Resolutions and expectations

This sermon is primarily focused on the gospel lesson from yesterday Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, though I did read verses 18-20 when I read the Gospel. The other lessons from Sunday are: Isaiah 43:1-7, Psalm 29, and Acts 8:14-17. It was also Baptism of Our Lord Sunday and three of us (Bob, Victor and myself) affirmed our baptism and became members of Bethlehem, but more about that later. For now here is yesterday's sermon:

It is only January 10th so I think it is still safe to ask this question: How many of you made a New Year’s resolution? Out of those of you who made one, how many of you think your resolution is a valid expectation, something that you think you can reasonable do for or within the next year? How many of you honestly think your resolution is set too high? Too low?

We as a society often joke about New Year’s resolutions. “This is the year I’m going to win the lottery.” “This is the year that I’m going to finally get married” – never mind the fact that you are not actually dating anyone on New Years day. “This is the year I’m going to loose 80 pounds” – granted you are only a hundred and twenty pounds.

We start off strong but by February or March when our expectations are not met, our will power and resolve to change starts to fade.

Sometimes our resolutions and our expectations are set too high.

The people John were baptizing were “filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.” These people were expecting something great out of John but did not receive it. In fact only five verses after we hear about the people’s expectations of John – in those verses that were skipped over by lectionary – we hear of John’s imprisonment.

These people were expecting a messiah. They were expecting a messiah that would free them from the rule of Rome, one that would free them from occupation by outside forces and make Israel a sovereign state again. They were expecting a political and military leader. Not only was John not the messiah but the messiah that did come was not what they expected

They had expectations about themselves but even more so they had expectations about God.

And don’t we have these same expectations? Yes we have our resolutions about ourselves, maybe even a life plan - where we expect to be in 5, 10, 20 years. But that doesn’t always mean that we are going to reach those expectations.

But we also have expectations about God. Seven months ago, when I was called as your pastor, there was probably a few people that thought, expected, that now that Bethlehem had a pastor, the pews would be filled every week, we would be taking in new members all the time and no longer have any money problems. Well I hate to break it to you, but those high expectations have not been reached.

And others of us have the expectation that because we are Christian, because we worship and pray and give money to the church and other charities that bad stuff will not happen to us. And I think we can all agree that that too in an unrealistic expectation.

So where is the gospel in all of this? Where is the good news? Should we just go through life without any expectations so therefore we are not disappointed? Should we no longer resolve to change ourselves, to work on ourselves so that we can be a better person, physically, mentally and socially?

But maybe it is not about the resolving to change that is the problem but the expectations that are. When our expectations are too low – you go to a party think you are going to have a miserable time, you think this church is doomed to close – then our expectations are bound to come true. And when our expectations are too high – loosing half your body weight in a year, or our worship attendance will double within a year – then we are bound to seem defeated by our expectations when we don’t reach them.

But realistically, our membership will grow by three today as Bob, Victor and I officially become members of Bethlehem, our worship attendance was up by about 4 people per service between August and December of this year compared to the same time last year. It may not seem like a lot but those small changes, those small expectations of a few more people in each worship service and a few more members a year are do-able.

Some of those people who John baptized probably felt defeated when John said that he was not the messiah and ever more so when he was imprisoned and eventually killed. And others who were expecting a political and military leader laughed at Jesus who lead others by teaching and healing and not by carrying a sword.

But Jesus was the messiah that the people were waiting for, even if not the one expected. John had baptized them with water but through his teaching, Jesus baptized them with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

And regardless of what our expectations are for ourselves, Jesus is our messiah. Regardless if we have grand expectations of God or low expectations, Jesus is the messiah, Jesus is the one who baptized us. For we are children of God, we are daughters and sons of God’s promise, heir of the kingdom of God. And God has expectations of us: to worship God, love others and proclaim the good news to all people. And regardless if we keep God’s expectations of us and regardless of what our expectations are of ourselves and of God, we have still been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We have still been claimed as God’s sons and daughters with whom he is well pleased. We have been given that grace, that never ending love in baptism. And we receive physical reminders of that grace in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. And regardless of our expectations, resolutions, goals, thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams, follow-through and success rate God still loves us. And that is really the only expectation that we need.