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When he shared this and when I pondered it more, I remembered Hebrews 13:1-2, “Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
We know that one of the greatest commandments is “Love your neighbor.” The Judeo Christian tradition speaks of the exhortation, “Love neighbor and stranger” because in equal measure, those whom we know and those whom we don’t know, are often sacred encounters, or what Richardson describes as “how joy works/going out to you/when you least expect/running up to meet you/when you had not thought to ask.” C.S. Lewis’s famous work “Surprised by Joy” shares his reflection of his transformation to Christianity from atheism. When we speak of “God works in mysterious ways,” I change that to “God works in mischievous ways” because when we least expect it, or what the apostle Paul’s benediction declares: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20)
Our work and witness as people of God, in our slice of the world called the Presbytery of San José encompassing Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties, and with teaching elders serving in validated ministries outside the bounds of the Presbytery, and honorably retired colleagues, and wherever you travel where you encounter neighbor and stranger alike, how is joy meeting you? In what ways are your words and witness embodying the love and justice of God in surprising, mischievous ways that the people around you least expect but which bring a ray of joy in their struggle, a ray of hope in life’s curveball that came their way, a sign of love under the suffocating weight of injustice?
Joy’s work and witness are surprising, come in the form of neighbor and stranger in our midst, when we least expect it. You and I are also that neighbor and stranger. After all, as we say in gatherings of the Presbytery: Called to Community, Committed to Justice.
We are neighbor, we are stranger in the world, as those around us are also sources of unexpected joy. And in our midst, along the way, in the mysterious mischief and mischievous mystery where he appears in ways beyond our thinking and imagining, the Lord Christ, who is our Joy, prompts us to love neighbor and stranger alike.
In Joy and Justice,
The Rev. Dr. Neal D. Presa, Executive Presbyter
(408) 763-5004 | Neal@sanjosepby.org
#CalledToCommunity
#CommittedToJustice
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