A Benediction For All

photo by k.e mckenzie  / flickr

BENEDICTION. The dictionary tells me this word means: The Dictionary tells me this word means:  1. The act of uttering a blessing;  2. The form of a blessing pronounced by an officiating minister at the close off  divine service. 3. A mercy;  4. A benefit.

I don't know when I began to use the particular blessing: "Now may the peace that passeth all understanding and the love that will not let us go rest and abide with us forevermore. Amen." I think it dates back to the first church I ever had--and from then until now I have intoned these words at the end of almost every service when I preached.

In one church I had a member who had many problems. Every once in a while she would call me up and say: "I need to hear you pray the Benediction--could you pray it right now." I don't know how many times she would call me and make this request. After I moved away--I heard she was having a hard time and might not live very long. And so I calligraphed my Benediction--which you find to the right. And I framed it and sent it to her.

Since that time I don't know how many people have written our called me and said, "You used to say this particular Benediction. I have forgotten exactly how it went" they would stay, " but it had something to do with peace and love that would never us go--I think. Could you send me the words." And again and again I did.

Myron Madden friend and colleague once wrote a book called The Power to Bless. And in that book he said we all have the power to bless someone or curse someone. And the Bible is rife with blessings and curses. He told about how all the old patriarchs would give their oldest a blessing. Remember Jacob and Eau when Jacob disguised himself and stole the blessing that belonged to Esau.

Myron says that we all--every parent--really every person possesses this power. And we all know people crippled most of their lives because somebody--a parent or school teacher or someone used this power to curse and not bless. "You're not smart." You are no good. You'll never amount to anything. You are a sissy." Or what we have heard of late over and over: "You are a loser."

There really is a peace that we all long for. Something deep inside that settles down and whispers, "It's gonna be all right." I remember Alex Haley telling that when he was a little black boy in Henning, Tennessee he was having a hard time . He sat at the kitchen table crying. And his grandmother touched him on the shoulder and said, "Alex, we don't know when Jesus is gonna come but he will always come on time." That's peace knowing somehow even despite the odds--everything is going to be all right. Of course it is beyond understanding. Like grace it comes when we need it.

We all need to be reminded that there really is a love that will not let us go--ever. So much of love is conditional. "I will love you if..." We know that this is not real love. I wrote days ago about Mr. Rogers and how he blessed multitudes of children and adults too. He spoke to the seniors at Chatham College in Pittsburgh one day.  He told them he wanted to give them the words to one of his "neighborhood songs." Suddenly someone there wrote it was as if those seniors were suddenly four year old again and sitting in front of their TV sets. He said, "Hopefully my song says what those who really love you are feeling about you."And then he gave them his Benediction:

"It's you I like. 
It's not the things you wear.
It's not the way you do your hair 
But it's you I like.

The way you are right now. 
The way down deep inside you.
Not the things that hide you.
Not your caps and gowns--they're just 
   beside you,
But it's you I like."

Maybe our job in this crazy mixed-up time is to pass on these incredible words: a peace that passes all understanding and a love that will never let us go. Any of us. All of us. And maybe lying there in the darkness before sleep comes we all need to be reminded that there this blessing is our blessing. Peace and love. Let's hang on to them life a life raft. And let's give them out to everyone we touch. Reckon that's what Myron Madden meant in his The Power to Bless?

courtesy of flickr


--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com