Go in Peace

At the beginning of most church services, pastors bring a greeting from God to his people and end with a benediction, a literal “good word.” Benediction is a noun of action; it has the dual purpose of carrying a blessing from God and sending us on our way.

I asked a group of pastors how they communicate God’s parting blessing. The most frequently used benedictions, according to this small, informal survey, come from two passages in Scripture – through the voices of Aaron in the Old Testament and Paul in the New. “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” (Num. 6:24-26). For many years Christian Reformed pastor Peter Slofstra sang that Aaronic blessing over newly baptized babies. And the double mention of the Lord’s face in those verses is significant, as Pastor Nate Van Denend of Chatham, Ont., points out. “Nothing gladdens the heart of a child more than their mother or father turning their face toward them,” he says. “It is the answer to that deep need, ‘Look at me, Dad.’”

The second most common benediction from Scripture is Paul’s farewell to the Corinthians: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14), to which some congregations respond: “And also with you.”

That’s the passage that Pastor Rod Hugen of the Village Church in Tuscan, Arizona uses. “We have a great number of unbelievers and new Christians,” he says, “and I think it’s important to have a significant amount of ‘rote’ in the liturgy as a connection to the broader church and the church throughout history. Early on I offered the benediction and people laughed and told me the kids would never be quiet enough for the blessing to be heard. I took that as a challenge and so I stand with outstretched arms until there is no noise. It’s fun to stand quietly while parents are hushing their children and everyone slowly reaches out with open hands. When all is quiet, I speak the blessing.

“When I met a family at Costco, their young children spied me first and tugged on their mom’s blouse and one said, ‘Hey, Mom, it’s, it’s, it’s . . .’ He couldn’t come up with my name so he lifted his hands and bowed his head. His little brother did the same. It was awesome.”

Reiteration
“Of all the actions that are part of the ‘sending,’ the benediction is arguably the most important and the least understood,” according to Steenwyk and Witvliet in The Worship Sourcebook (2013). “It is so important because it sends worshippers on their way with a parting word of God’s grace and blessing. This is much more fitting to the Christian gospel than ending either with a command, which can imply that the Christian life is only about working hard to earn God’s favor, or with merely a well-wish, which fails to convey the beauty and power of God’s promise to go with us.”

The Bible contains many blessings in addition to the two most familiar ones. Some pastors will create a new benediction based on the sermon or worship service theme. The Worship Sourcebook also lists non-scriptural blessings, such as Pastor Nicole Veenkamp’s favourite one: “God go before you to lead you, God go behind you to protect you, God go beneath you to support you, God go beside you to befriend you. Do not be afraid. May the blessing of God the father, Son and Holy Spirit be upon you.”

A few weeks ago, my three-year-old nephew slept over at our house.

Tucking him in with a kiss, I said, “Good night, sweetie. I love you.”  

“I heard that before,” he replied sleepily, making me laugh.

But what a beautiful thing – that he knows he is loved.

Am I going to stop telling him? Not for a second.

Through the benediction, God promises to go out the church doors with us! It doesn’t matter if we’ve heard all that before. It’s true every single time.