Called, Shaped. Or maybe Blessed to be a Blessing
In March of 1996, I was 26 and pregnant with my second child. I had just started working with a local chapter of The Arc, an organization that serves people with developmental disabilities. I was super excited and felt great. Nauseous, but great.
In the midst of getting used to a new job and the idea of having more than one child, a test result came back with questionable results.
And so we underwent more testing.
And waited.
I know that many of us are familiar with the precarious time between a “red flag” from the lab and final definitive result that takes us to the next chapter. We know the sensation of held breath. We talked to doctors, to genetic counselors and we waited. In those days (it probably wasn’t as much as weeks), I prayed like never before. And admittedly, at that point in my life, I was a stranger to much prayer.
As I waited and prayed, I wondered at the strangeness of working daily among people with disabilities and now looking at that possibility for my own family.
But there was also, even then, even before I had God language for it, a calming understanding, a calming sense that all would be well. It rested somewhere deep in my gut. I felt it wrap me like a comforting blanket when an uncertain thought crossed my mind.
And there was a song from Elton John that spoke into the moment –Blessed…
Hey you, you're a child in my head
You haven't walked yet
Your first words have yet to be said
But I swear you'll be blessed
I know you're still just a dream
your eyes might be green
Or the bluest that I've ever seen
Anyway you'll be blessed
And you, you'll be blessed
You'll have the best
I promise you that
I'll pick a star from the sky
Pull your name from a hat
I promise you that…
You'll be blessed
That song washed over me in my most frightened moments. I just knew that this precious life was in God’s hands. Blessed.
So…the test results were normal, reassuring…she was a normal baby girl and her hormones had thrown off the initial test results. She had 23 chromosomes and she was going to be just fine.
And hear me say that her lack of disability is NOT the blessing.
The blessing I understood cellularly was that she was blessed NO MATTER WHAT. That she was created in love. And it would all be ok. That she had gifts the world would need. Even before the test results came in, this was the assurance I received in my bones.
She was blessed. Just because she was.
Not because she had all the right genes, but because she was.
She just was.
Blessed.
And then, in my early seminary days, one of our graduates came and preached…and the title of her sermon was “Blessed to be a Blessing.” The sermon was rooted in God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, that their offspring would bless nations/tribes/generations/peoples.
That just by existing – they would serve a purpose so much greater than their human understanding.
Hear that again – that just by existing, they would serve a purpose so much greater than their own human understanding. By being who they were. By living out their lives.
They were blessed by God in order to be a blessing to the whole world.
In our readings for today, the psalmist writes:
I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
We don’t live in a society that often encourages us to boldly embrace the wonder of our creation very often. At least I don’t find that as a woman, I was particularly brought up or formed to claim the goodness of this body, of this mind, of this spirit through family channels, through social channels, through the school systems, through church. Instead I receive messages about how I should be better, smarter, faster, thinner, richer, have more skills.
But the psalmist claims we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
And somewhere, at some point in the past 10 years, that has become cellular knowing for me.
BY the work of the Holy Spirit, most of the time I can fully embrace this.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
This week, on our ongoing journey of discipleship, we are continuing to explore the disciples’ work to serve in some form of ministry daily. Last week, we talked about how we are called by God to that work…this week, I want to encourage us to consider how we are created by God, knit together in our own flesh for that work, gifted for that work, made for that work.
I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Since I arrived a year ago, we have been sent forth each Sunday with the reminder that each of us is created with unique gifts that the world so dearly needs.
What does it mean for us to acknowledge that, live into that, embrace that?
Those gifts with which we have been blessed are not for our personal benefit. They are intended to bless the world. The whole world. And if that seems daunting, maybe we narrow the focus a bit - they are meant to bless the neighbor we are called to love.
Starting on Sunday afternoon, our youth will be finding different safe ways to love their neighbor or love creation. Using their hands. Using their brains. Using their creativity. Using their voices.
Using their gifts.
Because they have them – gifts, that is.
And so do you.
What gifts do you have?
Some of us are musical.
Some of us are mathematical.
Some of us are analytical.
Some of us listen well.
Some of us write great letters.
Some of us can stay on top of world events.
Some of us have a unique ability to remember history.
Some of us bake well.
Some of us garden well.
Some of us are good at remembering milestone dates.
Some of us analyze data.
Some of us see the big picture.
Some of us are brave and risk-taking.
Some of us are cautious and careful.
And it all belongs.
It belongs and we have an obligation –
….But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
That marvelous light? That marvelous light that we have been called into is abundant life, and our call, our work, is to put the gifts we have received to work in ways that help others to know and access that abundant life.
Helping others to know and access abundant life is twofold work – it has to do with people having the opportunities to survive and thrive in tangible ways – employment, housing, food security, health care, racial justice – so that they can then survive and thrive in spiritual ways – knowing that they are loved and loveable, created by God for more than just survival. Created by God for ABUNDANT LIFE.
We have gifts so that other might also have abundant life.
In a recent conversation about becoming anti-racist, we pondered together – what gifts do I have to offer at this moment? Some of our answers were – time, the ability to look at data and see things, connections, a heart that wants to be different.
God uses all of these good gifts.
Because they came from God for a reason.
And when we are living with the knowledge that we are gifted and claimed in order to “proclaim the might acts of him who called us…” then the world is transformed. We have been blessed to be a blessing.
I invite you to take just a moment and wonder with me…
I wonder….
I wonder….what is the gift each of us has that the world needs most right now?
I believe the answer is very individualized.
I believe the answer is revealed by the Holy Spirit to each of us.
I believe the answer is key to healing the world.
In the book of Acts as the early church came together, they didn’t worship together on Sundays, attend a few meetings through the week, go to work and start all over again – they shared the fullness of themselves in community. They shared resources. We hear about one who sells property to fund the work of the community, but I assume that behind this there are a thousand gifts shared. One who makes bread. One who sews. One who is a gifted teacher. One who is a gifted financial planner. One who listens especially well…
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
That is not a political treatise. It is not an economic platform. It is scripture.
May it be so.
Amen.
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