In this special Thanksgiving episode, Luther Seminary professor Dr. Lois Malcolm offers a seven-minute blessing that reclaims what gratitude and thanksgiving actually mean in Scripture. Instead of linking blessing with wealth, health, and success, Lois explores the deeper biblical meaning: that blessings invoke and impart God's very presence with us. She traces blessing from Abraham through Moses, David, and Jesus, showing how God's people are called to be a blessing to others even when we fail, even in the face of injustice.

Lois concludes with a personal blessing adapted from Ephesians 3 for every church leader listening. Whether you're worn down from ministry demands or simply need to hear that God's steadfast love and mercy remain with you in life's complexity, this blessing is for you. As Psalm 103 reminds us, God gives our souls "the animating center of our lives, something artificial intelligence cannot rob or create." This Thanksgiving, receive a blessing grounded not in your circumstances but in the God who accomplishes abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

I've been asked to give a blessing for Thanksgiving in this podcast. The two words blessing and thanksgiving often glibly fall off our lips. We associate blessing with wealth and health, success in all our endeavors. And if you are spiritual, sometimes with a heightened sense of mystical wellbeing or a certain kind of spiritual giftedness. And we associate thanksgiving

with the gratitude we feel when we receive those things, a feeling that's hard to muster when those things don't seem to be happening in our lives. Now in scripture, thanksgiving or expressions of gratitude do take place in response to gifts that have been given. But the Bible's depiction of blessing is a little more complex.

Although it uses the word blessing in a variety of ways and in a range of forms as a verb, an adjective, a noun, there is a thread running through all of its uses, whether we are blessing God or one another, or God is blessing us. In the Bible, blessings invoke or impart God's favor. What we often forget, however,

is that in doing so, they invoke and impart not just some material or spiritual benefit, although those might be there, but what they invoke and impart is the very presence of God, in other words, the vitality and intensity of the divine life that transcends us.

even as it ultimately grounds every moment of our existence. Thus, for example, the blessing in number six, which has been prayed for centuries, invokes and imparts nothing other than God's shining face, a phrase that performatively enacts God's presence amongst us. The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Just abstract statements. They are always linked with specific people in particular circumstances, who in turn are always in some way linked with God's call of a people, Israel.

To the ancestors who have passed on these blessings from Abraham to Moses and David, on to Jesus of Nazareth, whom we as Christians confess is the Messiah and wisdom of God, the one through whom we too now have been called, as Abraham was centuries ago, to be a blessing to others, a light to the nations, as Isaiah puts it.

who witness to and embody the fact that God's everlasting mercy, righteousness, and justice continually counters our idolatry and injustice. That is, the world's attachment to wealth, to power, and its so-called wisdom, which actually is just another form of artificial intelligence.

Now as the stories in Scripture make clear, living out this calling is hard. We will often fail, both because of our own and other people's moral and tragic choices, whether on an individual, familial, or even national level. But as Psalm 103 points out,

in the midst of life's complexity. God's presence, God's animating life and vitality is indeed with us. Giving our souls the animating center of our lives, something artificial intelligence cannot rob or create. Giving our souls, giving the totality of who we are, forgiveness, healing.

and even redemption from death, and with it, God's steadfast love and mercy, which satisfies us with good as long as we live. Moreover, as the psalm goes on, the Lord not only works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed, but also in the face of our sin.

is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Thus, in view of this God who imbues our lives with blessings that will never be superseded, whether by some person or thing who is wealthier, more powerful, and of a superior intelligence, I want to conclude with a blessing based on Ephesians 3, a blessing that is specifically for you.

whoever you are who is listening to this podcast. I often conclude my classes at Luther Seminary with this blessing. With this in mind, I kneel in prayer before God our Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that out of the riches of God's glory, God may grant that each of you

listening to this podcast right now may be strengthened in your inner being with power, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as each of you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that each of you may have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that each of you may indeed be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to this God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to this God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations forever and ever. Amen.