God in the Unexpected Stranger
Sunday, Sept 27, 2026
Scriptures: Gen 18:1-15
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In the second sermon of our new series Learning to Listen, Bobbi explores Genesis 18 through four main points: Sacredness, Hurry Hard, Stranger’s Surprise, and Divine Chills. First, she invites us to consider radical hospitality where treating strangers with reverence opens us to unexpected, life-changing divine encounters. Next, Bobbi shows how Abraham’s urgent, extravagant response demonstrates that recognizing God’s presence requires eager action rather than passive observation. She then familiarizes us with Sarah’s perspective in the story through a personal story of her own experience being a stranger in a strange land. Finally, the surprising promise of a child to Sarah reminds us that God’s grace operates beyond our control, subverting our cynicism and fear with holy wonder.
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Community is shaped by the conversations we share.
These questions are just a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
Connect: Consider Bobbi’s question from the coffee break during Sunday’s service: When was the last time you had a good experience interacting with a stranger? Talk about what surprised you about that experience.Share: Bobbi highlights how stepping out of our familiar comfort zones—whether through food, culture, or meeting strangers—can expand our perspective and open us up to God's presence. What is an experience in your life that pushed you past your usual boundaries, and how did it change or reshape the way you view the world around you?
Reflect: Bobbi mentions how easy it is to hide behind our religious arguments, habits, or familiar theology to maintain control over our lives rather than letting God surprise us. How do you respond to the idea that our need for safety and predictability might actually cause us to miss out on "divine surprises"? Where do you find a tension between wanting control and staying open to God?
Engage: Consider this quote from Bobbi’s sermon:
"Maybe you are afraid of the wrong thing... What if the future you need isn't the one you can control, but the one you are willing to let surprise you?”
Why is it so difficult for us to trade control for surprise, especially when facing life's uncertainties? How does this quote challenge or reframe the way you approach your own future and faith?
Take away: What is one thing that you're taking with you into your week, either from the sermon or from our conversation today?
Prayer
Loving God,
We are so grateful for the ways that strangers have become our friends, our colleagues, our muses, our cheerleaders, and even our
amusement.
Thank you for the gift of the sacred other, sometimes sent to remind us that you have not forgotten who we are and what we want and how hard life can be.
I hope for all of us this week (or even before the day is done) – that we will sense you looking out at us from someone we don’t yet know.
What a joy to meet you in ways we can never predict.
And now, as we take our learning into our lives, we pray,
Spirit of the living God, present with us through strangers,
Enter the places of our loneliness and our search for freedom,
And heal us of all that harms us.
Amen. -
Worship Songs
Curated by Kevin Borst
Mission House - Good God
Commons Worship - Face to Face
Bethel Music - Heaven Come
Brooke Ligertwood - Looking
Liturgy
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he reminded them that their prayers didn't need to be anything other than simple and honest to be heard by God. Even in moments when we are overwhelmed or weary or don't know what to say, we can join with centuries of Jesus followers who have gone before us, and pray together. So I invite you to join me in the Lords Prayer.
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
