So What?

One of my preaching faculty at the seminary would always say, “So what?” 

This wasn’t in that condescending way that adolescents sometimes use and we parents cringe at, but rather in a genuine, inquisitive way that encouraged us to think about the real meaning – the personal meaning - the transforming nature of a text that we were working with.

He taught us that it was never enough to simply talk about the text, that we had to engage it…we had to ask the question of each passage of scripture, “So what?” or, in perhaps somewhat less offensive terms, “what difference does it make?” When we look at the stories of Jesus throughout the Bible it is easy to get caught up in the details of his travels, his parables, his healings and other miracles but if we fail to see the scriptures as a witness to the life-changing work of Jesus Christ we are missing the point.

These questions were so ingrained in us that I continue to ask them regularly when I spend time with scripture and I can’t help but to ask them now, as we are completing the Surprise Me, God experiment. What difference does it make in the life of the congregation that we prayed together, Surprise Me, God, throughout Lent?  So what if we were surprised as individuals or as a congregation by God’s presence in our lives?

So what? To start with, the fact that we prayed together and that we were open to God’s presence in our lives is worth celebrating! It has been a blessing to hear the surprise stories that have come up over the course of the experiment (thank you for sharing your stories and please continue to do so) but an even more exciting result of the experiment has been that that we are talking together about our faith, we are in tune to God in new or renewed ways and we’re sharing the stories with one another.  This has been a wonderful surprise!

The response to the “so what” question is never complete, however, with mere conversation about God or even with simply recognizing God’s presence. Our interaction with God never ends with us just feeling all nice and cozy because God is present. God’s presence calls us forward – it propels us to live out our faith in the world. God’s presence in our lives equips us to respond to God’s people in the world.

Terry Esau, author of our Surprise Me, God experiment, wrote a follow-up book called “Be the Surprise.” Early in the second book he sums up the so what of our Lenten experiment, “Now that I have seen what God is doing in my life I want to be part of it…. let me go beyond being the surprise-ee to becoming the surprise-or. I want to love my neighbor as myself, in tangible ways.” In this Easter Season we are reminded again of God’s overwhelming generosity poured out to each one of us on the cross. As we become saturated with God’s presence may we look for ways that it can spill over as we live out our faith in the world.

We’ve been surprised together. Now, I am excited to see just how God is propelling us forward to Be The Surprise!