Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
October 19, 2008
CHRIST AT THE CENTER: THE FAMILY OF
FAITH
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
Scripture:
Numbers 6:22-27; Matthew 5:1-11
INTRODUCTION
Many of us grew up in homes
where we would gather around the table for meals, and always, before eating,
we’d bow our heads to “say the blessing.” The blessing our family shared together is
probably familiar to most of you:
“God is great, God is good,
And we thank Him
for this food;
By His hand we all
are fed,
Give us Lord, our
daily bread”
Oftentimes my father and
mother would prompt my sisters and brother and I to chime in with a personal
note, so we’d begin with the words “God bless” and then covered the waterfront
with prayers for our parents, relatives and friends, for our Labrador Retriever
named Snoopy, for a whole host of other concerns, and after Easter one year,
for our brand new bunny named “Hopalong” who unfortunately escaped from the
back yard hutch and became Snoopy’s lunch – so we “God blessed” Hopalong into
heaven and prayed fervently for Snoopy’s forgiveness.
As a young boy growing up, I
never wondered about the word “blessing,” and simply assumed that it was
synonymous with mealtime prayers. But
when I was called into the ministry and began to study the original Biblical
languages at seminary, I discovered that “blessing” means so much more.
In the Hebrew language of the
Old Testament, the verb “barach” means “to bless” and the noun “berakah”
translates into “blessing,” indicating a state of satisfaction, well-being and
prosperity. The familiar priestly
benediction from the Book of Numbers, chapter 6, begins with this
affirmation: “May the Lord bless you and
keep you,” and the original text says “berekah” – to bless.
In the Koine Greek of the New
Testament, “makarios” is the word that Jesus used in the Beatitudes as He
preached the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed
(makarios) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed (makarios) are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted. Blessed
(makarios) are the meek, for they will inherit the earth…Blessed (makarios)are
the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” Makarios means “happy, fortunate, full of
grace,” as we recognize the many ways that God has blessed us.
If you add the Old and New
Testament references together, the word “blessing” occurs in some form or
another more than 500 times, making it one of the most frequently quoted and
most important words in all of the Bible.
And yet, for so many of us still today, “blessing” is simply what we
learned to say over meals when we were children.
So this morning, I’d like to
take this word “blessing” to the next level, as we “Count Our Blessings,” name them one by one, and re-discover the
myriad of gifts which have come to us from a good and gracious God.
I
Consider first the blessing
of the gift of life itself. Our dear
friend John Claypool, rest his soul, often said in his sermons and wrote in his
books that “We did nothing to deserve our birth, for it was and is a total
windfall, a sheer gift. Our very
existence grows out of the vision that God is ultimately pure generosity and One
whose only intention is to bless. The
deepest truth is that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more than
He already loves us, and nothing we can do to make Him love us less.” (From “God the Ingenious Alchemist” by John
R. Claypool, Morehouse Publishing, 2005, page 18).
My friends, that is rock
solid reformed theology – the theology of God’s grace. Those words remind me of the advertisement on
TV years ago which was trying to sell us something, but was actually telling us
the one thing we need to know about the gift of life:
“There’s no one, in the whole human race,
With your kind of style, your kind of grace.”
And because our Creator made
us that way – each one totally unique and different, blessed with the gifts God
has instilled in us – what He calls all of us to do is to share those gifts
with others.
This past week, I had
breakfast with a young man whom I first met almost thirty years ago when I
served as his youth minister while in seminary.
He struggled with severe dyslexia as a teenager, and no one knew exactly
what to do with or for him. But thanks
to the support and love of his family, and the guidance of teachers and church
members and leaders who recognized that he was highly intelligent and truly
gifted, that young man finally graduated cum laude from Harvard University,
received a Master of Divinity from Princeton Seminary, and for the past
nineteen years has been the President of a foundation that provides
scholarships to “financially challenged students with an access to education
and an opportunity to serve.” And today,
there are more than 2,500 students of every race, color and creed in 75
colleges and universities across our nation who are being helped by this
foundation to learn to serve and to lead others.
Sitting there at the
breakfast table this week with that young man, his wife and their four young sons
as they were getting ready to go to school that day, there were tears in his
eyes and mine too, as I heard him say “My life has been blessed.” And that is true, not only for him and his
family, for also for me and for you.
Our lives have been blessed beyond
measure, and God wants us, God expects us, God calls all of us to share the
treasure chest of gifts we have received with others. William James put it this way: “The greatest thing we can do is to spend our
lives on something that will outlast us.”
And he was right.
II
So as we “Count Our Blessings” today, let us first give thanks for the gift
of life itself and for the opportunities which the Lord provides us to give
ourselves in service to others.
Moreover, let us also count
the blessing of belonging to this great congregation. Founded in 1848, we have come a long way over
the past 160 years through our mission and ministry, as we proclaim the name of
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior Who is the center of our life together here
at the corner of 16th and Peachtree.
Since beginning another new
church year in September, focused on the theme: “Christ at the Center: the
Family of Faith,” we have celebrated what we believe in worship, including
inspiring music, on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings; we have rejoiced in
the vitality of our Christian Education , Church Growth, Communication, Care
and Community Ministries; we are grateful for our dynamic relationship with
Hillside Presbyterian Church, and we are looking forward with great expectation
to the Mission Conference focused on our international partnerships with
Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Kenya coming up in just two weeks.
And all of that has happened
in the midst of major exterior and interior renovations to our facilities and
buildings, which I think deserves a round of applause to all those who have
helped to lead the way!
Today, as we concentrate on
our Annual Giving Campaign, and listen to Charlie Shaffer, a Christian leader
in our city, speak to us during the brunch between services, I hope and I pray
that we will prayerfully and carefully consider what the Lord is calling each
of us and all of us to give.
As a congregation that
belongs to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., we know that the numbers in our
national membership are declining, mostly because we are getting gray and
growing older as our younger people are gradually drifting away.
One preacher I know out in
Now I don’t think that’s
going to happen. But in this local
church, strategically placed in the heart of our city, we need to do our part
to strengthen the worship, work and witness that God has called all of us to
embrace. And because you are the most
generous congregation I have ever known, I am trusting in the Lord together
with all of you that we will dig deep down during this Annual Giving Campaign
and do what He is calling us to do.
Some of us will be able to
tithe and/or increase our pledge over last year. Others will probably keep their pledge the
same. And those who are not able to give
as much as before need to know that we will be grateful for whatever you can
do. Because what is most important of
all is to share our blessings with those who are in need. And at the end of this campaign, God will
honor our gifts as we count our many blessings in Jesus’ name.
CONCLUSION
Which leads us to the final
affirmation of this sermon. We are
citizens of a great nation, and if we believe the words that are printed on our
currency – “In God We Trust” – then as we count our blessings, the Lord will
expect more from us in the days ahead than ever before.
The question as we come to this
important November election is not “Are we better off than we were four years
ago?” That is the wrong question. The
real question we need to ask is “Are we ready and willing to reach out to one
another, heal what has been broken, and join hearts and hands to work together
in the months and years ahead?” “United
we stand, divided we fall” is the truth that all of us need to remember,
especially during this fragile time of financial crisis.
It’s the question that the
people in the desert were asking as Moses was given that great benediction from
Numbers, chapter 6. And they trusted in
the Lord to bless them every step of the way.
So can we my friends. So can we.
This past summer I re-read
this book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” written by
Doris Kearns Goodwin. Let me quickly
come to the conclusion of her book and of this sermon. She writes about him and this is the last
page:
“An indomitable sense of purpose had
sustained him through the disintegration of the Union and through the darkest
months of the war, when
With his death,
There was only one Abraham
Lincoln. But in this coming election, we
need to pray that God will help to lead us to the right one who will be
President of the
“May the
Lord bless you and keep you,
May the
Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you,
May the
Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
In
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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