A Drenching Blessing
13th Sunday of Pentecost September 7, 2025
The Texts for this sermon are John 17:6,11,20-23 and Psalm 133
Psalm 133 Is a very visual psalm, evoking above-and-beyond lushness.
It is a psalm that begins with an emphatic word – a command if you will:
Behold! Look! Turn your attention toward it! Focus on this!
Behold!! It carries the sense of an announcement:
And this emphatic word tells us we’re invited to attend to something positive: How good and pleasant it is. What is it that is so good and pleasant it warrants full and focused attentiveness? Unity.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when kindred dwell in unity. Note, the psalmist doesn’t say when kindred agree with one another on every point. He doesn’t say, when kindred all like each other. He says, when they live together in unity; when they are unified even with their disagreements and even if they don’t all like each other there is a harmonious spirit.
Unity speaks to being ‘together’; to the lack of cracks and fissures, the lack of divisiveness or a combative atmosphere. It speaks to a commitment to see to the wellbeing of each for the sake of the whole and to unified purpose. It is ‘good’ in the sense of being ‘bountiful’ or ‘joyful’ and ‘pleasant’ in the sense of being ‘agreeable’ and ‘delightful.
How bountiful and joyful and how agreeable and delightful it is
when kindred live together in unity.
Following the Psalmist’s demand to attend to this good state of affairs, this unity, the Psalmist goes on to flesh out what this kind of unity is like.
He says when kindred live together in unity is like the precious oil on the head of Aaron: Aaron, Moses’ brother, ordained by God to be the first and chief priest of God’s Chosen People.
To be ordained is to be set apart. It’s the act of recognizing and endorsing
the set-apartness of someone to undertake the responsibility of spiritual
leadership.
And in Aaron’s case, they used oil to symbolize his set-apartness and the
singular responsibility he was undertaking. Oil was a sign of God’s presence, a symbol of the Spirit of God for it was a thick, glistening substance, it picked up the warmth of the sun, it softened the skin, it perfumed the body, it could lubricate and sooth. Thus it was used to offer hospitality to a visitor or guest. A community where kindred live together in unity is like the oil poured over Aaron’s head.
Now to visualize this as the psalmist’s audience would have visualized this
we have to know that upon Aaron’s head was a turban and on that turban was a crown. Oil was poured on Aaron’s head in such quantity that it ran off that crown, down that turban, into his beard then soaked into the collar and shoulder of his garments. He was drenched in it. Notice the repetition of running down, running down, and down on his collar. This is drenching.
The psalmist is likening this ordination and the oil invoking it as evidence of God’s presence yes, but he’s also likening it to how unified kindred mediate to one another the presence of God, the Spirit of God. Unified kindred represent to one another the revelation of God; they reveal God's word by both word and deed.
And we, on this side of the Cross, when living in unity such as this, also share with one another Christ’s sacrifice. We give of ourselves for the sake of others. We remind one another of the hope that is in Christ. And we, together, give evidence of God’s grace to the world: we radiate warmth, we remind one another of the hope that is in Christ. And we, together, give evidence of the richness of God’s grace to the world: we radiate warmth, we soften, sooth, we serve as a balm to a wounded world.
And as if this weren’t enough, the Psalmist goes on to say that when kindred live together in unity, it is like the dew falling on Mt. Hermon. Mt Hermon is the highest mountain in the Lebanon range just north of Israel. It was noted for its heavy dew of that elevation. It is a drenching, nourishing dew in contrast to the barrenness of Judah. It is a fresh every-morning occurrence, promising ever more fruitfulness, bounty if you will.
Such a fresh-every-single-morning drenching inspires expectation: a trustworthy expectation, an expectation that goodness can be depended upon to spring forth. This unity excites a giddiness, a joyfulness if you will, a positive expectancy. These my kindred are going to accept me, nurture me, help me, forgive me. They are going to bless me by seeking my welfare. And a whole bunch of ‘others’ as well.
When kindred live together in unity isn’t just about one’s family or one’s faith community, we aren’t to confer this bountiful, delight-inciting blessing just on one another. We are to take it to the world.
While the Psalmist uses the word kindred, implying members of one’s family; blood relatives. Given its setting within the Psalms of Ascent, it should be understood as speaking to a much larger context. Consider the placement of this psalm. It’s the next-to-the last of the Psalms of Ascent. The Psalms of Ascent were songs sung by a company of pilgrims all walking in the same direction, all going to the same place, all going with the same purpose.
We, on this side of the Cross, need to understand that being a Christian–a follower of Christ–is not a private affair. It is personal, yes. It is intimate, yes, but it is not private. Yes, we have a personal relationship with God the Almighty. But this relationship is not to be a secret hidden in one’s soul; it is not to be lived under the radar. It is to be lived out loud and outbound if I can put it that way.
Kindred living together in unity is a blessed and blessing thing: blessing in the sense of enjoying the thick, soothing, healing balm of God’s presence; blessing in the sense of knowing one can expect the life-giving welcome, affirmation and guileless nurture of others.
In a Community like this, in one that works like oil and refreshes like dew
there is warmth, compassion and healing (a being-made-whole kind of healing, what Jesus meant when he talked of being saved); there is nourishment and expectancy. It is fruitful and life-giving.
The psalmist says this is Blessing ordained by God; ordained in the sense of decreeing it as the order of God’s creation. The Creation God declared to be good. very good on the Sixth Day. And this blessing? This kind of blessing is a ‘benediction’, benediction in the sense of conferring prosperity. That which causes all humankind and all of creation to prosper.
Is not this something to Behold?!
Where do we find this in our world today? the workplace? the marketplace? the halls of education? in social media? in fake conversation with AI bots? No, and, alas, not in every home either.
Oh there are generous, compassionate, doing-good people and organizations but what this psalm is talking about is the kind of healing, making whole, life-giving blessing that only a community of whole-hearted God people can offer.
It is such as these, kindred living together in unity, those drenched by its blessings, who are the ones who demonstrate God’s Ordained Blessing: God’s benedictory prosperity for the universe—the expression of the good intent of God’s great grace.
To what degree do we ‘behold’ such as this in our church?
To what degree do you, personally, have a sense of unity with the others with whom you worship and serve?
Do you feel a sense of bounty and joyfulness and delight for having been in the company of these others in worship and in service?
In what measure does your unity lead you as a congregation to demonstrate God’s life-giving blessing to the Cornelius community?
I invite you to consider these questions as you re-read and ponder this psalm this week.
Next week we conclude this series with Psalm 134.
Linda Quanstrom, Pastor
Cornelius UMC
Cornelius OR