Letting God Surprise You for the Rest of Your Life

Sermon on John 20:19-29 (4/25 & 4/26; Confirmation)

Jennifer M. Hallenbeck

As a pastor, I'm always very curious to see the ways in which retail stores advertise

religious holidays. Sometimes their slogans about Christmas and Easter make me

chuckle and sometimes they bug me. A year ago around Easter, Target – a store I

love – had a promotional sign for Easter that drove me a little bonkers.

It was a large sign hanging from the ceiling in one section of the store. There was a

pink arrow pointing to the left and it read, “This way to Easter surprises.” “This way

point here that is crucial for us to keep in mind.

The greatest “surprise” of Easter has nothing to do with merchandise – with

chocolate bunnies or colorful baskets or marshmallow Peeps: those things are

fun...but the greatest surprise of Easter is the resurrection itself – and no retail store

can give us anything like that.

//

Though I saw that sign at Target a year-and-a-half ago, it works so well in conjunction

with today's Gospel reading from John chapter 20 – the Easter story that centers

around Thomas and his doubts about Jesus' resurrection from the dead. I mean, if

the resurrection was any one thing, it was definitely surprising...

All of a sudden, the resurrected Jesus appeared among them in that room and they

were able to see for themselves what God had done that morning. The wounds from

his crucifixion were there, so they knew it was Jesus and they were overjoyed.

Unfortunately, the disciple Thomas was not with them that evening when the risen

Christ appeared.

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We don't know where he was or what he was doing...but he didn't get to see Jesus

like the others did – and he didn't believe them when they told him about it. Why

would he? The dead just don't come back to life.

“First, I must see the nail scars in his hands and touch them with my finger. I must

put my hand where the spear went into his side,” Thomas said. “I won't believe

unless I do this!”

But then Jesus came again – the next week – this time, perhaps just so Thomas

supposed to work that way: the dead are not supposed to come back to life. It was a

surprise for which they could not have been fully prepared.

// //

Today is Confirmation Sunday. On Wednesday, our 9

th

graders and their parents

gathered with me so we could talk through the Confirmation service. As we began

our time together, we explored this reading about Jesus and “Doubting” Thomas. We

talked about how shocked the disciples would have been when Jesus appeared

before them that first Easter evening. He had died and had been buried the Friday

before...and the dead just don't come back to life.

had surprised them – whether that surprise came recently or a while ago. I got their

permission to share in this sermon what they wrote.

One family wrote about how God had surprised them in the midst of a terrible rollover

accident. The mom thanks God every day that they were okay. She also said the

accident brought them back to North Dakota and closer to family.

One of the 9

th

with a student group at another church here in town. Within that group she found

special connection with friends but, most importantly, she found a deeper connection

with God.

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Another parent wrote this: “God surprised me by standing by me and helping me to

grow in my faith even in the midst of life's difficulties. I have a new found

appreciation for how God works in my life.”

Jackee, who builds the slides for our 11:15 contemporary service here at McCabe

has also served as the mentor for one of our 9

throughout the year. She wrote about how, at a time when she was done with

experience with contemporary worship services. Through that simple question, God

Another of our Confirmation families each wrote about how God brought them

together at a time when they were not expecting to find family.

another of the 9

th

when their parents decided to move them to Bismarck from Seattle several years

ago. But, this 9

loved being at Shiloh Christian School here in Bismarck.

One person simply wrote, “I don't have a specific [surprise] that I can think of, but

sometimes you just know that God helped you...or he had your back.”

healthy.

decision was made while her husband had been working in Dickison for the year

previously. A week after she decided to stay home, her husband was offered a job

here in Bismarck and now they are finally together as a family again. A holy surprise,

indeed.

Finally, unbeknownst to them, one of the mother-son pairings in our class wrote

about the exact same thing. Her mother – his grandmother – died last summer from

cancer. The morning she died was a grey morning outside, but, in the moments after

her death, the sky opened and they witnessed the most beautiful sunrise they had

ever seen...a sign from God that their dear one was being welcomed into the

heavenly kingdom.

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//

God really can surprise us in any number of ways, whether that surprise comes in the

form of heavenly beauty after a death...or in the form of protection in the midst of

accidents...healing in the midst of sickness...finding love you weren't expecting to

find...experiencing peace in a painful season of life...or connecting with God when

you thought that connection had been lost.

families' lives. And I'm guessing not only can many of you relate to some of these

Jesus had told his first disciples ahead of time that he would rise from the dead, but

they hadn't believed him...and, then, they barely believed him when he actually did

And how can we blame them, really...? Resurrection is unbelievable.

Eventually they did get it, however. Eventually, they accepted the amazing thing God

had done on Easter and they lived the rest of their lives trusting God's will and

spreading the good news.

with healing, with peace, with forgiveness.

So...today is Confirmation Sunday. Confirmation is about publicly proclaiming faith in

Jesus Christ. For most of our 9

th

graders, their parents claimed this faith on their

behalf when they were baptized as babies. One of our 9

th

graders will be baptized

moments before he is confirmed. All of them are, for the 1

st

time, making their public

claim that Jesus is their Lord and that they plan to serve him through the church.

These 9

th

graders have nearly completed a year of class during which we all got to

know each other and we got to know God a little better. Since we're transitioning to a

two-year program from what's most recently been a one-year program, this particular

group of 9

graders got two years worth of classes in one: a year of Bible study and a

year of theology and church history.

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The close of this sermon is written especially to our 9

you all get to overhear it:

Through everything we learned and talked about, my biggest hope and prayer is that

you will remember God's blessing and call upon your life.

And part of what that means is letting God surprise you for the rest of your life. It

is guiding you...that God is calling you to help bring love and justice into this world.

know and love you best will listen and will offer helpful thoughts in response.

//

Getting confirmed doesn't mean you're done learning about God or that you're done

willing to spend the rest of your life paying attention to God's work in your life and in

the world.

As I've said, it's surprising sometimes how God works...so I hope you'll all leave here

open to God's surprises – today and for the rest of your lives.

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