Numbered Blessings

Text: Numbers 6:22-27

Near the end of the story of the foundation of Israel, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses speaks to the Israelites. They have escaped from slavery in Egypt and are about to enter the land promised to them by God. Moses has given them the gift of the law. He is about to die. He says to the Israelites: I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you may live.

The distinction between blessing and curse is as fundamental as the one between life and death. The two opposites seem to be part of the nature of the world rather than something we can choose. How can one choose to live? How can one choose to be blessed?

In the study of theology, the first question theorists ask is: What does it mean to be human? What is the essence of being a person? What is the nature of humanity? Are we by nature good or evil? Or to put in another way, are we mostly blessed or mostly cursed? Are we at heart good people who are blessed, but often mess up and occasionally are corrupted? Or are we at heart bad creatures and cursed, but by discipline and redemption able to do much good?

For each of us, this is not an academic question. The answer determines how we think of our own lives, what our relationship with God is, how we live day to day, how we think about order and justice, how we vote, how we treat the people we love, and those we fear. Do we pray: God, free me from the things that keep me from being the good person you made? Or do we pray: God, restrain me from doing the evil I am inclined to do? And which of these prayers do we say for others?

It is an old question. Answered ambiguously by religion. I would answer that we are blessed but flawed, and that Lutherans teach the same. But many Lutherans and other Christians over many centuries have argued the opposite. But all agree that we do pray to God that we may do good and have good lives.

Today’s first reading, which is from the book of Numbers (the fourth book of the Bible), should be familiar to you. It is the basis of the blessing that we say at the end of every Sunday worship. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy, the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. These verses are called the Aaronic Blessing, because Moses’s brother Aaron was first charged with saying them. They are also called the Priestly Blessing, because the line of Aaron was the priestly line in Israel. Even now, in some faiths and in some Christian traditions (even among some Lutherans), only ordained clergy may recite them in worship. They are words given by God to Moses and then to Aaron and then to all others. Me, you. These words are very old; some think this blessing is one of the oldest passages in the Bible. The notion of God’s blessing is for many the beginning of faith.

The formal word for the blessing we say after worship is “benediction.” That means “good words,” so it is a little like the word Gospel, which means “good news.” A blessing is good news. Good for us. But not just good news in general. Good news that comes from God. And not just good words, really. For the blessings of God include all the gifts of God—life, food, love, beauty, courage, pleasures—good things that God gives. Things that come from God.

In the benediction the motion of the blessing is unclear. “The Lord bless you and keep you.” Is that a hope, a plea, a declaration? The blessing is always God’s doing, but when we say these words, what are we doing?

For one thing, we are asking for God’s favor. When we ask for a blessing for someone’s house, we are asking that God bring happiness and comfort and joy to the people who will live in it. When we ask for a blessing on a meal, we are asking that the food provide good nourishment and flavor. Bless, O Lord, this food to our use and us to your service, we pray before we eat at Faith Kitchen. We are asking that God will move things so that our lives and endeavors work out well and good. Favor us means make it easier and better for us. The blessing pleads with God.

For another, we are holding God to God’s promises. God, our creator, has called all things good. God favored Sarah and Abraham, whose children became Israel. God has promised through Jesus to restore and repair the broken world. God has promised to be with us. When we ask for a blessing, we are not doing something new. We are reminding God of earlier and eternal promises. We are calling on God. The blessing holds God accountable.

For a third thing, we are reminding ourselves of what God has already done. The Lord has blessed us. Our lives have been blessed. We do find joy in living. We do take pleasure in things. We are prosperous. We have known love. Not all of us all the time, but all of us sometime. And we have known God’s grace and mercy. We have been given more than we have earned. We have been let off the hook. The blessing thanks God.

And finally, and mysteriously, we are hearing God’s words. These words in Numbers are spoken by God through Moses and priests to us. This Priestly Blessing is a pronouncement. “Say this,” God tells Moses. Say this to the people. “The Lord bless you and keep you,” the blessing begins. By doing this, God tells Moses, “I will bless them.” God has put power into the words of this blessing. God has agreed to bind God’s self when these words are spoken. The blessing, therefore, at the end of worship is more than prayer, reminder, and thanksgiving. The words, God’s words in Numbers, bring blessings to those who hear them. We are commanded to say them. God is obligated to obey them.

In some way, these words of blessing reunite us with God. In the way that we are reunited with a friend we haven’t seen for a long time, a spouse greeting his or her returning soldier, a child coming home from away at school. “The Lord make his face to shine upon you,” it says in Numbers. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,” it says. Unlike the way we say this in worship, the verses here make clear that God is doing something active. God is turning to us. We look for God from afar, as we might look for a friend, spouse, child in a crowd. They turn, we recognize them, they recognize us. We are happy. We are joined. God turns God’s face to us, we recognize God, recognizing us. We are blessed.

The book of Numbers is a story of a people in the midst of making a decision. The Israelites are in the desert. They have wandered about confused, uncertain, and deprived for a long time. It has not been easy. It will not be easy. What is this moment for them? Is it the final straw that turns them in retreat? Or is it the dark before the dawn, the labor pains, as Paul says, before the birth? Has God abandoned them, as some complain, or has God been with them all along?

They are presented with two ways of seeing things. One generation wishes to remain focused on the past. They see sorrow and death. The other looks to a new future. They see hope and life. The people have a choice. Go back to slavery, go forward to freedom. Go back to what is known, go forward to new possibility.

Moses does ask the people of Israel to do something. To listen to the law, to obey it, to follow Moses. But he is also asking them to see things differently. Tell them, God says, to see the world in a blessing way.

These words in Numbers are themselves are a blessing. In these words of blessing, God has given us the power to be blessed. In these words, God has taken a stand. You are blessed. Choose life.