What Do We Expect from God?

(Psalm 123)
A sermon preached by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, Washington
The 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: November 16, 2008

Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, are in bed. Calvin's dad stands at the bedroom door. "Good night, Calvin," he says.
"'Night, Dad," replies Calvin.
As his dad walks off, Calvin calls after him, "Hey! Aren't you going to say good night to Hobbes?!"
Calvin's dad walks up to the bed, looking less than excited. "Good night, Hobbes," he says, leaving the room.
As he always does when he and Calvin are alone, Hobbes becomes a real tiger.
He cries out after Calvin's dad, "That's IT? No story? No smooch??"
Calvin rolls over and says, "Go to sleep, you sissy."

It all comes down to what we expect.

What do you expect?
What do you expect from God? Bed-time stories? Smooches? Nothing much?

That's the question I'm left with when I hear our psalm this morning. What do I expect from God?

Listen for the Word of God.

I look to you, heaven-dwelling God,
look to you for help.
Like servants, alert to their master's commands,
like a maiden attending her lady,
we're watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy.
Mercy, God, mercy!
We've been kicked around long enough,
Kicked in the teeth by the complacent and rich,
kicked when we're down by arrogant brutes (from The Message).

May God help us hear and live this Word.

The person singing this prayer to God is fed-up. And from the way the prayer-singer shifts from "I" to "we" half-way through, the whole community is fed-up. We don't know what these complacent, rich, arrogant people have done to them. All we know is that they feel battered and abused. They've done everything they can to try to change things. Nothing has worked. And Israel knows when nothing has worked, all she can do is cry out to God (idea from Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience: Discipleship in an Instant Society, InterVarsity Press, 1980, p. 58). On behalf of the whole community, the prayer-singer sings, "I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look to you for help."

And sings, "we're watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy".

The prayer-singer cries out, "Mercy, God, mercy".

Israel expects God to show up. Israel expects God to show mercy. Israel cries out to God because she expects God to show up.

Why? Why does Israel expect God to show up? Because Israel knows the story. God had led Israel out of slavery in Egypt. They were in the desert. God wanted to form them as a new people. So God gave Moses the 10 commandments to give them. The very first commandment said, Don't worship any other gods. The second said, don't make any images of any other gods. Pretty clear instructions. So what does Israel do? They make a golden calf and worship it. God gets pretty angry. And then God tells Moses a secret. Moses, I might get angry sometimes. When you all really screw up, I might threaten to do something drastic. But that's not who I really am. Moses, let me tell you who I really am. I am

a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving . . . (Exodus 34.6-7a, New Revised Standard Version).

That's why Israel expects God to show up and show mercy. God loves with an abounding in steadfast love kind of love. God made them. God freed them. God had led their ancestors to a new life beyond their imagining. God could act. God does act. So Israel expects God to do something when she calls out.

In the case of this prayer song, Israel expects God to show mercy. Mercy isn't a real common word today. But Israel used it all the time. Twenty-five hundred years ago, you heard the word mercy in Israel as much as you hear dude and text message today. When Israel asks God for mercy, she's calling on God to show up. Mercy is how Israel talks about God's presence. Mercy isn't the kind of now what does he want? presence like Calvin's father had when Calvin called him back to say goodnight to Hobbes. When Israel sings for God's mercy, she expects God to be present in the way God promises to be present. Israel expects God to show up with that abounding in steadfast love kind of love that is God's trademark way of loving.

That's what Israel expects when she looks to God, and sings her prayers to God.

What do you expect from God?

This week, as I was praying this psalm to prepare for this sermon, I asked myself this question. I asked myself when I have called out to God like the singer of Psalm 123. I didn't come up with much. Which made me wonder, Do I expect much from God? Do I believe God hears my cries for God to show up? Do I cry out to God to show up?

The Bible is filled with stories of God showing up. God does things in the Bible. I believe God acts and responds. I also know that there are so many awful things that have happened in the past where it seems God didn't show up. I know there are awful things happening today where it seems God isn't showing up. If I expect things from God, and call out to God, and if God shows up and God gives me what I need, what then? I tell people, "God responded to my prayer!" Then they tell me how God didn't respond to their prayer. They say, "I'd hoped God would respond. But it seems like God's answer was an empty, silent universe." I don't want to have to try to explain to someone why God didn't seem to answer his cry. So it's easier not to expect much of God. then we don't have to deal with the disappointment and resentment that comes when it seems like God doesn't show up.

And yet . . . I think I lose something huge by not expecting much from God. I lose the gift of a deeper, personal relationship with the God who wants to be part of my day-to-day life. God made me. God loves me with an abounding in steadfast love kind of love. God wants me to treat Her like She matters. That means God wants me to expect things from Her. That means talking to God and listening to God. That means letting God know what I love and what I can't stand, what gives me life and what sucks life out of me. God wants me to expect something from Her because we expect things from those we care about and love and need. God wants us to look to Her that way. Because She cares about us and loves us . . . and maybe even needs us.

I don't understand why God seems to be present sometimes and absent others. But that's no reason not to expect things from God. I need God. Even though I will never fully understand God. I think of an old story about some rabbis. Many Jews had been murdered. After the massacre, a group of rabbis came together. They yelled at God . . . they cried out to God to explain why He had let this happen. They were in the middle of a debate about whether God even exists. Then one of them said, "We have to stop now. It is time for our prayers." They stopped their debating. They prayed.

Even when we feel God is absent, we need God. We need to expect things from God.

I am preaching this sermon to myself. I do not expect much from God. Not expecting things from God keeps God from getting too close. That keeps God from deepening our relationship, and calling me to fuller life. Maybe that's true for you, too.

Until I risk expecting more from God, I will keep thinking about a woman I'll call Dorothy. Dorothy is my role-model for someone with the faith of the person who first sang Psalm 123. I told you about Dorothy in one of the first sermons I preached here.
Dorothy was a client of mine. She lived on the south side of Chicago. She had lost two sons to gang violence. She had survived sexual abuse. She was raising two granddaughters in extreme poverty. She lived with a mental illness no medication was able to free her from. Dorothy is who comes to mind when I hear the phrase,"Her worst nightmares were in the daytime."

I was her counselor. I didn't have a clue what kept her going. Her life seemed way too much for any one person to have to handle. If there were anyone who was justified in feeling like there was no abounding in steadfast love kind of God, it was Dorothy.

And yet . . . when I asked her what kept her going, her face lit up: "Dave, it's the Lord."

A long pause.

"The Lord keeps me going. I couldn't do anything without Him."

Another pause.

"Whenever I feel ready to give up, I think of the book of Daniel. I think of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago in the firey furnace. God protected them. God kept them from burning. And I know God keeps me. When I call out to God, God comes. God gets me through."

Another pause.

Then Dorothy channels the writer of Psalm 123. Dorothy lifts up her eyes, and her voice. Right there in my office, she offers a song-prayer to the God from whom she expects everything:

I don't feel no-ways tired.
I've come too far from where I started from.
No one ever told me the road would be easy.
I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me.

Dorothy didn't have a faith that needed to try to understand or explain how God works. Or why God seems to show up sometimes and not others. Dorothy knew the God of mercy because she had called out to God for some abounding in steadfast love kind of love, and God had shown up. Over and over again, God shown up.

Expecting God to show up saved Dorothy's life. I am absolutely convinced of that. If she didn't trust that God would respond when she cried out for mercy, Dorothy would be dead today.

Dorothy expected big things from God. And that made all the difference.

What do you expect from God?