First century Jews expected a Messiah, or at least the Messiah’s forerunner. The first Christians expected the imminent return of Jesus.

What do we expect?

We believe that God sent a forerunner to the Messiah, in the person of John the Baptist. We no longer expect such a figure to appear, because that work has been done.

We believe that God gave us a Messiah, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth at Bethlehem we are preparing to celebrate. We no longer expect a Messiah to come, because that has already happened.

While some Christians still expect Jesus’ imminent return, and claim to see the signs in modern events, the main stream of Christianity abandoned this expectation many centuries ago.

So…what do we expect today?

What did you expect when you walked into this church today? For most of us, our expectations have been shaped by years of church attendance, whether here or elsewhere, and we really don’t expect—and perhaps don’t want—anything new to happen. And that leads to a common complaint about the church: we’re boring, stuck in a rut, always doing and saying the same things.

I make no apology for saying many of the same things over and over again, whether from the pulpit or from the altar. The story of our salvation needs to be told and retold, and then told again, for the benefit of those who have heard it before, and especially for the benefit of those who have not yet heard it. However, if we have made the greatest story ever told tiresome, then we need to rethink how we tell it.

Advent is a time of getting serious about what we expect from life in the church and beyond. It is a time to hear God’s promises anew, and to raise those expectations that we have allowed to become lowered.

People flocked to John, the "voice crying in the wilderness," in the expectation that God was about to act. Paul exhorted his beloved church at Philippi to overflow with love, in the expectation that Christ would come and find them blameless before God. Friends, we need to recover the same expectations if today’s church is to thrive.

What do we expect?

Sadly, for many, the answer is "not much."

What should we expect?

Look to the scriptures, and hear John, as he cries

The Lord is coming to his temple. The Lord will act. The only thing standing in the Lord’s way is our unreadiness, our lack of expectation, our failure to prepare.

Whenever we walk through the doors of the church for worship, we should have high expectations. We should look for God to be present, as indeed he is always present. We should look for God to act in people’s lives, as he stands ready to do. We should see the Spirit at work in others gathered here.

Today when we stand together in prayer, when we greet each other at the Peace, when we come to the table, we should do so in the sure knowledge that God is here, and in the expectation will act in our midst.

And when we leave here, we should go forth in the knowledge that God has a mission in this world, and in the expectation that God will bring fulfill that mission, using us as his agents in this community.

What do we expect?

Let us look up and see the salvation that has broken upon us like "the dawn from on high." Let us not acquiesce to a world that sits in darkness, but live in the full expectation of God’s ultimate victory.

Let us come to the table today in joyful expectation that God will act as God has already acted—bringing repentance to our hearts, bestowing upon us the forgiveness of sins, and leading us into his presence. Let us come to the table where we may rejoice in the unity that only God’s peace can bring to the world.

And then let us go forth, seeking to see the holy in all people, and to be God’s hand and feet and voice in the world, in the full expectation that God will be with us, and that God will act through us.

God is coming! God is here!

Amen.