a revolution in the life of the centre. Whenever they had visitors, they began to ask if they could bless them before they left – and remarkable things started to happen when they did.
Here’s one example: A couple driving in the area arrived on the doorstep one afternoon and said to the director “Would you mind telling us what’s going on here?” They sat down together over a cup of tea and the visitors explained that they felt strangely compelled to make a diversion and come up the steep, winding drive that leads to Ffald y Brenin. So the director and his wife, Roy and Daphne, talked about what the centre was for and arranged a little tour of the place.
Finally, at the end of the visit, Roy said to the couple, “We like to bless our visitors before they leave. May we bless you?” They had no real problem with that so Roy said something like “I bless you in the name of Jesus to know God, his purpose for your life, and his blessings on you and your family and the situations of your life. Amen.”
It sounds like a fairly innocuous thing to say doesn’t it? But the visitors started to shed tears as the presence of God came upon them, so Roy just left them alone in the chapel with God. A little later they came and found him again, full of gratitude for the sense of God’s presence over them and still rather shaken still by this unexpected encounter. Roy told them a bit more about the good news of Jesus before they left.
Well, as it turned out, this was no one-off. Time and time again they found that blessing individuals in this kind of way opened up new outpourings of the glory and power of God in people’s lives. People were converted. Others were healed. Others were filled with the Holy Spirit.
A sceptic might say that maybe there was something psychologically manipulative going on. Maybe there is something in the words or the approach or the general atmosphere that has an emotional impact on people. Well, maybe they’re right...
But the people at Ffald y Brenin started to bless their sleepy little local community in prayer every Friday from their chapel. Inspired by Psalm 118 which says “From the house of the Lord we bless you” they spoke out words of blessing each week on the local farms, businesses, schools and so on.
Livestock and harvests began to break records. Instead of twins being born in the nearby flocks of sheep local farmers were absolutely stunned by the number of triplets and quads that were being born. The ewes were just about coping but the farmer’s wife was running around with bottles to feed all the lambs. And local businesses began to take off and prosper. The nearby Bed and Breakfast won a national award. God was doing a new thing in the valley as his people blessed homes, marriages, supportive friendships, schools, farms, businesses and churches in the name of Jesus. And God is still doing a wonderful work there.
Other houses of prayer have started up as a result and other communities are being impacted by this kind of blessing prayer. When I was there in December, Roy spoke to me about a neighbouring valley in South Wales experiencing similar things, about a fresh outpouring in Anglesey and about a revival in school in Cyprus. I shared these stories in an evening service talk in early January so you can listen to that on the website as soon as it’s back online again.
Do you want to see an outpouring of grace in this parish, in your neighbourhood?
Easter people are people who pray and bless.
Blessing in the Bible and in Our Experience
I have been doing a little research into blessing in the Bible. In fact, this week, I looked up every reference to blessing in the whole of Scripture. Unsurprisingly the vast majority, about 80% of verses, refer to God blessing individuals, blessing his people, blessing the nation, blessing the earth.
Then about 10% are about what a blessed life looks like; “Blessed are you when…” kind of thing.
Then the word is used of people towards God. “Bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,” - which is equivalent to celebrating and praising him for his bountiful grace.
That leaves the remainder, about 30 references, which are about what happens when people bless others. Parents bless their children. Children bless their parents. Kings bless their subjects. Priests bless their congregations.
In our Gospel reading this morning the risen Jesus blessed his disciples.
“When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them” it says. “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”
So, in fact, speaking blessing on his followers was the last thing Jesus chose to do before ascending into heaven.
What does the word “blessing” mean? We use the word in several different ways.
We talk of small comforts in this way. “A cup of tea first thing in the morning, what a blessing.”
We talk of events that have fortuitous consequences as being ”a blessing in disguise.”
A blessing can be a request for permission. “Gaining your parents' blessing" means being granted their consent.
A blessing is, believe it or not, the collective noun for a group of Unicorns. As in, “I was walking down the road last Tuesday when I saw a blessing of unicorns.” Better than a murder of crows I suppose…
And, of course, as you all know, some street gangs have an initiation rite called “getting blessed” in which the new member is punched as hard as possible in the forehead.
When someone says “Bless you” it usually means “You have just sneezed” or “I hope things will generally turn out well with you.” None of these meanings are what the word means in the Bible, not even the unicorn one!
In the Bible the word “bless” means something quite different. To be blessed means to be favoured by God. Blessing someone in the name of Jesus confers resurrection power right at the heart of their being, imparting to them fullness of life and spiritual strength.
Take Authority and Bless!
A little earlier I said that we don’t just pray for blessing for others, but we speak out blessing to others from our hearts. Some people I’ve spoken to seem a little uneasy about this for two reasons.
Firstly, how can Christians bless? Isn’t it God alone who blesses?
To respond to this objection, we need to stress that blessings are directly associated with God and, even when people bless others, the blessing itself always comes from God, not from us. It is not magic, it is not mind over matter; it is ministering in supernatural power and authority. When Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph in Luke’s Gospel he wasn’t bestowing on them something that God was not willing to grant. He was entering into the flow of God’s generous, gracious will to bless and anoint and bring favour.
In the Numbers reading God says “They will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
The second objection is this: Why would we bless others who are not Christians, who are not doing the will of God and who have no intention of doing so? Won’t they just become more comfortable and less aware of their need for salvation?
Two examples of blessing others appear in Paul’s letters and they both talk about the kind of people we should be happy to bless from our hearts. What sort of person do you think that might be? Is it those who are open to God and who basically wish the church well? Is it upright, law-abiding people? Is it children? Is it what we might call men and women of peace?
You might have thought so. But in 1 Corinthians 4:12 it says, “When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it.” And in Romans 12.24 it says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
That doesn’t mean “You should bless those who oppose you like hard-line atheists, anti-Christian occultists, lead-stealing vandals and difficult neighbours – but forget everyone else.” It means we are to bless even those who are unreasonable, hostile, awkward and aggressive towards us, how much more those who are pleasant, open and honourable.
That’s really hard to do. But it is key.
Some years ago there was a picture of a river of life flowing out from the chancel, down the nave, out the front doors and into the parish. About six months ago there was another picture from a visiting speaker of a dam full of water about to burst and flow into a dry valley below. One of our number here felt that word related specifically to obeying this call from God to bless the surrounding area in the name of the Lord.
We’ve stated to do this – just a little – but it is a start. We blessed the local business in Station Road. Within weeks the pub asked for some Gideon’s Bibles for their guest rooms and Sandra noticed a change in one of the shopkeepers she speaks to regularly. Why? Because we are an Easter people and we want everybody to know the grace and favour of God on their lives.
The Blessing of Numbers Six
Let’s finish by looking again at that blessing in Numbers 6 because it is so beautiful.
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
You can’t tell this when it is written in English but in the original Hebrew it is mathematically and symmetrically perfect. Each line has two blessings, the second one building on the other. The first line contains 3 words of 5 letters. The second line contains 4 words of 5 letters and the last line contains 5 words of 5 letters. The sense is that as each line is spoken the flow of blessing and the outpouring of grace increases, like a tap being opened slowly until water is gushing at full strength.
“The Lord bless you and keep you.” That is, may he show favour to you, watch over your life and defend you.
“The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.” That is, may he show you the glory of his love for you and pour out grace upon you.
And “the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” That is, may he direct his interest towards your life and bless it with shalom, a deep and enduring experience of wellbeing and wholeness.
Oh, that we would learn, as a resurrection people, to bless our neighbours and friends!
Oh, that a spiritual dam might break, releasing a torrent of grace into every household of the parish of Preston on Tees and beyond. Amen.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 1st May 2011
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