Great Expectations

1

Western culture, particularly North American, has a significant influence on much of our preaching. This is hardly surprising, though not always helpful. An example: the essentially uncontested assumption that our dreams, aspirations, and desires are, if not inspired by God, at least approved by God. The idea and ideal of happiness (a presumption of fulfilled desire) is embedded in American social consciousness because it is prescribed in the Declaration of Independence and supported, if not upheld, constitutionally. The ‘right’ to happiness, considered axiomatic, is consequently aligned with what we believe God wants for us. 

Which all looks like, and is certainly interpreted as, God endorses the American dream – if he didn’t inspire it in the first instance. This has the unfortunate corollary that God is believed to have founded, defends, and endorses America, which means that America, in essence, is special. This denies the impartiality of God – a fundamental doctrine of his being, and sets aside the nature and primary purpose of the church, which is not to be confused with the geopolitical nation.  

This, lest we forget, was also the claim of Protestant Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, Catholic Spain and Italy, Orthodox Russia – where do we stop? Undoubtedly, God used and continues to use Christians in those nations to spread the gospel, but the nations aren’t the church, nor are they set apart.

But it is hard to gainsay a deeply embedded cultural right. The fact that God speaks very little to our temporal happiness barely gets a mention; on the contrary, the way to life is the way of the cross. If our happiness, or better, our fulfillment, is God’s business, it is best described in the terms of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ – taking on the divine nature. If this happens to intersect with my/your happiness, which at times it does, well and good, but that isn’t the point. But there are times/seasons where this won’t look anything like our preferred version of happiness. This is because the world, the flesh, is at enmity with God’s Spirit; it is no friend of God’s will. We can’t baptize our desires in hope of circumnavigating this.

2

David (King) is often appealed to to make the point that God gives us the desires of our hearts. But David isn’t naïve enough to suggest this doesn’t have modifiers – conditions. His famous and wonderful words have a self-correcting context - Ps 37.1-7 NRSV

Do not fret because of the wicked;
    do not be envious of wrongdoers,
 for they will soon fade like the grass
    and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    live in the land and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
 He will make your vindication shine like the light
    and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
    do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
    over those who carry out evil devices.

The broader context of David’s pleas in this Psalm is for deliverance from oppression and his enemies, as well as the differences between the wicked and the righteous. David’s desire for salvation, for rescue, is answered. This was his heart’s desire, his desperate plea to God.

This Psalm shows that people fret and are envious when others get what they want. God’s people are to be patient, as the wicked’s desires are as fleeting as the wind. We, on the other hand, are to trust in the Lord, do good to others, and delight in God. The person who does these things will receive the desires of their heart, which could mean that God places the desires there to begin with, so that your desiring is his desiring, or the desires are yours, and he fulfills them. It has been said that if God is first in our affections, anything can be second, because God being first reprioritizes whatever is second, and third, and …

3

After many years of pastoring, observing human nature (mine as well), I am persuaded that most people would lose or damage their faith if all their dreams and desires were fulfilled, because they would, in the main, be about self-fulfillment. Paul alludes to this in 1 Timothy 6.2-10 where he talks of “many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” This applies firstly to money/wealth, and by extrapolation, our desires, or, should we say, along with C.S. Lewis, our daydreams.

4

All to say, an inordinate amount of preaching dwells on why our ‘god’ desires aren’t yet fulfilled. Why the delay? Why do others seem to get ahead? Is God not for me anymore …? But if the premise is incorrect, so are the answers. It isn’t hard to find examples from scripture to prove a point. The problem is that the point may be a redemptive/prophetic point, or something aimed at God’s people as a community, etc., whereas we have individualized everything and made it all about God fulfilling my desires. Could it be suggested that the delay is more about the desires being the issue, and not because of patience-producing exercises, or due to the inscrutability of God’s timing?

As well, the predominance of allegorical preaching will ensure this kind of issue persists, whereas exegetical preaching will assist in correcting Western ideals dominating pulpits. Using scripture to illustrate points is very different than preaching what it says. The kind of preaching I refer to validates delays and failures, in the hope of eventual fulfillment. But frustrated desires can be an indication of wrong desires/ambitions.

What Christ has done for us is infinitely superior to what we want God to do for us. We would be less cognizant of lack if we knew more of what Jesus has already done for us – every blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If we focus more on what Christ has accomplished for us already, we would be less frustrated by what we consider God has not yet fulfilled for us.

5

And yet, something in all believers yearns for the fullness of the kingdom when Christ comes to rule and reign. In this sense, some desires, deep and spiritual, are certainly yet to be fulfilled, and they urge us on in faith and perseverance. They are desires that are delayed, as nothing this side of the resurrection will fulfill them - not even a reassuring message.

But these are not the desires and hopes a lot of Western preaching appeals to. And that is a problem. It is when great expectations turn out to be false expectations.