This stewardship devotion is offered monthly on the Women of the ELCA website to encourage women in WELCA congregational units, circles, and any small group as they take up an offering while meeting. These devotions vary each month and focus on sharing gifts personally and as a community to support the ministry of Women of the ELCA.
by the Rev. Dr. Becca Ehrlich
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)
The Church season of Epiphany (from January 6 through Ash Wednesday) is when we read Bible stories that show us our amazing God in the person of Jesus Christ. The focus is on Jesus’ teachings and miracles and noticing glimpses of the Divine through Jesus’ words and actions.
A church tradition during Epiphany is a certain type of house blessing, in which one prays for God to bless their house and writes the year in chalk above their doorway, along with the letters C, M, and B with crosses in between. For example, for this Epiphany season, one would write 20+C+M+B+25. 2025 is the year of the blessing, and CMB stands for two things: the first letters of the traditional names (Church tradition, not in the Bible of the Magi who visited Jesus: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, as well as the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat, or “May Christ bless the house.”
If the idea of a blessing like this sounds strange or different, you’re not alone. Blessings have a weird history in Western culture today.
A blessing (according to Dictionary.com) is: “God’s favor and protection” or “a prayer asking for God’s favor and protection.” In current use, often the idea of a blessing turns into prosperity gospel (If you have God’s favor and blessing, God will bless you with money and lots of stuff and your own private jet!), or blessing turns into a “living your best life” social media post, like #blessed. In summary, we don’t typically use or articulate blessing very well in our culture.
In contrast to our typically flippant use of blessings today, blessings are actually a huge deal in the Bible. The words “bless” and “blessing” occur in the Bible somewhere between 400 and 600 times, depending on which translation you’re reading. A great example is the verse we just read above from Ephesians 1:3—this verse talks about blessings like they’re going out of style—“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” If you were keeping score, that’s three mentions of blessings and being blessed in one sentence! Impressive.
In the Old Testament, one of the most memorable stories about blessing is in Genesis 25:29-34 when Esau gives up his birthright for a bowl of stew, and then in Genesis 26, his mother Rebecca helps his brother Jacob steal Esau’s blessing by having Jacob impersonate Essau when their father Isaac was giving out this important blessing.
So because Jacob got this important blessing, he ends up being the one to officially continue the succession line of God’s people, while Esau got some stew and a second-rate blessing. But here’s what’s so interesting– Rebecca and Jacob went through so much work to get that blessing for Jacob because they knew that blessings matter. Blessings do important things.
An example of a significant blessing that we still use today is the blessing offered during Baptism, often with chrism or blessed oil: “Name, child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
Blessings are a big part of what we do in church. We end worship with a blessing, and when a person is baptized, officially becoming part of God’s family, we bless them. We also share blessings with people in many other important rites in the church, like Confirmation, Reaffirmation of Baptism, weddings, confession and forgiveness, funerals, and ordinations. The list goes on and on. And that doesn’t even include when we ask God to bless things that aren’t people—like house blessings, the blessing of a new church building or holy implements in the church, or the blessing of other sacred spaces like memorial gardens. Blessings in the Church are kind of a big deal. Why?
It’s because blessings are not just words. Blessings are not just a hand or oil or the sign of the cross on a person’s head. Blessings do things. Blessings matter.
Blessings claim us as God’s own and remind us of God’s love and constant presence. Blessings help us experience God’s love and presence through the person blessing us and through the words that are said. Blessings help usher us into a special moment of God’s grace and love.
Blessings don’t have to be super churchy to make a difference. Blessings can be as simple as a card or a text message to let someone know we are thinking about them or a bag of food left at someone’s front door with a note of encouragement. Because we are first blessed by God, we are able to bless others.
During this Epiphany season, how is God inviting you to bless others?
The Rev. Dr. Becca Ehrlich is a pastor, writer, author, and spiritual director. She serves as Executive Director and Founder of New Breath Spirituality Center, and Adjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality at United Lutheran Seminary. She blogs about minimalism from a Christian perspective at www.christianminimalism.com and her book Christian Minimalism: Simple Steps for Abundant Living was released in 2021.
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