Great Intentions

When I first read Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations in high school, I remember thinking about how our expectations of people and situations can affect – sometimes positively and sometimes negatively – how we actually experience a person or situation.  Our preconceived notions of people or situations – we can call them prejudices – can alter our willingness to engage with a person or in a situation without bias or an agenda.  If the experience meets our expectations, then our prejudices are proved true, if they aren’t, many times we will consider it an anomaly and not change our beliefs.  Perhaps what is most haunting about expectations is that we begin to develop them very early in life and we use them almost unconsciously to know how to navigate our world.
The disciples themselves had great expectations of what the Messiah would do for the Jews – get rid of the Roman Empire, bring about peace and prosperity, and establish Israel as being the Lord’s “Chosen People.” Of course none of that happened and instead the Messiah was killed in the most humiliating way possible, seemingly to put an end to all of the disciples’ expectations. 
To dance on the edge of heresy, I offer that God’s expectations of us humans where completely fulfilled.  We acted exactly how God expected us to: we rejected the very thing we needed most – unconditional love.  The extraordinary part of the story is that it doesn’t end there!  From a human understanding of justice it should, but that is not how God works because death was not a big enough barrier to end the love God has to offer us.  Instead God comes back from the dead to tell us AGAIN that we are loved and there is more work to do.  And even though Jesus told the disciples that this is what was going to happen, they STILL did not expect it.  Even after they started to overcome their shock and awe that the resurrection really did happen, it took them awhile to accept it and figure out how to live into that reality.
While it is a bit naïve to suggest that we should live without expectations, perhaps a better approach to living into the Resurrected Life is to adjust our intentions.  Having expectations sets us up for failure because we are really only focused on an outcome rather than the process.  However, if we have an intention to worship God, or love one another, or be a good neighbor or etc., we are not putting parameters on a person or experience.  In fact, we are making room for the Holy Spirit to be a part of the experience when we only have an intention rather than an expectation.
During this Easter season, I invite you to make an intention each time you worship to seek the Risen Lord.  Don’t make expectations of what that will be like, just be attentive to your desire to be in God’s presence, and I am sure you will.  Then you can try it at work or school and see if having a specific intention makes your experience more worthwhile. 
Happy Easter,

Rev. Valerie+

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