What Do You Expect?

This is the message at the midweek Lent service in Gettysburg.  The Bible verses used are Luke 5:1-11, 27-32.

When you came here tonight, you probably had some idea of what this service would be like. You expected that we'd sing a couple of songs. You expected that we'd read some scripture. You expected that I'd talk to you for a while. In other words, you came here knowing more or less what to expect.

And that's true of most of our lives. When we get up in the morning, we usually have some idea of what to expect out of our day. When we go to work, we know what we expect to be doing. When we go home, we know what we expect when we get there. Sure, sometimes things the unexpected happens, sometimes things come up that we don't anticipate, but even then it's usually not something totally out of the blue. It's rare that we're totally surprised by something, that something happens that we had absolutely no idea might happen and that we did not expect at all.

Last week, in talking about things we can give up for Lent, we talked about giving up control of our lives, and giving that control to God. The thing that makes that so hard is that, when we give control of our lives to God, we don't really know what will happen next. God may have all kinds of surprises in store for us, and they may or may not line up with what we'd like to have happen. When we give God control of our lives, we really don't know what to expect. So, tonight, we're going to talk about giving up something else: giving up expectations.

Have you ever gone into a situation where you had no idea what might happen? That's pretty scary, right? That was one of the hardest things about being a lawyer. Whenever you go into court, you don't really know what's going to happen. You prepare as much as you can, you try to get ready for whatever might happen, but there's almost always something that happens that you did not expect. A witness does not say what you expect them to say. The judge makes a ruling you did not expect the judge to make. No matter how much you prepare, something always happens.

It's all very easy to say “expect the unexpected”, but the truth is that, by definition, you cannot

expect the unexpected. And that's not a comfortable thing. It's hard. It's scary.

And it's what God asks us to do. We read the story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Do you think they had any clue what they were signing up for when they started following Jesus? I don't. I don't think they had the slightest idea what to expect.

It kind of makes you wonder why they did it. You know, sometimes we think of the disciples as sort of this rag-tag band of people who were just sort of wandering around because they really had nothing better to do with their lives, anyway. It's not true, or at least it does not appear to be true. Peter, James, and John had a fishing business, and it looks like they were fairly successful. They were successful enough that they went into partnership and had at least two boats. Levi, also known as Matthew, was a tax collector, and tax collecors made a pretty good living. Peter, at least, was married, and it's thought that at least some of the other disciples were, too.

These were not people who went and followed Jesus because they had nothing else to do. These were not people who were leaving nothing behind when they followed Jesus. They were leaving lots of things behind. They were leaving homes and families and business and money behind. They were leaving behind things that most of us would put a pretty high value on.

And yet they did it. They did it without hesitation. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for an orderly transition for their businesses. They did not ask Jesus to wait while they made arrangements for someone to watch over their families. They did not do things that we would consider to be responsible things to do. Instead, we're told that they simply walked away from their old lives and followed Jesus.

They did that having no idea what would happen when they did it. They did that having no idea what to expect. It's pretty amazing, when you stop to think about it. It's something most of us can

probably not even conceive of doing, to just leave everything behind and follow God, having no idea what to expect when we do.

And yet, as I was thinking about this subject this week, something occurred to me. Why is this so hard? Is it because God makes it hard? Or is it because we, you and I, make it hard?

Think about it this way: how many of you have lives that have gone exactly the way you expected them to go? Think back twenty-five years, or ten years, or five years, or whatever period of time you consider to be a long time ago. Think about how you expected your life to go at that point. How much of it has gone the way you expected it to? In fact, has any of it really gone the way you expected it to?

It has not for me. Twenty-five years ago, in February of 1988, I was the Enforcement Director of the Securities Division of the South Dakota Department of Commerce. I lived in Pierre, and I'd known Wanda for about six months. I had hopes for the relationship, but I did not know whether she'd ever want to marry me. I had no expectation of it, at that time. And whether she married me or not, I expected that I'd live in Pierre the rest of my life.

Ten years ago, in February of 2003, I was a lawyer in Wessington Springs. Wanda and I had been married for thirteen and a half years, more or less, and we'd lived in Springs for about eleven years. My expectation was that I'd be a lawyer until I retired and that we'd live in Wessington Springs the rest of our lives.

Five years ago, in February of 2008, I was in my second year of seminary. We still lived in Wessington Springs. I knew we would not stay there, but I expected to stay there until I graduated from seminary in the spring of 2009. Then, I expected to get my first appointment, which I expected to be a traditional church in a small town somewhere in the Dakotas.

None of it worked out the way I thought it would. I did not stay in Pierre. I did not stay a lawyer until I retired. I did not stay in Wessington Springs, not even until I graduated from seminary. My first appointment was in a suburb of what, for this area, is a city. It used all contemporary music and met in an elementary school. There is nothing about my life that went the way I expected it to go.

Now, I don't say that because I think there's anything special about me. My guess is that everyone here could tell a similar story. The details would be different, but I doubt that any of us can say that our lives have gone exactly the way we expected them to go, that we are exactly where we thought we'd be, that we're with exactly the people we thought we'd be with, and that we're doing exactly what we thought we'd be doing. Life never goes the way we expect it to go.

But here's the thing about that. Life may not go the way we expect it to go. But if we let go of our expectations, God can lead us to some pretty wonderful places. I am really, really glad that Wanda wanted to marry me. I'm really glad that I spent some time as a lawyer in Wessington Springs. I'm glad we got to go to North Sioux City, because I learned a lot there, both about being a pastor and about who I am. And I'm even more glad now that we're here and with all of you and doing the things we're doing. I've never been happier, and I don't think Wanda's ever been happier, either. And it's all because life did not go the way we expected it to go.

We're not told what the disciples expected when they followed Jesus. Maybe they did not expect anything. Maybe that walking away from home, and family, and business, was symbolic of something else. Maybe it symbolized walking away from all of our expectations and just following Jesus on an incredible adventure.

Because, when we let go of our expectations, that's what life becomes: an adventure. By coincidence, this week I happened to read a quote from E. Stanley Jones, the great United Methodist missionary and theologian. Here's what he said:

Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adenture into life...The unexpected around the corner gives a sense of anticipation and surprise. Thank God

for the unknown future.

The disciples had no idea what was going to happen when they followed Jesus. They had no idea what to expect. But they did not dread it. I mean, there were times when they got scared. There

were times when they did not understand. There were times when they wondered what was going on. But there is no time in the gospels when any of them threatened to quit. None of them, as far as we know, ever said, “I'm leaving and going back to my old life.” None of them ever seems to have considered it. Through everything that happened, through the ups and downs, the good times and that bad times, they stayed with Jesus. No matter what happened, they decided following Jesus was worth it. They let go of their expectations and embraced the adventure.

So can we. The disciples were just ordinary people, you know. They were just folks, just peole like you and me. If they could let go of their expectations and embrace the adventure of following Jesus, so can we.

I don't know what that means for you. I don't know what it means for me. That's the point. Letting go of expectations means we don't know what will come next. It may be a pretty wild ride, the way it was for the disciples. But following Jesus will be worth it. So, for Lent and for our lives, let's let go of our expectations and embrace the adventure.