Selected Scriptures from Genesis
September 13, 2009
“The Power of the Blessing”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Today we begin a series of sermons on The Power of the Blessing. I believe God laid this topic on my heart, and quite frankly it has caused quite an upheaval in my brain these past weeks as I began preparations.
When you start reading the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, it will not be long before you run into some form of the word ‘bless.’ Sixty-four times in Genesis, we read ‘bless,’ ‘blessing,’ or ‘blessed.’ There are fifty chapters in Genesis, so that’s more than one time per chapter that we’ve got a form of the word ‘bless.’ That’s a lot; that should make us stop and pay attention. It’s sort of like a child coming up to you and saying, ‘dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad…’ and dad may be busy doing something and not even hear the child trying to get his attention. And then all of sudden, dad hears him. “What?” This sermon series is my attempt on our behalf to say to God, “What?” What is it that you want to show us about the blessing?
Let us pray: O God, thank you for the fullness of your love. Thank you for giving us the Bible – your words that bring life to our weary souls. Thank you that you are with us right now to help us understand. May your word be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
In west Texas there is a famous oil field known as the Yates pool. During the depression this field was a sheep ranch, owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family, like many others, had to live on a government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling west Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would be able to pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr. Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve, giving 80,000 barrels a day. In fact, thirty years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed that it still could flow 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he was living on government relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty; what was the problem? He did not know the oil was there. He owned it, but he did not possess it.
In the beginning, by speaking, God created the heavens and the earth. God spoke, and light was made, and God separated the light from darkness. By speaking it, God called forth the sky; he called forth the morning. God gathered the waters together and called them Seas, and called the dry land Earth. God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, fruit trees that bear fruit.” God spoke the moon and the sun into being, and said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (1:22) God spoke and living creatures of every kind came from the earth.
And then, God said, (speaking to the fullness of Godself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…” And so that’s what God did – male and female he created us. And then, (1:28) “God blessed them, and God said to them ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’
Okay, I’m looking for a show of hands here. Everyone who is human, please raise your hand. I think that’s everyone So, when God the Father (the Creator), God the Son and God the Holy Spirit said “let’s make humankind in our image” he was talking about all of us – not just the first humans created (Adam & Eve). “Let us make humankind in our image.” That includes you and me. You (plural) & me = humankind.
Humankind (meaning you and me) was made in God’s image. Now, this does not have anything to do with our outward appearance. I believe that being made in God’s image has to do with two words: capacity and result. Capacity and result.
God is three persons in one God. Very difficult to understand. Very mysterious. But very awesome. God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. These three beings co-exist with one another in perfect everything: Perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect purpose, perfect cooperation, perfect strength, perfect compassion, perfect everything. There are NO power games between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are NO control issues. There is no whining because someone didn’t get their way, “I wanted Lottie’s prayer to be answered my way, but no, you had to answer it your way…” Ridiculous, isn’t it? Within the fullness of God, there is complete harmony – complete agreement – complete love.
We were created with the capacity to know and experience perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect purpose, perfect cooperation, perfect strength, perfect compassion, perfect everything. You and I were created in God’s perfect harmony image to know this kind of completeness in our lives with God and with each other. We were made with this capacity. We were also made to do something with this overflowing capacity – we were made to pass it on. God blessed them, and God said to them – let me change that, God blessed you (and me), and God said to you (and me), “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…”
Creation happened when God spoke. Let there be this and that – God spoke the world into being. What power there is in God’s spoken word! And in the midst of creating, God spoke blessing. God blessed them, we read in 1:22 of the sea creatures and birds of the air. Bring forth life, He called! “He blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.” In 1:28 regarding humanity, “God blessed them, and God said to them…”
Are we getting the connection here? Creating and blessing go together. Blessing is an integral part of creating something new – something life-giving – something complete.
Mr. Yates, down in Texas, knew that he owned the land. Well, we all know that we own the description: human. We are all part of the human race, we get that. But for many of us, dare I even say for most of us, we do not yet possess the awareness of the blessing that comes from God because of our humanity. From the time of Creation, we have been blessed by God – we have within ourselves a life-giving capacity for ourselves and others that far exceeds the profits of the most abundant oil field! I didn’t say so – GOD said so! Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… and God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”
The blessing has to do with capacity and result. I’m going to be saying that a lot over these next several weeks as we unpack what it means to be blessed by God, what it means to bless God, what it means to bless one another, what it means to be a blessed church, and what it means to live a blessed life. Capacity and result.
My husband John bought a truck a couple of years ago now. This past week I started my 8th year of ministry here as your pastor. It only took you 6 years to start to make John in your image and convince him he had to have a truck. Now, I know he doesn’t have it right yet because he got a Toyota – but be patient with him - he doesn’t spend as much time in the valley as I do. Well, when he bought his truck, he got a short bed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard him say, “I shouldn’t have gotten the short bed.” With all the moving our family has been doing lately, certainly it is true that we’ve had to make more trips from one spot to another because of the limited capacity of the short bed. Are you following me here? The limited capacity of the short bed has resulted in more trips – more gas – more time trying to figure out how to secure longer items in a shorter bed. Capacity and Result.
You and I live “limited capacity” lives. Some of us seem to live “no capacity” lives because some of us feel overpacked before we even get started. And is the result perfect anything – Purpose – Peace - Love - Joy? No not really. For many of us, we’re just making it. Getting by. Existing - maybe experiencing a little surge of energy come football season, or hunting season, or racing season, or vacation time, or a break from school, or something…
Folks, whether you think or know you are a Christian or not, every single one of us is living a “limited capacity” life. We are all living the “short bed” life. There is no one here who is living out the fullness of the capacity that God has blessed us with. We live in fear, we live incapacitated by anger, unforgiveness, judgment, control, depression, hopelessness, and worry. And this should not be! This is not the way God made us! When Adam & Eve rebelled against God, choosing to do things their way instead of God’s way, the effect on all of humankind was a loss of our awareness of God’s blessing over our lives. You know how it is when you’ve done something wrong against someone, you don’t really want to see that person. You want to avoid them. This is what has happened to many of us: Since Adam & Eve rebelled against God, we have avoided intimate communion with God in ways we can’t admit because for many of us, we can’t even put our finger on what’s gone wrong.
In Genesis 3, after Adam & Eve blew it, God cursed the serpent, and God cursed the ground. God never, ever revoked, withdrew, or cancelled the blessing over humankind. He never cursed his most precious creation – you and me. His blessing over us is still in effect – made fully visible in the perfect life and sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ – the image of the invisible God.
The word “bless” comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to kneel.” Now, lots of us get down on our knees in order to accomplish something, like looking under the bed, or watching the game from the sidelines. Unless we’re catholics, or come from the Episcopalian or Greek or Russian Orthodox traditions, we don’t kneel hardly at all in public settings. There have been times in my life that I intentionally went to my knees: on my ordination day, when I have been prayed for by others, or have come to pray on my own. There is something about being on my knees before God that helps me understand my limited capacity and his fullness. There’s something about kneeling that helps us recognize how far from perfect we really are. There’s something very healing about kneeling and letting go.
In the beginning, humanity was in full communion with God. We understood our place. We didn’t try to be God, or get around God, or pretend God wasn’t God. In the beginning, we were blessed as we lived in a kneeling sort of relationship with our Creator. It was normal. It was life-giving. It was perfect.
I want to live like that now. I want you to want to live like that now. I want this whole valley to want to live like that now – no matter what is going on in our lives, no matter how people have hurt you, no matter what diagnosis you’ve heard, no matter how many bills you’ve got piled up on the counter at home, no matter what has happened in the past – we are blessed! GOD has spoken definitively in the WORD MADE FLESH – Jesus Christ. Listen to these words from Ephesians 1: (The Message) 3How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 8He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
11It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, 12part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
Jesus came to show us something: He came to show us that there is no end to what God can do in our lives. He came to touch us, and speak truth into our lives, and reveal the walls we have built that hinder our capacity to bear amazing, beautiful, strong, delicious, eternal fruit. We are blessed by God! In these next weeks, we’re going to learn how to trade in our short beds for long beds, and then long beds for flat beds, and on and on into God’s perfect plan as we begin to possess what we already have been given as we make the choice to kneel before God, in recognition of who He is and what He has done. I invite you to take out the pink insert in the bulletin and meditate on the words of Casting Crowns song, “Who Am I?”
Who Am I? by Casting Crowns
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours
I am Yours
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
'Cause I am Yours
I am Yours
September 13, 2009
“The Power of the Blessing”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Today we begin a series of sermons on The Power of the Blessing. I believe God laid this topic on my heart, and quite frankly it has caused quite an upheaval in my brain these past weeks as I began preparations.
When you start reading the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, it will not be long before you run into some form of the word ‘bless.’ Sixty-four times in Genesis, we read ‘bless,’ ‘blessing,’ or ‘blessed.’ There are fifty chapters in Genesis, so that’s more than one time per chapter that we’ve got a form of the word ‘bless.’ That’s a lot; that should make us stop and pay attention. It’s sort of like a child coming up to you and saying, ‘dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad…’ and dad may be busy doing something and not even hear the child trying to get his attention. And then all of sudden, dad hears him. “What?” This sermon series is my attempt on our behalf to say to God, “What?” What is it that you want to show us about the blessing?
Let us pray: O God, thank you for the fullness of your love. Thank you for giving us the Bible – your words that bring life to our weary souls. Thank you that you are with us right now to help us understand. May your word be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
In west Texas there is a famous oil field known as the Yates pool. During the depression this field was a sheep ranch, owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family, like many others, had to live on a government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling west Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would be able to pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr. Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve, giving 80,000 barrels a day. In fact, thirty years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed that it still could flow 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he was living on government relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty; what was the problem? He did not know the oil was there. He owned it, but he did not possess it.
In the beginning, by speaking, God created the heavens and the earth. God spoke, and light was made, and God separated the light from darkness. By speaking it, God called forth the sky; he called forth the morning. God gathered the waters together and called them Seas, and called the dry land Earth. God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, fruit trees that bear fruit.” God spoke the moon and the sun into being, and said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (1:22) God spoke and living creatures of every kind came from the earth.
And then, God said, (speaking to the fullness of Godself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…” And so that’s what God did – male and female he created us. And then, (1:28) “God blessed them, and God said to them ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’
Okay, I’m looking for a show of hands here. Everyone who is human, please raise your hand. I think that’s everyone So, when God the Father (the Creator), God the Son and God the Holy Spirit said “let’s make humankind in our image” he was talking about all of us – not just the first humans created (Adam & Eve). “Let us make humankind in our image.” That includes you and me. You (plural) & me = humankind.
Humankind (meaning you and me) was made in God’s image. Now, this does not have anything to do with our outward appearance. I believe that being made in God’s image has to do with two words: capacity and result. Capacity and result.
God is three persons in one God. Very difficult to understand. Very mysterious. But very awesome. God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. These three beings co-exist with one another in perfect everything: Perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect purpose, perfect cooperation, perfect strength, perfect compassion, perfect everything. There are NO power games between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are NO control issues. There is no whining because someone didn’t get their way, “I wanted Lottie’s prayer to be answered my way, but no, you had to answer it your way…” Ridiculous, isn’t it? Within the fullness of God, there is complete harmony – complete agreement – complete love.
We were created with the capacity to know and experience perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect purpose, perfect cooperation, perfect strength, perfect compassion, perfect everything. You and I were created in God’s perfect harmony image to know this kind of completeness in our lives with God and with each other. We were made with this capacity. We were also made to do something with this overflowing capacity – we were made to pass it on. God blessed them, and God said to them – let me change that, God blessed you (and me), and God said to you (and me), “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…”
Creation happened when God spoke. Let there be this and that – God spoke the world into being. What power there is in God’s spoken word! And in the midst of creating, God spoke blessing. God blessed them, we read in 1:22 of the sea creatures and birds of the air. Bring forth life, He called! “He blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.” In 1:28 regarding humanity, “God blessed them, and God said to them…”
Are we getting the connection here? Creating and blessing go together. Blessing is an integral part of creating something new – something life-giving – something complete.
Mr. Yates, down in Texas, knew that he owned the land. Well, we all know that we own the description: human. We are all part of the human race, we get that. But for many of us, dare I even say for most of us, we do not yet possess the awareness of the blessing that comes from God because of our humanity. From the time of Creation, we have been blessed by God – we have within ourselves a life-giving capacity for ourselves and others that far exceeds the profits of the most abundant oil field! I didn’t say so – GOD said so! Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… and God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”
The blessing has to do with capacity and result. I’m going to be saying that a lot over these next several weeks as we unpack what it means to be blessed by God, what it means to bless God, what it means to bless one another, what it means to be a blessed church, and what it means to live a blessed life. Capacity and result.
My husband John bought a truck a couple of years ago now. This past week I started my 8th year of ministry here as your pastor. It only took you 6 years to start to make John in your image and convince him he had to have a truck. Now, I know he doesn’t have it right yet because he got a Toyota – but be patient with him - he doesn’t spend as much time in the valley as I do. Well, when he bought his truck, he got a short bed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard him say, “I shouldn’t have gotten the short bed.” With all the moving our family has been doing lately, certainly it is true that we’ve had to make more trips from one spot to another because of the limited capacity of the short bed. Are you following me here? The limited capacity of the short bed has resulted in more trips – more gas – more time trying to figure out how to secure longer items in a shorter bed. Capacity and Result.
You and I live “limited capacity” lives. Some of us seem to live “no capacity” lives because some of us feel overpacked before we even get started. And is the result perfect anything – Purpose – Peace - Love - Joy? No not really. For many of us, we’re just making it. Getting by. Existing - maybe experiencing a little surge of energy come football season, or hunting season, or racing season, or vacation time, or a break from school, or something…
Folks, whether you think or know you are a Christian or not, every single one of us is living a “limited capacity” life. We are all living the “short bed” life. There is no one here who is living out the fullness of the capacity that God has blessed us with. We live in fear, we live incapacitated by anger, unforgiveness, judgment, control, depression, hopelessness, and worry. And this should not be! This is not the way God made us! When Adam & Eve rebelled against God, choosing to do things their way instead of God’s way, the effect on all of humankind was a loss of our awareness of God’s blessing over our lives. You know how it is when you’ve done something wrong against someone, you don’t really want to see that person. You want to avoid them. This is what has happened to many of us: Since Adam & Eve rebelled against God, we have avoided intimate communion with God in ways we can’t admit because for many of us, we can’t even put our finger on what’s gone wrong.
In Genesis 3, after Adam & Eve blew it, God cursed the serpent, and God cursed the ground. God never, ever revoked, withdrew, or cancelled the blessing over humankind. He never cursed his most precious creation – you and me. His blessing over us is still in effect – made fully visible in the perfect life and sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ – the image of the invisible God.
The word “bless” comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to kneel.” Now, lots of us get down on our knees in order to accomplish something, like looking under the bed, or watching the game from the sidelines. Unless we’re catholics, or come from the Episcopalian or Greek or Russian Orthodox traditions, we don’t kneel hardly at all in public settings. There have been times in my life that I intentionally went to my knees: on my ordination day, when I have been prayed for by others, or have come to pray on my own. There is something about being on my knees before God that helps me understand my limited capacity and his fullness. There’s something about kneeling that helps us recognize how far from perfect we really are. There’s something very healing about kneeling and letting go.
In the beginning, humanity was in full communion with God. We understood our place. We didn’t try to be God, or get around God, or pretend God wasn’t God. In the beginning, we were blessed as we lived in a kneeling sort of relationship with our Creator. It was normal. It was life-giving. It was perfect.
I want to live like that now. I want you to want to live like that now. I want this whole valley to want to live like that now – no matter what is going on in our lives, no matter how people have hurt you, no matter what diagnosis you’ve heard, no matter how many bills you’ve got piled up on the counter at home, no matter what has happened in the past – we are blessed! GOD has spoken definitively in the WORD MADE FLESH – Jesus Christ. Listen to these words from Ephesians 1: (The Message) 3How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 8He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
11It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, 12part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
Jesus came to show us something: He came to show us that there is no end to what God can do in our lives. He came to touch us, and speak truth into our lives, and reveal the walls we have built that hinder our capacity to bear amazing, beautiful, strong, delicious, eternal fruit. We are blessed by God! In these next weeks, we’re going to learn how to trade in our short beds for long beds, and then long beds for flat beds, and on and on into God’s perfect plan as we begin to possess what we already have been given as we make the choice to kneel before God, in recognition of who He is and what He has done. I invite you to take out the pink insert in the bulletin and meditate on the words of Casting Crowns song, “Who Am I?”
Who Am I? by Casting Crowns
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours
I am Yours
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
'Cause I am Yours
I am Yours
