THE BLESSING
PSALM 4
I JOHN 3:1-7
MARK 1:9-11
A Sermon by William G. McCoy
April 30, 2006

A man had acquired a new hunting dog and he wanted to show his best buddy how well this dog could do and so they went duck hunting. They were in the duck blind and finally he got the chance - he shot a duck and the duck fell to the water and he sent his dog out. The dog jumped up and ran out, right across the top of the water. Walking on top of the water – picked the duck up and ran back – right on top of the water! He said, "What do you think of that?" His friend said, "Apparently your dog can’t swim."

One preacher was in the back of the sanctuary, after the worship service, and he was greeting people. A little boy came up and pressed a dollar bill into his hand. He said, "What is this for?" "Well my daddy said you are about the poorest preacher he has ever heard and I thought I would share my allowance with you."

What is it about those one-liners that we like? I tend to like them too, I think we all do and, in fact, I am guessing at different points we all like the real thing where we occasionally see someone get knocked "down a peg" when we think they need it. And yet the fact is, by and large, Jesus seemed to take another tact. He seemed to move another way. Jesus tended to impart blessing on people.

John the Baptist had come preaching a message of the remission of sin…hellfire and brimstone and damnation and the need to avoid that. You need to be baptized for the remission of sin to avoid that. In contrast, Jesus came bringing the blessing. And as a rule he imparted blessing to people. Jesus comes, in this passage, to be baptized which raises the question, "Why would Jesus need to be baptized?" It’s a baptism for the remission of sin and Jesus had no sin. Why does he need to be baptized? Well, apparently Jesus was doing it to identify directly with us, all of us who are sinners. Jesus entered into the whole picture, including the baptism for the remission of sins even though he was without sin – the Son of God, God in the flesh. He had emptied himself, scripture says, and became as a servant. He had given up all the power of God that he had, save the fact that as God he could live a perfect human life. So, just as any of us would need to do, he drew on the power of the Father in Heaven and he gave himself into that process. And this is where the crossroads came. He made the decision to follow the call of the Father and live a human life, a perfect human life, in perfect fellowship with God, calling on the power of God the Father as any human being would…doing it in a unique way because he was without sin. And so it is as he is baptized he has a vision and he hears a voice, a validation, a blessing. He receives the blessing of God. Coming out of the water, we are told that Jesus sees a vision. The heavens are torn apart, reflecting Isaiah’s words that say, "Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down." Well now it has happened. God has come to us, one of us, and now the Sprit is descending as a dove and Jesus sees that vision, descending upon Him and he hears the voice of the Father in Heaven, the God of the Universe to say, "You are my beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." He receives "the blessing."

How you and I need the blessing of those key people in our lives…parents, teachers, mentors. How we ache for that blessing throughout our lives. I believe that as life unfolds in this fallen world, we probably never fully received that blessing from human beings. We never quite fully get that – and yet we all need it, we all long for the blessing of parents, of mentors, of teachers. We all carry with us, all of our lives, something of the inner parent whom we strive to please and with whom we check to see how we are doing. Jesus received the ultimate blessing, the Heavenly Father saying, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Well, John the Baptist had said, just before this, "After me comes one whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Then Jesus came from Galilee, we’re told, Galilee and Nazareth, places of no repute…Jesus coming out of nowhere it seems, to this baptism, where He is identified as the Son of God. Where He is validated in His ministry. It’s the moment of decision at this crossroads, the decision to follow what the Father in Heaven has called him to. The moment of identification, the moment of approval of the Beloved Son in whom God is well pleased. It is also the moment of equipping, Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit as a dove descending upon Him. The blessing, the validation in this event; how you and I need, and, at many points I believe, long for that very blessing. And how, many times in our culture, the blessing fails to be passed along from generation to generation.

One man who was a "squared-away" Marine was great at being a military man, determined that his son was going to be a "squared-away" Marine too. A good ambition, but his son was not sure that was what was right for him. But the father raised him without any word of blessing, without any words of love, but with strict discipline. Nothing was ever quite enough, always pushing for precision, he raised him from early on to be a Marine. Finally the boy did go into the Marines, but it was not him. So through disciplinary problems and various things he was drummed out and at that point his father cut him off! Cut him completely off! No blessing! No affirmation! Years and years passed, the son longing for his father’s blessing. For that kind of blessing Jesus received from the Heavenly Father at his baptism - it never came. But what did come was a call saying, "Your father is dying." So he made the four-hour drive to the bedside but he was an hour or two late. On the way he was certain if he could just talk to his father in that situation, his father would say, "I love you." He could get him to say, "I do love you." But it never came and the opportunity passed – for "the blessing." How many shipwrecked lives there are because the blessing was never imparted, the affirmation, the validation of a life never given by parents, friends, mentors.

Sometimes it just wasn’t seen, sometimes it just wasn’t possible to give that blessing perhaps, from father to son, mother to daughter or son, teacher to student, coach to athlete – it just didn’t happen. So there is that emptiness that people share. An emptiness that people have and many shipwrecked lives as a result. How we need to give the blessing to others, how we need to receive that blessing that can only come finally through God’s interaction in our lives, through those who love Him.

As I was growing up, I received the blessing in various ways. I think we all do, bits of the blessing, parts of that blessing. I remember my father getting up every Sunday morning, at 5:30 in the morning, taking me on my paper route. I had a paper route that went out past the highest point in Wheeling. People didn’t want it – they paid me extra to take it and so on Sundays, the papers being heavy, it would have taken me two runs out that way to get it done and my dad said he would drive me on that particular day and he did. And in that way he imparted something of the blessing in that way, in that connection. I can remember my Uncle Bob, on the back deck of our house, leaning on the railing, the two of us looking out into the woods. He knew I was involved in Young Life in high school and the youth group in the church. Looking out into the woods, (I’m about 15 or 16 years of age) and my Uncle Bob says, "What do you think about this Billy Graham fellow? Do you think he is for real?" I can still picture it in my mind’s eye – this person wants to know what I think! He’s asking me a question – he wants an answer. Up to that point, most adults asked me questions like, Are you crazy? What is wrong with you? What were you thinking? – those kinds of questions. Now, this adult was asking me what I thought, what he wanted to know, and so he took part in bestowing upon me the blessing that we all so desperately need.

Bob Mellott was a friend of my parents. We vacationed together with them at the Jersey shore every summer, with a number of families. I can remember when my name would appear in the paper, for something good, he would call and he would say, "I saw your name in the paper for this or that…Way to go…That was great." Then he would hang up. He wasn’t calling for my parents, he wasn’t calling for one news item or another, he was calling to tell me he noticed. So, in that small way, he passed to me the blessing that we all so desperately need. How do we do that? How do we do the passing on of the blessing? How do we receive the blessing ourselves, that we do desperately need so much?

Some of you may have heard the story of Teddy Stallard. I heard it from Tony Campolo – I was playing music a couple of different times when Campolo was speaking and when he was speaking one time, he told this story that appeared later in one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and has made some circuits later on the internet. You may have heard it, but Teddy Stallard’s story is one that talks about this blessing. Teddy Stallard was a little boy, and when he started grade school it was very apparent that he was disinterested, he was musty, wore wrinkled clothes, his hair was never combed. He was one of those kids who had sort of a deadpan face, an expressionless kind of glassy, unfocused stare. He answered in mono-syllables. He was unattractive, unmotivated, and Miss Thompson, who taught him in fourth grade, found that she had a certain perverse pleasure in marking X’s for the wrong answer and big red F’s on his papers. Because he just didn’t fit in, kids didn’t quite connect with Teddy Stallard. But she had the records, she really should have known better. First grade, "Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude but poor home situation." Second grade, "Teddy could do better, mother is seriously ill, he receives little help at home." Third grade, "Teddy is a good boy but too serious, he is a slow learner, his mother died this year." He entered fourth grade with this assessment, "Teddy is very slow but well behaved, his father shows no interest." And so it was, when he was in fourth grade, Christmas came to Miss Thompson’s class and the children all brought presents for her. They set the presents on the desk, wrapped in bright colored paper and wrapped up in ribbons. There was one wrinkled paper bag that had a couple of things in it that said: "To Miss Thompson from Teddy Stallard." And as they opened them, she took out the contents of that bag - it was sort of a gaudy bracelet with most of the stones missing from it. The kids began to laugh but she quieted them. She put it on her wrist and said, "Oh, Teddy, that is so beautiful, thank you so much, it is such a beautiful gift." Then she pulled out the other thing which was a cheap bottle of perfume with about half of it left and she put a little of it on her fingers and put it behind her ear and she said, "Oh, this is lovely, Teddy, thank you so much." The other children presented their presents and as they were leaving, Teddy dragged his feet and stayed afterward for a minute or two and he said to her, "I am glad you liked my presents, my mother’s bracelet looks really pretty on your wrist and you smell just like she used to with that perfume on." He left the room and Miss Thompson got down on her knees and she asked God to forgive her for missing the opportunity to be the blessing to Teddy Stallard. And the next day, when the children came to school, there was a different teacher there. Miss Thompson was more attentive, she was more encouraging, she was uplifting to the children and cheered them on - taking special time , individual time with them. And under that kind of care, by the end of the year, Teddy Stallard had caught up with the other children and was even ahead of a few of them, academically.

Well, he finished fourth grade and time went by. She didn’t hear from him for a while, but then she got this note, "Dear Miss Thompson: I wanted you to be the first to know, I will be graduating second in my class." Love, Teddy Stallard. A few more years passed, four more years, and she got this note, "Dear Miss Thompson: They just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The University has not been easy, but I liked it." Love, Teddy Stallard. Another four years later, this letter came, "Dear Miss Thompson: As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D., how about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I’m going to be married next month, the 27^th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now, dad died last year." Love, Teddy Stallard.

Miss Thompson went to that wedding and she sat where Teddy Stallard’s mother would have sat, because that’s exactly where she belonged. She had managed to pass on the blessing to him. How you and I need to receive the blessing, and in many ways we miss it in this fallen world, but the good news is that Jesus Christ came to bring that blessing fully and completely to you and me. He received it at his baptism with the descending dove and the words of His Father in heaven. Can you imagine? The God of the Universe, His Heavenly Father saying, "You are my Beloved Son, in You I am well pleased. The voice, the expression that you and I long for all of our lives and God can bring that to you. That is why Jesus came – to bring you and me "the blessing." Jesus came so that you can receive it fully and completely, every level of your consciousness and beyond. The message that God says to you, you are my son, my daughter, I love you, I delight in you, now live in that and live out of that. That is who you are, that is what you are. The blessing of God is come to us as it came in person in the form of Jesus Christ, to bring that blessing to you and me…an incredible offer to each of us, to enter into work hand-in-hand with God, to be those who bring the blessing to a hurting world, to bring the light to a dark world and to be in partnership with God in the process, in bringing the blessing that we can receive from Christ – beginning right here and right now – to share with those who are so desperately in need of that blessing.

Let us pray.