Blessings in a Heat Wave - sung

 I wrote the words for this little prayer yesterday while out in my route. Today I composed a little melody for it. Please ignore the fact that my satchel twisted up my collar. It was hot and I didn’t notice. 

Blessings in a Heat Wave

    Bless the breeze, soft grass, and shade
    Bless the clouded sky
    Bless the water that we drink
    when mouth and throat are dry.

    Bless the sweat that’s on my face,
    and neck, and back, and thighs
    Bless the body keeping cool
    when the mercury’s on the rise.

    Praise the Maker of the earth
    and bless his only Son
    Bless the Holy Spirit too
    Our God, the Three in One

A Blessing for a Foggy Saturday

     

    God bless us on the streets and in the fog;
    God bless us on the road and in the rain. 
    Feet dry, spirits high
    until we come home safe again. 

Epiphany In Uncertain Times

Come now, visit and bless

this house, this home

with a gladness and glory unknown

in dark and desperate days

Show us how to rise up in splendor 

when darkness covers the earth

when thick clouds of satanic deception 

have taken control  and taken the soul 

of people I know and love

Come to make all things plain 

Come to make all things clear

here where our hearts throb and overflow 

with grotesque exaggerations 

and slow suffocation 

The global injustice

and domestic terror

the home grown police violence

of shadow puppets 

and selfish prophets

have obscured the stars of hope

Even so, the grace given to me 

is still a mystery

the light has dawned and the glory come

like justice a flower

Bless all who live here 

with the gift of your love

seeing and being seen

knowing and being known 

20+C+M+B+25

The Lord Bless and Keep You - a blessing for Christmas Day

 This Christmas morning I've written an arrangement of the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6: 24 - 26) to share with you all. May the Lord bless you.

May the Lord bless you 
and may the Lord keep you.

May the Lord lift his countenance upon you
and give you peace.

May the Lord make his face
to shine upon you
and be gracious 
unto you.

The Apostolic Blessing (a song)

 The pastor at my church made an off hand remark after the service this morning about having started to cycle back through the dismissal songs that we regularly use to conclude our worship times. So I came home and wrote a new one to share. 

It’s drawn from the Apostle Paul’s blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14

The Blessing of Defeat

So the man who has wrestled all his life comes to his final battle at the Jabbok ford. He’s been wrestling all his life, since his birth, even before his birth. He tussled with his twin brother, Esau, within the womb, grasping his heel, still trying to win over him on the way out the birth canal. He strove with his brother for the birthright and the patriarchal blessing. He wrestled a stone away from the mouth of a well to impress his future bride. He contended again and again with his father-in-law.  And now comes the culmination of his life, the climactic, defining event. He wrestles with “a man” at the Jabbok ford.

But what kind of man is this? Jacob, the trickster, thief, deceiver encounters a stranger in the dark – a man without a name and without provenance; he grapples with the mysterious unknown in the dark of the night. And in that long battle neither opponent is able to toss or pin the other; they are unable to hold or throw the other down.

This man in the dark may be more than a man. There is something strange in this encounter. Is he some sort of night spirit or troll that will lose its power or be turned to stone at the breaking of dawn and the light of the sun? Is he an angel of the Lord or a demon from the desert? Is he, perhaps, even God himself?

Or is this man in the dark the embodiment of all Jacob’s guilt and fear – a psychic projection.  In this man that he cannot defeat, Jacob sees the face of those he has offended and wronged. He sees the face of God and his own face, and the face of his twin brother Esau.[1]

Jacob struggles on heroically determined, and stubbornly relentless.  He refuses to admit or accept defeat. But then, with a touch (and not a crushing blow), the slightest touch, the man from the dark blows Jacob’s hip out of joint. He is hobbled, wounded. The supplanter is supplanted. He falls – but even in this defeat he finds a victory of sorts. Even in defeat he demands a blessing.

All his life he’s wrestled for and demanded a blessing from others. Give me the birthright and patriarchal blessing. Give me a bride. Give me sheep, and goats, and camels. Give me a blessing! But what kind of blessing has he won here? The blessing of defeat and a limp to remind him of it. He is no longer Jacob, the deceiver, but Israel who has wrestled with gods and men and has won.

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[1] Compare Jacob’s words: in Genesis 32: 31 he says, “I have seen God face to face and I came out alive,” and in 33: 10 he says to Esau, “…for have I not seen your face as one might see God’s face, and you received me in kindness?” (Alter 183, 186)

Alter, Robert. Genesis: Translation and Commentary. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 1996. Print. 

A Blessing of Peace

Peace be with you,
and peace again
and a third time, peace.

You who are hiding in fear
behind locked doors
and wounded hearts

You who are frightened
by the violence of the past
and anxious of a darkened future

You who have loved and lost,
and fear to love
or trust or hope again.

Peace be with you,
and peace again
and a third time, peace.


(John 20: 19 – 26)

A Blessing for the Pool of Israel

When your heart is distressed,
when your work is fruitless,
when you are exhausted,
May you dive into the pool.

Blessed is the Lord-
the hope of all our expectations,
the gathering of all our dreams.

When enemies pursue and mockers gloat,
when you are abused and abandoned,
May you dive into the pool.

Blessed is the Lord-
our sweet relief,
our health and salvation.

When you are scorned and shunned,
May you dive down deep into the pool.

Blessed is the Lord-
the source and spring
of ever-flowing living water
and streams of mercy
without ceasing,
who says, “Come and drink.

Anyone who is thirsty,
Everyone who is weak,
Come, dive into the Pool or Israel
and from your heart
shall flow streams of living water.”

Amen

(Jeremiah 17: 13 – 18, Psalm 25, John 7: 38 – 39)

A Blessing for Pentecost Sunday

Come vociferous wind,
come rushing into us;
bring burning tongues
of sacred flame
that we might speak
the holy name.

May we burn-and burn bright.May we speak-and speak true.

May God’s spirit, holy and just

fill you, fill me, fill us
with the power to do what is right,
move us to motion,
and carry us up in the divine wind
that makes all things new.

And, as we have gathered here,
united in one Lord and one Savior,
may we go out now, scattered to our separate ways,
let us go in one Spirit,
united in the language of love.

A Blessing for the Intersexed

Blessed are those who, through the fortunes of genetics are both – and being both, are accepted as neither – for in Christ there is neither male nor female, and because God created them, male and female he created them, and they were very good.

Biblical Limericks: Mornings Would Be Fine if they Started Around 10

If you are lucky I will just yawn,
if not I’ll be swinging a baton -
those blessings you rehearse
sound more like a rude curse
when you’re up singing them before dawn.

Proverbs 27:14

Biblical Limericks: Psalm 129

How often they have assaulted me,
dragging their plows ‘cross my back with glee.
May they wither like grass
and as harvesters pass
they won’t say, “Yahweh’s blessing on thee.”

Psalm 129

A Blessing for the Seeker of Truth

May your wells and fountains always be full
bubbling up from within
with the water that gives life,
and life eternal.

May you worship truly,
honoring the Father of us all
in spirit and in truth
for this is the kind of worshipper
that the Father honors.

May you know the Messiah that is with you
and may he bless you with his presence.
Amen.

(John 4: 5 – 42)

A Blessing for the Ascent

As we make our pilgrim way
 through the rocky vale
let us look up to the mountains-
Where does our help come from?

From weak idols that need to be awakened?
No.

May the Lord be your guardian.
May the Lord be your shade.
And may the Lord be your strong right hand.

May he shelter you from the sweltering sun
and from the deleterious influence of the moon.

When you go out and when you come in,
when you go up and when you come down.
May the Lord, the king of the universe
be with you, now and forever. Amen.

(Psalm 121)

(Photo taken at Qumran.) 

A Blessing for Transfiguration and Transformation

At the top of the mountain
where the air is clear
and the light of God transforms everything we see,
where that voice speaks loud
and clear from the cloud of his presence,

But also as we descend,
as we move down from the mountain
and reenter the everyday world
of normal routines and predictability,
as we leave the brilliant light of the mountain-side
and move back into the deepening gloam of the valley of shadows

May we see God.

In those ancient witness,
the Law and the Prophets
as they surround us on each side,
as they challenge us and prod us
to do better and to be better
may we see God,

In our leader, our teacher,
our savior and Lord,
Jesus of Nazareth,
may we see God.

And may we, in turn, be illuminated also
by the light of his presence,
transformed by the light of his glory

So that we may carry some of that light with us as we go
so that we may transform the places we go
lighting them from within
with the reflected light of his glory.

May we show God in all that we do.

See Also: A Blessing for Transfiguration Sunday

A Blessing for Beloved Servants

May the Lord, righteous and true
uphold you, his servants, in all that you do;
may he put his Spirit upon you
so that you will not falter
or be discouraged
or lose heart

The Lord who created the heavens
will take hold of your hand.
The Lord who formed the earth
will give you breath to breathe.

May the Lord,
who opens blinded eyes,
and opens dungeon doors
so that prisoners may go free
say of you, say of me:
“This is my Son.
This is my daughter.
In her, in him, I am well pleased.”

Isaiah 42: 1 – 9 / Matthew 3: 13 – 17
(Baptism of Christ A)

A Blessing for the New Year

May the Word
that was in the beginning,
the Word that was with God
and is God,
be with you
as we begin again
another new year,
full of dreams and dangers.

May his light shine into your darkened places,
and illuminate your shadowed corners,
for it will not be overcome.

May he bless us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places
and in all of our earthly spaces.

May he heal your broken hearts
and lift up those who have been thrown down.
May he grant us peace
in each new day of this new year.

John 1: 1 – 10, Ephesians 1: 3 – 14, Psalm 147

A Blessing for Those Who Grieve during the Holidays

May we find comfort,
we who grieve and mourn,
who mark this season of gifts
with loss and bereavement;
may we be comforted.

May we remember those who are gone,
those taken by illness, by accident,
and those taken by human malice;
may their lives inspire us.

As the darkness of night
gives way to dawning light,
as winter’s winds
give way to springtime rains

may we find peace
and comfort
and joy

in the birth, and life, and death
and in the glorious resurrection
of Jesus, the Messiah,

in the angel of his presence,
our Savior,
who takes our afflictions as his own.

May he lift us up
and carry us forever.
Amen.

Isaiah 63: 7 - 9

The Blessing of the Crocus (Advent 3)

May you bloom like the Crocus,
that winter Rose of Sharon,
springing forth from tender stem
through apocalyptic ash
and the still smoldering ruins
of blasted earth.

May you be a rose ever blooming.

Let purple plants and greenery
bloom into the golden splendor
of the Morning Star’s dawning light.

May you give strength to trembling hands
and tired knees;
let the blind see through you
and the deaf hear your song.
Say to them, “Be strong,” and “Do not fear,
for our God is with us here.”

May you be a stream into the wilderness,
bringing life to burning desert sands.
May you drive away the brutish beasts
that ravage the night and savage our dreams.

May your road always be the Holy Way,
and may you come,
along with unnumbered millions
of the Ransomed of the LORD,
to Zion with singing.

Joy to the world
and everlasting joy and gladness
be upon your head,
forever
and amen.

(Isaiah 35)