Blessed to Be a Blessing — Sermon by Rev. Bryan Biba

let us pray Lord may my speech and my

message not be plausible words of human

wisdom but a demonstration of the spirit

and of power so that our faith may not

rest in the wisdom of men but in the

power of the Living God we ask this in

the name of the father and the son and

the holy spirit amen amen you may be

seated

baptism friends is one of the greatest

blessings that anyone can receive

congratulations to Rita and Matthew and

Father Mark and Alice this is a blessed

day to celebrate God's blessings upon us

and upon this child

Parker but like all of God's blessings

the blessings of baptism are not

intended just for us alone indeed we are

blessed to be a blessing to others from

the very beginning of Creation The

Vision that God had for his human

creatures is that we would be conduits

of blessing to all of creation that is

why God blesses us it's right there at

the very beginning of holy scriptures in

Genesis CH 1 the spirit of God hovers

over the Wat

the chaotic and formless void and God

speaks and creates all of reality out of

nothing five times he speaks a word of

blessing a blessing that gives life

light and dark Heaven and Earth land sea

plants sun and moon all kinds of animals

God is blessing Creation with the gift

of

life and then in verse 22 we see the

greatest blessing of all and God blessed

man and woman blessed human beings

saying be fruitful and multiply fill the

waters and the Seas let the birds

multiply on the

earth God said verse 26 let us make man

in our own image after our own likeness

let them have dominion over the fish of

the sea over the birds of the heavens

over the livestock over all the Earth

over everything that creeps on the earth

so you see in One way humans aren just

like any other animals we're blessed to

propagate to cover and subdue the Earth

and yet humans are unique we're given a

blessing we're blessed to have dominion

to care for creation to rule and Care on

the Creator's behalf humans uniquely are

given this blessing of dominion so that

we can be conduit its to the rest of

creation we are blessed to be a

blessing God blesses us that we might

bless other

creatures yet this

call our ability to be a blessing is

dependent on us remaining in God's

blessing because after all God is the

source of all blessing we must remain

connected to him abiding in him walking

with him or we will fail in our calling

to be conduits of

blessing we see this clearly in our

Psalm appointed for this morning open

with me in your order of service to

Psalm

1 the very first

Psalm in the Salter recalls the very

first chapter of scripture Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter

1 blessed is the man who has not walked

in the counsel of the ungodly nor stood

in the way of Sinners and has not sat in

the seat of the scornful but his Delight

is in the law of the Lord and on his law

will he meditate day and

night the only way for humans to

maintain that created blessedness is to

meditate on God's word to Delight in the

law of the Lord the word used here

Hebrew word is the word Torah it's the

word that means means law it refers to

the first five books of

Moses but there's a linguistic

connection between the Hebrew word Torah

law and the Hebrew word Darbar which

means word that's the word that used in

Genesis chapter 1 there's a parallel

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

going on here God spoke creation into

being by his word and God also speaks

his people into being by his

laws indeed as I taught today in

confirmation talk talking about the Ten

Commandments we call those Commandments

the 10 words the words that God speaks

to bless

us God's law is written into the very

order of

creation God orders Creation in a

certain way fish swim in water birds fly

in the air but more than that we humans

are given a sense of right and wrong of

Good and Evil of morality and immorality

all of these things are inscribed into

our nature God's

law we call this natural law the problem

is though friends that sin and death has

broken our ability to know and to act

according to God's

law rather than being sources of

blessing to Creation we are now sources

of cursing because of our selfishness we

don't remain in God we don't seek his

Blessing we seek our own own good we

walk in the counsel of the ungodly and

stand in the way of Sinners and now we

are all conduits of

cursing after the Advent of sin and

death the only way that we can return to

the Creator and to receive his Blessing

is by obeying his Commandments he speaks

his word again to recreate us a

new and so when human creatures delight

and meditate on God words verse three

and he shall be like a tree planted by

the water side that shall bring forth

his fruit in due season his Leaf also

shall not wither and look whatever he

does shall

prosper the psalmist gives us a

beautiful vision of human

flourishing human flourishing is like a

tree planted by a stream of water and

that as that tree draws life and nourish

M from the life-giving streams that tree

is able to give life and blessing to

other creatures I mean take any tree out

here every tree has you know maybe a

bird building a nest maybe a insect

finding food maybe a squirrel or some

other creature uh burrowing in

underground root

systems trees have this amazing way of

giving life to all of those creatures

around it but that's only possible when

the tree remains rooted when the tree is

connected to the source of

life without the source of life without

the streams of Living Waters trees die

they shrivel up they lose their leaves

they fall over they

rot verse 5 as for the ungodly it is not

so with them but they are like the chaff

which the wind scatters away from the

face of the

earth I don't know about you but I would

love to be rooted in God to be drawing

all of my life all of my energy from

God's blessings so that I could bless

others and yet all too often I feel

blown about like the

wind I feel

withered I want everything I do to

prosper it's only possible when we draw

our life from the streams of Living

Waters the sad truth is that each one of

us has been unrooted by sin and

death rather than being rooted in God

and his life we rely on ourselves on our

own strength we are the wicked and that

is the way that leads to

death we become not conduits of blessing

but

conduits of curses our Wicked wickedness

alienates us from God it makes it

impossible for us to live up to our

calling our vocation blessed to be a

blessing a conduit of blessing for

creation in Galatians chapter 3 St Paul

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

explains how sin and death have Twisted

the law the very thing God gave to give

life to his people now because sin and

death brings cursing

Galatians 3:10 for all who rely on works

Galatians 3:10

of the law are under a curse for it is

written cursed be everyone who does not

abide by all the things written in the

book of the law and do

them see friends the law is only a

blessing to us if we can keep it

completely now because of sin and death

none of us keep the law we are all law

Breakers all of us stand condemned under

the law and the result is we have become

a curse and we give off those curses to

others we spread the curse of sin and

death throughout creation through our

Disobedience to God and His

law one way that I think this is

particularly true for us

today is in our use of social media

social media is a curse engine filled

with baby pictures and dog photos

there's constant commandment breaking

especially the ninth commandment bearing

false

witness many of us live kind and

generous lives with our friends and

family and then we get on social media

and we let a

rip we whole new person comes out we say

things on there that we would never say

in person we put the worst selves on

display for the world and worst of all

we do it in the name of

Jesus Now understand you are entitled to

your opinions about culture about

politics but you are not entitled to

them at your neighbor's

expense that is a curse and when you do

that you are passing on the curse to

other

people examine

yourself if you use social media or if

you talk to anyone at all during the

week that's

everyone are your posts are your words

are your comments are your likes are

they sources of

blessing or sources of cursing do they

encourage or do they discourage do they

uplift or do they put

down if your social media posts curse

discourage and put down others then

perhaps you need to fast from social

media and I got got good news for y'all

lent's coming up very

soon and if you're not sure I got three

questions for you write them down get a

pen it's pretty simple before you post

before you like ask

yourself is it

true is it

kind is it

necessary is it true is it kind is it

necessary if the answer is no to any of

these don't do

it even if you think you what you have

to say is true ask yourself am I saying

it in the most kind way I can am I

saying truth in love in a way that will

bless others and do I have to say it is

this the best way to say it or is it

better to pick up the phone and talk to

my brother or

sister friends we cannot justify

ourselves with our word and with our

actions we are constantly under

condemnation of the law because we can't

obey it we need someone else to justify

us and thanks be to God in Galatians

Galatians 3:13

3:13 Paul writes that Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law by becoming a

curse for

us as it is written cursed is everyone

who hangs on a tree so that in Christ

Jesus the blessings of Abraham might

come to the

Gentiles so that we might receive the

promised Spirit through

faith like Abraham we are blessed to be

a blessing like Adam we are blessed to

be a blessing and Jesus has taken on the

curses of this world the curses that we

are guilty of and crucified them so that

we might be set free to be the people of

blessing he made us to be

be and this friends brings us to Holy

baptism in

baptism God replants Us near the streams

of Living

Water we are recreated in the spirit the

spirit that hovers over the waters God

restores his original creation blessing

and so much more Christ gives us his own

righteousness a righteousness that is

alien to us he justifies Us by faith and

the Holy Spirit writes the law on our

hearts so that we might keep his word

and bear

fruit it's only through baptism that

human creatures can

ReDiscover their creation

commission to bless others to be a

conduit of blessing to the

world it's not just that though baptism

also creates a community the Church each

one of us blessed by God to be a

blessing to

others so what would it look like if

each one of us in our own life together

as a body was a source of blessing to

others what would it look like if we

lived out this baptismal call in our

lives well Jesus gives us a picture in

Our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 6

Luke 6 · chapter mention

open your Bibles with

me this is in Luke's sermon on the plane

one of Jesus's most important teachings

in

scripture here we see three

things three things the spirit does

through the church when we are abiding

in living in the blessings of God and

our conduits of blessings to others the

first thing the spirit does is he does

healing and Deliverance Ministry Verse

18 we're told that Jesus is gathered

around and there's a crowd around him

and they come to hear him and to be

healed of their diseases and those who

are troubled with unclean spirits were

cured and all of the crowd sought to

touch him for power came out of him and

healed them

all healing and deliverance was

essential to Jesus's Earthly

Ministry he is fighting against the

World the Flesh and the devil so that we

might be healed and set free to be a

blessing this was also an essential part

of the apostolic Ministry in the book of

Acts the church continues on Jesus's

Ministry of healing and

deliverance now friends if the church is

a blessing to sick and troubled people

then it's because that we are a place

where sick and troubled people are

welcome you can't heal people and cast

out demons if you're not willing to

spend time with sick and demon-possessed

people and yet all too often in the

church we exclude these people because

we don't want to touch them we don't

want them near us and instead we we just

seek out those who have problems like

our own you know acceptable

problems but Jesus here goes to

those in most need those who are most

enslaved those who are desperate for God

to set them free

and moreover he goes also to the poor

look with me at verse 20 Jesus lifted up

his eyes on his disciples and said

blessed are you who are poor for yours

are the kingdom of God blessed are you

who are hungry now for you shall be

satisfied Blessed Are You When You Weep

now for you shall laugh blessed are you

when people hate you when they exclude

you and revile you and spurn my name as

evil on account of the son of man

rejoice in that day and leap for Joy for

behold your reward is great in

heaven friends God wants to pour out his

blessings on all people no one is

excluded from his love and yet scripture

is clear both Old and New Testament that

God's blessings always come first to

those in most desperate

need the poor the

hungry those who are hated by the

world philosopher Nicholas Walter storf

talks about the quartet of the

vulnerable when you read through the Old

Testament you see time and time again

that these four vulnerable people are

given particular attention by God the

Widow the orphan the

Sojourner and the

poor these are the people to whom the

blessings of God come first this is who

God wants to help first not only these

people Everyone is a recipient of God's

blessing but the church is called in

particular to be a conduit of blessing

to those in most

need this can be done in all kinds of

ways if you want to know what it might

look like join us on Thursday mornings

at the dive you'll see a lot of poor

hungry vulnerable people it looks like

material IAL support it looks like

training looks like

education may look like companionship or

prayer but if

we are remaining in God's blessing

connected to the source of Living Waters

and if we are seeking to be that

blessing God has called us to be then

God will always call us to those who are

most desperate

first third and finally we see probably

the most difficult part of this passage

Jesus pronounces a number of wos and

when you see the word woe you can just

substitute the word curse it's the same

idea these are people who uh are

resisting the work of blessing in their

lives and instead they're becoming a

source of cursing to

others but then in verse 27 Jesus says I

say to you who hear love your enemies do

good to those who hate you

bless those who curse you pray for those

who abuse you y'all that's not woke

that's Jesus that's not Father

Brian I wish I didn't say that my life

would be

easier I me here's the thing living in

this world where there's sin and death

the World the Flesh and the devil we

should expect to be oppressed we should

expect to be cursed and when we

experience that the call is not to curse

back but to love enemies to seek to

bless those who curse

us to be people who seek out the most

vulnerable and seek to give God's

blessing to

them on this

point if I'm honest with you I'm not

much different than the world often when

I encounter an enemy you know my first

instinct is to curse them

but the call here is only possible by

grace through faith when we remain

firmly rooted near the streams of Living

Water these three fruits of the kingdom

are the bread and butter of the

Christian Life we're saved by grace

through faith so that we might respond

in these good works this is what it

looks like friends when all of us in the

church are being rooted in the blessings

of God and seeking to give those

blessings to others God wants us to

flourish like tree trees by streams of

water he wants us to give life to other

people to heal and deliver to offer

Refuge to those in need to love our

enemies that's what we were made for

that was the blessing given to us in

creation and that is the blessing

friends that is restored to us in

baptism and here we have the real

problem problem with social

media like an ax to a tree our vicious

use of Social Media cuts down and

undermines our flourishing and the

flourishing of

others too many Christians are

destroying their witness with curses

with vitriol In The Name Of

Truth God has blessed us so that we

might be a blessing our broken and dying

world

needs Christians who can love God and

love neighbor and bless those who curse

so let us turn away from the

wickedness and instead turn towards the

great calling we've been

given the greatest blessing that we can

give anyone is the knowledge and love of

God to tell people the truth of the

Gospel what God has done for us when we

could never do it

ourselves his great love his great

Redemption

that is the greatest blessing of all why

would we let anything get in the way of

that in the name of the father and the

son and the holy spirit amen