Thomas J Parlette
“Expectations”
John 6: 24-35
8/1/21
So we are heading into the second half of 2021 – so it’s probably a good time to check in with our expectations for this year and see if anything needs to be re-adjusted. Some of us have had a better year than we expected; some of us, worse than we anticipated. All of us have certain plans and expectations for how the rest of the year will go. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the next 5 months? I’m trying to be optimistic – but I admit, some days it’s a challenge.
Pastor Daniel Chambers learned an expression from a college professor: “Expectation is the mother of regret.”(1) I guess that professor could be called a pessimist. Evidently some of the things he expected didn’t turn out like he thought.
There was once a man who had a nephew named Harvey, and throughout the man’s life, this nephew had, on every occasion they met, said to the man, “I hope you will remember me in your will.”
So the man died, and the time came for the family to gather for the reading of the will. The lawyer came to a line which read like this, “And to my nephew Harvey., who has over and over again asked to be remembered in my will, I say…. “Hellooooo, Harvey.”(2) And that was it. Harvey didn’t inherit a thing – but he was remembered in the will. Expectation was the mother of regret.
People also had their expectations when they came to Jesus. The crowds had seen Jesus perform miracles. He healed the sick, he fed thousands of people and he walked on the water. So, in today’s lesson, what did people expect when they came to Jesus? Did they expect a magic show? Did they expect a twenty-four hour, all –you- can- eat buffet? Maybe – I’m sure some did. But here is what they did not expect. They did not expect Jesus to confront them about their real motives for coming to him. Jesus says to them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” Remember, in John’s Gospel, miracles are reported as signs that Jesus is who he says he is. That is the purpose of miracles. That was the real reason Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves. But the crowd saw only the fact that they were bountifully fed. And Jesus knew they would come back for more.
Don’t you hate it when someone makes you confront your true motives? Barbara Brown Taylor is a nationally known Episcopal priest and author. She is someone whose books I read often. She tells the story of a retreat she led one time in the Carolina Mountains. One evening she asked the retreat members to answer this question – “Who in your life reminds you of Jesus?”
There were the usual answers: My grandfather… my mom… my best friend…” One woman didn’t jump right in though; she was giving the question some serious thought. Finally, she looked up and said, “I had to think hard about that one. I kept thinking, “Who is it that told me the truth about myself so clearly that I felt like I could kill him for it.”(3) Interesting she said “Him.” Think about that for a moment and apply it to your own faith journey. “Who is it that told me the truth about myself so clearly that I felt I could kill them for it.”
If we listen, Jesus will tell us the truth about ourselves – and it might not be pretty. In the words of that woman at the retreat, “We might want to kill him for it.”
The religious leaders of his day, did exactly that. They killed Jesus for telling the truth about God, and about their own true motives.
When you look at the times that Jesus confronted people in the Bible, his motive was never to shame them or to prove his superiority over them. His motive was to bring them closer to God. Jesus uses truth-telling to make us aware of the gap between what we say we believe and what we actually believe.
We say, for example, that God is love – pure love, everlasting love, agape love – the one who always has our best interest at heart. But, in truth, most of us don’t really trust God with our future, our family, or our finances, do we? We lie in our beds at night worrying about what the next day will bring, forgetting what is taught in Romans – all things work for good for those who love God. We say Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but we don’t believe it enough to actually tell our friends and family about him. They might think we were religious zealots or something. We say we believe in God’s word, but we rarely open the Bible unless it’s in Sunday School or a bible study group.
The crowds following Jesus said, “We’ll believe you, Rabbi. Just give us a sign. Feed us bread every day, like Moses fed the people of Israel with bread from heaven.” Jesus knew their real motives. And he knew that they would never be satisfied if they didn’t confront their own lack of truthfulness. Our passage says, “Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus is saying, “I didn’t come here to make your life more comfortable. If that’s what you’re looking for, you better keep looking. I came here to show you that I am the only one who can meet the deepest needs in your life – because I am life itself.”
There seems to be a universal feeling in our society, the nagging question – “Is this all there is?” Somehow I expected more. Something seems to be missing. Something’s missing, and in its place, we substitute all sorts of things.
In our society, we are fed a constant stream of “If only’s.” For example, “if only I had a little more money…” How many of us have thought that at some time in our lives? “If only I had more money,” we say, “my problems would be solved.” Maybe – but it might create more problems as well.
Why do we continue to believe the secret to life can be found in accumulating great wealth? Because money can give us a sense of control. Because we can use it to keep score – to prove we are somebody. That’s why we continue to hunger for wealth or fame or power. But many of those who attain wealth and fame know them to be empty and unfulfilling.
Every wise person who has ever lived knows what is missing in life – and it is not material possessions or recognition or power. What is missing is a sense of meaning to life. Why are we here? Where are we headed? What does it all mean? For many people there is no meaning.
There is an author and philosopher named Roman Krznaric who encourages people to live more meaningful lives using a visualization exercise he calls, “The dinner party of the afterlife.”
He says to imagine yourself at a dinner party in the afterlife. Who else is at the party? All the “yous” who you could have been if you had made different choices in life. All the good and bad paths you could have gone down if you had just changed one or two decisions. If you had chosen different friends, a different career, different principles or priorities to define your life. All the paths you might have taken if you had been more proactive, or less fearful, or more generous with others.
Look around at these alternative “yous”, advises Krznaric. Which ones do you admire, even envy? Which ones do you want to avoid? After meeting all the possible yous that you can imagine, it’s time to make the decision: who do you aspire to become and why?(4)
That’s a worthwhile exercise. Visualize who you would be if you gave your life entirely to the purposes and priorities of God. If you found your identity in becoming the person God made you to be. Who would you be if you put your whole trust in God and committed yourself to knowing God and aligned your life with God’s will?
Anglican priest John Stott was a very influential leader in Christian circles. In 2005, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He talks about the moment when he finally realized that Jesus is the bread of life, the source of life. He wrote, “I was defeated. I knew the kind of person I was and the kind of person I longed to be. Between the reality and the ideal there was a great gulf. And what brought me to Christ was the sense of defeat and the astonishing news that the historic Christ offered to meet the very needs of which I was most conscious.”(5)
When you sit in church and hear about the goodness of God and the joy of knowing God, do you sometimes feel empty and disconnected, like you’re missing something? Do you feel that great gulf that Stott wrote about?
If so, there is good news. Jesus came to meet that need, to fill that emptiness. “I am the bread of life…” says Jesus. You can search all over the earth to find that thing that is missing, but until you feed on the bread I offer, you will never be satisfied.
I appreciate the way pastor and author Frederick Buechner expressed this idea. He writes, “Part of the inner world of everyone is this sense of emptiness, unease, incompleteness, and I believe that this in itself is a word from God, that this is the sound that God’s voice makes in a world that has explained God away. In such a world, I suspect that maybe God speaks to us most clearly through silence and absence, so that we know God best through our missing God.”(6)
Interesting. Maybe our sense of emptiness is God’s gift to us. Maybe it’s a sign that we are missing God, aching for God, needing God in our lives. And if that is the case, then God is more than happy to fill that sense of emptiness with the power and peace and joy of God’s presence. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
That’s what brings us to worship today – we want to fill the emptiness within. The more we focus on our own needs, the less satisfied and secure we are. But when we turn our focus to God – searching for God, enjoying God, serving God – the more joy and peace and hope and purpose we experience. We were made to worship God. Worship is giving God the honor and glory that God deserves. But worship is also a gift to us, because it is through worship that we experience the joy of knowing God.
We all search for that one thing that will satisfy. Maybe it’s a status symbol or a title or an achievement of some sort that will make us feel complete. But none of them can supply what our soul is really hungry for. Bread from heaven – that is our greatest need. Christ is that bread. Jesus came into the world to love people to life. And you will only find your identity and purpose and your best life when you eat of the bread Jesus provides.
So come to the table today, and be fed for the journey.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p66
2. Ibid… p66
3. Ibid… p66
4. Ibid… p68
5. Ibid… p68
6. Ibid… p68
