Sermon for Dec 16, 2018; The Ways of God Don't Make No Dang Sense

Rev. George Miller
Dec 16, 2018
Isaiah 42:1-9

There is a perception held by some people that Christianity is all about what will happen after we die.

That our entire faith comes down to doing the right thing so that we can get to the right place, with the right people, with the right rewards.

For some, our faith is all about waiting for that day in which we get to enter into glory so that we can see our loved ones once again, in which pain is no more.

Though there are scriptures that appear to point towards this possibility and there are plenty of preachers who press this point,

there is also plenty of scripture that supports the idea that what God really cares about, what God is most focused on, is the Here and Now:
how we currently live,
how we treat one another,
and how we relate to God.

Many progressive theologians will tell you that God is most concerned about what is happening today and what is happening now.

Why? Why would God care about the now as opposed to the great moment in which we all gather in heaven to sing praises for the rest of time?

As today’s reading reminds us- it was God who created the world.

Thoughtfully made and thoughtfully laid out, it is God who stretched out the skies, who spread out the earth and filled humans with spirit and breathe.

If the sea is to roar, and the desserts shout out, and the island citizens sing songs of glory, it is because God has created them and made them so.

And it is in this act of creating that God is connected to Creation. That God cares. That God is concerned.

Be it the sparrow or the mustard seed, the hambakuku plant or the provinces from India to Ethiopia;

God as Creator is connected, cares, and is concerned.

When you think about it, all of these words pertain in some way to justice.

Maybe that’s all that justice is- finding ways to show respect to creation and to honor that and those whom God has created.

Do we think God is more concerned about what happens in the great beyond, or that God is concerned about the here and now?

Think of The Lord’s Prayer: God’s will be done on Earth, our daily bread, forgiveness of debts, deliverance from evil.

These all sound like spiritual expressions of justice, a word that appears 3 times in today’s scripture.

It sounds that what God is dreaming of is justice.

After all, was it not justice that led to the parting of the Red Sea?

Was it not justice that led to the giving of the 10 Commandments?

Was it not justice that led Queen Esther to speak her truth and save her people?

And for those who’ve been attending since September, isn’t it interesting to witness the ways in which God made justice possible?

A prophet with a funny-sounding nickname based on a plant.

A stunningly beautiful queen with a very big secret.

A pregnant unmarried woman who isn’t afraid to walk great distances.

Through our journey of the Bible we are hopefully beginning to get the sense that not only does God care about creation and current events, and that God cares about justice, but that God does things in the most unusual ways.

All of our readings show that God does not follow expectations. God does not follow the norms of society.

God is not really a Robert’s Rules of Order kind of God.

That the Lord who created the heavens and spread out the earth is all about taking chances, going against the status-quo and creating new practices.

Scripture shows again and again how God is not just creating,
but re-creating,
pulling down,
plucking up,
building,
planting,
calling forth,
declaring,
challenging,
encouraging,
setting free,
giving breath,
welcoming new things

all while constantly usurping expectations.

I fear that Christianity has lost some of its magic, some of its edge, some of its “What now” jena se qua because either we keep thinking it’s all about heaven, OR

We keep looking for God to show up in the traditional, expected ways:

the same songs, the same instruments, the same kinds of people, the same steps, the same structure.

But our journey through the Narrative Lectionary has shown that who and what God is constantly using to bring about heaven on earth have included:

the infertile
the imprisoned
the mountain and the sea

the youngest child
the diseased foreigner
swords into plowshares

the one is who is too young
the one who is too pretty
the one who is too unmarried and too pregnant.

The ones who have been right under our very nose.

The ones who society deemed too old.

The ones who were more like isolated islands than eternal empires.

Why does any of this matter?

Because we are continuing our Advent Journey from blindness into light.

We are one step closer to Bethlehem; one step closer to meeting our Savior.

But is it possible we have become all too numb to the Christmas story?

Have we become all too aware of how it unfolds, so we think this is the only way it could have taken place?

Is it possible that we have taken for granted how Immanuel comes into the world; that we have lost the surprise?

We have grown so use to the idea of a manger and a mother and a myriad of animals and field hands and magi that we may have actually forgotten,

(or maybe we have failed to realize),

that this new way of God bringing justice into the world makes no dang sense.

Think about all the events we as a nation are facing right now, and then look to the Christmas story and ask

“Why would God use a refugee family to bring salvation upon the world and not the 1st Family?”

“Why a manger to welcome the Lord and not a Marriot or a Mayo Clinic?”

“Why shepherds to be the first to arrive and not CEOS or Oprah?”

Can we let go of what we know in order to realize that what God has done in Bethlehem, and what God is about to do again is a complete and utter surprise?

One that makes no sense, follows no reason, and flies in the face of all human expectations.

God, the creator, who calls for justice, is a God who continues to go against the grain.

And the God of Jesus, the God of Esther and God of Habukkuk is not done yet.

God, who created, is still creating and recreating.

God, who stretched out the heavens is still expanding what we know to be true.

God who gave breathe to life still breathes over us with new opportunities.

God, who allows former things to pass, and new things to spring forth, is Still Speaking.

Do we hear? Do we listen?

Are we willing to allow the unknown, the unexpected, the inconceivable, to become our new reality?

Are we willing to trust that the God is still full of many, many surprises?

For that we can say “Amen.”