By Darren DeMent
As you prepare for worship this morning, I want you to do something that may seem a bit odd at first. I’d like you to think about the end of the service, specifically the benediction.
It is likely that most of us think of the benediction as a conclusion, and liturgically speaking, that makes some sense. In the flow of a service, the benediction does serve as the final moment of worship — a parting blessing as people prepare to leave. But this morning I want you to think about the benediction differently.
At Youth Camp a couple of weeks back, our youth took on this task of expanding how they think about a benediction. At its root, benediction simply means a good word. In a world that seems to focus so much on what is going wrong or what is broken, we challenged them to look for goodness. We reminded them that goodness was the original word spoken over creation, and brokenness is not the starting point; it is a distortion of what was first made good.
We also asked them to reimagine a benediction not just as a conclusion, but rather a beginning — a good word that sends us out to live differently, to see differently and to carry that goodness with us into whatever comes next.
So, this morning I invite you into the same reimagining.
First, listen for a good word in today’s service that you can carry with you into your week. Maybe it’s a line from one of the hymns we will sing. Maybe it’s a word spoken in a prayer. Maybe it will be a line from Charlie’s sermon, or maybe it will simply be a greeting you receive from a fellow worshiper.
Whatever the word is or wherever it comes from, I invite you to take that word with you as you leave and let it encourage you as you move through your week.
Second, I want you to hear today’s benediction differently. Rather than hearing it simply as an ending to our service, hear it more like a commissioning. Hear it as your instructions for the week ahead as you move from this form of worship into whatever comes next. Hear it as a needed reminder of how we are called to live in this world that needs to be reminded of God’s goodness.