Giving Up Expectations

Giving It Up: Expectations

Well, here we are in week two of our Lenten journey’s and I ran into the topic that almost made me not want to do this series. The second topic in our Lenten Sermon Series, entitled “Giving It Up” is, for me at least, an unexpected one. The topic is “expectations.” So, this morning, we want to consider “Giving up expectations.”

Quite honestly, as I began some research into giving up expectations, I really struggled with why we as Christians, who are called to live our lives in a blessed hope and expectation of the Victory of Christ over the world, the flesh, and the devil should need to give up “expectations”, the very thing upon which we seem to base our living here on earth.

The more I thought about this and did some reading, it became apparent that when it comes to expectations there are two very different types of expectations. First is what we might call “motivations of the flesh” that lead or rather mislead us to worldly expectations. The second motivation is that of the spirit of God which leads us to good expectations, heavenly ones even.

Look at it like this. A spoiled child expects to have everything given to them. They’re spoiled, so they have been conditioned to expect to not have to work for anything. Nor do these spoiled kids expect to have to take responsibility or have accountability for anything, including their own actions.

Remember the name Ethan Couch? He is the young man who at the age of 16 was driving under the influence and ran into a group of people trying to help with a disabled vehicle, killing 4 and injuring 9, including some of his own passengers.  At his sentencing hearing, the defense lawyer argued that Couch’s wealthy parents never held him accountable for his actions, and he therefore didn’t know right from wrong. It was, therefore, the expectation of this spoiled rich kid, who killed four and permanently injured three others, that he would be treated leniently. This has since been known as the “affluenza defense”. The really sad part in all this is that the accident happened in June of 2013, Ethan was released from jail in April of 2018 and has since had his probation revoked twice for drug related violations, most recently in January of this year. His “worldly” expectations continue.

Another example of worldly expectation is the studies done that show that our personal expectations limit what we see in the world around us, and others. Expectations based on assumptions about another person, lead us to see only what we expect in that person. If we expect someone to act in a certain way, that is what we look for and ultimately see, even if it is a tiny part of how they act. 

So, perhaps the best way to give up worldly expectations, is to think about our forbearers in faith, who have turned from worldly expectation to heavenly ones.

One of the best known of all of these is Abram, whom we read about in our first lesson today. In Genesis 12, Abram was called by God to leave his own country, his family, his inheritance from his father, and to go to a place that God would show him. That promise was that God would make Abram a great nation. But in order to do that, he had to do the unexpected. He had to give up everything he had, then, in order to follow God’s call to him. Abram had to be willing to trust God. Trust that God had a plan for him, and that God would bring his promise to fulfillment. In a nutshell, Abram had to move from worldly expectations to heavenly expectations.

In our second reading this morning, from Romans, Paul tells how Abram again heard the promise of God, and God made a covenant with him, promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in heaven. But Abram was an old man, then, and had no children of his own. Abram expected that when he died, so would his family line. But God is faithful. God keeps his promises. And if Abram was willing to once again give up his own expectations, God would bless him, and make him a blessing.

For Abram to follow God it took trust, courage, patients, but most especially, faith. It was by faith that Abram was able to believe God was faithful to his promise.

The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11 sums up the story of Abram and God like this:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

But the letter goes on to remind us:

“13 [Abraham] died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

We actually see another example in our gospel reading today when Nicodemus snuck in to see Jesus at night and had his worldly expectations about birth turned upside down as Jesus taught him about being born of the Spirit, or being born again. Jesus actually said, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

Our challenge this morning is to give up our worldly expectations, and to live as Abraham did – by Faith. In Christ, God has a plan for our salvation. He has won the victory for us already, and he has given us new life, even now, to partake here on earth in his heavenly Kingdom. We live with expectations of faith, reliance on God for everything.  I have expectations but only because I have faith in God to answer and provide.  I expect Him to show up because He says He will.  I expect Him to answer prayers because He says He does.  The good news is, I don’t expect anything of God that He doesn’t already promise.

The journey of our faith, each of us as individuals, is fraught with ups and downs, of doubts, confusions, of moments of despair, anxiety, and feelings of utter emptiness. And in those moments, we can lose sight of the right expectations we are called to have in faith: that God is faithful, and no matter how bad things may seem, he has called us to where we are, and will give us the grace to endure the sufferings of this present world. They are temporary, but the promise of God is eternal.

So let us, today, give up worldly expectations, like spoiled children who expect everything to be handed to them, and let us turn our hearts and minds to God – through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, and remember what Paul tells us this day:

“…our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”

Remember, even Abraham was accounted as righteous, but he did not earn righteousness himself.  No one can earn it.  It is a gift from God as a reward for faith in Him. Righteousness is the right relationship with God and the life one leads because of this.  Through faith this righteousness justifies us and we live according to God. And, as Nicodemus learned, the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. So, let’s give up worldly expectations and embrace heavenly expectations as we continue on with our Lenten journeys. AMEN.