SPEAKER_00: The Holy Gospel according to Matthew the sixteenth chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to you.
SPEAKER_00: From that time on, after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord, this must never happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told his disciples, If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_00: For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?
SPEAKER_00: Or what will they give in return for their life?
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what he for what has been done.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming to his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: From the God who was, is, and is to come.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Expectation can be defined as a strong belief that something will happen or will be the case in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And often when we talk about expectations, we might talk about living up to them, falling short of them, meeting them, exceeding them, not being communicated the expectations, all of those different ways of experiencing them, which I'm sure we all have moments in our lives where we can think of times when we've met expectations or when we haven't.
SPEAKER_00: Expectations can match up or they cannot.
SPEAKER_00: And as I've walked with my own children that first time when they've done job interviews and they've decided that they were going to enter the workforce, they've realized that there are times that expectations don't always meet up.
SPEAKER_00: That first experience they had in going through interviews and then wondering why they didn't receive a call, letting them know that they got the job or didn't get the job.
SPEAKER_00: Don't they do that?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the process?
SPEAKER_00: And it's sitting down with them and talking through when expectations aren't met.
SPEAKER_00: And what do you do next?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you go and you apply for another job and you keep doing that.
SPEAKER_00: So that experience can meet your expectations or not.
SPEAKER_00: At the start of school, there's a lot of expectations that are laid out as well.
SPEAKER_00: Parents go into that with expectations, students and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: It's often why there are open houses and orientations to try to make sure that everybody knows the rules of the school, the rules of the classroom.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, there comes those times if you're a teacher where you know what it's like when a parent gives you a call or sends you an email and they have a question or something that they don't understand, and maybe again they haven't read through everything, and maybe those expectations need to be gone over one more time so that expectations are met for your classroom.
SPEAKER_00: There are even expectations behind what happens when there is a natural disaster.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm mindful of what's currently happened in Nepal and Tibet.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about the horribleness of a natural disaster taking place in a place in the world, and then the expectations that there will be help in place, that search teams will be out, that if they can't take care of all of that, they will ask for help and there'll be other expectations in.
SPEAKER_00: I recently heard on the news that there was help provided, and some of the countries said, no, we can handle it for now.
SPEAKER_00: So you wonder about expectations, even in the midst of a natural disaster, whether they can be met or unmet.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in our gospel reading today, we have a story of unmet expectations between Jesus and his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Because previously Jesus had asked them the question, who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter had answered, Oh, Jesus, you are the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus in turn called him the rock.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in this reading, think about the interaction we have between Jesus and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: There seems to be a disconnect with what's going on, with what Jesus is telling them, and then what Peter is responding to.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter isn't called the rock at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is even saying to him, get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So he's become the rock, and all of a sudden he's essentially a stumbling block to what Jesus is telling them will take place.
SPEAKER_00: So apparently Peter's expectations of what Jesus is to do aren't being met in this story at all.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that his expectations are unreasonable, it's just simply that he's not quite there with what Jesus is saying will happen to him.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me, that's probably not what the vision was for the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now he goes through this whole list of what is about to happen, and they seem to not be able to wrap their minds around what he is telling them.
SPEAKER_00: So when he is saying, take up your cross and follow me, they are hearing about death and about being condemned, and they're not able to see through that to the other side of what Jesus' vision and what he is there for.
SPEAKER_00: And so expectations are not met.
SPEAKER_00: The Reverend David Lois writes that if Jesus had not broken their expectations, it wouldn't have changed anything.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus had not been truly been or acted like the Messiah, no expectations would have been broken, but then there would have been no grace given as a gift to them.
SPEAKER_00: So based on what Jesus was saying, his death was to be expected.
SPEAKER_00: If he was coming into the scene and the things that he were saying, it's not a surprise that people would want him to be dead.
SPEAKER_00: What was surprising was that he would be resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: What would be surprising is that his life, his death, and his resurrection would bring change and bring them a freedom that they didn't even know was possible.
SPEAKER_00: It would be more than they expected.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it is good that expectations can be broken because there may be greater things that are on the other side of those broken expectations.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we think we have it all planned out and then things happen in a different way, maybe what will come on the other side of that will be even better.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Merton wrote that if we could let go of our obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear Christ's call and follow him on his mysterious and cosmic dance.
SPEAKER_00: Is that we are called to do greater things.
SPEAKER_00: We are called to go beyond ourselves, to reach out and to share Christ's call and Christ's life with others.
SPEAKER_00: And we do not do that alone, because the gift that we are given through Christ is Christ Himself, a life that brings forgiveness, compassion to, and hope to us.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what we go out into the world with, even if we feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Reverend Caroline Lewis writes that there comes a time and a place where you wear a cross, not just to show the world who you are, but to remind yourself of who the world needs you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that when we look at the cross before us, that's the beautiful stained glass cross that we face each time we worship together.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that if you happen to be wearing a cross.
SPEAKER_00: That maybe that is a reminder not only that God is with you, that Christ is with you, but it's also that reminder of who Christ calls you to be in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, last weekend I wasn't here and I was moving my youngest child into college while my husband was driving across the country the other direction to move our other son back into college.
SPEAKER_00: And I think my youngest son, Joshua, gets a little tired of some of my stories that I tell him, but I will continually tell him this, and I reminded him of this as he was moved in, as I tell other people this story as well.
SPEAKER_00: He is a young man that has a kind and sympathetic heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I always tell him that the world will not always be a kind place for him, but he should still be who he is because the world needs him.
SPEAKER_00: And my hope is that he will remind himself of that by placing the cross on his forehead, knowing that Christ goes with him into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you know that as well, whether you wear a cross around your neck or whether you are reminded of that when you trace the cross on your forehead.
SPEAKER_00: The world may not be a kind place for you and the giftedness that you bring into the world, but the world needs you to be who God created you to be.
SPEAKER_00: The world needs you to share your gifts and to share God's love and compassion with the world, even when it's difficult and even when it's uncomfortable, because God goes with you into the world when you go.
SPEAKER_00: And it is only through Christ that we are able to fulfill those words and not be afraid in Romans, to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
SPEAKER_00: So, in this gospel story, maybe there were some broken expectations that take place, but we know that great things can come through that when we recognize and our eyes are open to what Jesus truly is for us, knowing that even through death and the cross comes life.
SPEAKER_00: And with that good news, trace that cross on your forehead and go into the world to be God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.