3rd. Sunday of Advent

 

Expectations!

When John the Baptist began his ministry

He was in the wide open spaces of the desert as far as the eye could see.

Sunshine and blue sky and a warm breeze against his face.

And now he finds himself in prison chained up in the dark; awaiting his executioner.

And he begins to have his doubts.

Because John expected the Messiah to come in judgment of the world;

With His winnowing fan in His hand;

Separating the wheat from the chaff

And throwing into the fire all of the dead branches that did not bear fruit.

And when his expectations of God were not met,

He began to have his doubts.

And Jesus told his disciples to tell them what they have seen.

The lame walk;

Lepers are cleansed;

The deaf hear and the dead are raised

And the poor finally hear Good news!

Do not take offense.

In other words just because John’s expectations of the Messiah were not met.

do not doubt that He is truly the Messiah

For God sometimes acts and thinks differently than we do.

We too have expectations of God and when they are not met we begin to doubt.

It is easy to believe in God when the sun is shining and everything is going as we planned.

But when we find ourselves chained up in the prison of our suffering;

In the darkness of loneliness and despair.

Waiting for death.

It is easy to doubts.

Because we too do not always understand what God is up to.

It is at those times that we must remind ourselves;

That when our expectations are not met,

It does not mean that God has left us.

Maybe it means like John the Baptist, our expectations of God were not what we thought.

Maybe God has other plans;

Maybe God is going to come to us in a different way than we expected.

But God does have a plan.

And He is coming to save us!