Blessing - Part 1

By: Paul Novak on: 03.11.08

Well I realise that I have got the BELLS thing a bit backwards.

I've started blogs on Sentness but missed the other letters. Yes BELLS is the acronym for Blessing, Eating, Learning, Listening and Sentness. And after getting off my hobby horse of Sentness I thought I'd mention something on Blessing. Actually, to tell you the truth, some complete stranger to 'The Boat' sent an email saying they were encouraged with the blogs. Such positive feedback strapped a rocket pack on my back and sent me into orbit with glee. And I am not coming down till I have finished this next blog.

So anyway, we start with blessing at Small Boat, and although the depth of it is not plummeted every week, I think it rocks. And I want to tell you why.

Over the years, growing up in a Protestant stream of Christendom, one of the over-arching messages I received and subsequently had embedded into my psyche, was the fact that I am a sinner. I have transgressed a boundary set by God and the only hope of salvation from his wrath is the death of God's son - Christ Jesus - on the cross. This was foundational to my religious experience. The utter core. My faith was not so much in Jesus but in what Jesus did on the cross. There's a subtle difference there but possibly an important one to note.

Being an impressionable teenager, and having a delicate conscience, I had several significant events in my church setting where I "recommitted" my life to Jesus. Having done so, I would then ‘feel’ right about me being a Christian again. It was sort of like God and I were squared up. Naturally, having now twice as many years to my name as I did then, I interpret these events quite differently. However the notion serves as an illustration to why Blessing is important.

There a perception, or maybe it’s a misconception, among some streams of Christendom, that mission’s primary and first point of contact with the non-believer is the recognition of sin. That all have fallen short of the glory of God. So the first thing you need to communicate to a non-believer is that they have a dire problem. This is quickly followed up by the fact that God has provided a solution in Christ Jesus. So, get the person to first believe in a problem, then secondly get them to believe in the solution. Then you will have a true believer.

In stereotypical terms this comes down to fire and brimstone style preaching. Tell them they are going to hell, that hell is an awful place, then tell them they can escape the fires of damnation by repenting and hence be on the glorious path to heaven.

Now this all maybe true, and in fact, you dear reader maybe one of the many who came to faith through such a fear filled motivation. But I’m beginning to see that this articulation of humanity’s ‘cloud of sin’ can end up causing a lot of damage to the message and the presentation of the life of Jesus. Forgive me for not detailing the damage, but permit me to go on to say that starting our Christian meeting with “Blessing” says to me – with a loud gong from a Bell – that recognizing sin is not the primary message. Instead it is love and relationship.

God, the God who created all things, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God fully revealed in human form through Jesus Christ, this God, well, the first thing he does is bless me. First off, he doesn’t ask me to repent. He recognizes in me his image, his creation, and blesses it. To me it’s like a christening. The baby, who has done nothing at all in cognitively acknowledging being born into the sin of Adam, is blessed with the highest thing possible – counted as one of those belonging to Christ!

Yes, this is blessing for me. And making it the start is reminding me each week that my faith has a foundation of love and the honour of being human, bestowed from above. From this stand point I may very well be led to repentance, but it is not the first interaction I receive from the Almighty. I am blessed. We are blessed. Humanity is blessed. From that point, I can start my day. From that point we can start the meeting. From that point humanity can live up to its calling.

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