Benedictions are the final “caps”, the culminations, of worship services. “Benediction” literally means a “good word” at the end of a service, a word of blessing, a prayer, and perhaps a charge as a congregation prepares to engage in the most important part of worship — going out the door into the world to serve for another week.
I have a favorite benediction I use every Sunday. It’s not original with me, but I have “tweaked” it over the years, as you will see. This “good word” is based on an old Celtic blessing I first learned from my old friend, Don Lewis, who is now pastor at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church. As I remember, he learned it from Lloyd Ogilvie, the former chaplain of the Senate.
This “last word of worship”, in my version, goes like this:
“As you leave this place,
May the living Lord go with you.
May he go behind you, to encourage you,
Beside you, to befriend you in obedient ministry,
Above you, to watch over you,
Beneath you, to lift you from your sorrows,
Within you, to give you the gifts of faith, and hope, and love,
And always before you, to show you the way.”
Until a few years ago, this benediction was a little different — it didn’t include the part beginning, “Beneath you …” I don’t think the original Celtic version included that either. And then one day, an email arrived in my inbox from one of the youth of the church. She said, “I like that benediction, but there’s something missing. What about ‘beneath you’? How about saying, ‘Beneath you, to lift you from your sorrows’?”
If you ever doubt the wisdom of our youth, this should convince you that our youth are not “the future of the church”, they are very much our present. Such wisdom. How did she know, at her tender age, that what we really need is to know that a congregation needs a lift each week? How did she know that life sometimes gets tough, and the burdens heavy, and that a “good word” needs to be said about a God who goes with us to support and encourage us in the hard times of life?
She was, as they say, wise beyond her years. And, by the way, I’ve added that line to my benediction ever since, and every time I say it, I think of her and her youthful wisdom.
Consider this my “good word” to you readers for the month of March. May the God who goes with us surround you with that divine presence; and let’s never forget that as well as going behind us, beside us, above us, within us, and before us, perhaps the most important word is “beneath”, and the sure knowledge that with each month and each moment, we are undergirded by the one who lifts us above the challenges and griefs that necessarily are a part of our lives.
It’s a good word to remember. Go with God, for God goes with you.
Blair Monie is senior pastor of the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church (phpc.org). The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.
