Blessings and Mr. Spock

Here is my sermon from New Year’s Day based on the Aaronic Blessing from  Numbers.

“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.”

Move One: Blessings for the Journey

We have arrived.  Where?  Well, physically you have arrived in hard wooden pews. We have arrived at the time of worship where I get your undivided attention for twelve minutes.  Spiritually, we arrived at the manager.  We have lit candles, sang about the Christ-child and welcomed him again into our homes and lives.  Yet, most of the world is celebrating that we have arrived at a new year.  2012 has arrived.  And whether or not we would like to repeat 2011 or prefer to go a bit further back in time, it’s here. 

It seems weird to me that on the beginning of a new year, at the arrival of 2012, our Old Testament reading is a benediction, a blessing, a sending that has been used for centuries in Jewish and Christian communities alike.  Why such a reading at the beginning of the year? 

A closer look will reveal that for the Israelite community, this blessing was giving at both an end and a beginning.  The Israelites has been camped at Mt. Sinai for close a year.  There they had experienced the thrill of receiving the Ten Commandments and the despair of the golden calf.  There, through Moses, God explained the role of priests and the tabernacle.  And now, after a year of “Israelite confirmation program,” they were off, off to begin the next phase of their journey to the Promised Land. 

You see, although we see this blessing as the ending of something, it is really the beginning of something else.  It is not merely the close of our worship service time, but a blessing for the journey of the next hour, day and week.  Just as it was for the Israelites who would be leaving the relative comfort of Sinai, so it is for us who are going to leave the relative comfort of a brick sanctuary for the “wilderness” that is our world.  So on second thought, perhaps this reading is the best way to begin 2012.  We leave 2011 behind, moving forward. What could God possibly have in store for God’s people this year?  If the scriptures are any indication…more than we could dare, ask, dream or imagine. 

Move Two: Getting My Nerd On

This blessing is not only given to us, as Christians on our journey, it was and still is an important part of the Jewish community.  Continuing in the great priestly tradition of Aaron, Moses’ brother, our Jewish brothers and sisters revive these words at the close of their worship as well.  And just as pastors often raise their hands to offer the blessing in our congregations, rabbis do the same…but their hands look a bit different. 

A little like this. 

I know. I know what you’re thinking.  Danielle, that isn’t from the Jews.  It is from Star Trek.  It is from a little bit of both.  Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on Star Trek, took the Vulcan hand greeting from his days growing up as an orthodox Jew.  Nimoy shares that receiving that blessing from his rabbi as a child left quite an impression on him.  When a hand greeting was needed on Star Trek he knew just want to do. 

So why?  Why does this blessing come with such spock-like greeting? 

The Jewish community is known for what is called Midrash.  It is a form of interpretation and explanation that allows the scriptures to shape each other and for filling in gaps.  In the Song of Songs, it talks about the lover, God, looking upon his love through a lattice.  And so the blessing was mediate in the way.  As if the lover behind a lattice was speaking it through a small space in the fence to his lover. 

It is a beautiful image, but one that begs a bigger question.  Why through something? Cannot God just come to us? 

Move Three: Christmas Morning

The Israelites wondered the same thing.  In fact, in Deuteronomy, which is the book just following our reading this morning, they are as bold to ask, “Can’t you just come to us? Do we need a priest in the middle?” 

In the echo of the Israelites question and our own human wondering about God’s willingness to come, we have Christmas.  The in-breaking of God, the coming of the Christ child.  The answer to the question. 

Can’t you just come to us? 

Yes! 

And it changes everything.  I can’t help but think that it is why the shepherds went with haste to the manger.  Before they would need to go to priest or the temple to encounter, to receive God.  Could it be true that they could see God for themselves?  See the face of God not through a small hole in a latticed fence but full-on, radiant and with their very own eyes.   In fact, Luke makes a point to note that they went from the manager praising God for what they had seen—with their own eyes.  

Think about that for a moment.  God—the creator, sustainer and redeemer of the planet—has come to you.  God is not far off, kept at bay by a fence or mediate through a human, God comes to you, into our mess, God is our Emmanuel, God with us. 

Why does this matter?

Because we are not a people of faith who serve a distant, disengaged

God.  We are not a people of faith who serve a God that only loves some and remains distance from other.  No.  We serve a God who uses humankind to share blessing, but God’s spirit is alive and on the move in each kind word spoke, each hopeful promise, each act of justice.  

Can’t you come to us?

“I have,” answers the voice from the manager.  “I am here.” 

Move Four: I Verb You

So what does our ever-present, real and near God blesses us with? 

The Lord bless you and keep you…To bless testifies to the work of God.  It signifies a divine gift.  To keep is specific blessing given to those with concerns for safety, focusing on God’s sheltering people from evil and its effects.  As the Israelites were entering a new season of wilderness wandering, the words “keep you” where likely more needed than ever. 

Can you hear the Christ child whisper, “My dear one, to whom I’m so close, I will bless you, I will keep you”?

Or perhaps you are hearing the Christ child whisper, “I will make my face shine upon you and be gracious to you?” 

God’s shining face stands in stark contrast to the hidden face of God that many of the Israelites, and us, have felt throughout our journey.   One commentator added,  “You get to see God's face glowing, not glaring! This is a gracious move on God's part to those who are undeserving. Moreover, the whole world is brought into view to experience the effects of God's shining face.  In today's idiom, we might say: God smiles on you.” 

The Christ child whispers once more, “the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” 

This is perhaps the hardest to believe and yet the most precious part of the blessing.  In a violent world, peace seems a utopian wish.  Yet, the Lord offers it again to us each day.  The Lord gives peace, shalom, that hopes that all creation will be at rest in God, one another and with ourselves.  This peace is not man-made but passes all human understanding.

People of God, welcome to the end of one journey and the beginning of another.  As you journey through 2012, may you know deep in your being that the Christ child has come.  May the Christ child do more than sit on a shelf in a nativity scene, may the you allow the Christ child to animate your daily life, the Spirit of God to infuse your words and fill your actions with love and justice.  As you leave the safety of this brick building, may you be buoyed by the blessing of God and enter the wilderness of our world with boldness and fearlessness.  And may you remember, that God is not fenced into merely peering through a lattice at his loves, but right here, in our midst. 

“The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.  The Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace.”  Amen.