Message: God in the unexpected
Where do you see God?
Where have you heard God?
Is God with us here in the place we gather or the way we gather online or onsite in a church building?
Can you see God in our midst on a Sunday, or a Monday, or even a Saturday night?
Have you ever gone looking for God? Or listened for God to speak to you when you pray?
This weekend we mark the 3rd birthday of the Children’s Church Corner in Kippen and the space for children in Norrieston. While sometimes we wonder in our midst and in our worship where can we see God at work, in the excitement and enjoyment of the children creating and learning is a good place to start.
Remember the questions and wonderings of childhood? I know there are times when my brain challenges me to remember times of learning, experimenting, creating, and wonder.
Today, there are experiments and expectations each of us have known and bring along with us: What will we see today in worship? What will we hear or sing? Who will be there? As each of us comes to our time together, whether four or fourscore (80), with expectations of what will happen and how we will see or hear God (or not). The Good News today is that God meets with us in our expectations and in the unexpected. God is with us in our experiments of faith, in our experiments of community, in our experiments of learning about who God is.
The challenge we have as a church is to remember that in the expected places (like church gatherings and places of worship) AND sometimes especially in unexpected places (on a walk, in a child’s question, in the face of a stranger, or even a well-kent face), God is able to meet and speak with us, to inspire and challenge us, and to remind us who we are and whom we are called to serve in the world.
Moses and the burning bush in chapter 3 of Exodus speaks of how when he was fourscore (80 aprox), God surprised Moses while he was going about herding his father-in-law’s sheep. A bush ablaze but not consumed caught Moses’s eye and a voice spoke to him of the holiness of the moment and place so off came his shoes. Don’t panic, I will not be asking anyone to remove their shoes today, but if you hear a voice that stirs your heart to believe it is God saying to do so I won’t stop you.
Moses’s life in the first few chapters of Exodus remind us of how God works in the unexpected places and while even though Moses tried to help the people being mistreated in Egypt through his own might, God (the I AM WHO I AM) enabled him as one who had missteps and mishaps to help others when they are willing to follow God’s way. Moses wasn’t the most willing and even questioned if he was the right person for the task. Moses brought all his history of his family of origin, where he was raised as a prince of Egypt, and the mistakes he made. Moses met God in that unexpected place and was (eventually) willing to allow God to speak through him to help the people in need, the ones who were oppressed and mistreated.
In the place beyond the wilderness, Moses saw an unexpected thing in the burning bush that was blazing but not consumed and he was curious, filled with wonder and awe.
Sometimes, as we see more of the world and make it through another year of life, we become accustomed to what we expect that we forget that God can still surprise, delight and maybe even terrify us with how God invites us to play our part. In the world’s needs and peoples’ struggles, God calls young and old, rich and poor, men and women, able and struggling to share in the work and word of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes even the least expected places and people, like a stuttering shepherd or ‘that Joseph’s boy’ will be where we meet and hear from God.
Maybe in the science experiment in worship, the garden or orchard, the questioning child, the wondering of the octogenarian, is where God is whispering and showing us the unexpected that should be expected.
The Good News we play our part in as people seeking to follow Jesus challenges us to be open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in hearing God speaking in our days, to be amazed and ablaze to share God’s love with others.
With all of Moses’s questions and those of the people Jesus spoke to in his hometown, we also bring our questions and doubts but hold space for faith to be reassured of God’s wonder, God’s grace and mercy, and God’s ability to work through the unexpected experiments and even people.
God does not call us to do anything out of our own power or ability, but to offer what we have and what we know and to trust God’s Spirit inspiring us to seek to follow Christ’s example of faithful living. God calls young and old to seek and share the gospel (Good News) so the world would not just hear of God but to HEAR, SEE, and KNOW God. Our God invites us to experience God’s presence, to know God in our midst, and to go and tell others while always praying for God to guide our lives so God’s love would be known in our time, our communities, our church, and our lives.
So, open your life, your daily life, to God meeting you and others in the unexpected. Embrace God surprising you in your own metaphorical burning bush. But be ready for God’s invitation to experiment with where God calls you to reach others, especially those in need. God’s call is not for us alone but for the world crying out for God’s love to be lived, shared, and grown. Go, to love and serve the Lord. Walk in the way of Jesus, the Christ. Be a spark of God’s love for the world to see and know the great I AM.
Prayers adapted from Roots on the Web
Call to worship:
Jesus, you came to bring good news to all,
help us to listen to you.
Jesus, you came to release the captives,
help us to follow your example.
Jesus, you came to release the oppressed,
help us to walk in your ways. Amen.
A prayer for all ages together
Dear Jesus, thank you that you came
to make a difference in the world.
Thank you that you have chosen to make us your body, the way you work in the world around us.
Show us the gifts and abilities that we could use this week to be good news in this community.
Amen.
A prayer of adoration
Almighty God, we are a mixed-up bunch of people,
but all unique and special and with a common purpose – to worship you.
You are the bringer of good news,
and the example of what true love is, giving yourself for our sakes.
You are the meaning and motivation for how we choose to live.
You are light in the darkness that draws us on.
You are the spark that inspires us and encourages to follow you into the unexpected and much needed places.
You are the whisper in the wind and the shout in the thunder.
You are the great ‘I AM’ meeting us as we go about our everyday, calling us to the extraordinary way of Christ.
You are the Spirit that warms our hearts and calls us to love. We worship and adore you. Amen.
A prayer of confession & Assurance of forgiveness
All too easily we stray from doing what is good
and right in your sight.
God, forgive us.
All too easily we find prejudice creeping into our lives, dividing and breaking us.
God, forgive us.
All too easily we become greedy and unwilling
to share with those who need.
God, forgive us.
All too easily we neglect the preciousness of the earth, the animals and other humans.
God, forgive us.
All too easily we forget the path you set before us.
God, forgive us.
God forgives those who turn and confess.
Let us know we are forgiven, so we might go and live the Good News. Amen.
Prayers of intercession
Let us pray to the Lord, asking for the help we need to live the good news in a broken world.
Even though answering the call to justice and to peace asks for all we have;
even though life and its demands consume much of our energy;
even though we are anxious about the future:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though living for you at home, at school and at work is often challenging;
even though standing up for what we believe in a sceptical world is tough;
even though we fall short of what you ask of us and we let people down:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though the world is troubled and building the kingdom relies on our small offering of faith;
even though peace is so fragile and hope is hard to come by - remembering especially the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the West Bank where fresh violence has broken out;
even though we often lose our way and fail to listen, we can begin again:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though the pendulum of popular opinion is swinging, politics seems volatile and wise and empathetic leadership seems in short supply;
even when society’s problems are deep-seated and complex, taking all available reserves of courage and commitment to resolve;
even though the failure to provide answers to social and economic woes hurts people and places some of the burden of need on our church communities;
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though the world is so often full of suffering;
even though our hearts are troubled by our own pain and by the suffering of others - remembering today those we know who are going through illness, redundancy or life changing events;
even though in our distress we do not see the signs of God’s presence with us:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though in the UK the threats of extremism and radicalisation are rising and the surge of online violence seems unstoppable;
even though we are far from the society that enables everyone to flourish;
even though good news for the poor and freedom and healing for all will require our time, love, persistence and practical compassion:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though, we may be alarmed by the flurry of hardline policies across the world that divide and marginalise the other,
even though there is much more to do to make our church communities places of welcome and belonging;
even though we often feel powerless against choices that shape all our lives:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though living memory of the holocaust is fading;
even though the lessons of history are ignored and lives are still scarred by genocide and persecution and we are called to tell the story of this pain
to change hearts and minds;
even though the light we can offer in the midst of the darkness of prejudice seems so small:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.
Even though we feel small and insignificant, the good news is for us to share;
even though the need around us is great; our hands are empty and our courage fails;
even though the gifts we offer seem inadequate:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.
So, with confidence we pray:
All: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit. AMEN