EASTER PEOPLE -- EXPECTANT!

Acts 1:1-11


There are some things life has taught me to expect:

·        No matter which side of a fish sandwich I take my first bite from, tartar sauce will ooze out of the sandwich on the opposite side.

·        If I wear white to work, the copier will need toner.


·        When I’m late for a meeting across town, I will hit every red light between here and there.

·        What I’m looking for is always in the last place I look, even when I try looking there first.

·        And when I lift my face to heaven and ask, “Why me, Lord,” the answer will be, “Why not?

The day Jesus moved out of our earthly neighborhood and back into the heavenly palace, I don’t know what the apostles were expecting to happen next. 

Jesus told his followers to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the power the Father had promised.  During his forty days with them, he had given them this mission, to be his witnesses, to go, teach, baptize and make disciples of the world and then promised to be with them always. 

And then Christ left. 

No wonder Jesus told them to take some down time.  They needed to learn what it meant to be expectant.

Being expectant means being hopeful.  It is trusting in the unchangeable steadfastness of God and God’s love in us through Jesus Christ.  It is being confident that no matter what happens, Christ has been given the authority and the power to get us through, as we heard from today’s reading in Ephesians.

Being expectant comes out our understanding of God’s creative nature.  God is always creating.  While God and God’s mission for the redemption of humanity and all creation remains the same, God doing new things to reach out and touch people’s hearts in ways that are relevant and meaningful for them.

What the apostles may not have fully understood was that God was in the process of birthing something new – the church.  The church was to be a community of followers of Christ that would become the physical presence of Christ to the world – his “body” so to speak.

Even though Jesus would not be physically with them, he would now be present with them through the Holy Spirit, as the Father had promised.  Through the Holy Spirit, Christ leads the church and empowers His people to carry out His ministry of healing and wholeness and God’s mission to go out and be agents of transformation as we make disciples for Christ.

So, being expectant people means expecting the unexpected:  being on the look-out for the new things God is doing among us.  It is being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, ready and obedient to follow Christ into different ways of sharing the enduring gospel message with our community and our world.

After Jesus disappeared into the clouds, two angels sent the Apostles on their way with the assurance that Jesus would be back, in God’s good time, as promised.


I think what the angels were telling them, and us, is, “Why are you standing around here.  Go, trust in the promises of God, expect the unexpected and be ready to follow when Christ calls you to be His Easter People in ways that touch the hearts and souls of today’s people.”

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