Great Expectations

We all wonder what God expects of us. We also wonder if we can ever meet His expectations. As Orthodox Christians we struggle to live a life that we believe God desires, or at least that He expects. To eliminate any doubt, He has proven to us that He doesn’t expect anything more than He has already been willing to do.

Today is the commemoration of our Righteous Father and Patriarch Abraham. His story is proof that God has never asked us to do anything for Him that He was not already willing to do for us. His Faith and devotion, even up to sacrificing His own son, was honored by God with a promise. Through His faith, the world would receive salvation. Thank you Father Abraham.

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

1^st Corinthians 4.9-16

Today’s reading from Saint Paul also shows how our spiritual leaders also lived as examples for us. We call them Fathers, not because they gave birth to us, but because they lead us to salvation just like Abraham. Ultimately, they are all examples of God’s love for us, and they expect us to follow them as they followed Christ.

Many choose to ‘go out on their own’ rather than to follow. This is a very American ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ sort of attitude. The problem is that it is not the example God has provided. It is not the example of success we find in the Scriptures and Holy Tradition.

When Christ said, “Whoever desires to follow Him, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me,” (Mark 8.34) He was teaching us to follow Him as He follows the Father. When we admit that we need to follow, we also admit we can learn from our spiritual fathers.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for God. What are we willing to sacrifice? Saint Paul and the other Apostles were willing to be treated like third class citizens for God. How are we willing to be treated?

When we are willing to follow and be imitators of the Saints as they imitate Christ, then we will find salvation. So long as we insist on going ‘out on our own’ we will remain lost and wandering. God expects us to follow, not wander.