SERMON
Giving It Up For Lent: Giving Up Expectations
Genesis 12:1-4 and John 3:1-17
Pastor Robyn Hogue February 21, 2016 Skyline Presbyterian Church
Second
sermon in our Lenten series: “Giving It Up.” Many thanks to ministrymatters.com for the inspiration
and framework of this series.
Today is the second Sunday of Lent. I am
basing this series on the traditional Lenten practice of fasting, giving
something up in order to grow closer to God, but I am taking it a little bit further. This series is all about giving
up the things that God asks us to give up – things we may not have considered
and not just during the 40 days of Lent, but … well, forever.
This morning, I am going to talk about Giving
Up … Expectations.
When we truly give up control and then
give up the expectations that come with that control, we often find ourselves
surprised by God – in a good way.
Scripture is full of stories about people who let go of their expectations and
then find themselves surprised by how God works in and through their lives.
Take our Old Testament reading. Abram (he
hadn’t been renamed Abraham yet) had expectations. He was 75 years old. I imagine he had worked hard, got rid
of his credit card debt and put money into his IRA. Maybe he had a couple
of rentals that provided him with a bit of income. Maybe even a beach house on
the Mediterranean. All in all, he had prepared well for his old age. And now all he wants to do is sit back and rest
from his labors. Maybe catch up on his reading and spend time down at the Oasis
Senior Center with his buddies. But
along comes God … and, well, God had other expectations for Abram. God told
him, “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I
will show you.”
That land turned out to be Canaan. So here
is Abram ready to retire, now off on a new journey. SURPRISE! But God
didn’t just send him to a strange land with a strange language, he also blessed
him. God does that. He blessed him
that his name would be great and that all the
families on earth would be blessed through him. Pretty cool blessing.
So now Abram has a choice … stick with his
expectations and most likely live
out his days in sun, sand, and luxury … OR … give up his expectations and trust God’s.
What would you have done?
Obviously, Abram did the latter. But it didn’t end there for Abram.
He moves to Canaan. Fast forward 24 years.
Abraham (his name has now been changed) is 99 and Sarah, his wife, is 90 and
God promises them that they would have a child
together! SURPRISE! That was certainly not in line with the
expectations they had for their
Golden years. Can you imagine raising a teenager when you are 115 years old?
Let me ask you, Maggie, Dorothy, Maxine
how would you feel if God told you today that soon you would be pregnant and
then have a baby boy?
But, once again, Sarah and Abraham let go
of their expectations and trusted God’s.
Having a child together seemed laughable
to Abraham and Sarah, except that it was the plan and the promise and the
program of God. Their son becomes the father of the Hebrew people. And, as a result, it is through
his lineage that Jesus is born!
This is not the only place in scripture
that God’s plan comes from beyond human expectations.
Generations before Abraham there was Noah.
Noah was told by God to build an ark. Absurd as it sounded, Noah trusted God and
built an ark on dry ground, ignoring the snickers and laughs of his neighbors.
Later, long after Abraham’s time, Moses
approached Pharaoh in Egypt and
demanded the release of the Israelite slaves.
Can you imagine the chuckles that came from those who overheard that conversation? The people of Pharaoh’s
court must have been saying to one another, “Can you believe this guy? He says
he is a messenger of God and expects us to just give up all this free labor!
That’s ridiculous!” But somehow, with God’s help, Moses, the awkward and
unlikely leader of Israel, successfully led his people out of Egypt and to the Promised Land.
One thing is clear throughout all of
these, and many more Old Testament stories: Being a follower of God requires a
mind that is open to the unexpected.
God fulfills God’s promises in God’s own
way, in God’s own time, and with God’s own sense of humor and surprise. What is
thought to be impossible or absurd may prove to be precisely God’s plan. And
the only way we can get by the impossible, the absurd, and the unbelievable, is
to let go of our expectations and adopt God’s – even if we don’t, at the time,
know what they are!
These amazing “surprises” are not just the
purview of Old Testament characters.
In our New Testament reading this morning out of the Gospel of John, Nicodemus,
a Jewish religious leader, a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish
High Council, came to visit Jesus after dark, presumably when he wouldn’t be
seen. Pharisees weren’t fond of Jesus.
Nicodemus’ expectations, as a law abiding
Pharisee, were that his standing before God depended on his obedience to God
and God’s law. Does this sound familiar to any of you? He believed you do what
is “expected,” keep the law, and all is right in the world. You don’t and it isn’t.
And so he didn’t understand this itinerant
preacher sent by God preaching good news to all people. You see, the salvation which Jesus preached didn’t fit
into the nice, neat box Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees had made for God …
of what God could and couldn’t do.
Jesus confused Nicodemus even more by
telling him that in order to truly see the Kingdom of God he had to be born
again. And once more, Nicodemus didn’t understand. He didn’t get that Jesus was
talking about spiritual rebirth, not reentering his mother’s womb. In effect, Jesus encouraged
Nicodemus to “let go and let God.” That meant that Nicodemus had to let go of
his expectations. And as he did he began to understand that Jesus
offered so much more.
For one, Nicodemus learned his standing
before God was not about what he did, but about God’s grace. Also, Nicodemus learned that he would be transformed, but
not by his own righteousness, but by the transforming power of the Spirit – one
he could not control or fit into one of his carefully crafted boxes.
Nicodemus had to learn what we have to
learn: to live in a dynamic relationship with a loving God requires us to be
willing to give up our need to know everything in advance and to have all of
the answers. It requires us to
expect the unexpected, and to trust God even
when God’s plan is shocking, unbelievable, and
surprising.
What are your expectations? A nice house,
a well-mannered child, an easy retirement?
Maybe a fully developed faith, good health, a better behaved spouse, good grades, a 65” plasma TV with surround sound? These aren’t necessarily bad
expectations. But are they what God wants for
us?
I have heard many stories about the ways
that God has surprised people. God has been present in times of
great struggle. God provides healing
when the odds are stacked against us.
God calls us to places that we don’t want to go, but blesses us there in those
unexpected places. God provides
mountaintops in the middle of deserts.
We are so tied to our expectations that we
sell ourselves short.
The world’s expectations are things like:
might makes right, an eye for an eye, you need to be in control, you deserve
fame, power, wealth, advantage, proof, guarantees.
Jesus’ expectations for us include:
forgiveness, surrender, non-violence,
mystery, faith, dependence, unconditional love, peace, kindness, acceptance,
tolerance, defending the defenseless, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless,
visiting the sick and those in prison.
Which list is more attractive to you?
Too many people live as if it’s all
downhill from here, “Sore knees, blown out Achilles, failed dreams, empty wallets,
wrecked relationships … The best we can do is forestall, cover up and endure,
and then hope the end is not too painful. After that, we’re just dust in the
wind.”
Sounds enticing, doesn’t it?
But that doesn’t have to be the way it is.
Jesus isn’t asking us to lower our expectations, just to surrender our expectations to Him. Often our
expectations of God are just an attempt to put the infinite God into a finite
box. But God’s ways are not our ways.
Noah didn’t expect to be a boat builder
and a sailor.
Mary didn’t expect to get pregnant before
she was married.
The career plans of Saul did not include
having his name changed to Paul, and actually converting to the very same
heretical faith he had been persecuting.
He did not, in his wildest dreams, expect to be spreading the radical message
of a crucified man. And he certainly
did not expect his future to include
being beaten, stoned, called a lunatic, and then at the end … crucified.
None of the Apostles had the expectation,
especially after they had seen their Messiah crucified, to lead a new church,
to stand bravely in the midst of chaos and ridicule, and then gladly suffer a
violent death for what they believed.
When we follow Christ, we will not know
what lies ahead. As Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:7 “We walk by faith, not by sight.” It isn’t always easy. It
isn’t always clear. It isn’t always even able to be rationally explained. However, when we trust God, it
is always right.
May we let go and let God take care of our
expectations. May the Lord bless us as we put our faith in Him.
Amen