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“Just One More Surprise”

Luke 4:21-30

Pr. Tom Schoenherr

January 30-31, 2010

      Since birth, school years, marriage and family, my faith has been changing and growing throughout my life. A lot has to do with my experiences that have caused me to rely on God more or to question God. There are times when I think I have God all figured out and that I can expect God to act in a certain way, but then God moves in a different direction and I don’t understand. There are times when God reveals to me my own sinfulness and how narrow and distrusting I am of God, and then I have a conflict with God because he has pointed out who I really am and I don’t like conflict, and I don’t like God at that moment. We wonder what God has in mind and where God is leading us.  We wonder what to pray for and how to pray at times.

      Barb’s brother, Don, has been in a hospital for over 9 weeks now, and there are times we become angry with God and we don’t know what to pray for. We cry out to God seeking some hope and wondering at time where God is and what God is doing.

(Sing verses 1 of “Borning Cry”)

      The people who lived in Jesus’ hometown thought they knew Jesus. He was one of their own. They thought they could expect special treatment from Jesus. So when he says in the synagogue after reading the scroll of Isaiah, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” they don’t know what to think. They think they know where he lives, who his father and mother are, and they should have special treatment from him. Then he tells them these two stories that make them think that Jesus was sent for the Gentiles and for unbelievers, and that makes them angry.

      It may be true for us in the church who think that we should have an inside track with God because we have been so faithful through the years and have a long history with the Bible, and prayer, and worship. Like the people in the Gospel, we may also be upset with Jesus and disbelieve Jesus and his promise because we are not getting what we think we deserve from God. It says that after they heard Jesus’ words they were filled with rage at him. There are times when we may be upset with Jesus and get angry with God over God’s silence in relation to our loved ones needs or God’s seeming indifference to our troubles. We don’t deserve any special treatment from God except God’s judgment on our unbelief and lack of trust in him. God could become filled with rage at us for our unbelief.

(Sing verse 2 of “Borning Cry”)

      The people became so enraged at Jesus that they led him out to the top of a hill. That wouldn’t be the last time that they would do that. They did it again outside Jerusalem when they took him to the top of the hill and nailed him to the cross. The “one more surprise” is that Jesus suffers the hostility and the rage of the people, and the rage of God at our sin. The judgment and death that we deserve from God, are put on Jesus. Instead of God’s rage, we receive God’s delight and his deep love for us. Our sin is forgiven through Christ’s healing death and resurrection to new life, and we are sent into the world to love all people with God’s love which is patient and kind, believes and hopes all things.

      It is also a gift of God’s grace that God accepts our conflicts and anger with him at times. Conflict in the church and with God is understandable, and it can be a good thing as it leads us to dig more deeply into the Bible and prayer; to listen to where God is leading us and to draw us closer to one another as we wonder together about the mission God has given us in the world.    

      How long Barb’s brother, my brother-in-law, will be in the hospital and rehabilitation is not clear. What the future holds for him and us is uncertain. Living with that tension is not easy. What we do know and hold on to is God’s promise of being there with us through the waiting and the struggle. This story, our story, God’s story is still playing out and through faith in Christ we have a promise that there is always just one more surprise from God, the promised surprise of God’s abiding love for us in Jesus Christ, our everlasting relationship with God and our eternal home. This gives us hope

(Sing verse 3 and refrain of “Borning Cry”)