Expectations - John 16: 16-22

This is the final week of our sermon series on marks of living a Christ like life. We spent the first week talking about our need for stillness and solitude in order to humbly respond to God’s voice that requires us to put our own interest aside for others. We’ve talked about Christ like care that invites people to be part of their own healing. The type of authentic care that suffers with a person instead of telling them what they need and to move on. This week we see that Christ lived a life of hopeful expectation, even in the face of sorrow.

Today’s scripture passage is part of Jesus’s farewell discourse. He knows that before him lies betrayal, abandonment, the cross, and death. He is trying to prepare his disciples by telling them that in a short while, shorter then they could ever anticipate, they would not see him any longer. Like small children unable to grasp the concept of death, the disciples do not understand what Jesus is trying to communicate with them. They do not understand why he is leaving them, where he is going, or why he is talking about coming again. They have spent the last three years with him every step of the journey, why would he leave them now? Where would he go that they cannot go with him?

Jesus tries to explain what he means further by comparing his leaving to the pain experienced during childbirth - only temporary and fading in comparison to the joy of holding a newborn child, full of hopes and possibilities. The pain they face will be temporary and will give away to the expectant joy of the kingdom of God. I mentioned before that many of my friends are in their child bearing years. Its remarkable to hear the stories of pain that some of my female friends went through. Labor for days on end. Pain that is unbearable. But the horror stories of the pain of birth fade as time goes on, and stories become about the joy that their children bring to their life. How it was all worth it to see this little life take root and blossom each day.

But the disciples probably didn’t understand what Jesus meant any better after this explanation. They may not have even understood it after his death and resurrection. That the pain they felt about Christ’s death was only temporary like labor pains, and great joy was to come. We too sometimes don’t understand the type of expectant hope that Jesus is talking about in this passage. Instead of patiently and expectantly looking towards the coming Kingdom, we expect other things, things that Christ never promised. We expect that God will give us exactly what we want. Or we expect that we won’t suffer. Or we expect that situations will be handled in our own timing, but this isn’t the type of hope that Jesus is talking about. The hope of our faith isn’t telling God what we want and immediately getting it in return. It is the hope that even in the face of sorrow things will be well in the Lord. It is the hope that recognizes that the Kingdom of God is bigger then we can imagine and is coming to dwell here on earth. It is the hope that Christ will one day return. It is the hope that points past the immediate to the day that will come. 

In our instant gratification society this type of hope is hard to grasp. We want what we want, often to have more good things and to not face any unpleasantries, and we want it now. This type of attitude reminds me of the movie Willy Wonka, when Veruca Salt, one of the children touring the factory, is told that she can’t have a Golden Goose. When she is told no, she starts to scream and sing that she wants it NOW! How often do we want the child without the pain of child birth? The hope of God without the extent waiting?

Part of waiting is patience. The root of the word patience means to suffer. Jesus tells his disciples about this type of suffering - that they will weep and mourn. But there is something on the other side of patience. A hope. A blessing that we are being prepared for. If we didn’t have to wait, would there still be as much joy in the receiving? If the couple did not wait so many months to meet their new child, would they love it as intensely? Brothers and sisters, we wait because we are being prepared for the great joy that Christ has for us. A joy that builds with expectation. Expectation in the hope that Christ can redeem even our saddest moments for the glory of God. Friends, this is why in the words of author Simone Weil, “waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.” 

But patiently waiting does not mean that forget what we are waiting for. Or that we passively wait. Instead it is like the active waiting we experience during the Advent season. As we prepare our homes, church, and lives for the celebration of Christ’s birth. This active waiting fills the moments with expectation of what is to come. This active waiting requires us to be fully present and makes the celebration Christmas Day even more meaningful, because we were prepared. To be patient is not to be unprepared. It means that we suffer with anticipation!

With patient expectant waiting, our sadness and joy often intermix. One of the hardest things that I had to do was drop friends off at train and bus stations or airports. As we would say goodbye, we are filled with deep sadness even though we know that we will see each other again.  Or when we hug someone we love dearly, but do not get to see often, we are filled with joy, but we know that sorrow will come with our departure. When we wave goodbye to a child leaving for college we are filled with sorrow, but we have joy at the possibilities their education will bring. And when a loved one dies, we are filled with grief, but we know that we have a hope to see them again in eternity.

We have a hope that our faith is built upon. A hope that allows us to live boldly in our present day. A hope that we remember as we gather around the communion table this morning. A hope that we remember is shared across the globe this world communion Sunday. For the hope of Christ is not ours alone. We are not the only ones waiting. We are living in this short time, this time when we cannot see Christ, holding hands with other Christians around the globe. We find strength in their stories. Grace and courage in their actions. Hope for tomorrow in how we greet today. 

When we gather around this communion table we are hopefully expectant of the coming Kingdom. We are working to make the Kingdom of God known on earth today. And on the days when it just seems to be too much we support each other and remind each other that this is not the end, a better day is to come. 

We eat and drink together as a reminder of the coming feast at Christ’s banquet table. We talk of Christ’s sorrows to be reminded of the hope we have in his suffering and resurrection. We talk of his death to remember the life we have to come.We remember that God was the one who came, and will come again. And we talk of the joy that no one can take away from us. The hope that cannot be squelched. Oh brothers and sisters, come rejoicing and full of expectation to this table, and taste and see that the one our heart’s hope is good! Amen.