"Resetting Our Expectations"

8-30-20Sermon Notes“Resetting Our Expectations”
This has been an eventful couple of weeks for students and teachers, administrators and staff, as school started back. Oh yes – and don’t forget the parents…some of whom have become unexpected “home-school teachers!” Needless to say, nobody expected to have a school year that started out the way this one did.
A “Peanuts” cartoon from a few years ago shows Charlie Brown saying to Linus, “I learned something in school today. I signed up for folk guitar, computer programming, stained-glass art, shoemaking, and natural foods workshop.” Charlie Brown continues – “I got spelling, history, arithmetic, and two study periods.”
Linus asks, “So, what did you learn, Charlie Brown?”
Charlie replies, “I learned that what you sign up for and what you get are two different things.”
Isn’t that the truth! I saw one person post on social media that the most useless thing they have ever purchased was a “2020 Planner!” None of us signed up for this, did we?
So, maybe while we are “resetting” things this month, we ought to spend some time resetting our expectations. When I think of resetting expectations, I think of Moses. Remember the story of the “burning bush?”
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations. (Ex. 3: 1-15)
Moses grew up as a Prince of Egypt, but had to reset his expectations when he had to escape as a fugitive to Midian. Then after 40 years working as a shepherd for his father-in-law, he was called by God to go back to Egypt “to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” He certainly wasn’t expecting that when he was taking care of sheep in the wilderness!
This Sunday we will talk about what we should expect and how to reset expectations when they are unrealistic. I hope that you will join us via Facebook Live or Youtube, at 9:00 or 11:00 this Sunday morning – or gather with us this Thursday at 5:30 pm in the Sanctuary for Thursday evening worship!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Sam