A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

Well, Surprise, Surprise

Matthew 2:1-12, Preached  at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, December 24, 2009

A kindergartner was practicing spelling with magnetic letters on the refrigerator: cat, dog, dad, and mom had been proudly displayed for all to see. One morning while getting ready for the day, he bounded into the room with his arms outstretched. In his hands were three magnetic letters: G-O-D. “Look what I spelled, Mom!” with a proud smile on his face. “That's wonderful!” his mom praised him. “Now go put them on the fridge so Dad can see when he gets home tonight.” The mom happily thought that her son's Sunday school education was certainly having an impact. Just then, a little voice called from the kitchen: “Mom? How do you spell ‘zilla’?”

Every year, somewhere during the holidays, the Publishers Clearing House van arrives at someone's home and the prize team rings the doorbell of some unsuspecting person and presents them with a huge check. It's great to see the kind of response that comes from such a great surprise. Suddenly someone is much richer than they were before. Some scream, some cry, some get downright goofy.

Surprises come in many forms; some good, some borderline amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious. But there's one thing we can usually say—surprises aren't boring. Surprises are woven through the very fabric of all our lives.

I know a little girl, or should I say a big girl, who wrote, “Today is Tuesday. Indians made corn bread. We made it (mabit) in the classroom. First we mabeit. Next we listened. Then we stirred it. Last it was done. It was beautiful. I don’t like corn bread.” I love surprises; honestly, I love happy surprises.

Good surprises bring happiness; tough surprises demand work or exact change in our lives. Sometimes a surprise comes along that brings joy and invites change. Christmas is one of these types of surprises. Marriage is another, just so you know.

God surprises us like this. Late one evening a professor sat at his desk working on the next day's lectures. He shuffled through the papers and mail placed there by his housekeeper. He began to throw them in the wastebasket when one magazine - not even addressed to him but delivered to his office by mistake - caught his attention. It fell open to an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission." The professor began reading it idly, but then was consumed by these words: "The need is great here. We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo. And it is my prayer as I write this article that God will lay His hand on one, one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast, that he or she shall be called to this place to help us." The professor closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: "My search is over." He gave himself to the Congo. The professor's name was Albert Schweitzer. That little article, hidden in a periodical intended for someone else, was placed by accident in Schweitzer's mailbox. By chance he noticed the title which seemed to leap out at him. Chance? Possibly, but still one of God's surprises.

Christmas is a prime time for the unexpected. Some of these are wonderful: an unexpected gift, an unanticipated opportunity, a renewed friendship, great news hidden in a Christmas card. Some are painful: Having to let go of someone we love, a sudden change of plans, an illness or other trying circumstance made more difficult by the contrast of celebration around you; bad news from friends you only hear from once a year. My thoughts are with all those I know who find themselves on what seems like the tail’s side of life’s coin toss of shocks. May the Lord watch over you and yours, and guide your heart through all darkness into light.

Christmas is about Jesus being born in Bethlehem. A great story to teach children. But so often we leave the Christmas story for the children, and don't stop to realize how earth-shatteringly huge it is. This is like buying a new car, and only ever using it to enjoy the way the windshield wipers work!

Christmas is when the infinite, who made everything that exists, became part of his own creation. And not an important part either. God became an illegitimate baby of a poor couple from a conquered race, born in a cave-stable in an insignificant backwater of a town in the unfashionable end of the Roman Empire. And that is the same God who spoke and the universe was created. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Last Battle: “In our world, too, a stable once held something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” If that doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what will. But God did this not just to surprise us, but to enter into our experience. God became one of us and lived as one of us so that we could know him and he could know us.

Perhaps the greatest surprise for us is when hear that God loves us. We'd like to believe it; it's just that so much happens that seems to run counter to that declaration. But listen: Do you know the first words with which the angel Gabriel greeted Mary when he told her about being pregnant? "Greetings to you who are highly favored!" Here was a young woman, not much more than a girl, whose big deal in life had become marrying probably an older man arranged by her parents. She may have felt happy about this, but I doubt marrying Joseph was something that showed her she had made God’s “highly favored” status. And of course she was probably hoping to have children some day, a boy even. But to have one right away was definitely not part of her plan. So this whole “highly favored” deal would seem immediately off-putting, and disconcerting; and we haven’t even gotten to the point about the baby being God’s Son, with no Joseph involved in the original mix.

“Highly favored, shmiley favored!!” “Nobody knows what I go through.” “Can’t God see how much trouble I’m in?” “I don’t have a job.” “I don’t work enough.” “I work too much.” “I can’t get my marriage to work.” “I can’t get my kids worked out.” “I retired too early.” “I’m retiring too late.” I’ve got a sick mom, dad, child.” “I’m sick.” Even so … God loves you. God loves you. Yes, I mean it. In Gabriel’s own words: “Greetings to you who are highly favored.” OK, maybe we should be a little more humble and not use Gabriel’s exact words. How is this then? “Greetings to you who are definitely favored.”

You know, I can’t go through another list of counter-declarations that will remind you just how favored you are, even if, in spite of, nonetheless, that you are undergoing certain troubles. But the truth is God has gifted us with immeasurable, unmerited, freely-given treasures. Don’t doubt this. Keep the faith. Cherish what you have. Adore those who are yours. Grow into God’s gifts. Practice happiness. Lean on joy, rather than hold on to doubt. Give thanks to each day you are given with a loved one. Make 2010 the year from which you never turn back from the practice of counting blessings, counting favors, counting treasures, counting angels, counting gifts. We will no longer question whether we are favored by God. We are. We will no longer doubt that God’s surprises are wondrous and wonderful, even the tough ones, because there is God’s strength to see us through. And we will come through.

Let us experience the joy of being favored by God, receiving a full share of Christmas happiness, rejoicing in the sights, sounds, smells, eats, faith, hope and love that make this a holiday and a holy day. Let us adore the one who was born Christmas morn, the Bethlehem babe, God in a manger, God’s surprise wrapped in swaddling cloths, God’s gift that surpassed all others, given to you.

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