As we enter the season of Advent, as we begin a new church year, we have manifold expectations based on what we have experienced and know about God. We expect the birth of Jesus Christ soon. But we also already expect his ministry of proclaiming “good news to the poor and release to he captives.” We also already expect his death and resurrection. And we expect more: we already expect our own rebirth. We expect the fulfillment of the ministry of Jesus Christ. And we also already expect our own death, our own resurrection, and the redemption of all creation. We expect all this because of all that the birth of God in Jesus Christ means. It isn’t just any old baby we are waiting for. It’s our God—who is the God of promises. We are expecting the kingdom of God.

But there is more to expectation than just waiting for these things of God that we trust will happen. Religious expectation isn’t passive. It is active: as one theologian describes it: it’s living into the future of Christ. Or, to say it another way: expectation helps to create the future we are waiting for. We help create God’s kingdom by expecting it. Let me try to explain what I mean by active expectation with a story.

“We’re bored,” my sister and I said to our mother late one Saturday afternoon, “there’s nothing to do.” “Why don’t you wait for Uncle Tom.” “What! You mean Uncle Tom is coming for dinner?,” we asked in surprise and delight. “Yes he is, and he should be here pretty soon.” “Great” we shouted, dashed outside, and perched ourselves on the long trunk of our father’s 1963 Buick Skylark convertible to wait for Tom’s arrival. I should explain that although we called him “Uncle Tom,” Tom wasn’t our uncle. He was a German man of my parent’s generation whom they had befriended and who came over quite often for dinner or a tennis match. When he came, he often arrived with a couple of sticks of candy in his pocket. And as a native of Berlin, whose citizens were known for their quick wit and tongue, he always arrived with new stories to tell. My sister and I sat on the trunk and waited for a while in silence….but after a few minutes my sister asked: “I wonder if he’s going to bring us something?” “I think I still have the stick of candy he brought me the last time,” I offered, “why don’t I go get it.” So I ran into the house, dug the candy out of the box I kept my treasures in, and raced back to the car. I climbed up, and quickly broke the candy in two and handed one of the pieces to my sister, and unwrapped the other and we started licking. After a couple of minutes of rejoicing in the sweetness of the candy my sister started: “say, do you remember the story about the bus driver and the blind painter he told us last time?” “Oh yeah, I answered, and laughed. “What about the one about the old woman and the doctor from Istanbul?” And on it went as we remembered and retold our favorite stories. And when we ran out of stories by Uncle Tom, we began to create our own accounts, some funny, some wistful, but all of them spellbinding. We became so caught up in our stories, that we didn’t notice when the silver mustang pulled into the driveway and Tom walked up to us, holding out his hand which held two small bars of chocolate. We jumped down and shouted “Hurrah! You’ve finally come! Thanks, Uncle Tom,” and pulled him into the house.

I tell this trivial little story because it nonetheless shows how through our expectation we can help create what it is that we know will happen. My sister and I, we remembered, we did what Tom did, we shared, we retold stories, and created new ones: through all this we helped to create what it was going to be like when we were with our family friend again. Even though he hadn’t gotten there yet.

And that is how it is in Advent. We remember, we retell stories and create new ones, we do what Jesus does, we do what the wise men do, we share, we give: and through it all we help to create what it is going to be like when Jesus comes…for the first time in Bethlehem and the last time at the eschaton. Event hough he hasn’t gotten here quite yet.

Because we expect a loving God who promises a just and righteous kingdom. We expect and make the future. Amen.