May is nearly upon us, and the new month brings a new theme for our worship. Throughout May we’ll be exploring together “Blessing” and answering the question: what does it mean to be a people of blessing.

I’ll admit that both the Worship Associates and Music Team struggled a bit with this theme. Of the different concepts that we’ve explored this year, this one certainly has the most blatantly religious quality to it. Blessing is a word that we might use in the secular world, but even when we do so there is inevitably a link to the religious realm. We picture blessings coming from an all-powerful God, or high church clergy offering blessings to the people. For some folks, there may be very specific memories of what is blessed and what is not, who is a blessing and who is not.

This month, I hope we’ll consider a much more expansive concept of blessing than the examples I’ve given above. I know some folks try to avoid the use of religious words, not wanting to be associated with their more conservative or dogmatic meanings. I always seek to redefine and reclaim these religious words, rather than reject them. I invite you to join me in that practice this month. What new meaning can we find for blessing, blessed? What ways can this concept fit in to our own theological framework? How are we a blessing? How do we bless one another and what does it even mean “to bless” another? How are we blessed and what are the blessings of our world?

I look forward to exploring all of these questions and more with you in the coming weeks.

Blessings,

Allison