Original Blessing - a sermon by Theodore A. Gill Jr.

This sermon was preached by Theodore A Gill at the annual advent service at the ecumenical centre in Geneva on Wednesday 16 December 2009

B’ruch atah Adonoi Elohenu, melek ha’olam – “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of all Creation…” This is the beginning of many Hebrew prayers, offering thanks to God for all the wonders and goodness of creation, returning a portion of that blessing with which we have been so richly blessed.

It is a welcome reminder to those of us from the Reformed tradition of Protestant Christianity, winding up our year-long observance of the half-millennium since John Calvin’s birth, that even before the recognition of Original Sin – which plays so large a part in Reformed theology – there was the Original Blessing of light and life. This original blessing is testimony to God’s nature, and it is our surest hedge against the threat of human nature.

“In the beginning was the Word” – and the Word in Creation inspired words of command (“Let there be light!”, for example), and the Word bestowed words of blessing when “God saw that it was good”.

Near the end of the first chapter of Genesis, we read:
“So God created humankind in God’s own image,
in the image of God they were created,
male and female God created them.
“God blessed them, and God said to them:
‘Be fruitful, and multiply…’”

This blessing comes before that first infraction, that earliest act of disobedience, that willing submission to the serpent’s wiles. From the beginning, God’s will has been for our well-being; the operative verb in God’s intent for us is not “to judge”, nor “to punish” nor even “to predestine”, but “to bless” – to bless with the gift of light, even in a land of deep darkness – especially in a land of deep darkness – to bless with the gifts of life and grace and truth.

The Hebrew word for “bless” is barak.

(Where I come from, the president is called “Barack”. His name originates from that same Semitic root, making its way through Kenya to Hawaii, and then by way of
Indonesia, Columbia University, Harvard Law School and Chicago into the White House.
Barack… A word of blessing from the White House! And phrased in Arabic! So far, it is more a sign of hope than attainment – rather like the Nobel Prize… or the angelic vision of Peace on earth.)

Barak – to bless. B’ruch or b’ruchah – “one who is blessed”. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth said to her, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…” And Mary sang, “From now on, all generations will call me blessed.”

It is the blessing we celebrate in this season, the blessing of new light in a renewed Creation, a return to the first theme of the sonata, a restatement of the principal theme, the original theme.

In the beginning, God saw that the Creation was good, and blessed it. In time, the people of God turned to God in prayer and offered their “blessings” – Bless the Lord, O my soul, and bless God’s holy name; bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits.

This form of “blessing”, or beruchah, a prayer of thanksgiving and dedication, became a standard feature of Jewish worship: there is the blessing of the candle at the beginning of Sabbath dinner; there are blessings to be said for a new family member, or a new home.

Some years ago, I worked as a campus minister at Southern Illinois University, and the churches that I represented shared a building with the American Baptist Campus Ministry and the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, the Jewish campus ministry. Like me, the Jewish campus rabbi represented several “denominations” of his faith, and around this time of year, there was a joke he would tell based on these different Jewish traditions.

The story goes that there was a Jewish couple who were very indulgent of their only son. When the boy reached school age, he visited his Christian classmates’ homes and, in December, saw the beautiful Christmas trees they had decorated. He went home and begged his parents for such a tree.

The father was very reluctant to introduce a Christmas tree into his home, but he wanted to please his little boy. So he decided that they would erect a tree in the living room if he could find a rabbi willing to bless the object – that is, to come to their house and say a beruchah to consecrate the tree.

There were three synagogues in town – an Orthodox, a Conservative and a Liberal congregation. So the father went first to the elderly, bearded Orthodox rabbi, and he asked him, “Rabbi, would you be willing to say a beruchah over our Christmas tree?”

The wise, but rather sheltered, scholar replied, “What is this ‘Christmas tree’?”

The father could see where the conversation was going, which was nowhere, so he smiled, excused himself and departed.

The Conservative rabbi knew exactly what a Christmas tree was, and he gave the father an impassioned argument and a thorough scolding before ushering him out of his study.

So the father was down to his last option. At the Liberal synagogue, he posed his question to a younger, more relaxed rabbi: “Rabbi, would you be willing to say a beruchah over our family’s Christmas tree?”

The rabbi smiled, and chuckled, and said, “We live in modern times, in a pluralistic society! For me, the Christmas tree is no problem.

“But tell me… What is this ‘beruchah’?”

(It is a story about American Jewish “denominationalism”, yet the dynamics are not at all foreign to our ears.)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits.

In the beginning, or quite near the beginning, there were words of blessing to describe the wondrous gifts of Creation. And soon enough, prayers of blessing were returned in recognition of the glory God reveals.

“Glory to God in the highest” is one form of blessing, addressed by angels and seconded by shepherds as an offering of praise. And the dialogue of blessing continues in the phrase “Peace on earth” – a word of promise to men and women created in God’s image, descendants of those subjects of the original blessing.

It is toward that combined blessing – of Glory and Peace – that we look forward, and at Christmas we catch a glimpse of its splendour in the manger scene.

For…“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”…and…“we have beheld his glory…full of grace and truth.”


Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of all Creation!
B’ruch atah Adonoi Elohenu, melek ha’olam…
May you continue to bless us, and keep us, and grant us Peace on earth