• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

215 N. 7th, Terre Haute, Indiana

  • About
    • Welcome!
    • Worship Calendar
    • Live Worship
    • Sermons
    • Clergy & Staff
    • Communication
  • Community
    • Blog
    • News + Events
    • Episcopal Links
    • Links for Study and Devotion
  • Get Involved
    • Give
    • Calendar
    • Ministries
    • Service Committees
  • Members
    • Annual Meeting
    • News
    • Schedule
    • Newsletter
    • The Hope Journal
    • Resources

Blessed

The Rector's Blog · January 25, 2023

Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!

Scripture gives us a few different visions for what a blessing is and how to feel about it. What is common among all of them is that blessing is God’s grace. How we receive that grace and when is where those visions start to diverge.

Does God bless you for being a good person? This was the most common view of how gods interact with people. And our God long ago sought to differentiate from that view. That blessing was not transactional. God doesn’t bless for doing the right thing.

God blesses through promises. We see in the promises to the first humans, to Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, that the blessing comes through a promise—and affection—because the point is generosity.

God prefers mercy. There’s a reason Jesus preaches repentance and forgiveness more than anything else. Because the point of faith isn’t earning or receiving anything. It is the generous offer of grace. Something God does constantly and Jesus compels his followers to do incessantly. Is forgiving seven times enough? No, seventy times seven!

While it is easy to find transactional grace in the Bible, it is far from the central concept. Jesus teaches us that we are blessed to bless others. We receive the sacraments to share God’s grace with one another. That is our generous act of love and mercy.

With love,

Drew

Filed Under: The Rector's Blog Tagged With: blessing, mercy, sacramental, What's Going On

Previous Post: « A Word: Legacies
Next Post: Spicy »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • A Word: Befriending the Spirit
  • Summer Sabbatical
  • A Word: The Promise
  • Sabbath and Peace
  • A Word: Loving People

Keep Up

Footer

CONTACT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
215 N. 7th St
Terre Haute, IN 47807

812-232-5165

officeadmin@ststephensth.org

ABOUT

St. Stephen’s is a sacramental community following Jesus’s Way of Love.

We worship on Sundays at 8 & 10.

AFFILIATIONS

St. Stephen’s is a member of The Episcopal Church and congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

St. Stephen’s is a member of the Homeless Council of the Wabash Valley

PARKING

St. Stephen’s is across from Indiana State University. Nearby parking lots are run by ISU and are free after 5pm weekdays and are free all weekend long. 

Five marked spots in the lot directly behind the church are available during the week.

Copyright © 2025 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in