Surprise!

We'd like to think that we are in charge of our own lives, that we are the ones with the 5-year plan, the 10 years until early retirement scheme, with everything organized, kids all in order.

And if we want to do this religion thing, we'll do it on our own terms, at the time we choose, in the manner we think best.

Not always.

Our Gospel lesson today is the demonstration that all of that is a fabrication.

We're not in charge, we don't have things organized, things happen on the schedule of someone else, and in the time and manner not of our choosing.

And that is the way that God has done things from of old.

As we heard last week, Abraham was a cattle trader and herdsman.

He was minding his own business when God called him and said “Go.”

Abraham went as the Lord commanded him.

And salvation-history is underway in a very special way because he does.

Moses was tending the flocks of his father in law Jethro, having escaped across the desert from Pharaoh's anger, when God calls him and tells him to announce to Pharaoh “Let my people go.”

And salvation history advances because Moses went.

David is the youngest of a slew of brothers and so he is the one stuck out in the fields tending the sheep while all the others get washed up to meet an important guest.

The prophet Samuel looks over each of them, rejects each of them, demands that David be summoned, anoints David with a horn of oil, and announces that he will someday be king.

How likely does that sound for a smelly shepherd boy?

And salvation history advances because David responded positively to that surprise.

Amos was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore trees when he was called to the difficult mission of preaching harsh words in a smooth season.

At a time that the nation was relatively strong, he denounced Israel and the surrounding nations for reliance on military might, for so many serious injustices in their society, for rampant immorality, and for treating the faith as a frivolous extra.

It was a hard life, speaking a true word in a contentious atmosphere, and his words and work were not appreciated by those in power.

But salvation history has been enriched by his bold reaction to this surprising call from God.

Mary is a regular peasant girl in a small village preparing for marriage when a heavenly messenger comes to her and announces that she is to carry the Messiah.

She didn't ask for this, expect this, or understand how she could possibly be qualified, but she says “May it be with me according to your word,” and spends the rest of her life discerning how these surprising words can be true, and how they change and direct her life.

Peter, Andrew, James and John are working at their regular hard job of tending their fishing nets on the shore of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus strolls by and says to them, “Follow me.”

It is totally irrational and unexpected, but they respond by dropping that work and following.

The history of God's loving action with his people begins a phase of explosive growth with their response to Jesus' surprising call, “Follow me.”

Each of these persons was shocked and surprised by the call of the Lord, whether it came by a voice from the Lord, or was mediated through the hand and voice of another.

Each of them was not at all clear where this all was heading.

Yet each of them responded affirmatively.

We maintain this spirit of surprise in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, especially when it is offered to infants.

That child had not asked for this, or deserved this, or was prepared for this.

But the Word and promise are spoken and the water is poured in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the child is thereby called by God and grafted into the family tree of Christ Jesus, with all of the rights and responsibilities thereunto appertaining.

Surprise! You've been drafted.

The rest of your life is spent either acknowledging that draft and trying to respond appropriately, or else denying it and running the other way.

Surprise again!

God is persistent, and once having given his word, does not intend to give up on one who has been called, but chases after each of us in so many different ways to entice us to repent, to turn around each time we wander in our own direction, and to truly live.

Some are like the woman in the Gospel lesson today.

She is not so sure that she is worthy of God's attention.

She is merely an ordinary village woman who has has endured the loss of multiple husbands, and is trying to survive.

Jesus breaks all the social conventions of the day and speaks to an unaccompanied non-Hebrew woman, and asks her to draw water for him.

She is so surprised at Jesus' reach across the social, gender, and political divides that she does draw the water, engages him in conversation, and receives much more from Jesus than she could have ever imagined.

And that is just the beginning, for the news just bubbles out of her and she tells the people of her village about what has happened to her so that they too can come and hear and receive.

It is profound good news to all of them, and through each of them to still more.

When she went to the well that day, she was expecting none of this, yet by the end of the day, the surprise of the experience had transformed her life and was on its way to transforming her village too.

It would be much safer, one might think, for the woman and us to keep God impersonal, vague, a spiritual phenomenon, a noble idea, the highest ideal.

Those approaches keep God irrelevant, distant, and quiet until summoned.

But God does not wait for our summons that may or may not ever come.

He may come “at an unexpected hour”[Luke 12:40] when we are otherwise engaged, minding our own business, and not thinking of our connection with the Lord.

The Gospel of John does not say if the woman at the well was offended or delighted.

It is clear that she was surprised by Jesus' reach across all the barriers, and his gift that changed everything in her life.

And we have this incident recorded for us so that we can be prepared to not be prepared when it happens to us!

In this season of Lent we acknowledge that through cross and resurrection, Jesus now can multiply his word of summons and his touch of healing to every person whom he calls.

We cannot know when the Lord will reach us again with his surprising word and action, as he did for many of us in baptism as an infant.

It may be through a sermon,

or in reading scripture devotionally or casually or even indifferently,

at the communion rail,

in a deep discussion with a group of others,

in a classroom,

or in a sickroom,

or in the perceptive words of a child,

or in a greeting card,

or in a challenging question by a fellow worker at lunchtime,

or in a phone call from a companion who misses you,

or in your revulsion against something disgusting on TV or in the news,

or while standing still long enough to watch the forces of nature at work as the ice goes out,

or yes even in a vision or dream...

At unexpected times, and in an infinite variety of ways, may it happen that we too will be surprised.

Perhaps we will remember this lesson and sermon where we were warned, and say to ourselves:

“Oh, this is it. I was warned.

I am prepared not to be prepared, but to listen and to respond.

It is happening; I'm being met by Jesus, God's Word, and things are going to be different.

Not necessarily easier, but different.

I hear the voice of Jesus say,

“I am this dark world's light;

Look unto me, your morn shall rise,

And all your day be bright.”

I look to Jesus and I find

In him my star, my sun;

And in that light of life I'll walk

'Till traveling days are done. [LBW497.3 alt.]

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.