Expecting the Unexpected
1st January 2017
Introduction to Readings:
Scholars believe Isaiah covers three periods. Today’s reading comes from the 3rd period. This is the time of the return of Judah’s leaders from exile in Babylon. The general message of 3rd Isaiah is to warn the people of the serious consequences of not ordering their society in accordance with God’s will. But this passage is not warning, but prophecy as to how light will come into a dark world, and how other nations will be drawn to this light. A nation mentioned is Sheba, think in terms of the Queen of Sheba. This is thought to be located in what is now Yemen. It was a long standing and independent nation, and had great wealth, and yet Isaiah prophecies that even the people of Sheba will come to the light bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. For the scholars of Jesus’ day, this light that was to come was understood to be the Messiah, our Jesus.
The gospel reading is the well known story of the visit of the magi, wise men or kings – depending on the translation! These wise men came from the East, perhaps from Sheba, and Matthew tells us that their gifts included gold and incense. This links directly to the Isaiah reading – Matthew is telling us that Jesus’ birth is the fulfilment of the prophecy. This is typically Matthew, a Jew himself and keen to show in his gospel how Jesus fulfils the prophecies of the old testament, i.e., Jesus is the long promised Messiah. But listen to Matthew’s account carefully – and it is the only account of the wise men visiting – for it perhaps tells a slightly different story that the one we are used to through carols and nativities!
Sermon
Hugh Bowerman
Scholars believe Isaiah covers three periods. Today’s reading comes from the 3rd period. This is the time of the return of Judah’s leaders from exile in Babylon. The general message of 3rd Isaiah is to warn the people of the serious consequences of not ordering their society in accordance with God’s will. But this passage is not warning, but prophecy as to how light will come into a dark world, and how other nations will be drawn to this light. A nation mentioned is Sheba, think in terms of the Queen of Sheba. This is thought to be located in what is now Yemen. It was a long standing and independent nation, and had great wealth, and yet Isaiah prophecies that even the people of Sheba will come to the light bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. For the scholars of Jesus’ day, this light that was to come was understood to be the Messiah, our Jesus.
The gospel reading is the well known story of the visit of the magi, wise men or kings – depending on the translation! These wise men came from the East, perhaps from Sheba, and Matthew tells us that their gifts included gold and incense. This links directly to the Isaiah reading – Matthew is telling us that Jesus’ birth is the fulfilment of the prophecy. This is typically Matthew, a Jew himself and keen to show in his gospel how Jesus fulfils the prophecies of the old testament, i.e., Jesus is the long promised Messiah. But listen to Matthew’s account carefully – and it is the only account of the wise men visiting – for it perhaps tells a slightly different story that the one we are used to through carols and nativities!
Sermon
- Day late for reflecting, but 2016 a year of the unexpected: Brexit, Trump, Syria (Alleppo). The unexpected happen all the time, but generally we prefer things to go the way we expect, we like our expectations to be fulfilled.
- The problem with expectations, however, is that they often seem to be dashed. My observation is that people who live with high expectations often live life with a sense of disappointment because most things don’t live up to what they were hoping for. In contrast those with low expectations are often cheerful since things invariably work out better than they had expected.
- There is of course a difference between things we don’t expect, but we know the options, and something that is totally unexpected. On Friday our 4th grandchild was born. The baby was 10 days overdue, and Helen and I were on standby over the whole of the Christmas period to look after the current grand children. We didn’t know when to expect the call, but there was a reasonable expectation that the call would come. Also we didn’t know whether Hannah would have a boy or a girl, but we did know it would be one or the other. Contrast this with the news of the sudden death of a healthy, young friend. That was totally unexpected, and no-one was in the least prepared.
- One of the mantra’s of the company I work for is that we deliver certainty – certainty on cost, certainty on schedule and certainty on quality. In order to do this we invest a lot of effort in determining the impact of various scenarios. We sometimes call them the unknowns. But because we have been constructing for a long time, we actually know a lot about many of these unknowns. For example, we know this country has bad weather, and we assume that cranes will be unable to operate for a percentage of the time due to high winds. We don’t know when the winds will occur, but in an average winter there will be strong winds. Similarly with severe cold. Site deliveries will also be affected by bad traffic, and again we can factor this in. But these are all known unknowns. What we dread are the so-called unknown unknowns. By definition you can’t define these. They are things that are totally unexpected. I have a number of teachers in the family and am aware of the effort they put into risk assessments for school trips – they are literally expected to think through all eventualities and have contingency arrangement in place. Yet what is it that is reasonable to expect? The fear of every teacher on a school trip must be that the totally unexpected happens.
- So how do we react when the unexpected happens? I guess the options are to embrace and rejoice, or reject and sulk? Our reaction will certainly depend on whether it is a ‘good’ unexpected or a ‘bad’ unexpected, an unexpected inheritance or a sudden loss. But it also seems to me that different people react in different ways. Some people seem wired to cope with the unexpected, whether good or bad, whereas for others they struggle to cope with the unexpected regardless of its nature.
- A question I ask myself is how Christians should react to the unexpected. Looking at today’s Gospel passage we have a number of examples of the unexpected.
- Magi undertaking a journey to find out why a star had ‘unexpectedly’ appeared;
- Herod and Jerusalem being caught off-guard by the news
- A new ‘king’ being born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem.
- Receiving a warning in a dream and changing plans.
- And what of those unexpected differences in the story I referred to earlier? How many Magi – not specified? When did Magi visit – between 1 and 2 years after Jesus was born? Where did Mary and Joseph live – Bethlehem (returned to Nazareth)?
- The fact is, our journey of faith is, or could be, full of the unexpected. Read gospel, encounters with Jesus = unexpected. Rich young ruler; Feeding of 5000; parable of Good Samaritan – or almost any parable. We are a faith in which the unexpected, even the supernatural, plays its part.
- A popular view of church is of people not prepared to face change. People go because it’s always the same. The hymns are known. The order of the service is known. The people are known. It is a safe and secure place. I think that is an unfair characterisation. If ‘different’ people don’t join us, then we will stay broadly the same – our apparently unchanging character as a church is in part a consequence of people not joining us because they believe the characterisation that we are unbending. However, I don’t doubt that there are times when we have inadvertently rejected new blood, new ideas. And if that characterisation does fit for yesterday, that is not to say that it need apply tomorrow.
- More concerning to me is whether as a people of faith we are ready to expect the unexpected. Someone sees a new opportunity on the horizon, a new star. Are we prepared to go on the journey to get there? Someone else has a dream as to where God is leading next? Do we change our plans and go where we feel led? Or is our expectation that God, that Church, only works through the traditions and the expected.
- I believe that God is a God of the unexpected. We should be very careful at limiting God. The whole of our faith is based on the unlikely event of God sending Jesus. The whole of His life is full of unexpected actions and reactions. And any examination of the history of the Christian faith will reveal how God in Jesus continues to work out totally unexpected outcomes through the power of the Holy Spirit working in people. But if I believe that life as a Christian involves the acceptance that we should expect the unexpected, I most certainly do not believe that that equates to a life of insecurity and uncertainty. Quite the contrary. By trusting in God and the expression of love and care he has shown us through Jesus, we live a life that isn’t bound by guilt, fear and human frailties, but in the certainty of forgiveness and confidence in life beyond the limits of our human frame. The unexpected that God may sometimes ask us to embrace should have no impact on our faith, rather it will add flavour and help us to walk closer to Jesus. Let us trust God to look after us, whatever.
- Sometimes people, especially children, use the wrong word and talk about New Year’s revolutions rather than New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps as Christians we need to trust God, trust Jesus, trust the Holy Spirit in a more life changing way. Perhaps our New Year’s resolution should be to accept that God may want to work revolution in us. As people of faith, we should loosen the controls on our lives, trust in God to look after us (as he will), and start to expect the unexpected.
Hugh Bowerman
Image courtesy of Twelvebaskets Ltd at theworshipcloud.com
