movement, movement

In the Hebrew Bible, the imperative “Bless!” occurs only thirty out of the several hundred times the verb barak (“to kneel”, as before a king) appears. Of those thirty occurrences, the ajority are liturgical exhortations to “bless the Lord,” mostly in the Psalter (e.g., Ps. 66:8; 96:2; 104:1). In other words, the act of blessing is most often directed toward heaven, not solicited from it! Only four times in the entire Hebrew scriptural tradition do we find requests in the imperative for divine blessing.

- Jesus For President PG 199

The use of the word “bless” is one that I could write volumes on due to having noticed the ways it is used both in Christianese language and normal day-to-day language. You know, either Sunday or Monday mornings. Claiborne and Haw mentioned this in a section I was reading today illustrating exactly how the word has been taken from its original religious use and transplanted into our religious/cultural landscape of today that tends to, as Claiborne and Haw say, “solicite” blessing from on high.

I’ve spent enough time as it is explaining my outright disgust with the idea of prosperity gospel, as well as how and why people can be ok with it if they have any true desire to follow Jesus. I’m sorry if I still just don’t get it, though I do try to relax about it because I know even I came from the evangelical depths of uncertainty myself. But thats beside the point, I don’t even consider prosperity gospel to be worth debate anymore. I define prosperity gospel as “My prosperity is more important to God than anything else”, hence the solicitation of God’s blessing on whatever I deem worthy of his blessing.

The word “bless”, however, is one of those words that when first meeting people can quickly let you know where people are coming from in this matter, whether they consciously know they are embracing it or are only finding themselves in it by default.

Perhaps, friends, this is one of those small suggestive words in our life that deserves examination? Who are you to command the blessing of the Lord? Perhaps your vision should wrap around his, not expect God’s will to wrap around yours.

Ok, I didn’t mean to use the word “perhaps” (twice) in that last paragraph. I think its fair to say both of those statements are true beyond “perhaps”.

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I’d like to share some more of what Claiborne and Haw say next, and brace yourselves, American Patriots, you might not like it:

Of the forty-one appearances of the Greek verb eulogeoo (“speaking a good word”), only wtice do we find it in the imperative mood. In neither case does it involve God. It does, however, involve us – and our enemies. In his famous Sermon on the Plain, Jesus invites his disciples to “bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28). These instructions are later echoed by the apostle Paul: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14). The lesson is unmistakable: we would do much better to ask God’s blessing on the world, and to bless God by loving our enemies.

I wholeheartedly agree.