Los Alamos Church of Christ
Drawing Closer to God
The
Altar of the Ordinary
Blessings
(Start with
sneeze)
It is an odd thing that many of us say, “Bless
you” after someone sneezes. Some
even use the German word for health…"Gesundheit". There are conflicting explanations as to
where the tradition of saying, “God, bless you” after a sneeze came
from.
-One view is related to evil spirits. The belief is that when someone sneezes
his or her soul is released out with the sneeze. It is then possible that evil spirits
could capture your soul unless someone says, “Bless you” faster than the evil
spirit can grab your soul.
-Or some believe the tradition is the
opposite. An evil spirit is
expelled from your body when you sneeze and the “Bless You” keeps the spirit
from returning.
-I like the Jewish tradition a little
better. Because the Bible says God
breathed life into Adam, when we sneeze the breath of life leaves the body and
the “Bless you” puts the life back into the body; like spiritual CPR. You may be saving the person’s life by
saying, “God bless you”.
-Others say the tradition came into use during
the plagues of the 14th century. When a person sneezed they were as good
as dead. Saying “God bless you”
helped prevent their impending death due to the
plague.
-In Renaissance times a superstition was formed
claiming one's heart stopped during a sneeze. Saying “Bless you” was a prayer that the
heart would start beating again.
What is interesting is that we don’t believe
any of those traditions are true. Yet, we continue to say, “Bless
you”. Why, in a world of scientific
explanations for every medical phenomenon, do we feel the need to bless someone when they
sneeze?
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Closely related to our desire to say, “Bless
you” after a sneeze, is our tradition of saying, “Good
luck.”
All of us have met someone for the first time
and had a meaningful conversation and at the end of the encounter we would say
something like, “It’s been nice meeting you. Good luck on… whatever”. Why would we, as 21st century
Americans, say, “Good luck”? Do we
believe that “luck” is something we can give to
another?
At the beginning of all kinds of contests the
announcer will introduce the two competitors and then say the ridiculous, “Good
luck to both of you”. What? How could you wish luck on both of them
as they compete? Wouldn’t good luck
for one be bad luck for the other?
Why do we feel the need to say something like, “Good luck”
anyway?
Perhaps, we do believe in “luck”. How many people still carry good luck charms? How many athletes have superstitions
about wearing the same socks when they ball baseball? Why do we continue to play the
lottery? The odds of winning a big
lottery would require a lot of luck. “I am a lucky person.” Or, “I would never
gamble. I have terrible
luck.”
Why do we want to say, “Good luck”?
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On our metaphorical cruise to spiritual
destinations we are spending some time at the Altar of the Ordinary. We are giving exquisite attention to the
details of God’s handiwork all around us.
We have looked at God’s creation in wonder and reverence. We have looked at ordinary people and
realized there is no such thing… as ordinary people. Everyone has a story. Everyone is special. Everyone is made in the image of
God.
We had a homework assignment:
-See People
-Be kind to someone at your own
expense.
How did that go? That is an exercise in drawing closer to
God by seeing the people made in his image.
This morning I want to take it to the next
level. I snicker to myself when
athletes are interviewed and they say, “If we are going to win this game, we
have to take it to the next level.” What level were you playing last week?
In worship at the Altar of the
Ordinary we are going to take to the next level. We are going to take our inherent desires to say “Bless you” when someone
sneezes and to our inherent need to say, “Good Luck” and we are
going to learn how to, biblically, bless others.
If we are going to win this game we need to
take it to the next level!
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To offer a blessing is to bring the favor of God upon
another. It is a form of prayer,
which calls upon our benevolent God to interact in a person’s life to work for
good. It is bringing Romans 8:28
powerfully into a person’s life.
Romans
8:28 And we know that
in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.
A blessing is calling upon God to work all
things for good on that person. It is the opposite of a curse. A curse wishes bad upon a person. A blessing brings good. When someone sneezes or when we would
say “Good luck” we fulfill our desire
for good on the person by blessing them.
How cool is that?
Let’s look at a couple of biblical
examples.
Genesis 12:1-3
The LORD had said to
Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to
the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless
you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you."
God promised Abraham that wherever he went he
would be blessed and be a
blessing. Wow, wouldn’t you like to
hear that from God?
Numbers 6:22-27 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 upon 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."
Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out
of your mouths, but only what is helpful
for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen.
John
7:37-38 On the last
and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone
is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, streams of living water
will flow from within him."
We who believe in
the priesthood of all believers should bring the blessings of God upon all those
around us. We should never let
cursing or bad language come out of our mouths, but rather we respond to others
with blessing. We, who have the
Holy Spirit within us, should bring forth streams of living water to bless
people. We see people. We help people. We bring blessings on
people!
We take it to the next level. We bless
others!
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Let’s make it real. Let’s get practical. Let’s look at some specific
blessings.
We
bless our food.
Mark 6:41
Taking the five
loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the
loaves.
According to Jewish tradition, before
every meal, the faithful Jewish man or woman would offer this blessing: “Blessed
are you, Lord our God, King of the
world, who has caused bread to come forth out of the earth”.
The thought is blessing God for bringing the food to our table.
1 Timothy 4:4 For everything God created is good,
and nothing is to be rejected if it is
received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and
prayer.
I would like to advocate a blessing before each
meal will draw us closer to God.
Saying even this short prayer would be a witness to those around us of
that realization.
We
Bless Houses
Here is a blessing we don’t do… a house
blessing. Let me read an excerpt
from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, An
Altar in the World. She was an
Episcopal priest. This is going to
sound strange to us who believe in the priesthood of all believers, but I think
this will help us to understand a house blessing.
When I was a parish priest, I was often
asked to officiate at the blessing of a home, which I did with pleasure since
too many people thought holiness was reserved for God’s house, not theirs. I did not take anything with me but a
prayer book and a little brown vial of holy oil that I slipped into my pocket.
The people who lived in the house
supplied everything else from their own drawers and cupboards. They invited their friends, some of
whom believed in God and some of whom did not. To participate in a house blessing, all
you have to do is to care about the people who live there. You constitute a blessing simply by
showing up.
When everyone was accounted
for, I began the service with a prayer, using the oil from my pocket to mark the
lintel over the front door with the sign of the cross. Then different people read bits of
scripture, passing the Bible from hand to hand. Then someone who lived in the house lit a
candle and we followed that person from room to room, lighting a candle in each
one and saying prayers that blessed what happened in that room.
-In the kitchen, we blessed
the hands that worked there, asking God to give us grateful hearts for daily
bread.
- In the bedroom, we blessed
hours of rest and refreshment for the people who slept
there.
- In the workshop, we blessed
the labor done there, that those who did it might share the joy of creation with
God.
-My favorite prayer was the
one we said in the bathroom. Trying
to get everyone in there was always tricky, as was finding a place for the
candle. Nine times out of ten it
ended up on the toilet tank. Many
things happen in a bathroom, as you know, and not all of them rise naturally to
the lips in prayer. Private prayer,
maybe, but not public, with a bunch of your friends all standing there fully
clothed. The blessing prayer for
the bathroom strikes me as a perfect compromise between truth and tact. “O holy God, in the incarnation of your
Son our Lord you made our flesh the instrument of your self-revelation: Give us
a proper respect and reverence for our mortal bodies, keeping them clean and
fair, whole and sound; that, glorifying you in them, we may confidently await
our being clothed upon with spiritual bodies, when that which is mortal is
transformed by life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
After we had blessed all the rooms we
ended up in the living room again, gathering around the table our hosts had set
for Communion. After the bathroom
prayer, this was my second favorite part. I loved seeing what people had decided to
use on their home communion tables. We were all so used to the starched white
linen at church that an old crocheted tablecloth looked wrong at first. Stained with spots from a dozen
Thanksgivings, with the shadow of a round burn from a hot pan and not too
expertly ironed, it looked too homely for a holy meal—but that, I think, was not
the cloth’s fault. It was our
fault, for being so clumsy at blessing ordinary things, for failing even to look
for the holiness in a wooden table, a stained tablecloth, a three-dollar loaf of
bread.
Wow, what a powerful act to bless what goes on
in a home to the glory of God! To see our homes as a place of blessing has to
bring us closer to God.
Bless People
As I have already said, instead of saying “Good
luck” we develop the habit of saying “God bless you”.
-When someone is leaving instead of saying
“Have a safe trip” we say “God bless your trip”.
-When someone tells us about an exciting
project, instead of saying, “Good luck with that” we say “God bless your
efforts”.
-When someone tells us about something terrible
– illness or tragedy or hurt or a struggle – instead of saying “I hope it works
out okay” we say, “God bless…” Or
even better offer to pray with them.
-When we are around someone we don’t like or
who is hateful to us we follow Peter’s advice…
1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult
with insult, but with blessing,
because to this you were called so that you may inherit a
blessing.
-When a kid comes up to us for our attention we
do a Jesus; when we would pat a kid on the head…
Matthew
19:13-15 Then little
children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for
them. But the disciples rebuked
those who brought them. Jesus said,
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of
heaven belongs to such as these”.
When he had placed his hands on
them, he went on from there.
What more powerful lesson than to hug a kid and
say “God bless you.”
Let’s practice… now. If there is a kid beside you hug them
and say, “God bless you.” If there
are no kids near you… hug and adult and say, “God bless you.”
As we interact with people, around us every
day, let’s begin to bless them.
Evangelism in its simplest form is blessing people!
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Assignment: Do one or more of the
following
-Recite a meal blessings… “Blessed are you,
Lord our God, King of the world, who has caused bread to come forth out of the
earth”.
-Do a house blessing… get some friends together
and some candles…
-Practice blessing a person instead of saying,
“Good luck”.
Every time you hear a sneeze, this week, take
it to the next level and offer blessings.
s
