Advent Lutheran Church

"God’s Mission is Full of Surprises."

Selam!!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

When I was a young lay minister in Ethiopia, I traveled to many cities and villages to preach the good news.  Since the village people know the city people’s attitude towards the village life, including gospel ministers, they play a holy trick when they invite ministers from the city. They will tell the minister only the nearest city where he or she can ride to on a bus. The rest will be a surprise. Why do they do this? Because, they know from experience if they had told the truth, the city ministers would not come.

Therefore, on a given day, the minister arrives to the nearest city usually after one or two full days travel.  If you are the minister, as soon as you got out of the bus, you look for the person who is going to welcome you, and hope to go either to hotel or to someone’s home in a short distance.  That is not the case. After having walked about half an hour, you kind of ask “hum… I thought it was a short a distance; do we have more to walk? ” Guess what the village people response would be.  ‘We have a little more to walk.”  Depending on the place where you are at, that “little” might mean walking for next two to six hours. On top of that, you can imagine some weather issues. Heavy rain or African scorching sun will be at their services.

This is a very common experience for most ministers in Ethiopia.  Back in those days, being young and the eagerness to preach the good news, gave me the energy to walk for hours.  I am still eager to preach the good news but I am not sure if I can walk for six hours.

In that ministry situation, I have experienced many kinds of surprises. Specially, when it comes to church buildings and worship places, which was very different.  My home congregation in Addis Ababa was built after a Swedish church model. Even the bell, the pews, and some of the interior materials were imported from Sweden.  That is my picture of a church building.

When I go out to the countryside that was not what I found. Some churches were built from wood, mud and grass. Unless it is a matter of size, some of them are literally huts. Some were built from plastic tents. In some places, old big oak trees were used as the place of worship.  My surprises were not only church buildings. It was also the food I ate, the place where I slept, and using only my voice to preach are some to mention. Mission in African villages is full of surprises.

What we read in the book of Acts chapter 16 is a story of a mission that comes with many surprises. By the way, not all surprises are exciting. Some of them are challenging. Do you like surprises? If you are willing to be surprised by God, God has surprises. The story begins interestingly with Paul seeing a vision. In his vision, a man of Macedonia, stands and  pleads with him saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

This kind of call to a mission is so unusual. The very common way of calling to mission is, God comes to his servants, in vision, dream, word, or angel and says, “I want you to go to this place and say this word.” For instance, a good example would be Peter’s call to a mission in Acts chapter 10.  Then he heard a voice saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat."  ¹⁴ But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean."  ¹⁵ The voice said to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane." 

In Paul’s case, it is not God who is speaking, but a man of Macedonia. There is no “thus says the Lord” prophetic formula in the man’s word. It is just pure human word. “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  How did Paul know that this was a call from God and decide to go to Macedonia?  In verse 10 we read, When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

In the process of calls to mission, the rule of the game is, “TRUSTING THE HOLY SPIRIT.” The Holy Spirit that we received in our baptism is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  It is the Holy Spirit, who helped Paul and his companion to understand the man’s voice as the voice of the Lord.

At Gettysburg Seminary, when you are a first year student, the first thing you do is share your call story. It was very interesting to hear all call stories. My class is so diverse in age, sex and life experience. While sharing call stories the most common phrase I heard was, “I discerned God’s call long time ago but… because of this and that reason, I did not responded as quick as I should.”  Some people respond quickly enough some take some time. Here Paul and his companion responded to the call immediately. 

Brothers and sisters, are you hearing a voice of call? One of our foundational teachings of ministry as Lutherans is “the priesthood of all believers”. We all are called to ministry. We received this call in baptism. However sometimes we need a reminder. That why Jesus said this; in John 14:26 “the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Following a call is so challenging and surprising. You think to reach to that point as soon as possible. However, there is a waiting process. That is what Paul and his companions did after they arrived in Philippi.  Acts 16:13 “We remained in this city for some days.” They remained in the city until they figured out where and when to start their ministry of telling the good news.  The most common way of Paul starting ministry, is going to a synagogue or a worship place and look for people to begin with a conversation about Christ. Now the place that he is looking for is not in the city. Surprisingly it was outside the gate by the riverside. According to the vision, he saw a man. But at the riverside, he met women. It is a surprise after a surprise. Unless we are trusting the Holy Spirit, such surprises will be so challenging.

Today we do not build walls and gates to our cities. However, our society has built walls and gates based on class, gender, race and sexual orientation. The gates are open only for the group we wanted come in and closed for group who don’t agree with us.  In Paul’s case, God was pushing him to look for the people outside the gate.  Brother and sisters, one of the teachings of Jesus’ that the Holy Spirit is reminding us, is about how once we all were outside the gate of God’s family and now we are able to come in through the “gate of sheep”. Jesus Christ. “So again, Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. John 10:7.  Now there is only one gate. That gate is opened for all.

In the Acts 16 we see an interesting woman named Lydia. She was in the purple cloth business. Purple is a color of royalty. That means it expensive cloth. You can tell, from her business she was an affluent woman.  Even the most successful people in life need God. They know life is not all about making money and doing whatever you want to do. The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to listen to his Word. Because the Lord opened her heart, therefore after her baptism she opened her home and asked Paul and his companions to stay in her home.

Some people relate with God with some kind of boundary or limits. Baptism is the beginning of discipleship process. In John 14:23 the Triune-God; Father, Son Holy Spirit promised to come to us and make his home with us. In other words, God promised to make our life his home.  Are we willing, like Lydia, to open our home for God and God’s people to stay?

As the Lord opened our heart to listen to his Word may he also help us to open our door for him and his people.  Amen.