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2007-05-01 issue:

Words of blessing

Grace and Truth column

by Ron W. Adams

Print Article

I have a friend who, for the purposes of this column I’ll call Mike. Mike regularly attends our Monday evening community meal.

Some years ago, Mike approached me with a request. Pulling a rosary from his pocket, Mike asked if I’d say a blessing over it. I explained that I am not a priest, and that Mennonite pastors don’t typically offer such blessings. But Mike did not care about such refinements. He insisted that I bless his rosary.

What could I do? I sheepishly made the sign of the cross over his rosary with my right hand. I then asked that God bless it to Mike’s good use and benefit.

Mike expressed gratitude and offered to bring a small gift for the church the following Monday. I told him he need not bother. Mike did not listen to me. The next week he brought a $10 bill in an envelope and asked me to put it in the offering plate. He said he wanted to show his gratitude for all the meals he’s eaten with us.

Each time Mike buys a new rosary, he brings it to me for my blessing. I’m becoming an old hand at it. He does not always offer something for the offering plate, for which I’m grateful. He needs the money more than we do. And I don’t want him to feel obligated. Whatever blessing a Mennonite pastor can offer over a rosary ought to be free.

I know I am not a priest. I retain my theological and ecclesial commitments. But I have, with Mike’s help, learned to hold them a bit more lightly. I have learned some other things, too.

Mike has taught me the value of words of blessing. They have value in part because they seem increasingly rare. Public discourse seems bereft of anything but sarcasm, profanity and slander. Private discourse, even my own, seems entirely taken up with practicalities and cost-benefit analyses. Rarely do we offer simple words of blessing. Even more rarely do we ask for them.

Mike has set me an example. By making his need known, he challenges me to speak words of blessing more freely. And he invites me to make my own need for blessing known.

Mike has also taught me something about street-level ecumenical relations. Church leaders and scholars are doing their part in engaging one another across denominational and other lines. Mennonite leaders play a role in these discussions. Their efforts are necessary in creating, Lord willing, a more peaceful world and united church.

But Mike’s contribution is equally necessary. His call to lay down my Mennonite scruples and make the sign of the cross over his rosary reminds me that we are one in Christ Jesus. Whatever separates us is only temporary. Our common faith in Christ will last forever.

Finally, Mike has taught me something about community. It’s so easy for us generous, progressive Mennonites to think we have something of great value to offer the world. It’s easy because it is true. But our generosity can be divisive. It can drive a wedge between us and the people we hope to serve. My own language reveals our tendency to think in terms of “us” and “them.”

But Mike pushes against that tendency by insisting that I listen to him clearly. He acts against my good intentions. He teaches me so much I ought to have known but did not.

True community must include such mutual benefit. Words of blessing, good food, prayers and learning must all be shared and acknowledged. If these gifts flow only in one direction, one might call the result a mission project. And mission projects have their place. But Mike has taught me to prefer community to mission projects.

Ron W. Adams is pastor at East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.

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