Great Expectations

by Traci Hubbard

Text:1 Corinthians 15:35–58Colossians 2:15

We are people of expectations.

We expect the alarm clock to go off… but hope it doesn’t. We expect the line at the grocery store to move fast… but choose the wrong one every time. And we expect that when we plant something, something good will grow. A man once said he planted a “low-maintenance garden.” He expected tomatoes. He got weeds and a family of raccoons. Expectations can disappoint us. But Easter invites us into something different, not wishful thinking, but great expectations.

Paul begins 1 Corinthians 15 with a very human question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” In other words, what happens after death? Is there really life beyond the grave? Can we actually expect something more?  These are not just theological questions. They are deeply personal. Every hospital room, every funeral, every quiet moment of grief whispers the same question, “Is this the end?”

Paul answers with the simple image of a seed. We plant something small, lifeless, and unimpressive. And what comes out? Something entirely different. A seed goes into the ground, but a plant comes out, alive, vibrant, and transformed. Let’s be honest, if we had never seen a plant before, and someone handed us a seed, we wouldn’t be impressed. We wouldn’t say, “Wow, this tiny brown speck is going to become a tree!” We would most likely say, “This? This is your plan?” And yet that’s exactly how Mystery, our Eternal Creator works. Burial or the scattering of ashes, or the bodies never recovered during war or natural disasters, all these seemingly final moments is not the end. It is the beginning. Paul says what is sown is perishable and is raised imperishable. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. What is sown natural is raised spiritual…eternal. The Lover and Keeper of our souls specializes in transformation.

Everyone witnessed and felt that Maria and Tony were made for each other. Their energy together was fun, loving, humble, adventurous, and inclusive. To everyone’s shock, out of the blue, Tony died. Maria lost her husband unexpectedly. One day they were making plans for the summer. The next day, Maria was sitting in silence, staring at an empty chair. For months, her expectation was simple, just get through the day. She said, “I didn’t expect joy anymore. I didn’t expect laughter. I didn’t even expect hope.” But slowly, something began to change. A neighbor brought her meals. Friends sat with her in the quiet unknown. Her family gathered around her with softness and patience.  Her church prayed for her and turned their prayers into mowing her lawn, servicing her car, cleaning her house, and taking long quiet walks with her. They brought over Rom Coms and funny movies to help her mind rest and her heart feel deep sorrow and healing emotions. Maria loved to laugh, and everyone agreed her laughter would play a necessary role in her befriending her reality. After a weekend of Monty Python and fun Julia Roberts movies, Maria called me and said, “I laughed. I laughed all weekend and ate popcorn, nachos, hotdogs, and it surprised me.” Maria was not surprised because everything was fixed. Maria was resurrecting into a new self because life was breaking through again. That’s the power of resurrection, not just for someday out there, but always at work in our body, soul, and mind. Since LOVE can bring hope out of grief, joy out of sorrow life out of death, then maybe, just maybe, we can have great expectations again.

There are victories and resurrections we do not expect. In his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes, “Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” In a divine way, this is almost humorous because the cross didn’t look like victory. It looked and felt like defeat. It looked and felt like loss. It looked and felt like the end of everyone’s hopes and dreams who expected their Hosannas, which means “save us” would be fulfilled in Jesus leading them to defeat their oppressors.

If we had been there, on the skull of Golgotha, on the Good Friday that changed human history, I doubt any of us would have said, “Wow, Jehovah is really winning today.” I think we would have been more like the scene in the movie The Holy Grail, saying, “It’s just s flesh wound, get up, fly off the cross, be superman for us.” I believe we would have said, “It’s over. It’s all over. He failed us. He wasn’t who we thought he was.” I know I would have turned around and said, “Shut up Peter. You are obviously not who we thought you were.” But Easter reveals something shocking, what looked like defeat was actually victory.

LOVE didn’t just disarm hatred, pride, greed, human power, and death, LOVE humiliated them. It’s like showing up to what we think is a championship game,only to realize the other team has already lost. Death thought it had the final word. Death always feels like the final word. In one of Dylan Thomas’ poems there is a line that says, “When a loved one is lost, love is not, because death has no dominion.” LOVE says, wait, trust, believe, live into your faith and watch this new thing about to unfold. Be aware of what is happening. Resurrection of the Spirit is the most real reality in human history. Paul ends 1 Corinthians 15 with a triumphant declaration, “Death has been swallowed up in victory…O death, where is your sting?” That’s bold. That’s not cautious optimism. That’s confident expectation. It’s almost like Paul is teasing death. Imagine walking up to something that used to terrify you, and realizing it no longer holds any power over you. It’s like a bee with no stinger, still buzzing, still annoying, but ultimately harmless. That’s what Easter does for us by reminding us that LOVE removes the sting.

What do the ways of LOVE, embodied and trusted by Jesus, mean for us? Because of Easter, we are free to live differently. We can expect transformation in our lives, and in our deaths. No situation is too dead for Eternal LOVE. We can expect victory and healing when we do our inner work, even while things look and feel like defeat. And we can live with the sweet expectation that eternity is already working in us and for us. This physical life, our human experience, is not the end of our stories.

Sometimes life teaches us to lower our expectations. Sometimes we hear our thoughts saying don’t hope too much, you’ll be disappointed.  Don’t dream too big, because the shattering will be harder. And don’t expect too much when you breathe your last breath. But Jesus in his physical end said, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit. It is finished. My work is done here.” He could say this because he knew hate could never cure hate, only LOVE can do that. He knew darkness could never, would never, overpower the Light of LOVE. Easter says, “Raise them.” Raise the sight of your heart and be an altar of LIGHT and LOVE in the world. Not because life is easy, but because Jesus is risen and has become the Christ – the Christ consciousness of eternity, of now. And since Christ is risen, this means the soul of Jesus was risen by LOVE, all death that had happened before and will happen until this world is no more is defeated.  The laws that enticed the lesser angels of our nature enslaved to doing, were broken by the Spirit’s ways of being. What does this mean? Hope is always alive for us to live into in all circumstances.

This morning, we stand between what we see, and what LOVE has promised. And folks, we still face and will face struggles. We still experience loss and will experience more. We will always have questions for the Holy. But we do not need to look at things with despair. We do not need to live in loss believing life has nothing else for us. We can ask Mystery any and all our questions, and if we keep our hearts, our ears, and our minds open, we will understand the answers we need. This means none of us need to live without hope. Because Easter declares, the best is not behind us. The best is happening and is ahead, second star to the right and straight on till morning. So, let’s live as people of great expectations, because the truth is, every tomb is empty. All ashes rise. And Jesus is alive inside you, inside me, inside our neighbours, all strangers, and even in our families. Including our in-laws, just sayin’. May it be so, amen.