Revelation: Blessed To Be A Blessing

Revelation 22:6-21

May 23, 2004

 

Today we finish up this short venture into the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to Disciple John.

It has been too short, and I’m sure I’ve raised more questions than I could answer.  Today will be no different.   I cannot unveil all the mysteries John saw in four 12-1/2 minute-sermons.  So each Sunday I’ve found one phrase which has meaning for us in our time.   The “phrase” for today is actually only one word:  BLESS.  To ‘bless’ is to encourage;  to wish happiness for; approve of.

And a ‘blessing’ is the act of encouraging or approving or wishing happiness for.

 

This last chapter of the last book in the Bible contains a blessing--the last blessing.   This should come as no surprise, since first blessing is in first chapter of first book of Bible.  All through this entire Book we find God blessing first one person then another.  So it only stands to reason that last chapter of last book is also filled with blessing. 

 

First blessing came at creation.  God created all the creatures--and blessed them  (Gen 1:22 ).  [Actually, those verses in Genesis only say God blessed fish and the humans;  they say nothing about God’s having blessed the animals, which may be why some churches bless the animals every year, since not in Bible].  As you can imagine > lots of theories about why it isn’t there.          It certainly is implied, tho > surely God didn’t withhold a blessing from animals.  I don’t know why ‘blessing’ is not explicitly there, but I do know how pleased God was with everything.   After each act of creation, the narrator says “And God saw that it was good. “  And then God made the crowning jewel of creation --humans.  And God blessed them.

                                               

Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember that God blessed all creation from the very beginning.  The reason it is hard to remember can be traced back to one man named Augustine.  He lived about 300 years after the time of Jesus and had all sorts of personal problems.  He dabbled in several different religions before became a Christian, and brought some of his old beliefs with him to Christian Church.  One of those beliefs was that the world was evil and people were bad.            Augustine was a prolific writer and wrote volumes describing what he called “original sin.”  In his books he gave his answers to life’s most profound questions:   What is a human being? A sinner.  How can you live a humble life?  Despise yourself.  How can you be free from the stain of sin? Remove yourself.    How can you be holy? Escape from this world.  For Augustine > Only the few who were pure enough could be Christian   [sounds a little like Left Behind doesn’t it?]. 

 

For Augustine > guilt should permeate every day’s feelings/thoughts.   Church bought his “Doctrine of Original Sin”  and it became basic tenant of Christianity.   No one ever compared his beliefs with the whole of the Bible; no one even questioned his thoughts until very recently.  Fortunately (in my opinion) Roman Catholic priest by name of Matthew Fox began to challenge Augustine, and wrote a wonderful book called Original Blessing.  He writes,  “We enter a broken and sinful world.  But we do not enter as blotches on existence!  We burst into the world as ‘original blessings.’   And he adds, “The sooner the Church embraces biblical doctrine of Original Blessing, the more compassionate our living will be.”

 

Once there was a young mother who was about to learn the lesson of blessing.  If you had asked her, she would have told you she already knew!  For one whole year she and husband had been parents of wonderful healthy son.  They felt truly blessed; perfectly happy.  This particular night  the three of them went out to eat at a small diner that served the best chicken-fried steak.  You’ve been in places like it—there were a few booths and a counter.  They sat at a booth and ordered dinner.

Soon a skuzzy old man sat at counter; he was epitome of Augustine’s ‘bad guy.’   From where he sat  their little son could see him.  All through dinner, that man and their baby smiled and waved at each other.   As you might guess, it made the baby’s parents very uncomfortable.  They rushed through dinner and got up to leave.   But their baby pulled away and reached for old man.  Much to their horror, the man took him!           For one short moment time stood still as they hugged each other--one precious clean baby smelling of lotion and love; one ugly dirty old man smelling of sweat and sewer.

Hug was all each of them wanted.  Just as quickly baby twisted and reached for mom.  Man said, “What a blessing!  Thank you!” as he tipped stained hat and walked into darkness.  As they drove away, baby quickly fell asleep with a smile covering his face.  And his mother realized that blessing must be shared.  We cannot keep them to ourselves forever.

                       

Rabbi Abraham Heschel says “Just to BE is a blessing . . . just to LIVE is holy.”  Remember that!

Blessings in the Bible are never abstract kinds of things.   They are not thoughts locked in some

imprisoned mind or places on a cute bottle on a shelf.   Blessings are about living and enjoying life.

Each one of us came into this world as an ‘original blessing.’  God blessed us to be a blessing to this world.   We find blessings in the first chapter of Genesis, and we find blessings in the last chapter of the Revelation to John.  And strung in between, like clean laundry on a clothesline, are blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing. 

 

Jesus revealed John the quintessential blessing.  The scene builds to a magnificent scene of how it will be.  Remember in chapter 7?  First John sees the 144,000.  Then he looked and saw a great multitude--so many that no one could count all the people.  They came from every nation, speaking every language, all robed in white.  This is where the world is headed--straight to God loving arms--

drawn to God like that dirty old man was drawn to the baby’s loving arms.   In the end, the streaming multitudes who choose to live God’s kind of life will come home to God! 

                                                                                   

But the end hasn’t come yet.  In the meantime, God’s blessing of us provides us with the power to do what we need to do.  God has called us into being; God has blessed us and gifted us.  We are blessed to be a blessing!