Numbers 6:22-27   OT p. 121 or 173

[22] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

[23] Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,

[24] The Lord bless you and keep you;

[25] the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

[26] the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

[27] So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

[NRSV]

INTRODUCTION:

One day the head football coach of the local university was sitting in his office studying his team roster. He was assessing their potential when all of a sudden the room got dark. It was caused by the shadow of a huge young man who was standing in the doorway of his office. Coach asked the young man what he wanted. This hulk of a boy said, "I want to play football."

Well, Coach's eyes lit up, and he asked the young man to come into his office and have a seat. Excitement filled his eyes as he thought about having this barn size boy blocking for him. He got out his papers and asked the young man a few questions: "First, how old are you?"

The young man started counting on his fingers and then said, "Nineteen."

The Coach looked at him a minute and said, "Okay," and asked, "How tall are you?"

The young man stood up, took his hand and measured up his leg, on up to his head and then counted on his fingers again and said, "I'm six feet, eight inches tall."

Again the coach gave him a funny look, wrote down the answer, and asked, "Okay, what's your name?"

This time the young man paused, dazed off into space, nodded his head about fifteen times, and then said, "Charlie."

Well, that was too much for the Coach, and he said, "All right, Charlie, I understand counting on your fingers to figure out how old you are. And I understand using your hand to measure how tall you are. But what was all the nodding of the head about when I asked you your name?"

Charlie answered, "Oh, that's simple Coach, I was just remembering. Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Charlie..."

You know the older I get, the more I understand Charlie's problem with his memory. It's harder to recall some things. I've gotten to that point where when I go to call someone's name or use a particular word, it's not there. I mean, I know it but it just won't come until about five minutes later.

Humans are the only one of God's creation whose memories allow them to reminisce. The other creatures remember but you'll never see a group of dogs or cats sitting around remembering the good old days. Of course, I don't speak dog or cat or any other creature's language, I barely speak English, so I can't be absolutely sure.

Humans remember and reminisce. We talk about the good old days. There are lists of things that we remember. We sit around saying: "Remember when ..." All you have to do is fill in the blank.

Remember when candy bars and cokes were only a nickel and comic books only cost a dime?

Now I don't want you to zone out down memory lane. But memory plays a vital part in our lives and in our faith. Tons of songs have been written about remembering and memories.

On May 3, 1960 an unknown musical opened on the stage of the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City. It has run uninterrupted ever since and is now in its 41st year. On its 40th birthday this musical had been performed 16,562 times. Of course I'm talking about "The Fantasticks."

I've had the privilege of seeing "The Fantasticks" in New York and of playing Amos Babcock Bellomy, the girl's father, in a community theater production.

The most famous song from this musical is "Try To Remember." The first verse says:

"Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow..."

This week's readings from Leviticus consisted of more laws and sacrifices. Numbers tells us how the tribes were to be set up. Where they should camp. The duty of the Levites. Who was to carry what during the journey. It also tells us about the Nazirite Vow. And then all of this ends with what we know as the UMYF Benediction.

This priestly benediction comes at the end of all of the laws. And although it can be associated with the Nazirite Vow, I think it is more of a benediction on all of the preceding chapters of law. And I think it was given as a blessing to help us and the Israelites remember all the tenets of the Covenant. And as the song says, "if you remember, Then follow..."

This blessing has six parts that remind us of the Covenant, so let's look at them briefly.

I. THE LORD BLESS YOU:

A. The benediction begins with the words: "The Lord bless you. . ." One of the things that is very apparent is that this is a blessing from God. It can't come from any one else. It can't come from us or from Moses or Aaron even though they are the ones who deliver it. In this case, they are more like UPS. The principle player in this is God. It is God who is giving this blessing. It's a gift from God to the people God has rescued from slavery in Egypt.

It's a blessing given to help them remember their relationship with God. It's a blessing and a reminder to us, too. Since this blessing is from God and can only come from God, it reminds us that God comes first. It reminded them and it reminds us of the Covenant originally made with Abraham.

B. This blessing is a reminder of the uniqueness of the people of God. No other people have the type of personal relationship we have with God. With the laws, we see just how much God cares about us. No other gods care about the poor and the sick like our God. That's what the laws about skin diseases and gleaning are all about. God rescued the underdog, the least likely, the poor and the outcast. God wants us to have that same kind of care and compassion about those around us.

Rosana has two boys, Matthew, 8, and Joshua, 4. One day their grandmother was driving them somewhere when Matthew started in on his brother, saying, "Joshua, why do you always have to come in my room, touch my stuff, play with my stuff, take my stuff, and sometimes break my stuff?"

Joshua shrugged his shoulders and said, "Cause I wanna be just like you." (1)

This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that God wants us to be just like God.

II. AND KEEP YOU:

A. "The Lord bless you and keep you. . ." What does it mean to be kept by God? When I hear the word "Keeper" I immediately think of something like a zoo keeper. Someone who keeps us bound or imprisoned in a cage. And some people have interpreted a relationship with God to be like that. They see it as binding and restrictive. And in one sense, they are right.

The laws of Leviticus, even the just the Ten Commandments are binding and restrictive. But they aren't binding in the same way as a pair of pants that are too small. Instead, they offer freedom.

Have you ever thought about the freedom afforded us through the law? And when we all obey the law. When we agree on what is right and wrong and abide by that agreement, we're all fairly free to do what we want, without any dire consequences. We can even anticipate what everyone else who abides by these laws will do. so, in a sense, this is a blessing of security.

B. An elderly lady bought a Bible for a friend and took it to the Post Office to mail. The clerk looked at the package, shook it, and then asked, "Is there anything breakable in here?" The woman thought for a moment, and then replied, "Only the Ten Commandments."

We think about the laws as being restrictive when in actually they are about security. Both personal and community security. And security in our relationship with God. This is a blessing of security through faithfulness. God promises to be faithful to us and to the Covenant. All God asks is that we be faithful, too. This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that God is faithful and calls us to be faithful, too.

III. THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU:

A. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you. . ."

A shining face was the mark of pleasure, and when it was turned upon someone else it symbolized favor toward that person.

Haven't you seen people whose faces shined with pride or joy? Of course you have. Your faces have all done the same thing when your children had a part in a play or the Christmas program. Or even when someone you loved was honored. Your face shines with the joy because of your love for them. And the whole time your face is shining your wishing and thinking great thoughts. Mentally and spiritually trying to support them and help.

God does the same for us. So, very simply put, this is a blessing that reminds us that God promises to help us do what we're called to do.

B. A little girl was trying to learn how to ride her new bike but she kept losing her balance. Finally her mother heard her praying: "And Lord, if you'll give me a push, I'll do all the pedaling." (2)

This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that because God is faithful, God will help us do what we're called to do.

IV. AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO YOU:

A. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you; and be gracious unto you. . ."

This phrase is about justice and mercy. Those are the opposite ends of the spectrum of grace. When we break the law we know that there are consequences and a debt to be paid. That's what the law tells us. And that's what justice is all about.

We want justice for everyone else but we want mercy for ourselves. This phrase of the blessing reminds us that God is full of grace and is merciful. God offers us forgiveness and second chances.

B. In our last Church we had a Deaf Ministry program. We provided interpreters for Worship, Sunday School, Youth and any meetings that were needed. I'll never forget the first Sunday I realized what one of the signs for Jesus was. With the little finger of the right hand you make the letter "J" and then end it in the palm of the other hand. In sign language, the very name of Jesus, tells us how much God love's us and offers the grace of forgiveness.

This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that God is a God of second chances. A God of Forgiveness and Grace.

V. THE LORD LIFT UP HIS COUNTENANCE UPON YOU:

A. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you; and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you . . ."

The Interpreters Bible says that "To lift up the face or countenance is an expression that, used of men, implies that no action has been done that could break the bonds of friendship between one man and another or between man and God." (3) That means that there is nothing that we can do to make God stop loving us. There is nothing we can do to make God break the Covenant. God promises to be faithful to the Covenant because God's Word is God's bond.

B. It seems that Jesus even acted this attitude out with his betrayer. On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, Jesus and the disciples were celebrating the Passover. During the celebration, tradition was that the guest of honor sat on the left hand side next to the host. According to Scripture, we know that John was on the right.

There was also a tradition that the last bit of bread was used to sop up the last bit of gravy and that given to the guest of honor. It was known as the dipped sop. It was a meal covenant that expressed to the guest of honor, that know matter what that person did, the host would always be the guest of honor's friend. And on that particular night it had a deeper significance because it was Judas who received the dipped sop.

This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that God is a God who promises to be our God no matter what.

VI. AND GIVE YOU PEACE:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you; and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

This final phrase of the benediction and blessing really sums everything else up in one word, "Shalom." That's the Hebrew word used here. And "shalom" is a whole concept unto itself. It means "peace" but it means much more than "peace," too.

It's a peace that encompass the whole human being. It's a peace that takes in all aspects of life. It's a peace that includes body, soul, mind and spirit. And if you turn back and look at all of the laws and all the sacrifices needed to make amends when one of the laws is broken. You see that they are really about one thing, making the broken whole again.

It doesn't make any difference if it's a broken body; a broken spirit; a broken relationship; a broken marriage; or a broken relationship with the community. The purpose of the sacrifices was shalom or wholeness.

I think that it's significant that the final aspect of this blessing deals with wholeness.

This is a blessing to remember. It reminds us that God is a God who desires wholeness and peace for each of us, and through His son offers us a way to attain it.

CONCLUSION:

There was a fire one night at a convent and several retired nuns who lived on the fourth floor were trapped. They were praying for the Lord to show them a way out of the fire when one of the sisters screamed, "We need to take off our robes, tie them together and climb down to safety."

Later as they were recounting the event to reporters, they were asked if they were afraid of the crude rope breaking. "Oh, no," they said. "You see, old habits are hard to break." (4)

As bad as that pun was, the words are true, "Old habits are hard to break." And that's the very point God was making with the Israelites. He wanted them to get into the habit of remembering not only the laws and the sacrifices but the intent of the law and the relationship with God they represented. But mostly God wanted them and us for that matter, to remember the blessings.

It truly is a blessing to remember that this is a blessing to remember.

"Try to remember and if you remember, then follow . . ."

1. Rosana Bryant of Brandon, Florida, Kidwarmers 2/19/01

2. Dick Van Dyke, Faith, Hope and Hilarity

3. Interpreters Bible, electronic version, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN

4. Parables, Etc. (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), February 2001