Blessed to be a Blessing - Genesis 12:1-3
Brea McIver is a young
twelve year old girl who lives in Whitsett.
Young Ms. McIver’s story made the newspaper for the third consecutive
year. Four years ago, when she was
preparing to turn nine years old, she made a startling statement to her
mother. She told her mother that instead
of birthday presents for herself, she wanted to receive items and money that
could be donated to the Pet Adoption Center of Burlington. When asked why, her response was, “‘I have
everything and these animals have nothing’….”[i] In a time when we see, or at least think, all
of the children are self-centered, self-focused, and just want more and more,
we see a young girl, unprompted by an adult, dispel that image. She didn’t worry about whether she deserved
birthday presents or had a right to ask for birthday presents.
Brea differs from so many
of us. Many of us consider the blessings
we have to be all about us. Many of us
wouldn’t think about having all the folks that would give us gifts, bring gifts
for a charity instead. I would suggest
that many of us, whether we requested money or gift cards for our birthday,
Christmas, or some other special occasion, when we receive the blessing of
those gifts, automatically start thinking to ourselves okay, now I can get a
new dress, now I can get those shoes I’ve been wanting, now I can get an Apple
Watch, or now I can get that new television.
Maybe we don’t get birthday or holiday gifts anymore. Maybe the blessing is a raise at work, a job
promotion, or an unexpected bonus, and we begin thinking to ourselves, “now I
can take that dream vacation” or “now I can move into a new house,” or “now I
can join the country club.” Maybe we
don’t actually plan on spending any of those financial blessings right
away. Maybe we simply decide to store
them up for a rainy day. We figure we
have been blessed for a reason, we deserve it, it is for us.
God’s Word, though, from
the beginning, paints a different picture of how blessings are to be
understood.
God comes to a man named
Abram. Abram and his family, along with
and under the guidance of his father, Terah, had moved from the city of Ur to
Haran years earlier on their way to Canaan.
They had settled in Haran and after Terah died, God contacted Abram and
told I want you to gather up your family, pack up your inheritance, and head
out of Haran, I’m going to take you to a new place, I’m going to help you
complete the journey you began with your father, and I’m going to bless
you. God tells Abram that 1) He is going
to make him into a great nation, 2) that He is going to bless him, and 3) that
he is going to make Abram’s name great.
Was this all a well-deserved reward for Abram? Not that we can tell. To this point in Scripture, all that Abram
has done was tag along with his dad to Haran.
Was this a surprise gift, an act of grace, just to benefit Abram out of
the clear blue? It was a surprise gift,
it was an unearned act of grace.
However, God makes it clear that he is not blessing Abram for the sake
of Abram. He is blessing Abram so that
Abram will be a blessing, so that through Abram, “all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.”
God is going to bless
Abram, not so Abram can feel good about himself or kick back and enjoy life,
God is going to bless Abram in order that Abram can in turn bless others. In God’s blessing of Abram is the future of
our very presence here today. For as
Abram accepted the blessing of God, and in doing so agreed to be used as an
agent through which God would bless the world, we see the beginnings of the
ancestry that would lead to Jesus.
If there were any doubt
to this line of thinking, the connection is made clear ten chapters later, when
God, seeing that Abram, now Abraham, fully trusts in God, hears the words of
God through the angel that stayed his hand:
“By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done
this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you,
and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the
sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of
their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain
blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
God blesses us that we
may bless others…just as God set in motion through Abram the process through
which he would bring salvation to the world in Jesus Christ and began His
efforts toward restoring creation…so He continues that process with us. When we use the blessings of God to be a
blessing to others, we find ourselves, thanks to the grace of God, moving away
from the sin of selfishness and self-focus, and toward the Christ-like image of
grace-giving self-sacrifice for the sake of others.
Hoarding our blessings
only leads to disappointment and destruction as the farmer in Jesus’ parable
learns:
“The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought
to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he
said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and
there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul,
you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But
God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.
And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who
store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
God intends our blessings
to be a blessing to others…and when we willingly give up those blessings to
touch the lives of others, God will not leave us empty, He will continue to
enrich our lives and bless us. Consider
the story the children heard at Vacation Bible School a few weeks ago of Elijah
and the widow where the widow was asked to share the very last of her food with
Elijah…she was asked to offer as a blessing to Elijah all that she had, and yet
when she did, when she selflessly offered that very last morsel, God blessed
her and her son, and Elijah in that they never ran out of food.
Jesus promises that there
is not a blessing that we sacrifice for the sake of following him that we will
not receive back one hundred fold, either on this side, or the other side of
His return:
Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and
for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this
age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with
persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will
be last, and the last will be first.”
Brea realized that she
had been blessed and now sought to be a blessing to others. Today we have gathered for a special outdoor
service as we prepare in moments to move to what used to be an empty field here
at St. Paul’s. With the help of Impact
Alamance, St. Paul’s has sought to use the ways that God has blessed us with
both property and financial resources to be a blessing to our community…to
offer a gift to this community for the health and spiritual wellbeing of
children and adults alike.
However, the question
remains, how will each of us, as individuals, and cooperatively, use the
blessings that God has God has given us to bless those around us…to move from
being inwardly focused to being tools of God’s redemptive and re-creative
efforts? Maybe God has blessed us
financially and we are able to share those financial resources to bless those
in need around us. Maybe God has blessed
us with talents such as music and we share that through singing in worship or
cooking and we share that with others by preparing food for a church luncheon
or preparing a meal for a family in need.
Maybe God has blessed us with intelligence and we are able to share that
through teaching, tutoring, or mentoring a child. Maybe God has blessed us with a heart of
compassion and we are able to reach out to those in need whether it is serving
on a mission team or simply sitting with a grieving family. God blesses us all with a variety of gifts,
but gifts with which He as blessed us all are the gifts of love and the Good
News of Jesus Christ…and as we seek to bless others with those blessings,
sharing our love and sharing the Gospel, we will see that in blessing others,
God will continue to bless us, because the love of God shared, is the love of
God multiplied, in our lives as we find new relationships, friendships, and new
family, and in the world, as bitterness and hatred turn to forgiveness and restoration
relationships…for as we are blessed and become a blessing to others, God
continues pour out blessings abundantly.
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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