Blessing

In recent times the word blessing has gone out of favor. For many outside the church, the word does not seem congruent in a secular world; luck is the preferred alternative. The word still turns up occasionally in certain conventional responses, such as "What a blessing!" "Well, bless me!" or, after someone has done a good deed or just sneezed, "Bless you." Even the parting "God bless" retains some general currency, but it often is little more than a kindly farewell. Greeting card messages about having a "blessed Christmas" echo language that for many has only a nostalgic ring.

Even believers who regard the word as having real meaning rarely use it. They look for other ways of saying something similar. Those who continue to use the word tend to be older, more conservative or charismatic Christians, some of whom use it quite habitually.

Blessing in the Bible and Beyond

Blessing is a central theme in the Bible, second only to its emphasis on deliverance. These two great themes speak of the main ways God relates to the world - through dramatic intervention into it and through regular participation within it. Hebrew and Greek words for blessing are associated with other terms, such as presence, peace, success. At its root, a blessing refers to God's friendly approach to those who are open to receiving divine generosity. When a blessing is given, either by God to us or by us in God's name to one another, there is a specific recognition of the person being addressed and a recognition that this person is directly affected by the content of the blessing. While blessing is similar to thanking, it goes further in the direction of appreciation by acknowledging the character of the one blessed and therefore strengthening the bond between them.

As any concordance demonstrates, the biblical passages containing the word blessing are too numerous to list, but the following questions and answers summarize what is central to them.

What is a blessing? Blessings include such things as the gift and enhancement of life, fertility and other forms of tangible reward, the experience of salvation through Christ and the deepening growth of the believing community.

Who blesses? ln the Bible blessings are conveyed mostly by God, either directly or by request, occasionally by Christ but also by human beings, such as priests and then increasingly any of God's people.

Who is blessed? Those blessed are especially the chosen people (including children and all human beings through the people of God - even those who revile and curse the chosen ones) and food and drink (both good gifts of God).

How does a blessing come? It can be conveyed in either a conventional or a fresh way, by either word or action, and can occur in a wide variety of settings, private and public, alone or with others.

When is a blessing given? Blessings are conveyed on various occasions, but they notably come at the beginning of someone's lifework or reign, at the conclusion of public worship, at the exchange of greetings or farewells, during a wedding and just before dying.

Over the next few centuries of the early church and beyond, additional forms of blessing developed: for example, rituals for blessing people at different stages in their lives, the blessing of various objects and activities in the church building and the blessing of key ventures, objects, seasons and anniversaries in the wider community. The chief innovation here, somewhat doubtful in view of the biblical focus, was the blessing of inanimate objects other than food and drink. Ceremonies involving blessings also became more elaborate, and the conveying of blessings increasingly fell into clerical hands.

Blessing in Church and Daily Life

Although even Christians use the word blessing less today, we still experience it and should give expression to it in various ways. For example, we should joyfully acknowledge and value God for choosing us to become sons and daughters of the kingdom, for redeeming us in Christ and justifying us despite our sinfulness and unworthiness and for promising us both personal and cosmic transformation in the last days. But life is full of other kindly actions on God's part, large and small, surprising and regular. We should be aware of these and regularly remind others of them. God is generous day after day, year after year, making good things available to those open to receiving them.

We can bless others as well as God. We should do this when others show us special kindly actions reminiscent of the ones God directly showers upon us. At such a time we can respond by passing on some blessing to them on God's behalf or by giving them some tangible evidence of our appreciation for them, a blessing or gesture that will evoke a response in them similar to the one their action has evoked in us. We have a deeper obligation to do this to those whom God has placed in greatest proximity to us, for example, members of our immediate family, long-standing friends, members of our communal church group and close colleagues.

We do not have to wait on a priest or clergyperson to pass on these blessings to others. Under the leading of God's Spirit, any of God's people can perform this function in church or outside it. Likewise the blessing over bread and wine connected with the Lord's Supper (see Communion) can be conducted by any respected member, couple or family in the congregation. This is also true of the blessing that concludes a Christian gathering, for this is only a corporate version of
the common blessing by Christians of one another at the end of any significant time they are in each other's company and, as such, is a clear reminder of the close continuity between what happens in church and ordinary life.

Using the word blessing itself is not essential to the giving of one. It is not a magical term whose absence causes God to withhold divine favor. Often the content and manner of the blessing speaks for itself. At other times synonyms can be used, as in the Bible, where the word is part of a wider language field. The word happy, frequently used in modern translations of Jesus' blessings, or beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount, is not a good alternative. It focuses too much on the subjective well-being of the believer rather than the objective endorsement of God. A New Testament scholar wrestling with the best translation of the word in the Sermon on the Mount concluded that the English term closest in meaning and spirit to it was Congratulations! This was an excellent choice.

There is something for unbelievers in this whole phenomenon too. In sharing news about God with them, we should be careful to do so in a way that comes to them as a blessing rather than as a duty or demand. This will be helped if we associate the special blessings of the gospel with the wider blessings God showers on all people day after day, of which they are occasionally aware. After all, the good news is essentially an invitation, and although this entails repentance, people
should realize that accepting it is something for which congratulations are in order. Fortunately, even those who reject the word blessing because of its religious associations are themselves sometimes looking for the gracious reality of which the word speaks. For it is a fact that most people, whatever their religious convictions or lack of them, deep down long to be blessed. This desire is basic to who we are as human beings and. as such, is implanted in us all by God.

» See also: Blessing-Family

» See also: Farewell

» See also: Fellowship

» See also: Greeting

» See also: Ministry

» See also: Pleasure

» See also: Worship

References and Resources

R. Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount: A Foundation for Understanding (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1982); G. Vann, The Divine Pity: A Study in the Social Implications of the Beatitudes (London: Collins, 1945); C. Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the Life of the Church (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978).

— Robert Banks