What Do You Expect?

Mark 6:1-6
July 5, 2009

The people of Nazareth were good-old, regular, hardworking, patriotic, down-home folks.
They were just like the people you might see at the Walmart in Paola, KS or Xela, Guatemala.
They knew most everybody who was anybody in town.
They knew who had money and who didn’t.
They knew who had power and who didn’t.
They knew their town and they knew what to expect out of each other.
What they expected out of each other was just the everyday stuff.
Because they knew that they were all just everyday people.

So when the young man, Jesus, comes back to his home town . . .
When he comes back home after showing off around the Sea of Galilee . . .
When he comes back home after rubbing elbows with questionable characters in the north of Galilee where there are lots of undesirable people . . .
When he comes back home after being proclaimed a healer and teacher by people from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and even people from the pagan country around Tyre and Sidon . . .
When this local boy made good comes back home with his twelve disciples . . .
When the superstar, Jesus, comes home to Nazareth the people are not impressed.

They aren’t impressed because they know him.
They watched him grow up.
They know Joseph the carpenter and Mary his wife.
They know his brothers and sisters.
To them, Jesus is just a local boy. Just like their sons and daughters.
No need to expect too much from him.
After all, he’s one of us and we really aren’t very special.
We’re just small-town folks who scrape by from day to day.
Nothing too good ever happens here and nothing too bad, at least not that we like to talk about.
This Jesus can’t be anything too special if he’s one of us.

And Mark tells us that, other than a few healings, Jesus could perform no miracles in his own home town.

Why?

Mark says that “Jesus wondered at their unbelief.”
Peterson in the Message says Jesus “couldn’t get over their stubbornness.”
Because of their unbelief, their stubbornness, Jesus could perform no miracles in his own hometown.

Does our faith or lack of faith affect the outcomes of situations in our lives?
Does whether or not we believe or have faith in a person have an effect on that persons work?
Of course it does.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not much good if I don’t think I have anybody who trusts in me or believes in me.

God’s power is great – unlimited even.
But the expression of God’s power is made real by our response of faith.
The unbelief of Jesus’ neighbors from Nazareth interfered with his ability to perform miracles.

Is this true of us, too?
Does our disbelief and negativity hinder the positive things we hope to accomplish in our lives and in the community of faith?
What makes us so stubborn and unbelieving when we, of all people, know the story?
Why do we expect so little from ourselves and from our children?
More to the point, why do we expect so little from God?

We got it all over those poor people from Nazareth.
At this point they don’t know the end of the story.
We can forgive them if they are a bit skeptical of this local boy made good.
This is only the 6th chapter of Mark’s story of Jesus.
There’re 10 more chapters to go.

The sad thing is that most of us know the end of the story.
We know the story of how Jesus taught a new way to live.
We know the story of how he was unjustly killed by the powers that be.
We know the story of how the power of God vanquished the ultimate enemy, death, and raised Jesus to new life.

And yet . . .

And yet . . .

And yet . . .

We expect so little out of ourselves.
We expect so little out of our children.
We expect so little out of each other.
And the worst thing . . .
We expect so little out of God.

Our story that we live by, the story of Jesus, tells us that there is nothing that God cannot do.
Our story tells us that God loves us so much that God will never let us go.
Our story tells us that the very power of God is at our disposal.

And yet . . .

What do we expect?

We expect that the way it is now is the way it will always be.
We expect that a shrinking bank account should limit our vision and mission.
We expect that people are just people.

But are these the expectations God wants from us?

This last week we had three beautiful days of day camp.
I don’t know about you, but I expected hot, hot weather.
I don’t know about you, but I expected 60 or 70 people.
I don’t know about you, but I expected we would have a significant amount of kids causing trouble.
I don’t know about you, but I expected that we wouldn’t have enough money to pay for it.

I don’t know about you, but my expectations were all wrong.

The weather was perfect.
We had, not 60-70 people, but 110-130 people.
I can count on half of one hand the number of difficult conversations I had and one of them was with a staff member.
I can also report that we had enough money this year to pay for two buses and all the swimming fees.
And this money appeared one week before camp started.

Day Camp was truly a miracle of Jesus.
Somebody must have believed or it would not have happened.
Somebody must have expected good things from Jesus and not bad.

Perhaps the people of Nazareth were afraid of what belief in their hometown boy might mean.
Their lives were well ordered.
They knew what to expect.
But if it was true about this Jesus, he really could produce miracles, then what would that mean for life in Nazareth?
Everything changes and we lose control.

Another amazing thing about this day camp was the challenge of control.
When you have 50-60 kids it possible to believe you have control.
But when your numbers approach 140 --- control is pretty much an illusion.
With that many people, trust, faith, belief becomes even more necessary and control less possible.
Our expectations of the kids at day camp were high and we were rewarded with a great 3 days.

So how about you?

What is it you expect?

This is more than an ‘is your glass half full or half empty question.’
No, the question is --- Is your glass going to overflow with blessings, with grace, mercy, love and peace?
Or is your glass drying up?

When Jesus says “ask and it will be given,” do you scoff and call him pollyanna.
When Jesus says “seek and you will find,” do you say “sorry, seeking is no longer in my budget.”
When Jesus says “knock and the door will be opened,” do you say “but I don’t know who’s behind the door.”

We have some challenges ahead as a congregation, as a family that God has brought together.
But we have always had challenges to our faith.
There have always been naysayers, like Jesus’ Nazareth neighbors.
There are always people who say “Nope. Can’t be done. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the people. We’ve got to be reasonable.”

Well, here’s the truth --- Miracles aren’t reasonable.
Faith and belief is not reasonable.
Jesus is not reasonable.

The people of Nazareth thought they knew what to expect.
They didn’t.

How about you?
What are your expectations for this church, for your family, for your life?
Are your expectations based on faith, belief and trust?
Or are your expectations based on fear, disbelief and doubt?

Jesus is ready to fulfill your expectations. What do you expect?