08/14/2025
What’s In A Benediction?
Last Sunday I used one of my favorite benedictions.
It was inspired by a saying from about ten years ago:
Dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like nobody's listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
It was popular in part because it fit so well with the Christian virtues of Joy, Love and so on. I latched onto it immediately, but of course fiddled with it over the years. The benediction I used this last Sunday is my current and favorite version:
May you Believe like you’ve never known doubt,
Forgive like you’ve never been hurt,
Give like you’ll always have enough,
And Live as if God is right there with you,
which of course He is and always will be. Amen!
A benediction is sometimes called a dismissal with blessing.
And what I like about these blessings is that they are very much at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus. The only one missing from the list is love (which was mentioned plenty in the sermon). There’s faith, forgiveness, generosity, and the promise of God’s continued presence.
When I think about what is unique and essential about the teaching and ministry of Jesus I usually say that he:
Accepted the unacceptable
Forgave the unforgivable
Loved the unlovable
So that we might believe the impossible—
(That we may do all the above ourselves, through his grace.)
There are so many moments in worship that we don’t usually pay close attention to, but are important nevertheless. Calls to worship, pastoral prayers, affirmations as simple as “the word of God for the people of God,” the poetry of the hymns and praise songs we sing, and everything that goes along with the sacraments.
It is worthwhile to stop and reflect on them every once and while.
Maybe even a short, pithy benediction.
Archived Posts
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But that Blessing Can Come with a Cost as Well
I’ve enclosed several insights I got while I dug into the scripture from Genesis 12 last Sunday. For you who love Bible background here’s a few thoughts to share:
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I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
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In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!