Being filled with expectation can be a mixed bag. We happily wait in expectation for the baby to be born. We anxiously wait in expectation for the test results from the hospital to come back. We resignedly wait in expectation for the light to change. We warily wait in expectation for the other shoe to drop. We contently wait in expectation to drop off to sleep at night. We cautiously wait in expectation for the credit card bills to come in from Christmas. So being filled with expectation can run the whole gamut of feelings. We are told that the contemporaries of Jesus were filled with expectation. They had those expectations because things weren’t going well. They were subject to a government which did not seem to care about what they were going through but only wanted their taxes. They lived a world where the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting poorer. They had to adapt to the reality that the way they had worshipped God in the past was no longer possible. (Does any of this sound familiar?) So the people had an expectation that someone was going to come in and make it all better. They latched their hopes onto John the Baptist but he dismissed their hope by saying that “one mightier than I is coming.” Their expectation for a white knight to ride to the rescue had to wait for another day, another person.
We have our expectations as well. We expect that no matter how bleak can seem at times that better days are coming. Yes, we are poisoning our planet. Our society cannot seem to find its way past the racism which is the original sin of our country. The income disparities can lead to people feeling trapped in their situation. But we expect a better tomorrow. This is not some kind of naïve Pollyanna-ish optimism. Rather, it reflects that fact that our story is checkered with examples of those who met high expectations in the past. Harriet Tubman helped others to escape from the cruel fate of slavery. Henry Ford developed a method of affordable transportation that became available to the masses of people. Dr. King’s dream of a society based on the content of our character changed the national conversation. Dorothy Day demonstrated that care of the downtrodden was a genuine possibility. Cesar Chavez proved that even the poorest workers had power when they stuck together. These examples and dozens like them show that being filled with expectation can lead to a better tomorrow.
However, most times we are filled with expectations that are not about national or social realities but are of a much more personal nature. Will my family be happy? Is there someone who will love me? Can I find a fulfilling job? Will I stay healthy? Of course, these kind of expectations are not susceptible to a savior, a white knight, a messiah coming to fulfill what we hope for. Those kind of expectations depend on us. The story of the baptism of Jesus illustrates what it means when our expectations are personal. First of all, no matter what our expectation, the starting point is knowing ourselves as loved. The heavenly voice tells Jesus, “You are my beloved Son.” Jesus himself needs to hear that he is loved if he is to live out his identity as the Christ. We might question how God can love the likes of me but the Bible is clear. At our baptism we, like Jesus are claimed as the beloved of God. This message needs to be constantly reinforced since it is so easily forgotten. Think of this scene: husband comes home from work and says to his wife, “I love you, honey.” She responds, “I love you too.” They aren’t telling each other things they haven’t heard before but in the normal wear and tear of a relationship the foundation of love can be overlooked. So you say it not as news but as a reminder. The same in the spiritual life. We must constantly be reminded that God loves us just as we are and understand that even if we became Mother Teresa overnight, God couldn’t love us anymore that God does right now.
The second aspect of having our personal expectations fulfilled comes when we hear God say to us just as God said to Jesus, “With you I am well pleased.” This message goes clean counter to the way we ordinarily operate. We expect people to be well pleased with us when we do a good job, when we get an A on our report card, when the field goal doesn’t doink off the cross bar. But God is well pleased with us simply in who we are. We don’t need to come to come to Church or keep the commandments or say our prayers or give to the poor for God to be pleased with us. Doing those things are a response to God’s pleasure in us not the cause of God’s delight in us. To go back to our couple, the wife does not think, “If I cook a good supper, then my husband will love me.” No, it is because her husband loves her that she wants to cook a good supper. So with us and God. All of those things we do to strengthen our relationship with God don’t cause God to love us but are simply our way of responding to God’s gift.
Finally, St. Luke tells the story of the baptism of Jesus in an instructive way. The baptism itself is mentioned almost in passing “after all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized.” What Luke adds to the scene is that Jesus “was praying” when the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended and the voice spoke. Often in the third Gospel Jesus is portrayed as praying. This serves as a lesson for us on the importance of prayer. We all live such cluttered lives that taking the time to sit and enter into a conversation with God seems almost a luxury. But if we are going to understand not what is going on but the meaning of what is going on we must take the time to pray. Jesus prayed and the heavens opened up. To go back to our married couple, they need to spend time together intimately to deepen their relationship. Prayer is our opportunity for an intimate relationship with God.
A story about prayer: a salt doll journeyed for thousands of miles over land until it finally came to the sea. It was fascinated by the sea, unlike anything it had ever seen. “Who are you?” the salt doll asked. The sea responded, “Come in and see.” So the salt doll waded in and started to dissolve. Before the last bit dissolved the doll exclaimed in wonder, “Now I know what I am!”