blessings - new year January 1 2019

Last Christmas we celebrated what we call the saving activity of God.  All the major feasts we celebrate are actually the saving activities of God – his birth, his passion, death and resurrection, his ascension into heaven and the coming down of the Holy Spirit.  Through these divine activities God saves us.

But there is one other divine activity.  We call this the blessing activity of God.  And this is what the church wants us to celebrate today.  So what are these blessing activities of God?  

These are the quiet and almost unnoticed actions of God in our day to day life – God blesses us by giving us sunshine and rain, the air we breathe, the homes we live in, many of us are blessed with good health.  We are blessed with a means of living and employment, providing for our daily needs. We are blessed with wealth, our talents, the bounty of nature, the blessings of our fields, forests, seas and rivers.  Last night I had the opportunity to eat good food and a fine drink but more importantly I ate these with friends.  I received the blessings not just of food but of friendship and family.

These are blessings from God given to us quietly and consistently.  We seldom make a big fuss about them.  Sometimes we even ignore the fact that these are blessings, undeserved in many ways. And many times, we even ignore the source.  And so today our readings remind us of this divine activity:  "May God have pity on us and bless us;may he let his face shine upon us.  The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us."  Today we are urged to celebrate the blessing activities of God in our life, to recognize them, to be grateful.

But what are these blessings for?  Are these blessings given so that we can sit content and self-satisfied?  No. Instead the psalm says that God had pity on us, God blessed us,so that God’s ways may be known upon earth;among all nations, his saving help.  This is why God blessed us - we are blessed for a mission.  We are blessed so that all people will know the goodness of God through us.  We are blessed so that we can become a blessing for others.  Blessings are never just for ourselves.  This is best exemplified by motherhood.  For several weeks now we heard about pregnancies and births – the birth of Samuel whose mother was Hannah; the birth of John whose mother was Elizabeth, the birth of Jesus whose mother was Mary.  

The blessing given to a mother is not a blessing given only for her.  Her blessing, the child she bears, is a blessing to the community, it is a blessing to many, and in the case of Mary her child is a blessing to the world.  

On the start of this new year we come to church to be blessed.  Many of us have even gone to do some weird stuff in the hope of being blessed, from the clothes we wear today, to the food we eat, to things we decorate our homes with. More importantly however, remember why you are blessed.  You are blessed for a mission, you are blessed for a purpose, you are blessed so that you can become a blessing to others.  You are blessed so that God’s goodness may be known through you.