May The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
Numbers 6:24-26
This short piece of text that YHWH teaches Moses to teach Aaron and the other priests in the Jewish tradition is a sacred and familiar piece of scripture across many faiths. Not only do we in the Christian tradition use it as a blessing during our own services, but the actions of light, peace and grace being offered by the Divine are found just as frequently in the Quran or various Hindu and Buddhist sacred texts as they are in the Old or New Testament.
If you did not know this was a Jewish blessing, or that it had resonances across other traditions, don’t be ashamed! We do not spend nearly enough time considering the overlapping connections between our faiths and we tend to think it is all about us.
I remember as a young priest visiting a synagogue in Miami as part of an interfaith exercise and one of the readings contained the line: “May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight oh Lord our God.” Which frequently is used by preachers before they pray.
Embarrassment has blocked from my mind what I actually said, but I am sure it was something like, ‘huh, interesting we use the same prayer as well.’ To which the Rabbi replied, very graciously, ‘well where do you think you got it?’
There is no shame in not knowing something. There are many things that we don’t know, many things we don’t get right the first time. Humility is a gift of the spirit for a reason, and being able to say “well I didn’t get that right but I can try better” is one of the more Christian behaviors we can do.
Unfortunately, our current public debate does not allow for a lot of nuance, a lot of doubt, a lot of uncertainty. We put a high value on being right, and perhaps an even higher value on others being wrong. So it is good to remember that this blessing - of light, of grace, and of peace, is offered to all of God’s people. Not just the ones we like.
How can you be an offering of Light, of Grace, of Peace, this week?