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Sermon – Unexpected Blessing
Exodus 18:13-23; John 10:11-21
Farmville Presbyterian Church
1/5/25
Some surprises are better than others. This is especially the case for the family of Athena, a 4-year-old German Shepherd, that was lost on December 15 in Florida. The family was beside themselves and launched a search for the dog through friends across the state. Christmas was coming as they frantically looked for their beloved Athena. I can imagine after a week or so they must have become most worried. Hope might have been fading. Then, on Christmas Day (10 days later) at 2:30 in the morning, the doorbell rang. Athena was outside hitting the door of her house to come home. Good thing she was not a Chihuahua. She would have never reached that doorbell spot. Nevertheless, it was a special surprise in every way.
I hope you have experienced some nice surprises in these last few weeks. Christmas is something of a season of surprises. Even though Jesus was not actually born on December 25, we receive his birth then as one of the biggest surprises in history. There were people who did not rejoice at the birth of Jesus, namely Herod the Great, but by and large, his birth seems to have been celebrated by those who found out.
Another very welcome surprise in Scripture was Jethro’s gift to his son-in-law, Moses. Moses was very overworked by handling all the issues of the people he was leading after they left Egypt. For some strange but very human reason, he had it in his head that he had to do everything himself. God had put him in charge of the people, so maybe Moses took that to heart and tried to do everything required of leadership by himself. Jethro pointed out the folly, the idiocy, the lunacy, the recklessness, and the self-destructiveness of that plan. Moses was burning himself out with the constant stream of complaints. Jethro’s faithful and helpful advice was simple – delegate. Find good and responsible people who could help bear the load of judging issues that people had with each other. Sally sat on my manna. Now, I want to sit on hers. Jim Bob keeps watering his lambs when my goats are supposed to be drinking. You know, all of those exciting conflicts in which we tend to find ourselves that need to be sorted out. Moses took Jethro’s advice, and it made his life so much easier. The people also appreciated the easier access to help. I am certain Moses wondered why he had not thought of that earlier. That was a very pleasant, unexpected blessing. That is also one reason why we have church officers to this day, in fact. This is a Scriptural basis for sharing the leadership load.
Other surprises are more complicated. Jesus walked into a tough and troubling conversation with others on many occasions. Today’s lesson from John is one example. One the one hand, it seems lovely. Jesus is adamant about protecting the sheep, the people of God. First, he describes himself as the door to the sheepfold where the sheep are kept safe. Then, he is the shepherd himself. He is no ordinary shepherd, though, who might run away rather than fight off a dangerous animal. That is what hired shepherds might do who do not own the sheep themselves. He is the good shepherd, the kind of shepherd you want, who is even willing to die to protect the sheep. No, we do not want the shepherd to actually die, but we will feel much more secure about the care of the sheep in his hands. The best person looking after God’s sheep is looking after the sheep. Sounds great. That is definitely comforting.
But he doesn’t stop there. Jesus says something deeply troubling, “Not only am I the shepherd to this flock, but I am also bringing sheep from elsewhere, from OTHER flocks, to be one big flock.” This is OUTRAGEOUS. It is very tough for us to feel that remark in its offense. The Jewish people have always been God’s people. They were God’s sheep. This is core to their identity in ancient times. Now, this Jesus character is saying they are just one people of many? There are outsiders and foreigners who will be part of the flock just like they are? You heard the response of the people. They were incensed at Jesus and accused him of being demon-possessed because of his crazy-talk. We are not offended by what he says, though, because that “other” sheep talk is about us among others. Thanks be to the wider heart of God!
The Jewish people had always been very careful to be racially pure. When the Jewish leader Ezra came back to Israel following the Babylonian exile, he found a number of the remaining Jewish men had married non-Jewish women and had families. If they wanted to stay in the faith, they had to divorce their wives and send away the families. I am not saying that was right, but I understand his insistence of keeping the family in the Jewish faith. This illustrates how big a deal their Jewishness was throughout the Old Testament. Jesus with this one remark seems to be blowing the doors off the barn. The same people who always saw themselves as so singularly special just found out that others were special, too.
Talk about a surprise. What I like about these unexpected blessings that God tends to give, though, is that is really falls to us to make sense of them and to do something with God’s blessing. My guess is that you have been given a surprise by God’s divine hand that you might well have not appreciated at the time, but later, you saw the blessing and God’s hand as a gift in your life. As we begin a new year, it is up to us to be open to God’s unexpected blessings. There will be surprises that are easy to understand and appreciate. There will be others that are harder to grasp. There are some that we will not perceive in any good way. I am a believer in all things working for good for those who love God and are called according to God’s purposes. Romans 8:28 is not saying that everything that happens is good (far from it), but all things can play a part in God’s good design. God does not want us to suffer or to know loss, but these things can bring us closer to the heart of love – with God and with each other. We are never abandoned in life’s need.
For our surprises, though, we welcome this day and the newness it brings. To meet this day and this new year, we have new officers to help walk with us in our church journey, and we look forward to discovering unexpected blessings together. We entrust ourselves to God’s faithfulness because if there is anything that we can know for certain in this world, it is that life is full of surprises.
Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here with our church family and our community. Thank you for sharing in God’s unfolding grace among us, and may this year show you God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love, even in unexpected ways. To God be the glory. Amen.