God Works in Surprising Ways

It’s easy to forget that God’s ways are not necessarily our ways. We can find ourselves surprised when the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives. Have you been surprised? How did you respond?

Brian was away this Sunday and in place of a recording, the sermon that was read in worship is here:

Have you ever been caught off guard?  It’s easy to remember those times we’ve been caught off guard in bad ways: making bread and it turns out the yeast is dead, waking up to discover the power and therefore your alarm clock is off, or planning to finally pickup that thing at the store only to discover they’re closed for inventory.  These moments are easy to spot.

Then there are other moments that might catch us off guard in a happier direction: the yeast that sat in the fridge for a year woke up in the proof after all, the power was out but your body knew what time to wake up anyway, you finally get to the store and discover your item is on sale.

Sometimes things don’t work out, but sometimes they do and it can be hard to see what direction it’s going in the moment.  For example, many of us have mobility challenges.  I’m at an age where my back and hands are showing early signs of arthritis, varicose veins are beginning affecting my legs.  I know I don’t have it all that bad… yet.  I can work on those things, but they aren’t going away.  And so, I can sympathize with the woman from our Gospel reading.

Let’s take another look at what is happening here.  Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  There’s nothing new or surprising about this.  In fact, there was a practice at the time of rabbi’s visiting synagogues.  The idea of having a guest speaker was hardly unexpected and there were many teachers beside Jesus doing this.  I mention this because of how the entrance of this crippled woman is described: “just then there appeared a woman.”

This was not like the time people broke a hole into the ceiling to lower someone right on top of Jesus so he can be healed.  She just showed up, probably just going to church, a little late because her running days are behind her, bent over as she is.  She gets called over by the guest preacher who lays hands on her, prays, and heals her.  Surprise!

Not every surprise in scripture is a happy one though, even the good ones.  Jerimiah was called to be a prophet when he was just “a boy.”  Now, this may have reference his age, or perhaps his status as an apprentice.  The main thing is that Jerimiah did not feel qualified to do this work and it’s likely that the people he was to deliver his prophecy to wouldn’t think so either.  This is especially true when they hear what Jerimiah has to say, but we’ll get to that next week.

Jerimiah was surprised that he was chosen to deliver God’s message, but looking back, I’m not surprised at all.  We can see the same thing with Moses and Samuel.  In the moment though, I’m pretty sure Jerimiah wasn’t thinking about them, he was just afraid.  This was not going to be an easy calling, but he was called none the less and God was with him.

I’m confident that if you were to reflect on your life, you could come up with a story about a time the Holy Spirit moved in your life.  I’m going to offer up a story of my own to get you started.

This was just a couple weeks ago.  I was driving to Amherst to pickup Ryland, and I heard a noise under the car.  Great… more car trouble. I pull over at the Big Stop in Salisbury, find an empty spot so I can crawl under the car safely and find the giant sheet of plastic meant to improve fuel economy has folded in half under the car.  I’m half under the thing, trying to figure out how to get it off without tools when someone comes over to see what’s going on.  He asks, “what’s the trouble?”  I tell him and he asks what I need.  I jokingly say, “a 12 mm socket would be great.”  So, he goes over and gets two, one for me and one for him.  He crawls under with me and helps remove the plastic.  Turns out he’s a mechanic who loves helping out and happened to be passing by.

Take a moment to remember a time when things worked out in surprising ways.

To wrap things up, this passage about Jesus “working on the sabbath” could be just about that, but there’s this moment of healing in the middle of this that is easily written off… unless you’re the woman being healed.  We too seek healing in our own ways.  Perhaps in the traditional understanding of healed bodies, or in the more metaphorical sense of healed mental, emotional, or spiritual wellness. 

Regardless, it is important to remember that God can line things up for us, not only in mysterious but in surprising ways.  AND, it is important to remember that, like Jerimiah, we might be the one lined up for someone else.  I now carry a more complete tool kit in my car… just in case, and not just for me.

May God keep us ready to be a surprise answer to prayer, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.