Genesis 15:1-6 and Luke 12:32-40

The God of the Unexpected

In the late 1980’s, when as a family we lived in Bristol, Viv and I had two or three nights at a Pembrokeshire retreat centre called Ffald-y-Brenin (Sheepfold of the King). It was a beautiful place, but pretty remote to say the least. It sits on the side of a mountain 600 feet above sea level. There is another 600 feet going up behind it to a ridge and then a 1200 feet drop straight to the sea. In front of the centre is a valley below running for some miles and rising up on the other side to some 1800 feet. There are sheep everywhere, but very few people. At first glance it is nothing more than a tiny, insignificant, remote and obscure converted farmhouse on a Welsh hillside.

We had a good time there in that very quiet setting and shared in the worship that took place there every day led by the founder of the centre, Phyllida Mould. We have always simply remembered it as a sort of Christian “lay by”, where individual Christians and groups can go for spiritual reflection, renewal or just rest. And Viv and I have always been grateful to Viv’s parents who took three lively young children off our hands for three days so that we could have that precious break.

Last year a book came into my hands that describes the ongoing work of Ffald-y-Brenin. And it has surprised me greatly. The big surprise was to learn who now runs the centre – Roy Godwin. Roy was a very, very successful Christian businessman. He was a high-powered executive type, who loved city living and engaging with men in suits. He had a vibrant future ahead of him and had just been offered the most lucrative contract he had ever had, when the trustees of Ffald-y-Brenin wrote to him and said that they had been praying and felt that he was the right person to take over from Phyllida Mould to lead the retreat centre. It seemed a ludicrous thing to do. But he and his wife gave up comfort, financial security and apparent positions of great influence in order to take over the running of the centre. This was simply because they believed after praying that this was what God was calling them to do.

The result has been the establishing of a House of Prayer that has positively influenced thousands of people all over the world. In addition, it turns out that Ffald-y-Brenin has been the place at which the late Rob Lacey found the space and time and inspiration to write “The Street Bible” – a version of the Bible that is accessible to young people of today’s generation and has had an enormously positive influence. God has worked in a totally unexpected way and through totally unexpected people to fulfil his purposes.

God doing the unexpected is a theme that recurs throughout the Bible. We see it, for example, in the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah, part of which is told in the Old Testament lesson set for today. It is God’s purpose to establish a nation, a people, who will express to the world the goodness, power and love of the one true God. Does he choose an already established nation of people, already respected and powerful in the world? Does he do the obvious? No, God does the totally unexpected. He chooses Abraham and Sarah from whom to begin the nation.

Abraham is merely a nomadic Middle Eastern chieftain. God has already made a promise to Abraham that he will be made into a great nation. The problem is that Abraham has been through some very difficult times when his character has been stretched to the limits. He has had to deal with famine; he has lied to the Egyptian Pharaoh; he has had to deal with a potentially disastrous quarrel between his own men and those of Lot his nephew; and then he has had to fight and defeat several local chieftains who have kidnapped Lot and his family. On top of all this Abraham and Sarah are childless. How can a nation be born from him under these circumstances? Abraham is at this point disillusioned with life and very apprehensive about the future. So low is his confidence in God that Abraham has just made a deal with one of his servants to inherit his property in case he should die without a son.

At this moment God speaks to Abraham in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield,

your very great reward.”

No wonder Abraham complains to God: “What can you give me? You have given me no children!”

Abraham has to learn that he worships a God of the unexpected. God reassures him that he will have children of his own and then gives him a further vision:

** Genesis 15:5 **

Then Abraham is willing to believe:

** Genesis 15:6 **

Our God is master of the unexpected.

If you follow the Bible story on you will find this theme recurring again and again. For not only are Abraham and Sarah, an ageing couple, chosen by God as the people from whom his nation will be formed. God continues this habit of doing the unexpected. God later uses Moses, a misfit and a murderer, to lead his people out of Egypt. He then chooses David, a young shepherd boy, to become king of Israel. God could have chosen older, stronger, more experienced leaders. But David is the one he chooses. Much later on God chooses Cyrus of Persia, a foreign pagan king, to lead his people out of exile in Babylon. And of course later still chooses tax collectors and fishermen of all people to become the closest disciples to his Son Jesus. If you want to establish a nation and then later want to establish a church, why not choose the people with the skills and the places that are obvious? But God does the unexpected.

Of course, most unexpectedly of all, he sends his own son to be born in a stable and to die on a cross. God moves in mysterious ways.

Isaiah 55:8 sums it up:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

Neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Nevertheless, we struggle with this. We like things to be sensible, straight-forward, predictable, so that we can prepare ourselves for what will happen next. However, with God that is not always how it is. God is a master of the unexpected.

I remember many years ago when I had been accepted for training as a Methodist minister we were sent a list of training colleges by the Methodist Church so that we could indicate the one we would most like to attend. There was a choice of four to be listed in order of preference. For very good family reasons we badly wanted to go to Cambridge. So we put it at the top of our list: Cambridge first, then Birmingham, then Manchester, then last of all Bristol. We had phone calls with Cambridge, we visited the college, and we were led to understand that it was almost certain we would go there.

Then the confirmatory letter arrived: Bristol – bottom of our list and as far away from family support as we could get. But God, the God of the unexpected, had purposes in mind for me and for my family that were way beyond anything I could have dreamed of. It turned out to be the right place at exactly the right time.

Please note: the way God acts in his world is not perverse. Often it is to us the sensible and straightforward way. But however he acts, it is always in line with his good purposes for us. He simply asks us to “trust and obey”, as the old hymn says, whether his ways seem mysterious or not.

When Abraham doubts that God will do what he promises, God’s response is not to be angry with Abraham, or to withdraw his promise, but to take him outside and invite him to look at the stars. His assurance is that Abraham’s descendants will be as numerous; but is that what convinces Abraham? No, it is rather the reminder that it is God, the creator of everything, who is making him promises that day. If God can set all the stars in place, then finding solutions to human problems is surely not beyond him.

This also means that God is not constrained by considerations of time. In the reading we had from St Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the Son of Man will come at a time when people do not expect. If we cannot decide what God will do, we cannot decide when he will do it, either. God may use any means to accomplish his purposes, however unexpected. All we can be sure of is that God is good, that He is Lord of all, and that he keeps his promises. The God who set the stars in place is with us always.

So, confused about why things are happening to you as they are? Uncertain what lies ahead? Bemused about decisions that have been made that affect your life and that are beyond your control? Hurt by the hand life seems to have dealt you?

Our God is a God of the unexpected. Hard though it is, let’s trust him like Abraham. God is working his purposes out.