Genesis 18:1-10 / Colossians 1:24-28 / Luke 10:38-42
One of the things in life that creates problems for us is that we expect the expected.
And because we expect what we are expecting, then we begin to imagine our expectations.
Even if our imagination doesn't run that wild, we would already have built up our expectations.
A story goes that with her birthday approaching, a woman was expecting a gift from her husband.
She wanted a specific gift, a diamond necklace, and so she hinted to her husband that she had a dream, that she received a diamond necklace for her birthday.
The husband replied, “We will see” and then he went to work.
That day the wife kept imagining and dreaming about the diamond necklace.
In the evening, the husband came back from work with a parcel and gave it to his wife.
The wife was so excited and she quickly opened up the parcel.
In it was a book, and the title is: The meaning of dreams.
In life, we spend quite a bit of time dreaming and imagining our expectations.
Although there is this saying, “Expect the unexpected”, the reality is that we expect the expected.
In other words, we want life to happen the way we expect it to happen.
And when it doesn't, then we get flustered and frustrated.
So, actually, we created our own problems with our own expectations.
In the gospel, when Martha welcomed to Jesus into her home, she had expected Mary, her sister, to help in the serving.
But when Mary sat at the Lord's feet, listening to Him speaking, Martha became distracted.
So, Martha complained to Jesus, and she expected Him to tell Mary to help out in the serving.
The reply of Jesus was rather unexpected, and caught Martha by surprise, and it would also make us think.
We too worry and fret about so many things because we have high expectations of others.
From our children we expect academic excellence.
From our parents, we expect our share of the inheritance.
From our spouse, we expect dedication and affection.
From our superiors, we expect understanding and compassion.
From our subordinates, we expect agreement and compliance.
And from God we expect providence.
So instead of saying “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”, it becomes “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking”.
In the 1st reading the Lord appeared to Abraham, but not in the usual way that Abraham expected.
Abraham had been expecting the fulfillment of the promise of God for a son.
Then that day, when he was sitting at the entrance of his tent at the hottest time of the day, he saw three men nearby.
They appeared unexpectedly, and they came at an unexpected time, which is the hottest time of the day.
Still, Abraham got up and welcome them, and in doing so, God answered Abraham's prayer and fulfilled His promise.
But it was so unexpected, and certainly not in a way Abraham expected.
The 2nd reading would call it the mysterious ways of God, His ways which are beyond human understanding and expectation.
So, when unexpected events happen, when unexpected people come our way, and all that happening at an unexpected time, let us not worry and fret.
Let us look and listen to what the Lord Jesus is saying and showing us.
And let us remember that spiritual saying: Peace begins when expectation ends.
Whether we are expecting the expected, or expecting the unexpected, let us know what it is that we really want and what we are really longing for.
What we long for, what we really want, is peace in our hearts.
We don’t want to waste our lives burning away with worry and fret.
We don’t want to waste our time expecting this or expecting that.
We want peace. And peace begins when expectation ends.