"The People Were Filled with Expectation Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22 January 11, 2004, Year C First Sunday after the Epiphany The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Did you arrive today filled with expectation? Did you know today you and I will do something profoundly transforming? You see, you and I will baptize Henry Sawyers Zimmerman today. In addition, you and I will share the presence of Christ throughout today's Eucharist, particularly as we share the bread and wine and continue our transformations that began with our baptisms. "But, we baptize infants all the time," you may say. What's so amazing about this? Besides, we come together week in and week out and share the Eucharist. Why should we be filled with expectation about that? Have we lost the ability to be filled with expectation? Luke says that at the time Jesus made his appearance, the people of Israel "were filled with expectation." They believed a Messiah was coming, and they wondered specifically whether John the Baptist was that Messiah. Behind that specific question lay a larger expectation - hope, dream, belief - that tomorrow wasn't determined by yesterday. From its inception Israel's story always had two components: actual events and possibilities. Their stories were always one of expectation of God's transformation - even in the darkest of times. God redeemed lost Eden, restored creation after the flood, called Abraham to the promised land, led the Hebrew slaves to become a mighty nation. Their history was as a people repeatedly overrun by other nations, but still they filled with expectation. Like Israel's story, our lives consists of actual events and possibilities. The longer we have lived, the more we will have regrets - divorce, poor career choices, parenting mistakes, missed opportunities. We all fall short. But how do we avoid getting trapped so that we do not look back and see our life as a whole with a regret? In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding as the main character lamenting all that had gone wrong in her life, the missed opportunities, and her failings, a wise friend said to her, "Our past can shape who we are but it does not have to dictate who we will become." Unlike those gathered around John on the banks of the Jordan who were filled with expectation, we are a culture who lack expectancy. Instead, we struggle with how to get up each morning and not have it be just another directionless day of wondering aimlessly with no sense of connection and purpose. In our twenties and thirties, we experience it as "Where am I going that life makes sense?" In our forties and fifties, we experience it as "Who am I? What makes getting out of bed today worthwhile?" In our latter years, we experience it as "Is that all there is? Was it a life well lived?" My question is whether you and I, the Church, have lost that sense of being filled with expectation. When you entered this space today, did you expect to experience the Holy? As you reaffirm you Baptismal Covenant today, do you expect it to direct how you will live your life tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that? When I have baptized Henry Sawyers this morning and say to you, "Let us welcome the newly baptized." and you respond, "We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood." Will we be filled with expectation of the glorious transformation we will witnessed in his young life? Will we be filled with expectation of the responsibility we have assumed in assuring that he grows up in the loving presence of the Holy? When you come to this altar today, will you be filled with expectation that the presence of the Holy you receive in the bread and wine will not only see you through another week but transform you in such a way that you greet each day filled with expectation? When Diane dismisses us with, "Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord." will you only mouth the words, or will you, filled with expectation, give a resounding "Thanks be to God!" welcoming each encounter with others, as an opportunity to serve the Lord. My friends, I contend this is where the Church has fallen short. The Church, is called to invite those who wonder where they should be going, those who wonder who and whose they are, and those who wonder whether life has been worthwhile to be filled with expectation. The Church continues to see declining membership and is seen by the broader world as irrelevant because we, ourselves, do not enter this space filled with expectation, expecting to be transformed. If you and I, the Church, are not filled with expectation, what do we have to offer the world? We have once again celebrated Jesus' birth. Now we are faced with a choice. We can forget about these things and go back to business as usual, or we can take them seriously and live a life filled with expectation. Those gathered with John were so expectant, that they assumed John was the one for whom they were waiting. When Jesus came, they rejected him because he was so different than they expected. Do we today, have false expectations, or no expectations? John the Baptist might not be the one, and today might not be the day. But better does exist, and by the grace of God, better does come. My hope and prayer as we begin a new calendar year, as we have our annual parish meeting in two weeks, as we have our planning retreat is that day in and day out, week in and week out, as we go about being who God has called us to be, we will do so filled with expectation. Do not mishear this sermon. Do not hear this as dissatisfaction of our relationship as priest and parish. If you hear this, you have taken this sermon antithetically from the direction I have meant it. I am quite content in our relationship and hope you are the same. However, there is always the risk that in contentment we lose the sense of expectation. What would our futures look like if rather than using history as our guide, we used today's Gospel? If instead of a predictable God - a "God in a box" we pull out for wishes like a genie in bottle or like a hammer we use to smash others with whom we disagree - how would you live today if you expected an unpredictable God, a God who transforms you here and now and invites you to be a co-creator with God in transforming the world? How would you live today if you were filled with expectation for the most amazing thing about to happen to Henry Sawyers in his baptism? To have a glimpse of what such a life would look like, I invite you to share a journey with me - a journey in which every time we enter this space, every time we gather as a community we do so filled with expectation. I invite you to begin that journey today as you receive the Holy in the bread and wine at this altar, as we share in Henry Sawyers' Baptism and reaffirm your Baptismal Covenant. I invite you to be filled with expectation that God forgives your mistakes, your failures, your missed opportunities and uses them to transform you as you too are anointed priest, prophet and king, and filled with expectation that you too will see the sky opened and hear a voice say over you, "This is my beloved Child, with you I am well pleased."