Mother's Day is one of my least favorite Sundays to preach, although there is seldom a Sunday I don't enjoy preaching! Mother's Day brings with it the sense that I am failing as a preacher because I don't have a great story about a mother most years. And I am always aware that there are people in the gathered congregation who wanted to be mothers and couldn't, or have a difficult relationship with their mothers, or whose mother has died recently. In my current context, I also have my mother sitting in the pew listening to the sermon. She is well-known and well-loved in the community of faith, so it accentuates the fact that I do not know the pain some have in their relationships with their mothers.
I tried to turn the expectations of Mother's Day into the introduction to the sermon topic of expectations. Not sure how well that worked. I had someone leave the worship service commenting on how that was an interesting way to approach the text, which causes me to reflect on the direction of the sermon. It seems to me that expectations are an obvious part of the story, but that was not the case for that person.
“Expectations” May 11, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; Act 9: 36-43; John
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas.[a] She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter got up and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile, he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
Introduction: Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s day always feels like a day full of expectations, sometimes unmet expectations.
families figuring out who is expected to gather with whom.
some of us come to Mother’s Day grateful for the way our mothers have met our expectations for a mothers.
some of us come to Mother’s Day knowing the unmet expectations we have had.
All sorts of expectations and emotions.
Since Mother’s day falls on a Sunday, I have preached 30+ sermons on Mother’s Day, and I always feel the expectation to have a nice story about mothers in the sermon. an expectation that most years goes unmet.
this story we read in Acts this morning is full of expectations.
Move 1: the newly formed Christian community in Joppa is in the midst of a crisis.
a. Tabitha, One of the their key people has died.
1. The description of Tabitha uses the feminine form of the word “disciple,” which is the only place in the NT where this occurs, which suggests what an important person she was to her faith community and to the work of the resurrection Ted Christ.
2. It makes us understand the urgency the community feels to heal her.
3. In their desperation, they send for Peter.
b. When Peter arrives they have expectations
high expectations that Peter can do something about Tabitha’s death.
1. Maybe their are based on something they have heard that Peter has done.
2. Maybe they are just desperate and willing to try anything.
2. Maybe their expectations are based on someone in their community having been with Peter when he had done something miraculous.
the story before this one is about Peter healing Aeneas, so maybe someone from Joppa had been there when Peter told Aeneas to “get up!” And he did.
3. Maybe their expectations are of the God of resurrection whom Peter proclaims and serves.
4. Can’t you visualize the scene full of expectations:
the widows weeping in the hallway as Peter walks by them
showing off the tunics that Tabitha had made for them
their tears reveal their grief
the looks on their faces as they stare with at Peter reveal their expectations.
4. They need Tabitha to be restored.
they expect Peter to do so.
c. In that moment, their expectations are met.
1. Peter commands, “Tabitha, get up!” and she does.
2. this command mimics the words Peter used just a few verses earlier when he heals Aeneas.
3. As an aside for the biblical scholars among us, Acts and the Gospel of Luke (no surprise since they are written by the same person) they both have the pattern of pairing two stories together - in this case, the healing of Aeneas and the healing of Tabitha.
3. in the healing of Aeneas, Peter adds, “jesus Christ heals you” before commanding him to get up.
4. So we might read those words into Peter’s healing of Tabitha and recognize that when Peter meets the expectations of those followers by healing Tabitha, he is acting on behalf of Jesus.
Expectations
high expectations,.
met.
Move 2: What expectations do you have of God?
a. we declared on Easter morning that we believe in the God of resurrection.
1. that’s a mighty big claim - that God raised Jesus from the dead.
2. If God is a God of resurrection, what expectations do you have of God?
what expectations do you have of God in the context of your life,
what expectations do you have for God in the context of our world?
b. It seems to me that we proclaim resurrection, even as we shy away from expecting the God of resurrection to actually do a new thing,
or transform our lives.
or change the world.
1. Barbara Moorman The Other Side, “It is curious to realize that people like you and me, who set such store by being settled and secure, should worship a God whose revelation was to nomads and wanderers. We try to domesticate God, try to get God to settle down with us, but never succeed.
2. To embrace the God of resurrection means expecting God to do resurrection things.
it means risking more
and being more vulnerable.
3. If you do not expect God to change my life, then there is no need to risk making changes.
If we do not expect God to be working for justice in the world, then there is no need to speak out against injustice.
If we do not expect God to show mercy, then there is no need to work among others to show forth God’s mercy.
4. To expect God to be at work makes a claim on us and demands that we give ourselves over to what God is doing.
c. So what expectations do you have of God?
1. Seriously, if the God of resurrection is going to do one thing in your life,
what would it be?
2. If you join the widows in the hallway and look with expectation for God to be at work,
be ready, because God may just meet those expectations in surprising ways.
Move 3: Oh by the way, speaking of expectations, God might have an expectation or two of you or me.
a. Sounds kind of scary, doesn’t it?
1. C.S. Lewis reputedly said: “The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being boring -- on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium.”
2. Boring is less scary.
3. Resurrection is not boring.
4. The God of resurrection is pushing through the ways we try to tame the power of God and expecting us to be swept away to new life and new ways of living.
b. how do we know when we are living into those expectations.
1. Clearly none of us are Jesus, but we might learn from his answer when people ask him if he is the Messiah.
2. We hear Jesus in the Gospel of John tell people when asked if he is the Messiah, “My works testify to who I am!”
3. We are living into the expectations God has for us when our works testify to the God of resurrection.
When lives are being restored,
when new life is being given,
when justice overcomes injustice,
when hope replaces despair.
Conclusion: expect a lot from God
And be ready for God to meet those expectations.
At that time the Festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah,[a] tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me, 26 but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, in regard to what he has given me, is greater than all,[b] and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
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