Benedictions

Numbers 6:22-27

The thing about a benediction is that for it to become realized, it must be lived. Have a blessed day only becomes an actuality as the recipient feels the day has been blessed. May the Lord bless you and keep you; may his face shine ever before you only becomes real if the recipient experiences God’s face upon them. Go in peace and sin no more is only true if the recipient feels peace settle upon them, and their sense of the absence of God diminishes.

As Moses led the Israelites toward the Promised Land, God offers the teaching heard this morning. The priests are to bless the people. They are to cover them with the assurance of God’s presence. They are to promise them that the love of God will always be near them. God instructs them to do so because God has every intention of making it so for Israel every step of their journey. 

Let’s look at the pieces of this benediction. There are basically three parts within the benediction—

keeping

grace 

peace

each connected to God’s felt presence—

blessing

being apparent

seeing

So, in order for Israel to truly experience the first three, they need to feel the last three.

How does that happen?

Moses and his brother, Aaron have some work to do, that’s how! They will have to practice the arts of keeping, grace, and peace as they walk among the Israelites as God’s implements. 

Nothing has changed since God spoke to Moses those thousands of years ago. The promises of God remain exactly the same—keeping, grace, and peace are still the essential gifts God offers to all the world. As we take the name of Jesus, we become those very same implements of God charged with communicating the promises of God and ensuring that those promises become more than words, transforming into the actual experience of all people. 

In short, we will become a blessing for other people.

Again, how does this happen?

First, understand keeping. The term here is the same as that used describing a shepherd’s work with a flock—the shepherd keeps the flock—i.e., the shepherd tends to the animals’ needs; the shepherd feeds them; the shepherd guides them; the shepherd protects them; and so on. So, God promises to all these tasks for God’s children. However, God does so through you and me. We are in the midst of a wonderful period of engaged mission, having finished a week of repair and renovation at the Greene Street Mission Center, now turning to a week of day camp for GAP children at St. Andrews, and then concluding with our young people walking with and among street missionaries in Asheville, North Carolina, tending the neediest of all in that city. Keeping plays a significant role in each of those works. We repair and restore a building so it will be a safe haven for all who enter it seeking God’s help, comfort, and care. We want it secure. We want it solid. We want it intact. We provide a positive camp experience for children so they can know the world is safer than they thought. We will keep them while they are with us, and we may well be called to extend that care beyond camp to get them in more secure environments. A people is known by the care for the poorest among them—our young people are going to see and work to help homeless folks find safety in the city; tend to their needs; and feed, clothe, and help them find that the world does care about them (sometimes the most important element one can give another human being). God’s keeping manifests in our keeping of those set before us.

Second, understand grace. Grace is really nothing more than understanding no chance is a last chance. With God, we never run out of tomorrows. With God, no mistake is ultimate. That is good news for everybody everywhere. Grace allows us to accept life as it is without falling into denial—we are imperfect; we are incomplete; and we are prone to wander. So, the key to anyone realizing the reality of this promise is to be met with grace. When someone falls short, and instead of being met by abject judgment, they are met with, “How can I help?”, the whole world can change. It feels good knowing mistakes will not be met with grudges borne, or dismissals given, but rather with an assist, a release, or an offer of a second chance. Therefore, share that experience. Make it real for someone else.

Finally, understand peace. At its most essential level, peace is the absence of conflict. Start there. Minimize conflict. We may disagree, but disagreement can lead to reconciliation, reconsideration, and retooling just as much as all out warfare. Meet people as if they had a right to be there. Listen, and listen carefully to what others say. Second, as inevitable conflict arises, immediately begin to seek its end. Compromise is not a failure (no matter what Capitol Hill declares). Moreover, recognize mistakes as mistakes, rather than falling into defensiveness (return to No. 2 above). Apologize. Repent in its truest form—i.e., turn around from a direction that goes nowhere or hits a dead end. Try to understand the other as a child of God, as able and disabled as yourself, and why they believe what they believe. The more understanding that can arise, the less conflict comes. 

As we engage these three blessings, the presence of God comes more clearly into view. God’s face becomes more available—often in the face of the people around us. God’s glory begins to shine through the world as we begin to live the promises of God. God’s beatitude falls upon us as shalom—the total peace from God—becomes our context. 

Try it. See what happens.