Expecting Opportunity

Finally. Some snow! Yesterday morning when I went running, the world was beautiful. All of the cliché’s fit: everything was blanketed in white; sounds were muffled and peaceful; it was like a fairyland. I will admit that both Abby-dog and I are souls who like the snow. First thing yesterday morning she had to go in and out five times (before the sun was up) just to tell me how exciting it was, and wouldn’t I like to come out and play? But in addition to the general excitement that is stimulated by even a relatively small coating of snow, I had another feeling. Something like, "Finally, winter is doing what it is supposed to do." I wonder if even those of you who aren’t so crazy about snow still don’t feel some sort of satisfaction or relief when winter in Maine does what winter in Maine is supposed to do. This 50-degree stuff is unsettling; it’s so out of synch with our expectations. We expect snow. Finally, our expectations are being met. Even if it means shoveling, slippery roads and a dog who brings gallons of wet snow inside with her every time she comes in, it still somehow feels good, feels right, to have our expectations fulfilled.

We like having our expectations fulfilled. Often, even if those expectations are negative ones, we still yearn to have them fulfilled. What are your expectations of Christmas? All of your expectations—social, family, religious… What are your expectations for what this holy day will bring? Good expectations and bad expectations… Focusing especially on the true "reason for the season," what do you expect the coming birth of Christ Jesus to bring into your life this year?

John the Baptist had expectations about the coming of Christ. You remember last week his emphatic proclamation: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight… one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals." John the Baptist had no doubt about who was coming. He also seemed very clear on what he expected Jesus to do. "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Yes, John had pretty clear expectations about what the coming of Jesus would bring.

So what has happened by the time we get to today’s reading? Now John is not so sure. Matthew says that when John heard what the Messiah was doing, he sent word to Jesus asking, "Are you the one who is to come?" At least some commentators propose that John’s uncertainty, his apparent crisis of faith, comes about because Jesus is not fulfilling John’s expectations. John expected the Messiah to come breathing fire and judgment. Jesus’ deeds were deeds of healing and reconciliation. And when John heard what Jesus was doing, John found it hard to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was not doing what John expected the Messiah to do. And, rather than toss out his own expectations, John seems to have tossed out his faith in Jesus’ identity.

Expectations come from many sources. John the Baptist’s expectations of the Messiah seem to have arisen out of John’s personal conviction about what the world needed. John saw a world filled with sin and indifference and John thought he knew just what that world needed. It needed shaping up and he expected the Messiah to take care of it. And, of course, the world did need shaping up, but God didn’t go about it in quite the way John expected. And it seems like John almost missed the Messiah altogether just because the Messiah wasn’t acting quite how John expected the Messiah to act.

I imagine most of us have a pretty clear set of expectations for what Jesus needs to do this year in the world. As soon as he’s born, in fact, I have a list of things for him to take care of in my own life and in the world. You probably have expectations, too, although your expectations of Jesus are undoubtedly different than mine. How will we feel when our exact expectations are not met? Will we doubt Jesus' identity as John did? Will we feel disappointed? Disillusioned with God?

Or maybe your expectations of Jesus don’t come so much out of a conviction of what you think he needs to do. Maybe your expectations of Christmas and of Jesus are based more on your own experiences in the past. As I looked at the snow yesterday morning I couldn’t help humming, "I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…" Remember the next line? I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Just like the ones I used to know. Inevitably, our expectations this time of year grow out of our past experience, whether that past experience was positive or negative. Some feel a nostalgic yearning for a glowing experience of the birth of Christ like we "used to know" in the past, perhaps in childhood. For others, the expectation of Christmas is that it will be just as depressing, just as conflicted, just as painful as it has always been in the past. In either case, based on our own past experiences, we are looking towards the coming of Christ through the lens of our own expectations.

The birth of Christ has absolutely nothing to do with our expectations. Nothing. The coming of the Messiah into the world has absolutely nothing to do with our expectations. God is not taking on human flesh to meet our expectations, no matter where those expectations come from. Even if we think we have the "right" expectations, like inner peace or world peace, the birth of Jesus still is not about our expectations. And if we approach Christmas clinging to our set expectations, we are setting ourselves up for doubt and disillusionment.

But Advent is about waiting. It is a time of anticipation, expectancy. So if we are not to look forward towards Christmas with expectations in our heart, what are we looking forward to?

Christmas is not about the fulfillment of our expectations. Rather the birth of Christ is about opportunity. Opportunity. The opening up of new opportunities in our lives. Unexpected opportunities. The opportunities offered to us in the incarnation of God are opportunities we could never have imagined, never achieved, never earned on our own. No matter how lofty or how lowly our expectations might be.

The gift that awaits us on Christmas day is the opportunity to be a Christian. The opportunity to become the Body of Christ. It may seem obvious, but without the birth of that baby, we would not have the opportunity to be Christians… the opportunity, as St. Paul says, to become "children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Heirs of God. Joint heirs with Christ. Joint beneficiaries with Christ of God’s bequest. That is something to look forward to.  Just think of the opportunity!

Opportunity, though, can be unsettling. Opportunity lacks that enticing sense of self-satisfaction that comes when preconceived expectations are met. Fulfilled expectations bring self-satisfaction.  Fulfilling opportunity is all about challenge and change. And fulfilling opportunities takes some work. My expectation for a white Christmas (and I am hoping!) can be fulfilled without my lifting a finger. In fact, there’s nothing I can do to influence the jet stream one way or another. But for opportunities to be fulfilled we have to seize them, live into them, explore them. But just think! With the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, we are given the opportunity to become children of God.

It is nine days until the day the church calls the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are looking towards this Christmas with clear expectations, it is unlikely that the coming Christ will meet your expectations. And thereby your faith may be tarnished and your relationship with God diminished. If, on the other hand, you look towards Christmas with an eye open for the unexpected opportunities that God’s birth brings into your life, then, God only knows what might happen to you this Christmas.

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