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THE SURPRISE OF GOD 11/10/13, Luke 20:27-38

How do we wrap our minds around God? How do we understand who and what he is? She is? How do we understand Gods presence - in us individually, in the church, in other denominations and religions, in the world, in the cosmos???? Well, you could say that were here to answer those very questions, that our prayer life and worship life and classes and reading and service in Gods name all work to unfold the mystery of God . But still, come on, we cant even come up with a good pronoun for God. We tend to settle on he, both because we have a long tradition of patriarchal privilege and because Jesus was, after all, unquestionably a man. But Im not the only one who rankles at the way the pronoun, like so much else in our religious and social intercourse, undercuts the feminine aspect of the godhead. I really hate misogyny, but every time I refer to God as he, am I not in some sense contributing to the putdown of women? I guess I could do a whole sermon, or several, on the sexism of our faith, but my point today is to try to plumb a tiny part of the depths of how inadequate and incomplete and controversial theology - the study and knowledge of God - is. I dont want to do this either to dis God or our faith struggles but rather to invite us to step back in humility and awe as we contemplate the greatness of God. Were all invited to do this as the end of our church year approaches and the lectionary tends to move us out of the recognizably human dimension of Gods presence into a more transcendent vision of the reign of Christ. In todays gospel reading, for example, Jesus responds to the Sadducees who want to challenge him and call him out with their legalistic cleverness, by saying essentially, whoa guys, youre asking the wrong question. Youre making an entirely wrong assumption that God operates in the same petty way you do. You belong to this age, but God invites those who believe in me into dimensions you never imagined. Well, Im as limited in capturing the essence of Gods mind as anyone else, but I do have a couple of stories that I hope will illustrate what, for lack of a better term, Im going to call the surprise of God. First, Id like to tell you about Martin. Years ago, when I was rector of two yoked parishes in New Jersey, one of my parishioners asked me if I wouldnt mind calling on her Jewish neighbor, Martin. She couldnt say what she wanted me to do beyond that. She was just worried that he hadnt seemed himself lately, that hed been withdrawn and kept the shades down, and she had a bad feeling. That led to my initial reaction - an unexpressed bad feeling of my own, you know, of the why me? variety. What, you dont think I have enough to do? I have my hands full looking after my own flocks. But I was younger then and hadnt really gotten very good at saying no, so off I trundled to knock on Martins door, feeling no little trepidation at what Id find.

The first thing I found was a highly energized, troubled man who I instantly took to. Hed been told by his neighbor that I was coming, so he invited me in and told me a story that he clearly had told many times before. It was about what happened starting 7 years before then when his daughter, a college student in Florida, had been stalked and shot dead by her former boyfriend. Martin explained his outrage that the man had been tried and convicted merely of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was further outraged that in a few weeks he was being reviewed for parole. As he told me all this, I tried to sympathize with the unjustness and pain of it all, but he quickly cut me off to tell me how on the exact second anniversary of his daughters death, his wife had had a sudden, fatal heart attack - an illustration, if ever there was one, of a broken heart. Martin went on for quite a long time, for nearly an hour, explaining his various attempts to master the grief and outrage that were, it was becoming increasingly clear, consuming him. Hed been to therapists and rabbis and priests, hed hired lawyers and consulted with judicial experts, hed gone on radio talk shows, hed not only presented petitions to the parole board and state bar but had met personally with the governor of Florida - all of this seeking justice, or so he claimed, but also I came to believe, seeking more than that . . . seeking relief. Finally his story came to an end, and I told him how moved I was to hear it - and it truly was moving, captivating - but then I said I wish there were something I could do to help you. We could pray together if you like, but I gather youve tried that before and only ended up even more frustrated. Youve spoken with smarter, wiser experts than Ill ever be. Youve been inventive and dauntless in your crusade. Tell me what I can do for you. And he said, youre a man of God. I already know that I can never have justice, although Im not ready to stop fighting for it. But what haunts me more and more is why, why was this beautiful, gentle girl who never hurt anyone, taken away from me? Have you ever been faced with a question like that - either from someone else, or maybe from your own experience? Even if our dilemmas arent quite as acute as Martins, I imagine most of us have wrestled with some form of that terrible why question. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there war? disease? pestilence? suffering of any kind? Why wont those idiots in Washington get their act together? But this wasnt some abstract, philosophical musing, and as Martin asked me, the man of God, the supposed expert, I began to feel as inadequate as Ive ever felt as a priest. I tried talking about Job, but, perhaps because my heart wasnt in it, I could see that wasnt going anywhere. I thought of late night seminary discussions about how suffering and death were the prices of God creating us free, but that whole rationalization felt woefully empty to me in this immediate, very real situation. I just didnt know what to say, how to answer Martins question, and, after a painfully long silence, I was just about to

tell him that, when I actually had an epiphany - one that in hindsight Ive come to see as informing and changing my whole approach to faith, even to life itself. And so I turned to Martin and said, somewhat to my surprise, the only answer I can give you is as a Christian, but before I do that, since youre Jewish, I need to ask if you mind. And he said, no, not at all. Id really like to know. So I said, well, this doesnt exactly answer your question, but it seems to me you and God are in exactly the same boat. After all, you both had your child murdered. Martin looked up at me, stunned, and then he began to sob. He cried for what seemed like forever, and it really was probably ten minutes or so, before he finally pulled himself together enough to tell me that in the 7 years since hed lost his daughter and 5 years since hed lost his wife, it was the first time hed shed a tear. Only years later did I come to understand how common it is to use other emotions like anger as a defense against grief, how crucial to moving on in life mourning our losses is . . . and how crucial to mourning it is not to feel alone and abandoned. Im not sure what we talked about for the few minutes I remained there, and Im embarrassed to tell you I never saw Martin again and have no idea what lasting impact our time together had on him. I do know how blessed Ive come to feel about our brief encounter, and how much I strive to keep in mind that, especially when you or I feel as if were at the end of our rope, God has a way of taking us where wed never even thought to go. You know, it can be fun to ask where God was before in the beginning and, rather than childishly pitting science against religion, to make use of the imagination and creativity God bestowed on us to reconcile what scripture and the world around us reveal about God. But ultimately, if God has any true meaning in our lives, its in a place deeper than thought. Im sure some of you remember the film A BEAUTIFUL MIND, about the great schizophrenic economist John Nash, who, in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize said this: I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found. Nash spent a lifetime pursuing logic and reason. Others of a more religious bent seek Gods revelation in other modes. The point I think is that revelation, Gods presence, is all around us, if we open ourselves to it. It cant be captured by a book, even a scriptural book, or by any dogma or doctrine or formula, whether religious or scientific or philosophical or artistic; rather it speaks to us in all those ways and more and leaves it to us to discern its unfolding truth with our hearts as much as our minds.

In todays psalm we ask God, show me your marvelous loving-kindness. If you havent seen it, I hope youll someday see another wonderful film, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL. Pretty much devoid of religious content, it too is nevertheless all about the surprise of God. Lars is a young man with a simple mind. Possessing limited social skills, hes somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but at first for the people in his orbit that doesnt excuse his bringing a life-size, tenderly cared for, mail order female doll into his life. What kind of kinky, disgusting stuff is he up to? Well, as more and more people begin to respond to Lars and his doll without judgment but instead with compassion, acceptance and empathy, great things unfold, not only enabling him to work through some crippling grief but also allowing the whole town to grow in love and understanding. It sounds like a fairy tale, but its so plausible it actually COULD happen almost exactly as its told. And, as I said to Sue, as we walked smiling out of the theater 6 or 7 years ago, how often do you see a movie about kindness? So what have I said here this morning? I hope what Ive said is that its an essential part of our faith to recognize and honor Gods infinite greatness, his otherness . . . his surprise. At the same time, were as likely to find God in the encounters and experiences of everyday life as we are in our lofty theological pursuits or our contemplation of the vastness of the universe. We are, that is, if we open our minds and hearts. Thanks to Jesus Christ, the murdered child, God is not God of the dead but of the living. God walks in our footsteps and dwells in our neighbors (and our enemies). If you need to see God right now, find God in an act of kindness. Find God in love. Amen.