Blessing and Questions

One of my favorite people in the world asked me a great question about a week ago on the phone. Mel Mendoza asked me a question that I cannot simply get out of my head. Mel asked me what does it mean to be blessed. I have heard sermons all of my life. I have read bumper stickers that say "God Bless America". To make this more personal, my wife and I ask daily that God "bless" us. I want to look at a question when I consider what it means for God to bless us. Then I want to ask will be on my perception of being "blessed" by God.

When I ask God to bless me or my family, what is it that I expect from God? This is a tough question for me. This question reveals my highest expectation from God and His role in my life. My wife and I pray daily. This is not to brag, or even to say that we have never missed a day. In fact we have missed days more times then I am proud of. However, every night before bed, we try talk to God. And usually the prayer usually goes something like this,

"Dear God, thank you for all the many ways you have blessed us. Thank you for our family and our marriage. Thank you for the jobs you have blessed us with, and please help us do our jobs the best we can. Please bless us over the night and keep jacob safe. Help us to wake up refreshed and rejuvenated. Allow us to reflect your presence to all those around us. Help us to love at all costs. Thank you for you Son, who has shown us the way. Please forgive us in the many ways that we do not live up to His example. We pray all this in your Son's name, Amen."
This prayer is just an example and it is not the same every time. However, we usually hit these points among others when we pray. As Mel Mendoza asked me the question on what it exactly means to be blessed, I couldn't help but see how my prayer life reflects what I think it means to be blessed.

Here are some "blessings" that my prayer life reflects:

Blessing number 1: God giving us a lot of stuff. I should be thankful for the blessing of God giving us our apartment, food, and everything else in between.

Blessing number 2: God giving me people that I love in my life and God keeping my loved ones safe.

Blessing number 3: God providing a place to work and to make money.

This seems pretty real to me. I mean, before I talked to Mel and thought about his question, I would have never thought twice about rattling off these three different areas that God has blessed me. However, thinking about the question on what it exactly means to be blessed by God, this answer leads to a problem.

What if I was a Christ follower and I was as faithful as I could be? What if I had none of these "blessings" that I listed above? Does this mean I am not a blessed person? Would I not be doing something right? Worse yet, if I was not blessed, does that mean I would be cursed? I am struggling with those questions. When looking at these problems in consideration of my prayer, I think the reading of the Beatitudes is interesting.

"Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 'Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. " (NIV)

Jesus himself is trying to answer the question in which Mel posed. I don't think I like the answer though. It bothers me. Something can't be right. To be qualified to have blessing you have to be poor in spirit, sad, meek, hungry, and thirsting for not getting what we deserve. This is crazy stuff. I have to be honest, I don't know what to think of this. All I do know is that it does seem like that that the blessings I seek from God are completely opposite from what Jesus teaches us on what it means to blessed. I also find it interesting, (or troubling) that this is not an example of someone asking to be blessed, this is Jesus telling His followers WHO is being blessed. WOW! What do you do with this? I cant be a 100% sure!

I do know this. If blessings are just limited to money, food, clothing, jobs, safety, and a lot of stuff being given to us, then the majority of the world is not being "blessed". As a matter of fact, it seems that America is one of the few places that have been "blessed" by God. But may be that is the problem. Maybe we have seriously limited our defining frame for what it means to be blessed. It seems to me that there is much more to being blessed then the many ways in which I have limited God. I want to relearn what it means to be blessed and realize my limitations I have put on God and how he blesses me.

-dj

http://audaciousliturgy.blogspot.com/

Stone Soup And the Call for Community

My wife just recently purchased several scholastic books for our son Jake. She explained to me that she wants this to become our little tradition, for me to read to Jake every night. Being the good guy that I am, I decided that it is worth a go. One of the books she purchased was Stone Soup, by Jon J. Muth. The crazy thing is I actually remember the book from when I was young. As I put Jake in my lap and read the book to him, I could not help but feel the tug of God's spirit.

Let me give the summary that is on the back of the book:

"Three monks, Hok, Lok, and Siew, journey along a mountain road trying to understand what makes one happy. At once the monks encounter frightened villagers who lock their windows and darken their homes. The villagers have long been ravaged by harsh times, and their hearts have grown hard toward everyone they meet. But when the monks cleverly entice them to make soup from stones, the villagers discover how much they each have to give--and how much more comes back in return."

To put the story into my words, these monks use a unique proposition to move the village into a community built on relationships. The proposition: to make soup from stones. The stones were not the only ingredients after it was all said in done.

It all begin with the cold welcome to the monks from the village. After trying time after time to even interact with anyone at the village, they decide its time for the stone soup. They find a girl and asked her to provide the soup with a certain ingredient. Another person added their ingredient, then another and another. After a while, all were pitching in to help with the making of the soup. After the soup was done they had a celebration. They ate the soup and told stories and sang songs in celebration. The monks had a place to stay and the village was transformed in community.

I must admit, I was just going to read the story to Jake with no expectation that God would be in the mix. I put Jake to bed with the understanding that it seems that humanity is in a dire need of stone soup.

We live in such individualistic ways in the western culture. It can be a cold world, where at first glance it may seem everyone is out for number one. But,

I believe in the audacity of the message of Jesus.

I believe that the kingdom that was at hand is still the kingdom at hand.

I believe in the invitation to join in God's work to bring about His world.

I believe in the Stone Soup of Jesus and and the community that it offers

I believe that we can still be the community that Acts 2 offered for the 1st century followers.

Just as the monks used a crazy proposition to transform the village into a community, I believe that Jesus offers a way of life that will transform this world. May we find ways to participate in this dream of God in bringing about a community based on relationships and love.

-dj

http://audaciousliturgy.blogspot.com/