When was the last time that you were surprised by God? I hope that you can think of at least one thing – and that it wasn’t too long ago! Those surprises from God are moments when we see His hand in our lives or the lives of others and we are amazed by His presence and His love for us. They are true expressions of God’s immanent action in the world that He loves – even in the midst of difficulties or boredom. We are all participating in a Great Plan that God has been unfurling since the first moments of creation, and to realize that is amazing.
But, sometimes those surprises catch us so off guard that rather than being amazed we are annoyed. When we see God acting differently than we expect, or when we see Him acting through other people or other ministries, we might become like the apostles in the Gospel who complained to the Lord, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." John had decided that he was the blessed and special one and unless people followed his expected path, they should not be doing any of the good that we are all called to do.
We hear echoes of Joshua’s complaint to Moses about Eldad and Medad. What are these folks complaining about? God’s work is being done! Moses recognizes it: “Would that all people of the Lord were prophets!” he says. Jesus has a similar retort: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Where do these kind of answers come from?
They are the result of knowing God’s plan, and, more important, knowing God. Moses’ and Jesus’ understanding of God is not one who can simply be limited to a small group of people or too preset categories. God is abundantly generous! His love and Spirit cannot be contained, and He pours these out in great abundance.
It was the belief of the Jewish people of Jesus’ time – and James’ – that there was only so much “stuff” in the world. Therefore, if one person had more, another must necessarily have less. However, each person has only so much need. Those with more than they need could do one of two things: hang on to it and eventually see it go to waste; or share it with the ones who have less than they need. James is addressing this sense of injustice when he writes to his church. Abundance, he says, must mean sharing.
As it is with our possessions so too with our ministry – those things that we do in order to share in and advance Christ’s mission in the world. No one of us – no one ministry – as a monopoly on service and the good things that God in accomplishing. We need to learn this. So often we believe that unless I do something it cannot have the same value. However, one of the surprises of God is that, sometimes, when someone else does it, it goes even farther than we could carry it. And that is good!
Today we live in a world that is eager to draw lines of division between “us” and “them.” Ideological differences immediately shut us off from dialogue and understanding of one another. Even in the Church these tribes exist – even in our parishes, in our pastorate. We cannot exclude others because they have a different spirituality than us or sing different songs, speak different languages, or serve different communities. This will only lead to the death of our parishes and the Gospel message will suffer. Diversity, rather than being an “option” in the Church, is actually an obligation. Therefore, we must welcome those who are different, the stranger, the lost, the sinner – unless we want that same sinfulness that we despise to consume us as well.
We have an opportunity to open our hearts, our arms, and our doors to the diversity that God has breathed into His Church. When we open our eyes as well, we can see how God is at work – even through those whom we would least expect – recreating His world and transforming lives. When that is the case, we can be surprised yet again by the work of God; and we may even find ourselves sharing in that work.
And that might be the best surprise of all.
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