Benedictions in the Bible

Today I was looking up Blessings and Benedictions in the New Testament, and came across this nice list.  We often hear these words in the liturgy, but don't know exactly the source.  This site also didn't list the translation. Sounds KJV. This is copied in full with the links; it is not my work.

A Listing of Familiar Benedictions Given in the Bible

1.  The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.  The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.   Psalms 121:7,8

2.  Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.  Romans 15:13

3.  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Romans 15:5,6

4.  The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.  Psalms 29:11

5.  Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he may stablish your heart unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. 

I Thessalonians 3:11-13

6.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 4:7

7.  God shall supply all you need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  Philippians 4:19,20

8.  The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.  Philippians 4.23

9.  Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.  II Peter 1:2,3

10.  Blessed be the Lord for evermore.  Amen and Amen. 

Psalms 89:52

11.  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen. 

Jude 1:24,25

12.  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  Hebrews 13:20,21

13.  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I Thessalonians 5:23

14.  Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

II Thessalonians 2:16,17

15.  Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.  Ephesians 6:24

16.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

II Corinthians 13:14

17.  God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.  II Corinthians 9:8

18.  The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.  Numbers 6:24-26

19.  Be not conformed to this world:  but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 12:2

20.  Finally, brethren, Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.  II Corinthians 13:11

21.  Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.  Jude 1:20,21

22.  Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.  Psalms 4:6

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If you know of a benediction given in the Bible that is not on this list e-mail the reference to wadetisdale@msn.com so that it may be added.

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What exactly is a benediction?    It is pronouncement of divine blessing given in the Bible.  It represents a joyful, unifying call to faith, patience, and practice for the faithful, based on the Certainty, divine Principle, God.

A benediction is a short, concise statement given in the Bible in the form of a petition, an assurance, a promise or principle.  It voices images of protection, or comfort, or abundance, or some other word of assurance.

The word benediction means to say good, to voice good thoughts, to pronounce.  What makes good thoughts good is that they are based on Truth, based on Principle, God.  Whatever is true fulfills itself.  Good is the inevitable result of the certainty and righteousness of Truth, God, who is all good.

The reading aloud of a benediction at the conclusion of a church service is joy expressed, and cherished, and shared with the all in its hearing.  It is a feast.  It is the essence of genuine, heartfelt joy and commitment, seen in the exalted light of spiritual interpretation.  It is impersonal; it is positive; it is healing; it is eternal.  It is part of "the morning meal" that blesses all.

This brief narrative on a subject that is truly infinite in theme is intended to be a step toward awareness of the importance of benedictions in our life, and an appreciation of the glory they portend and the good they can do. Readers are invited to share their insight into this fun-to-consider topic. 

"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." (Numbers 6:24-26.) 

THE FOUNDATION STONES OF CHRISTIANITY

It's scramble time again

For many years we've attended the early service at UALC (Lytham Road, Upper Arlington). I've lost track. I think it's been as early as 7:45 a.m. when we were squeezing 6 or 7 services in one building, and as late as 8:45 a.m.; it's been informal and it's been traditional. We happen to be early risers and prefer an early service. Now it's all changing again, and tomorrow is the first day. I think it will, by design, kill the liturgical early service, and soon we'll be told that because of poor attendance, it will be offered only at 11 a.m. That's what happened at Mill Run a few years ago--there used to be more choices there.

"Community" may be the most over used and least understood word in today's churches. It's very hard to maintain any sense of community when we play musical chairs.

398 Grace

Two weeks ago I bought a book at our public library branch (for sale items by Friends of the Library) titled, "My mother's favorite song; tender stories of home to deepen your faith" by John William Smith (Howard Publishing, 1995). It looked brand new; the publisher's statement on the verso of the title page included a statement about Jesus coming again, and the book flap story appeared to be sound. So for $2 it looked worth the price to purchase "one of America's best storytellers." Now after having read several selections during my morning devotions, I'll say, "money well-spent."

Often when I'm told that such-and-so gave a wonderful, moving sermon (our church has 10 services in 3 locations, and sometimes I wouldn't even recognize the speaker if I saw him), I ask, "Did he present the gospel?" And I get a blank stare or a stammer. That's why I like a liturgical service (we have two); it clearly says, "and for his [Jesus] sake, forgives you your sin." Brings me up real smart, that does. Nothing in what I did or will do makes me worthy of forgiveness. It's all grace.

On p. 121 of Smith's book he writes my story:

"When I was growing up, I never heard much about grace at church--I mean, in sermons or classes. I slowly figured out that it was important and that we needed it, but we were sort of embarrassed by it."

Actually, I'm not sure I heard about grace at all. We didn't even sing "Amazing Grace" in those days.

"Now that we've discovered it, we're trying to make up for lost time and make the most of it. It has become an issue. Can we have too much grace? Will grace fix anything? Does grace mean that everybody is saved? Does grace mean that we don't have to do anything? . . ."

"Nothing crucifes the self more than grace. And nothing is more painful than self-crucifixion. Nothing strikes a more savage blow against our basic pride and sense of self-worth than grace. Being able to accept grace is very hard, because it makes such intense demands. On my road to God, nothing I have encountered has baffled and frustrated me more than grace. It is the most nonsensical, illogical, unpredictable, unreasonable thing in all of God's arsenal of weapons that are designed to defeat the enemy within all of us--ourselves."

Our sermons at UALC are grace-lite, or Jesus-lite, I think because if not done right, they can sound legalistic or harsh. I mean, who wants to be told she is sinful? Who wants to know he doesn't measure up? It might turn off the seekers; it might shake up the members. It's far easier to admonish the congregation to do more, be more, adore more. Grace? You can't earn it, but it sure isn't cheap.

395

The new Lutheran hymnal

In our congregation, I haven't heard anything about the new hymnal for ELCA, although from time to time I read about it on the internet. These things take a long time to work through, and our congregation does very little that other Lutherans would recognize anyway, so we are not the audience. At our Mill Run location, there are no hymnals. I use the hymnal for hymns if it matches what's on the screen just because I hate to totally lose my music reading ability; occasionally it is needed for liturgy, but not often. So what I have here are comments (used with permission) excerpted from an e-mail from another Lutheran, a choir director in another denomination, who does know music and liturgy and attended a regional workshop:

"There were 141 registered; majority was made up of pastors, choir directors and those interested in ELCA worship. The presentation team consisted of 5 pastors and 2 laymen from the Northern Illinois Synod. They went through one complete service setting as well as playing a very fine DVD hosted by Rev. Mark Hanson on the birth and completion of this new hymnal.

From the voices around me, I knew I was in the company of people who love to sing, know how to sing and have little trouble with rhythm or range.

I was impressed with the amount of information contained in this new hymnal. The line drawings, alone, were worth the price of the book.

But I came away feeling that those who put the hymns together did not give much consideration to range: many ran up to Ds, Es and even Fs on the treble clef. Too high for most congregations.

And the number of choices of service settings, prayers and responses was overwhelming. Putting hymns from WOV and the purple Hymnal Supplement into this new ELW was a great idea, but they overdid it on the liturgical variety.

I know it's been over 30 years since the green hymnal publication but I left the meeting wondering if the cost to each congregation was worth the gain in newer, more contemporary hymns and ten Holy Communion settings."

Ten communion settings? Silly me, we're lucky at our church to use one and only the older people know it. I'm almost afraid to see what 10 different settings can do to gender-free pronouns.