Acts 16: 9, 10, 14; John 5: 2-7

“An Unexpected Visitor”

One of things I learned in this country is the concept of “personal space.” And that includes not touching your hair if I see a loose strand that needs to be tucked in behind your ear -who knew that’s a boundary issue- or fixing your collar, patting the dust off your shirt, or dropping into your house without a previous appointment, all of which were normal actions I would do in my culture without thinking about potential consequences.

In Lebanon especially in villages, if you had to wait until you schedule appointments to visit people or be visited no one would ever cross your doorstep. Part of what I call “the greeting formula” in my village is an invitation to “lean in.” If you’re just passing on the street, and you say “marhaba” (hello) -which you are expected to say to everyone- the answer would include four or five different words of invitation that mean don’t just be a passerby but come on in and join us for coffee, which in my culture is the ultimate form of fellowship. And by the way mutual knowledge of each other’s identity isn’t a prerequisite! That can happen later, over coffee.

In this sense I feel that God is more Lebanese than American (that comes as a shock to some), as God doesn’t wait for invitations but is more of a drop-in visitor.

I was having lunch with church friends earlier this week and we were discussing how some of us grew up in church and learned to pray as kids, and some others did not have religious parents, like myself, and I never invited God into my life, but for some reason God had decided to visit me when I was twelve years old, and then revisit me, and keep visiting until I finally opened the door. Today I serve in ministry as the result of a recurring visit by God, and after I told God that I was not the right person, and shared hundreds of what I thought were excellent excuses to dodge this call. Like the lame man by the pool I could not have predicted tomorrow, but when I answered the call, I just perceived that God was already at work, and that I was invited to join.

Jesus visits the man sitting by the mercy pool; who otherwise would have been sitting there for another 38 years, because with his limited mobility and with obviously no friends to help him, he was never going to make it to the pool on time. Jesus had to visit him and change directions for him. He had to invite him to something different, something other than a pool; he calls him out on his complacency and passiveness.

The question “Do you want to heal?” might sound very insensitive, but between the lines there is an invitation to let go of his despair and his loss of desire to be made whole again!

When Jesus was criticized for healing the man on a Sabbath, he would answer later in verse 17: “my Parent is at work still and I am working.” In other words, I had to heal him because neither Sabbath nor anything else can stop the work of God.

I just came back last week from a series of conferences in Denver and Atlanta where I was on the leadership team of “Vital Congregations.” It is an initiative by our denomination’s “Theology, Formation & Evangelism Department” aimed at revitalizing PCUSA churches. The general idea from which the entire initiative was born is the belief that God is active, God is already at work in the world and in all the lives that trust God and let God work in them, and to be faithful as churches, we need to actively search for that new thing God is up to, and go join that work. There lies an open invitation.

Friends, God is a drop-in visitor. Some visits we receive and enjoy; some we cannot explain, and others trouble and challenge us. And whether we actively send out an invitation like the Macedonians, or passively sit by the pool and wait for luck and coincidences, with or without invitation, God will show up. Like the people in my village, God will knock your door at a time you do not expect, and hopefully when that happens, you’ll have your coffee pot ready.

What do we do when God visits? May we say “yes” to whatever God leads us to.