August 7, 2022

 I love thrift shopping, sorting through junk to find treasures, looking for the unexpected.  I am a member of a couple of Facebook groups devoted to thrifting and they have made me aware of a fun practice in which someone finds something weird and wonderful while thrifting, purchases it, and later secretly leaves it at the house of a friend or relative when they leave the room for them to discover later.  It’s intended to be good fun for the one leaving the surprise and the one finding it. 

            When I imagine God coming like a thief in the night, this is what I picture—God surprising us with an unexpected gift of grace.  The Gospel for this morning gives us so many different images of God—bridegroom, servant, thief, and shepherd.  What these all have in common is an element of surprise and an unwillingness to let us stay the same.  Since we are instructed not to be afraid, the other commonality is a sense of delight and hope, especially seeing this thief as a reverse thief, leaving unexpected grace for us to stumble upon later.

            Be not afraid is an oft repeated Biblical instruction that might just scare us half to death.  It is reserved for visits from angels and special instructions for a new life, for promises of the future.  Because of this encouragement we know that God is not a gotcha God trying to trick us or tempt us or get us to mess up, always watching and judging and ready to throw us to the teeth gnashing area.  There is so much we could be afraid of—the changes in our world, illnesses, technology, natural disasters, other people who are different from us.  But worry and fear have never gotten us anywhere.  Instead we are encouraged not to be afraid.  God has good plans for us, good surprises.  God is always with us.  God gives us strength.  There are so many reasons to be hopeful and joyful and to let hope and joy replace that fear that would keep us paralyzed.

            We are invited to let go of our fear because God has something to give us—the kingdom.  I think of the Israelites wandering the wilderness for 40 years because they were too afraid to enter the promised land.  God wanted to give them the Kingdom, but they weren’t ready to receive it.  Like them we sometimes don’t want to let go of the fear we live in every day to receive that spirit of adoption, that spirit of grace, that new life.  Here in our church, what is God asking us to let go of so that we can step into the future that God is promising?

            The Gospel for today invites us to get ready, to prepare ourselves for what is coming next.  God promises the Kingdom is right around the corner, very nearby.  At Bible School this week, we practiced God sightings.  We know that we don’t very often see God standing right in front of us the way we see one another, but that often God works through ordinary people and through God’s good creation to show us how much God loves us.  Each day at Bible school we asked the children to tell us where they saw evidence of God in other people and they had no end of examples.  Some of the older children helped the younger children when the little ones were running around or fell down—they were showing God’s love and care.  Children were patient and kind to each other—they said please and thank you—that was a god-sighting.  Children held hands when we walked to the park.  They shared the swings, they looked out for each other.  Those were more god-sightings.  They even saw God’s loving care in their snack and the people who prepared it and handed it out, and in the flowers that were blooming along the way when we were walking to the park.

            God is at work behind the scenes, but when we really started looking, we noticed God all around us.  It reminds me of that trinket or treasure left on the shelf.  You might not notice the gift that someone left for you if you aren’t looking.  But we can train our eyes to be on the lookout for God’s unexpected gift of grace.

                We might feel like being prepared puts us in an anxious panic.  How do I prepare?  What am I supposed to prepare for?  I can’t be in a state of perpetual alertness.  I need my rest.  I think of the preparation when I was 8 months pregnant with my son.  We had our bag packed for the hospital with all the things they tell you you will need.  But some babies come at 7 months, and sometimes the baby is born 35 minutes before Halloween and the new daddy has to go home and turn off the porch light and put the jack-0-lantern inside so that kids don’t egg your house or smash your pumpkin.  You just can’t be ready for every possibility.  Yet God is with us in all of our fear and anxiety and lack of readiness.  I think God just wants us to live in anticipation of good things happening so that we can experience the anticipation and the hope that will carry us through.  How can we live prepared to be blessed, prepared to receive God’s love and grace, ready for that knock on the door, awake and alive to God’s loving presence.  It’s a matter of practicing, training ourselves to look and listen for god-sightings, to practice looking for God at work in ordinary lives.  And notice the Gospel doesn’t say God wants to eventually give you the Kingdom someday a long time from now.  This is a present day desire of God for our delight and God’s—to give us the Kingdom—to give us the gift of healing and restoration and new life right now.

            I’ve seen God at work with our Bible School volunteers and even working through children with a lot of energy.  Again and again we were surprised by God’s grace working through these kids in their kindness, in their imaginations.  I’ve seen God at work through our Trinity property committee—there is now a baby changing table in each of the upstairs restrooms, welcome and bienvenidos decals on the doors, light bulbs changed, and hymn boards repurposed to make a cute kid’s chair.  I’ve seen God at work at Zarephath pantry, pet food collected and distributed, shampoo and toothbrushes making a difference for someone in need, people helping each other load groceries, paying attention to people’s special dietary needs.  And last week at Padre Maldonado’s farewell service I saw God at work bringing two congregations together to celebrate and eat together, to communicate and put up and take down tables, chairs, tents, and trays, with leftover food sent home for anyone with room and 12 baskets left over!

            This week I celebrate my one year anniversary serving with you.  I see God at work every day and I know that God is sneaking in to bless us and to bless others through us.  I know God is not going to leave us unchanged.  God has a future of blessing in mind for everyone.  I am excited about where God is leading us.  We’re going to have to listen to that instruction of not being afraid, because when that knock comes in the middle of the night, we’re not going to want to open the door.  We’re going to feel inadequate and unprepared.  But we’re planning for us to have our bag packed so that we can be prepared for God’s unexpected blessing that is promised, in which we place our hope.

            When God said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, I especially think of the gift of Jesus.  He was proof that God was focused on loving and saving the people, that God is invested in us, and especially invested in the poor and imprisoned and rejected.  So we are invited to consider what is worth our investment, what is valuable to us, where to focus our time, money, and energy.  We have the short-term view of fearful little creatures. But God has a long-term wider view of what is truly of value—love and relationship and abundant life. 

            God has placed signs of hope all around us so that when we decide to look up from our distractions and despair and fear, we might see a sign that the one who made us, loves us and cares for us and is connected to us.  The thief is breaking in to take away our fears, our insecurities, our distractions, our greed, our focus on material things, our injustice and oppression, our slavery, and all our hungers.  In their place we see God before us, love and hope and abundant life that we are invited to share and let transform us until we all receive the  Kingdom, ready for blessing, ready to be a blessing to others, looking for God in the world, looking for God’s Kingdom all around us, letting go of what is not of value, and embracing the new life God is putting in front of us.