WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, SURPRISE

I don’t like surprises, I like to know what to expect, to know what happens next.  Which may mean I am afraid of being surprised.  My preference is to repeat something that worked before rather than risk the unknown. We like the familiar and as a result, I think sometimes we can become overly familiar with Gospel stories like the raising of Lazarus, so much so, that we really aren’t listening when we hear them again.  Because as we read John 11, “Now a man named Lazarus was sick”, we already know how the story ends.  Ok, that’s the story where Jesus raised the dead guy!   Wouldn’t it be nice to hear this story again for the first time?

Because when we already know what is going to happen, we tend to forget that for Mary, Martha, and the disciples, no one, NO ONE, was expecting resurrection.  Because resurrection is not what happens next.  What happens next is a grave, a lot of tears, food from friends and neighbors, flowers, and then no surprise, Lazarus is still dead. Because staying dead is what we expect dead people to do.  But for Jesus to tell them to roll away the stone and call Lazarus by name, and then for Lazarus to rise up, that was not what happens next, surprise.

I think we often get in a rut where we assume that all we have to do, to be good Christians, is apply the formula of believing and behaving a certain way and then we can live with nothing but certainty.  Terri and I are watching the Chosen series again and I think my favorite part is the surprise the characters show when the unexpected happens.  I think watching it again I have learned that being a person of faith doesn’t mean you get to be certain.  It means that you need to be on the lookout for the unexpected, the surprises, the thing that is not supposed to happen next.  If anything, it means that like Mary and Martha, you get to be surprised.

What if faith, real faith is about recognizing that when something is not expected, then perhaps it is a God thing?

What if faith, real faith is about recognizing that when something is not expected, then perhaps it is a God thing?

 I think having a God of resurrection means that the story is seldom over when we think it is.  I think we must wait to see the unexpected, with all who have lost faith, all those who walked away in sadness and grief, with the women at the tomb, and the men who hid in fear.  We have to wait for the unexpected, wait for what happens next, wait for the surprise, and then together we can confess, embrace, and shout from the mountain tops, the great mystery of faith:

Christ has died,  Christ is risen,  Christ will come again.

So, as we move together through Lent towards Easter let us not assume that we already know how the story goes.  Let us agree to let go of what we expect and prepare to be surprised.  Surprised by empty tombs, surprised by the thing you never saw coming.  Surprised by how you can lose something or someone which you thought you could not live without and then find yourself living anyway.  Surprised that people love you.  Surprised that the tears still come when you hear the Gospel story.  Surprised, as we say, at empty tombs because while it may be Friday, as believers we know that Sunday is coming.

I believe that this is how the God of resurrection is wanting to be known, because the unexpected is happening everywhere, faith just lets us recognize the surprise of it. 

Amen.

Brad Belke