First reading: 1 Kings 19:9,11-13
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33
“Truly, you are the Son of God.”
Waiting and expecting:
The Jewish king Ahab has married Jezebel. She’s the power behind the throne. She helps to convert Ahab from worshiping God to worshiping her god, Baal. She has many of the Jewish prophets killed, and Elijah steps forward. He challenges the 450 prophets of Baal to a competition and exposes Baal as a powerless statue. He has the prophets of Baal killed and Jezebel becomes his enemy.
Elijah is in the cave. All of his fellow prophets have been killed and they’re after him now. He expects to die and is afraid. He runs away, into the desert. Elijah gets the message that God will speak to him.
Now, you think the disciples had it bad with rough seas and strong winds? Elijah has God tell him to wait at the mouth of the cave while:
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks
Followed by earthquake and fire. Elijah was expecting God to come, to speak to him, and his expectation was that God would come in all sorts of glory and power.
Paul wonders:
St. Paul is wondering about his people, the Jewish people, and his expectations of them. They are the chosen people, and they aren’t getting it. They are missing out on the revelation of the Messiah. They are sticking to the law and are rejecting Jesus. For all his expectations, here he sits among the gentiles who “get it.” His new expectation, his hope, is that the faith of the gentiles will prompt the Jewish people to accept faith in Jesus.
The crowd’s expectation:
The crowds has just heard Jesus speak. According to St. John’s Gospel, they wanted to carry Him off and make Him king. They saw the power of His miracles, and the way he taught. Their desire, their long term expectation was that a powerful leader would come to save Israel. Their thought their expectation was being fulfilled now, here’s Jesus. They wanted it now and didn’t want to wait for God’s time Jesus knows God’s timing and His Father’s expectation, so He leaves the crowds and goes off to pray.
Expectations in the dead of night:
The disciples are in a boat, and it is, according to the parallel text in St. Mark’s gospel, between 3 and 6 am. The dead of night. It is that time of night where it is darkest and hopeless. The disciples are in trouble, the sea is stormy and the wind was against them. They are tired, struggling with the sails, fighting the waves. At some point during the struggle each of them likely thought of death. They considered that they might fail to control the boat and that they would be tossed into the sea. They expected the worst.
Great expectations:
So many expectations, so many thoughts rush through our minds. We look for meaning. We worry. We wonder. We create sets of expectations in order to give ourselves hope. Sometimes life’s difficulties press on us so much that we turn our expectations to the worst. Whether for good or bad, we fall into a trap of creating our own expectations.
God reaches out:
Like Elijah, Peter, Paul, the crowds, the Bible is filled with people whose expectations never seem to fit exactly with God’s expectation. We are the same. We have “our” expectations of how things should be, will be, must be.
Now to be sure, God does not reject anyone because their personal expectations don’t quite match His. What He does do is continually reach out and pull people back to His expectations. He showed them, and shows us that their rock, their hope, their strength can only be found in sticking to God’s expectations.
Our expectations versus God’s reality:
Peter expected to walk on water – and he did while he focused on God’s expectation that he could. Peter began to drown when he focused on his expectations about being in water. Jesus reaches out a hand to pull him back to God’s expectation and the confidence found in faith. This is faith in God’s expectation of us.
What did we expect today? The lesson of expectation is present in our lives this very moment. Just look at our parish picnic. What did we expect? A sunny day? Playing games in the bright sunshine and warmth? Perhaps a swim or a walk in the park’s rose garden? What did we get? A cloudy, rainy day. Have our expectations soured?
The question we need to ask, regardless of what confronts us, or how our personal expectations never quite meet reality, is what is God expecting. What is God expecting today?
God expects that whether cloud or sun, rain or shine, we live as His people; we come together in fellowship and joy and we support each other. As we stand together, with smiles on our faces brought about by our togetherness founded in our Christian faith, God expects one more thing — that we show how our meeting His expectations brings true happiness.
As we wake each day, let’s take a moment to ask this essential question: Are my expectations aligned with God’s expectations. Will I hear God in a whisper, will I walk on water, will I show myself as living in accord with God’s expectation. That is what we are to do. God trusts us to live out His expectations. He constantly reaches out to assure us so that we will live in accord and trust that His expectations for us will be fulfilled. Amen.
