Table Talk - Surprised by God

The Good News of Jesus Christ according to the evangelist John, chapter 1, verses 29 to 42.

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, `He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

The discussion over dinner reflected on these questions:

1.  How has God surprised you?

2.  How is God surprising you now?

Sunday Supper, Prayer, Theology-on-Tube

Bob wrapped up the conversation with these thoughts:

The overarching theme that I got from what I heard [in the discussions around the table] is God’s ability to surprise.  So many of us are locked into – or feel that we’re locked into – this schedule of ‘this is what I have to do today’ and ‘I have to get this next thing done because of this other thing.’  My eyes were really open to this at Thanksgiving.  [Lisa and I] had eleven guys from Sudan sharing Thanksgiving with us, and one of them said to me, “You Americans, all you do is work, eat, and sleep.”  Work, eat, sleep.  

Work.  

         Eat. 

              Sleep . . . .  

                               And I thought, wait - what else is there?  

I was surprised that he saw that so clearly . . . and reflected that back to me.  We can get locked into that, can’t we?  Work, eat, sleep.  But there’s really so much more to this life.  

And if we just have the eyes to see it, God has the capacity and the ability [to surprise us], and he’s surprising us all the time – 

all of the time.

Even if we have an expectation and things don’t go well or the way we expected, God has the ability to surprise us.  And God often surprises us in way that our expectations are blown away.  We had a great gathering last Sunday evening for our first Sunday supper, prayer, and theology-on-tube dry run.  And I had expected that we’d have a few folks and it would go well, but we had whole lot of folks and it went incredibly well.  The discussion was really deep and wonderful.  What a surprise!  Even though we were expecting good, it was great. 

So the question I think I’ll leave you with to ponder as we leave this place is, where might you be surprised?  If you’re feeling sort of locked into that schedule of work-eat-sleep, work-eat-sleep, where are some places for to pick your head up, open your eyes, and be open to those surprises – to God’s surprises?  This is the season of Epiphany, so where might you have an epiphany – or, as the Greeks say, a theophany?  Where is God opening your eyes in this season of Epiphany?     

Table Talk - The Baptism of Jesus

The Good News of Jesus Christ according to the evangelist Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13 to 17:

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The discussion over dinner reflected on these questions:

1.  Why did Jesus go to John the baptizer at the Jordan River to be baptized?

2.  By asking John to baptize him, Jesus overturned John’s expectations for him.  What expectations do we have for Jesus, and how has he overturned them?

When Jesus, and folks from Galilee, Judea, and all the region along the Jordan made their way out to the river, they weren’t making the pilgrimage to take a ritual bath or have a spiritual pool party with John the baptizer.  John was calling God’s chosen people, Israel, back into the wilderness – the wilderness that formed them over forty-years of wandering after God raised them from slavery in Egypt.  And then John was sending them back across the Jordan River – just as their forefathers had crossed the Jordan River after their wilderness wandering – back into the Promised Land.  Back to Judea and Galilee.  Back to their homes and their day-to-day lives.  But sent back different – now sent back prepared.  By leading God’s chosen people through the baptismal waters of the River Jordan as an embodied retelling of their formative, foundational story as a Covenant people, John the baptizer was preparing them to recognize God’s coming Kingdom – a kingdom embodied in the Jewish peasant from Nazareth, Jesus.  John was preparing them to recognize Jesus as the Kingdom come, as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed.

You see, John the baptizer had been especially set aside for the task of recognizing the Christ.  The evangelist Luke tells the story of when Jesus’ mother, Mary, early in her pregnancy, visited her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John.  And Elizabeth said that as soon as Mary approached and greeted her, her unborn baby leapt for joy.  This is because John had been set apart by the grace of God to proclaim and recognize the coming of God’s Kingdom in the person of Jesus Christ.  So, when Jesus finally came out to John at the River Jordan, John recognized him right away.  So, also, each of us who have passed through the baptismal waters, whether we did so as infants or adults, have been prepared to recognize the coming of God’s Kingdom in Jesus of Nazareth.  This is because baptism is a gift from God and not a work of our own, individual faith.  By baptism, God’s grace begins to work within us to prepare us to see and recognize Christ and his kingdom – in the person in need; in a meal shared; in the helping hand of a friend; in the still small voice within that assures us that though it appears that violence, sin, and death still reign, the truth is that peace, justice, and resurrection are far more real and abiding.  By God’s grace we have been prepared, through the waters of baptism, to recognize a Christ who overturns expectations – John’s expectation that Jesus should baptize him, the word’s expectation that in the end power must be violent, and our own fearful expectation that death is the final word.