Martin L. Smith, an Episcopal priest from DC, uses this phrase to describe how God brings non-expected results to those who tune in to the Holy Presence all around us. Fr. Smith says that “the Holy One’s family business is reconciliation, risky solidarity, and love that is unconditional and generous–a business that is indifferent to profit or even breaking even.” (SOJOURNERS, Feb. 2019:45) Those present to readings for this weekend may be reminded of God’s pleasant surprises, receiving more than they had dreamt of in all their wildest hopes!
Joseph’s brothers never expected to see him again. They had spent several decades dealing with their father’s heartbreak and their own guilt for selling him into slavery in Egypt. But in Genesis 45:3-11 we hear of an unexpected reunion: seeking relief from the famine back home, they traveled to Egypt–to be interviewed there by the Head Honcho, Joseph himself! And so they lived happily ever after? “In the moment of forgiveness, the wronged one is transformed from critic of the world as it is to co-creator with God of a brand-new world.” (Allen Hilton, FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:367)
The controversy about Resurrection raged on in the Corinth of Paul’s time: “It’s against all the laws of Nature!” “Does Jesus’ resurrection guarantee our own?” “With what kind of body do they come?” To all of this, Paul replies, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (I Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50) This gives me great comfort, and I hope it also does to people at a funeral where it’s often read. The Resurrection and all it entails is a completely unNatural expectation, exceeding our wildest dreams!
The Gospel, Luke 6:27-38, is a continuation of the Sermon on the Plain, introduced last week. Nine or ten good sermons about Christian Ethics can be extracted here– more, these exhortations to love and kindness represent the surprising generosity of the Ruler of All who is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked”. “We go right to the radical core of the ethics of the reign of God, the onset of God’s future, learning from Jesus what it means to live under the authority of God, not the mores of the past.” (Smith, ibid.)
In my own dark hours, I confess that the World is Too Much With Us. I shake my head at Rachel Madow and toddle off to the security of my maps or postage stamps. So it’s a wake-up call for me to again see that my God is full of surprises: as we learned in seminary, “In the end, God wins!” What a strange business…
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My encounters with scripture passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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