3rd Advent: Expectations of the Messiah

Managed Expectations - a phrase we can hear about an event or situation, when somebody does not want to get disappointed, when somebody does not want to disappoint others.

I first came to Nevada in 1988 on a geology trip from Cincinnati. And I was not impressed. I was thinking I would see cacti and a desert landscape as in the John Wayne movies I grew up with. We were going from SLC to Ely, and I saw no cacti, just sagebrush and more sagebrush. Then we went onto southern Utah and the parks there and were blown away. When I returned to work in Nevada in 1989 I had realistic expectations and that is when I began to love the State.

In the United States, Priests, if they leave ministry, usually do it within the first 5 to 7 years. And anecdotally, those who tend to leave more often are those who are Roman trained. The thinking is that these young men are told they are the cream of the crop, the best of the best, and they go to Rome and study; yet they receive very little parish experience. They come back to the US as seminarians and are treated as little princes. Then they are ordained, come into the parish, and reality hits. “Father, the toilets don’t work. Father, it is too hot, it's too cold, you preach too long, you talk about sin too much, you don’t talk about sin enough….” They become disillusioned.

Marriage too can be tested in those early years. Couples find the romance of marriage, or their idea or expectations of the marriage gone, replaced by who is cleaning the bathrooms this weekend. Groceries, bills, kids etc.

Life in general, we form expectations and have dreams. We think life needs to go a certain way and conform to what we want. The wiser of us let go; the angrier of us grasp at control.

John the Baptist in Matthew’s gospel has expectations of Jesus. We heard those last week. Jesus will come with fire. He will cleanse the world! He will bring righteousness and order. This gospel, some time has passed since John made that declaration. John, now imprisoned, has questions, maybe even doubts. His expectations of Jesus and Jesus’ ministry have not gone according to his plan.

Jesus gives to him the answer: John needs to see differently, think differently. Jesus is the Messiah, he is the one; he comes in righteousness, he comes with fire, but not the way that was expected.  He has not come to restore Israel politically. He has not come to kick out Romans. He has not come to punish wrong doers.

His righteousness, his fire: love and mercy. He goes to the sinner and the rejected to welcome and show them dignity. He will call on the people to honor the Covenant. He will ultimately surrender himself so that all may know God’s great desire to unite and forgive; to welcome and raise up. His mission is that we be his disciples and carry this on.

Early Christians attracted people not by their fire and brimstone, but by their sense of community and equality. It was by their love for all and living that out that the community grew. It was living out Jesus’ own life that attracted others.

We humans have always faced a tension with our faith. We can let our egos and our desire to control guide us in how we understand Jesus. We forget who Jesus is, what he did, and why he did it. We expect what we want, and we try to bend Jesus to our will.

It is going on right now; this perversion of Christianity and wanting to make a “Christian nation”. Or this need to have the Catholic Church be #1, the dream of Christendom returned. Some we make Jesus and God this harsh judge, ready to condemn us for any slight, any sin. All it does is show our own wounded-ness, our own need to control.

What do we really expect in Jesus? Are we looking for a friend? Are We looking for an easy automatic entry into heaven? Are we looking for a way to justify ourselves?

There is so much more to Jesus and our faith.  Jesus is a wisdom that offer us healing in this world and the wisdom to be healers in this world.  Jesus offers the revelation of God’s saving love; not having to be earned or won, but is freely given and to be used for living as God’s children.  Jesus offers us the joy that comes with living in this love; knowing that grief, anger, fear and even happiness will pass away; and what remains is our goodness in God.  Jesus brings to us a visión of humility and of self-giving that serves to defeat sin in this world; a visión of love that attracts people to be changed.  Jesus’ death and resurrection shows us that no sin has power; God will always forgive if we but ask and accept.  Jesus never promised that bad things would not happen, but that we do not have to be controlled by those bad things.

This is our joy! This is our life!  Expect nothing less.