BLESS
YOU
II Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 5:1-8
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
There are some days when, on awakening, my
first words are "bless you!"
It's not because I am being pious or even expressing my affection for
Isobel even on our 54th Wedding Anniversary; it is because the abbot who lives
next door has woken up the Valley and me with a loud sneeze!
Why is it that we say "bless
you!" to someone who has just sneezed?
I went in search of an answer this past week and discovered that,
according to legend, the custom began with Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth
century during a plague that was ravaging Rome.
People who were showing signs of the plague, one of which was
uncontrollable sneezing, were brought to him for healing. So the practice began: you sneeze, I
bless!" That already gives us a
clue to its meaning. There is, in fact,
a long list of words used in virtually all languages, from Albananian to Zulu,
in response to people who sneeze, and they invariably mean "may you be
healthy." To be blessed is about well-being. To bless others is to pray that God will make
them whole.
As children in Sunday School we use to belt
out a chorus "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will
surprise you what the Lord has done!"
Back then I had little idea about what blessing really meant. I assumed we were taught the chorus to keep
us grateful for mom and dad, my dog Chippy, my Mechano set and bicycle, and for
food on the table. So we asked a
blessing before meals, my parents gave me their blessing when I set off into
the wide world, just as they gave my sister their blessing when she got
married. And then on Sundays we had even
more blessings when the minister blessed babies with the time honoured Aaronic
words: "The Lord bless you and keep you..." And then sent us on our
way with a final blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!" Yes, there was every reason to count and name
my blessings one by one because somehow they made you feel good. And that is another clue to its meaning. To be blessed is not only to be well, but
also to be happy because you can be well but not happy. To be a blessing to
others, to take it one step further, is to help make them truly happy as well.
But what is happiness? People will differ in their definitions of
happiness, and philosophers have long debated its meaning. So it is not surprising that Jesus taught his
followers what it truly meant for him in what we call the Beatitudes which
Matthew records in his gospel. Each one
begins with the Greek word makarios
which literally means "happy."
The happy are not the rich and powerful, but the humble peacemakers who
work for God's justice in the world. The
happy are the pure in heart, that is, those who seek to do what is right and
good. Even those who mourn or are
persecuted are called happy. Clearly
Jesus has turned happiness upside down and in so doing given happiness a much
deeper meaning than normally understood.
Isobel and I received a very special blessing
recently from a lady named Hannah van Rensburg we don't even know. She wrote us a letter and this is what she told us. She is now 85 years old, but she was born and
brought up in the Hemel en Aarde Valley on a little farm called
"Dawn" -- the name of her mother.
From this small farm she walked everyday along the old sand road to
Braemar School, now the office of the Hamilton Russel Wine Farm, where she was
taught by Aunt Chrissie Havenga. Her
father, Andries de Villiers, planted the original blue gum trees along the road
to provide shade for the children as they walked to and from school. Most people in the Valley, white and coloured
were poor but they learnt to share what they had. Each day drinking water was brought to the
farms on donkey or horse drawn carts.
Her mother drove a large Cape cart pulled by Clydesdale horses to take
wild and garden flowers from their farm into the hotels in Hermanus. "It was during those years" she
wrote, "that a very deep love grew in my heart for the Hemel en Aarde
Valley."She continued: "On or
near Volmoed lived Oom Lisa and Aunt Bessie Langenhoven who took a very keen
interest in this little, sickly child."
Sadly, she told us: "When "Dawn" had to be sold as my
parents were getting on in years, my mother, after signing the Deed of Sale and
approaching "Dawn" with the cart, looked up at "Dawn" and
prayed:
Dear
Lord, please bless little "Dawn" and let it be a blessing to others
too."
"Dawn" later became the Rudolf
Steiner School and then Camphill. So how
come we received this lovely letter with all its blessings. The clue came next in her letter: "When I read the Volmoed Journey (that is, the book Isobel and I wrote for the
twentieth anniversary of Volmoed) I find myself once more in 'my' valley. In my mind I walk up to my 'klipkoppie'
behind the old 'Dawn' homestead where I used to pick 'Painted
Ladies.'" Then she exclaimed
"Isn't God wonderful! Even to this
day he is blessing 'Dawn' and my whole valley with his love and kindness...I am
so happy to know that God has blessed Mummy's little prayer of so many years
ago so beautifully. Thank you so much
for looking after our beloved valley with so much love." Isn't that a remarkable letter out of the
blue from a lady of 85 who lived as a child in our Valley, and whose mother
asked a blessing on all who might come to live here?
When, at the end of
our worship we say the grace together, we are asking for God's blessing on each
of us as we leave this place in a very special sense. In
doing so we turn to each other because we are saying to each in turn may God
make and keep you happy and healthy, but not in any superficial way. We may not always be happy or healthy in the
way we would like to be, but God's blessing goes beyond that. God's blessing rests on us in sickness and in
health, for richer and poorer. God's
blessing is the giving of his grace, love and Spirit for our journey no matter
what might come our way. It is about
health and happiness, but at a deeper level than we might first think. We do not know whether 2015 will bring us the
health and happiness we would like, we hope that it will, but we also pray that
as we journey into the coming days we will be blessed with grace, love and
strength to live in ways that might renew our souls and help us be a blessing
to others. Greet one another, as Paul
says, with a holy kiss! And may the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all. And may we all have a blessed New Year.
John
de Gruchy
Volmoed
8th January 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment