"Responding to The Intolerance of the Tolerant"

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  May we who have standards and convictions not be intolerant of the intolerant!  What a curious situation the public debate this week as those who accept almost everything reject Chic-Fil-A based upon a thought expressed by its founder.

The owner of Chic-Fil-A simply gave his position on the matter of marriage being as the Bible describes it, between one man and one woman.  Someone said that God established marriage between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and certainly he would agree with that idea.  Whether one agrees with it or not is not the issue.  How we disagree is in fact the concern.  Not so long ago the right was challenged with its need for graciousness in difference, now the left progressives need to hear the same admonition.

THE CHALLENGE OF BELIEFS EXPRESSED:  At question is that matter of one's right even responsibility to set forth his beliefs.  Certainly no one seems to object with those on the progressive side of the argument impose their notions but let the other side say something as benign as was said and there is an outcry but it does not end there.  Notice that there was to be a "kiss-in" as same sex couples demonstrate their "love" at Chic-Fil-A locations.

Chic-Fil-A being a privately owned company have not great responsibility to allow this sort of thing to go on however, since they seem to be gracious about this whole discourse I suspect that they will not take action.

THE CHALLENGE OF CONVICTIONS:  Such being so there are some things that we need to think about!  We who take a conservative view of the Scriptures must allow nothing to dissuade us from the position we take of the Scriptures.  The more that we are surrounded by the permissive message, the more those of us who hold to the Bible are placed in difficult even untenable positions.  Such is not so in reality only in perception.

The reality is that the same God who designed each of us in our uniqueness, also moved on righteous men of old to author the Bible.  Personally I do not find anywhere that I or anyone else is exempted from any of the Scriptures.  

There are those who would argue that the Christian's shortcomings are license for others to live outside the guidance of the Bible.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Certainly we all make mistakes but that in no way obviates others from their responsibilities.  In fact that is the value of being in a Christian community for in failure there we find support and care.  Then too there is the support to be found in prayer as we pray the Scriptures. 

THE CHALLENGE OF/TO THE CULTURE:  As alluded to earlier, there is a problem.  It is that we are so surrounded by the messages of the media and academia that we either consciously and rationally or without giving it much thought have come to embrace things that are not acceptable to God.  The drift from what is right and correct is so gradual that it is imperceptible.   However, think back a few years to what was acceptable and what was not.  

Of course the Bible is the same as it always has been.  It did not change but we did and in that course of that change we have reinterpreted the Bible to be what we want it to be. The outcome is as one post-modernist writer put it, “…we see the demise of personal definition, reason, authority. . . All intrinsic properties of the human being, along with moral worth and personal commitment, are lost from view...” (Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self)

Is it any wonder that people live largely insecure lives, without a sense of direction, a certain fatalism, and an inadequacy in and of themselves.  Perhaps that is why those who have followed along with culture are so threatened by those with conviction.

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  As the business owner who made the statement regarding the family, let us take our stand wherever we are located but let us do so in wisdom.

Let us do so relationally and not with criticism and rejection

Let us do so graciously not returning evil and insult for evil and insult

Let us do so welcoming the person while disallowing the sin

Let us do so with understanding not condemning for that it is God’s to do.

Remember Jude’s command, “save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear…”  In other words, some we confront others we persuade over time but to all we in some form witness.  (Jude 23).

This is Western Progress? Maybe not!

Any system left to its own resources will eventually descend into chaos. Previous posts have discussed this notion.  However some things bear repeating and this is one of them.

There is a barometer and it is our memories of history.  If you think back a few years to your childhood and compare today's culture with the one in which you grew up as a child, it yields a certain understanding that the things that provided stability in our culture are being eroded away.  Gradual as that erosion is, it still is moving our culture toward chaos and ultimately none existence.

Recently I had occasion to think about what life was like in the 1950s.  Our family did not live in an affluent neighborhood and there were nights that we had a "beans and rice" diet, pants were patched in the knees, and "hand me downs" were okay.  Even so there was a certain ethic that guided even the poor among us.  

• Though the neighbor's daughter was an unwed mother, such was kept behind closed doors.
• Abortion was unheard of and certainly held to be wrong.
• Rumor had it that a classmate overdosed, even so drugs were something someone else did and were not condoned.
• Teachers could hug you, even so sassing a teacher could earn you hacks with his wooden paddle--there was always more waiting for you at home.
• Getting drunk was about as high as one might get and it was none too frequent.
• Jimmy's parents getting a divorce was whispered as a secret.
• Bobby Darin and "Mack the Knife" was risque music.
• Men did not cuss around women and women did not cuss at all.
• People stood up when a woman entered the room, the flag passed by, and when shaking hands.

More?

• A police officer was to be respected and teachers were always right even when wrong.
• Going out to eat was a real treat, fast food was waiting at a drive-in for your hamburger to be cooked. 
• We could count on each other when something went wrong.
• We had first girlfriends that we followed home but did not touch--well maybe we held hands secretly.
• Passing secret notes to your girlfriend was a big thing until  your teacher caught you.
• Any mother in the neighborhood could give you a tongue lashing!
• Sexual immorality was looked down upon--the movies kept bedroom scenes behind closed doors.
• We had heroes like John Wayne and the Lone Ranger who believed in God, Country, and doing right.
• Girls were to be protected, they did not cuss, and certainly did not smoke.
• A baseball cap wasn't a gang symbol and we kept our pants up.
• People waited their turn, opened doors for women, used words like Mr. Mrs. and said, "yes sir"  
• Boys were expected to join the military, girls were not! Women in combat?  Unheard of!!!
• When someone was in need we helped because there was no fear of being sued.

Shall I go on? 

• We had prisons not correction centers. 
• We would call on the phone, send letters on real paper, visit and talk, but not text and email.
• Most boys had a sling shot or a BB gun, we smoked stolen cigarettes, and played in the street.
• Character and values were important.
• Church was important even if you did not go.
• The evening news was news not hours of editorial opinion.
• Going on a trip once every year or two was a big deal.
• Men and boys opened doors for women, even those we did not know.
• We kids pushed the paralyzed neighbor around the block and were not afraid to talk with him
• World War II service men went to work despite battle fatigue because that is what men did.

Want more?

• We openly sang "God Bless America" and would have made short work of anyone who said, "Not God Bless America but God Damn America..."
• We rode in the back of pick-up trucks, biked with no hands and no helmet, climbed trees and fell out of them, and oh by the way, skinned knees were a part of being a kid.
• If we even had a television, we watched cartoons then went outside to play, even in the winter time.
• Corruption in government was dealt with.
• Conservation was in and important.  Culture was not controlled by environmentalist with their junk science.
• Seat belts and other government good ideas were unheard of.
• Neighbors were known to us and would lend a hand when needed.  They were not hidden in big houses behind locked gates and locked doors.
• Rock fights and slugging it out was survivable besides, that is what men in the making did.  
• Sex education came from your buddies.
• Only truants skipped school.

Well, you add yours to the list!

My, my, my haven't we progressed.  Imagine another 50-60 years.  If thing continue in the current constant state of unraveling toward chaos, and unless there is some kind of a major intervention (Revival, Great Awakening etc.), then we are headed for a moral, ethical, cultural, etc. meltdown and the ending of the United States of America as we know her.

The insidious part of all of this is that these changes are so slow and gradual that they garnered little notice.  Imagine if someone like Lady Gaga had suddenly appeared in the 50s.  She would have been arrested and hauled off to jail for indecent exposure among other things.  Imagine the open foul language that is a part the day to day media today.  You can argue first amendment free speech all you want but the reality is that potty mouth is potty mouth and it is uncouth.

As we have demanded our freedoms so very often they have lead to excesses and those excesses are often at the expense of the culture and the country at large.  Unless there is change we are doomed to finding ourselves as a page in a dusty revisionist history book.

"GOD BLESS AMERICA, LAND THAT I LOVE..." 

Thanks to you...

Thanks to you we now have had over 1,000 visitors to my blog.  I appreciate you stopping by.  Be blessed and be safe,  Alvie

"BLAMING GOD? What is the point?"

Something to Think About

When events like that in Aurora, CO happen, how convenient it is to blame God with some thought such as, if God is so good then why did this happen?  However, if that is the God you want then there are some things that you might like to consider.  No God did not create and leave but he did "left."  He left man to suffer the consequences of his own decisions and at times those effects do not end with the individual making the decisions.  Aurora is a good example.

First, consider that in any time of adversity and challenge there are those who respond in various ways.

BLAMERS:  There are the blamers who will blame whatever “whipping boy” happens to be in vogue at the time.  Understand that “Blamers are often inflamers.”

EXPLAINERS;  Explainers often follow the blamers.  Problem is explainers in reality can be speculators.  Often they cast about verbally looking for some reason.

IGNORERS:  Ignorers are those who just do not get involved mentally, emotionally, or in any other way.  They avoid at all cost any connection with the event.

FACERS:  Facers are those who will accept that some even has happened, learn, seek the truth, hold judgment in abeyance, and provide what care they can.  It is this group of people who are not afraid to invest feelings and also take action.

ACTERS:  Acters are those who take action, do something, fix it or contribute to the fixing of the situation.  Those emergency responders who run into the chaos of situations like Aurora are such people.  Of course there are those who fix things on a spiritual level; prayers, pastors, bishops, etc.

Second, we do well to understand some things about man’s present condition. 

We live in a fallen world that is in a constant state of decline.  It is far less than it was in its original creation and will continue in it freefall toward chaos unless and until there is a radical change—the return of Christ, Jesus.

We live in fallen relationships with God, others, and self.  It is in these less than whole relationships that we are attracted further away from God’s ideal. The further a relationship is from God's idea the more chaos reigns in that relationship.  Among other things the following may be true...

A fallen relationship with God results in the choas of sinfulness

A fallen relationship with others (the social arena) results in misunderstand, the disparaging of others, distancing, hurt, personal attack, and separation

 A fallen relationship with self results in mental-emotional health issues, a lack of character, failure to make and carry through with decisions, and sociopathic thinking and action.

We live among fallen people and very often what we perceive as a disconnect with others is nothing more or less than the work of the Satan and his kingdom as it seeks to attack, bring chaos, and destroy that which God seeks to save.

We live and within us is a fallen nature.  No matter how we try to explain it away, we find ourselves doing the very thing we know to be wrong. 

Third, we do well to remember that in Christ there is hope.  God’s Kingdom plan is that we align our lives with His Word through being saved, submitting our ways to Him, being obedient to His Spirit, and having a deep connection to His Word.  That does not insure that we will not be effected by such things as Aurora but it does mean that we keep firmly in mind that in the end and only for the Christian there is victory.  Victory over the fallen world, fallen relationships, fallen bodies, and the effects of the world, the flesh, and the Devil

Be strong brothers and sisters, we who know Christ will prevail—some now all later.

"Until then..."

Most people that even care are asking, "Why?"  If one take time to think about the culture that the progressives have given us, it is not too hard to answer that question!  

Until...

Until we stop distancing from and start connecting with religion...

Until we stop the hindrances and start demanding certain justice...

Until we stop explaining why and start hold people accountable...

Until we stop distancing from each other and start connecting...

Until we stop delaying and start demanding quick justice...

Until we stop making excuses and start penalizing...

Until we stop being careless and start caring...

Until we stop correcting and start punishing...

Until we stop moralizing and start ethicising...

Until we stop liberalism and start conservatism...

Until we stop incarcerating and start imprisoning...

Until we stop entitlements and start being responsible...

Until we stop valueless education and start teaching values...

Until we stop secularizing culture and start a return to faith...

Until we stop the liberal media and start fair and accurate news...

Until we stop the progressive church and start preaching repentance...

Until we stop mollycoddling offenders and start treating them as criminals...

  Until then... you might just as well get used to these things because,

these things will continue to happen with greater frequency!!!

"Fad of Faith or Balance"

picture from flickr.com

It was a warm day at Andersen AFB, Guam.  An official from the denomination of which I am a part and I were standing on the airfield control tower catwalk looking out over the field.  This man was a pastor to those who pastor local congregational pastors.  To say he had a strategic view of ministry in general and problems of those in ministry would be an understatement.
 
In the previous few years he had been involved in the discipline of two very prominent public religious figures.  These were men who had major international ministries and whose television ministries had touched millions worldwide.  Both had very different problems but both had failed and fallen under not just legal scrutiny but that of our shared denomination. 

As we visited he commented to the effect that the more he saw of Christian service the more he valued balance.  He certainly understood the meaning of what he had better than most.

Balance conveys the idea of equilibrium or "...be equal with... ...bringing into equilibrium..." and "...harmony between parts... ...balance of power..." (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php).  Balance synonymously shares company with words such as poise, steadiness, and stability.


For years the comment of this pastor has been at the fore of many of my thoughts and attendant concerns as there seems to be a need on the part of the Church general and the local congregation to chase one fad or another.  Yet, when we look at the Judeo-Christian Scriptures over and over again we see examples of those who have sought to do so and thus have been rash in judgement, extreme in statement, imbalanced in behavior, and/or have been carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14).

Notice that the Scripture just referenced does not suggest that it is errant doctrine.  It was just out of balance doctrine which at first they embraced and then as they became more and more involved it began to control them and carry them just as the wind carries a feather.

This is most troubling in that it involves not just the principles but those surrounding them.  However, those examples are provided for the warning of all who care to heed such.  In today's world there is no dearth of those who even when counseled and challenged do not pay attention and believing they have special light plunge onward in some doctrinal pursuit or another.

Some of the Fads of Faith I have observed are as follows.  There was the Charismatic movement which went and still goes well beyond the Scriptural models of doctrine and ministry.  Later there was the Grace movement and it seemed every one was publishing books on the subject of grace.  The Laughing movement.

Part of the Charismatic movement moved off into new revelation which was at times taken over the Scriptures just referenced.  The Inner Healing movement was popularized by a former President's sister while that President made being a saved Christian popular--somehow we never got around to the Lordship part of being a Christian.

While my Pentecostal theology is well in tact and based on the balances and principles set forth in Scripture, others made speaking in unknown languages necessary for salvation.  Yet others denied the validity of the experience and attendant practices.  The Prosperity gospel with its notions of material prosperity as an end is at this writing still influencing many.  Part of that movement is the notion "...what I speak will be so and I claim it to be so." 

Shall I go on?  There are those who have imported Eastern religion into Christianity and claimed "special" truth.  There is the Soaking movement that seems to be gaining traction, only time will tell where it will take many.  Of recent date I've been discussing with another the his notion that God's will is that all are healed. What has been left untreated in this posting is the various beliefs about the deity and/or humanity of Jesus Christ.

The sad truth is that people make these choices without giving any thought to the consequences and outcomes.  Certainly and has been said by many, "God gives you the power to choose but not the consequences."  It is those consequences that have carried many off into error and ultimately defeat of their faith.

This is not to disparage those who participate in these movements, for I am sure that most are good people who are seeking a deeper religious experience.  However, good people can be deceived as they follow religious tangents.  If one will look at the effects of many of these movements in the lives of people, one will find those who are hurt, disillusioned, and who feel disenfranchised--just plain left out because they have not had some "special" experience or some special "blessing."

As well, within these movements and those like them are the "special" and the "blessed" who have had this or that special experience or revelation of the "truth."  If great care is not taken, that specialness can lead to a spiritual smugness as one falls further into the deception of new revelation and new directions of "truth."

What is needed is a balance of faith.  Just as the pastor said on the catwalk that sunny day in Guam.  It is a grave error to suppose that one can dissect out any of the essential Trinitarian Orthodox doctrines from the others and then interpret the others by that doctrine.  Neither can one legitimately emphasize any one doctrine to the detriment or exclusion of the others.  This would be so much the more so with non-essential doctrines.

Even a cursory reading of Church history past and present will reveal an historical landscape that is littered with movements and those who have populated those movement that have tried to make such doctrinal dissections.  Even a cursory visit with those of the less developed world will reveal that these things do not work in their world.  They have no choice but to cling to the reality of a real faith and not wander off into speculative doctrine.  It seems to me that if it does not work in their world why should we expect that God ordained it for the western church?  Something is wrong!

Further consider that the genuine Christianity that has survived throughout the ages of Church history did perfectly well without these fads of faith, we then would do well to steer clear of them and chart a course back to the pure milk of the Word of God and bath that pure word in generous amounts of prayer.  It is then that the doctrines based upon those words of life, give life!  Living that close to and in conformity to the Scriptures may not be comfortable but it is in that place that we find the comfort of the One who inspired those Scriptures, the Comforter!

"Consequences"

"God gives us the power to make choices but not to choose consequences"

Perhaps one might look at it this way.  Even though outcomes cannot be guaranteed, make choices with outcomes in mind.  As one prominent writer-speaker teaches, "Begin with the end in mind."

Another point to consider when making choices is this.  One cannot compound poor choices with poor choices and expect that good will come.  At some point the cycle of poor choices must be broken in order to disrupt the poor outcomes.

Poor outcomes that occasion further poor choices will only lead one in a downward spiral.  More than one pilot has made poor decisions to the point that he cannot recover his airplane and the outcome is an air incident.  Often with loss of life.  Almost all of those incidents would not have happened had correct choices been made early on in the progress of the incident.  So too with decisions, early correct choices avert dire outcomes!

So it is with life.  Poor choices beget poor choices and the outcome is dire.  It is therefore incumbent upon those who make choices (that would be all of us) to make wise choices.

Decision-making is not done in a vacuum but in one's community, that is those in one's small corner of the world.  That being so, one's decisions effect others either directly or tacitly.  Just in terms of the otherness of our lives we do well to exercise great caution in our decision-making for even our personal and private decisions often touch the lives of those around us.  Consider as well that those decisions are not without eternal consequences.

First and foremost it is wise to spend time in prayer and in doing so consult with the Heavenly Father.  More than once disaster has been averted when someone commits to praying his way through such decisions as are to be made and then in that same attitude of prayer, prays through possible outcomes.  

Still we might question, "How can we know that our choices are wise?"  There are a number of other ways that center around one.  The major task in any decision, great or small is for one to line up one's choices with the Bible.  Remember, God lives outside of time and space as we know it.  Thus He sees every moment of every person's life in the present.  That would include the present as Scripture was being written.

Therefore we can comfortably say, "God had every moment of your life in mind when He inspired the writing of His Word, the Bible." Thus we have the transcendent, unchanging, powerful Word of the Lord.

That Bible then is the center around which we find other ways to enhance our decision-making.  It is as we seek wise counsel of others, as we look carefully at situations and circumstances, as we look carefully at other authorities in our lives such as pastors, employers, etc., as we consider the words of faithful friends, that we find counsel that enhances our decision-making.

No one makes perfect decisions every time and so one must be willing to pull back from a decision, change course, and move forward.  That is exactly the way in which one breaks the poor decision cycle and moves in a right and correct decision.

It is, in most cases, not a major "earth shaking" decision but a small one that charts our course.  So it is that to change the course of one's life requires not some monumental decisions but a small quiet decision that leads to another small quiet decision and before long one will see change take place.

The Darkened Understanding

Remember the story of the frog in the kettle?  It all begins with a frog in cool water with the heat being gradually turned up until what do you have?  Cooked frog! It is so with so many things.

If 30 years ago someone would have proposed any of a number of things we find "normal" today they would have been named "extreme," laughed at, or called to repentance.  Yet today we are deeply immersed in a culture that while moral (from word mores--that which at least 50.01% label as normal) is far from ethical (normal based on transcendent, universal, objective, and immutable reality).

How did we get here?  It was not a radical change but a gradual change, imperceptive change, millimeter by millimeter change.  Those who earned the name "extreme" in the past are now viewed as "mainstream" while those once considered to be normal or "mainstream" are now named "extreme" or "radical!"

Why did we get here?  It may be summed up in one word, "depravity."  Man is depraved and that depravity knows no depth.  In other words, without there being an intervention in the heart of man, he will continue the slide deeper and deeper into depravity with the resulting darkened heart and of course sinful behavior.

The minutely gradual nature of this means that with little recognition, man's heart becomes deeply darkened.  The ultimate outcome is that one loses the capacity to comprehend the existence of and the standards of the Divine.

Even a slight recognition of God serves as a restraint.  Such is so even for those who have no faith experience.  Once gone there is nothing to check one's decent as without the buoyancy provided by faith they slip ever deeper into the depths of spiritual and ethical darkness.  Understanding without God's intervention becomes impossible.

Depravity is sinister in that its actions are gradual almost imperceptible until whether it be a culture, sub-culture, or an individual, there is no escape.  Like the frog in the now boiling kettle.

When one uses the moral messages provided by the media and in much of academia to measure what is correct and normal, then one uses a set of depraved principles to measure the behavior of another.  In other words it is like the village watchmaker who sets his clocks by the factory lunch whistle only to find out that the factory time keeper set his watch by the clock in the watchmaker's window.

To know whether one's standards are right or wrong, one needs an external source or standard.  Such is provided by religion in general and by Judeo-Christian faith in particular.

What is one to do?  In past days there were national and international spiritual movements.  Two were called, "Great Awakenings."  It was then that even whole societies awakened to their plight and to their need for change.  Of course the only lasting change is found in the salvation provided by Christ on the Cross.

It is as one becomes a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ that he can change not just direction in his life but also his family, and his group to include his society.  It is as that change took place that the effects of depravity were held in abeyance for a time.  May it be so again!

 

Communion, A Time to Remember

Adapted from Sermon "The Reminder of Communion" shared on 01 July 2012, just before the Celebration of the Lord's Supper.

The word, COMMUNION in its earliest form it came from the Latin for common.  It was used by Saint Augustine and it is believed that the word derived from com- "with or together" + unus "oneness or union.”

If we take this idea seriously we arrive at the purpose of our time together, that is with or together with many. In particular we look at Communion as being with Christians from all places throughout all the ages of church history. We look than at Communion in the sense of Communing or we might say fellowship.  

Look then at Paul's instructions about this spiritual meal that we share.  When we do we see the example, the examination, and the expectation of the Lord's Supper.  Remember now that though we speak in terms of the physical experience of communion, this is indeed a spiritual matter and must not be taken lightly!

I.     THE EXAMPLE OF THE COMMUNION - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26  

A.     There is the AUTHORITY FOR COMMUNION—the writer received these instructions from the Lord and delivered them to the congregation in the City of Corinth

B.    There is the call to REMEMBER— Remember the bread or body of Christ and that for which it stands. Remember the wine or blood of Christ and that for which it stands.

C.    There is the PROCLAMATION Just by sharing together in Communion you are testifying that you believe that indeed Jesus lived and that He died--that indeed Jesus death was with purpose—it accomplished some things. The word for Proclaim comes from the word for messenger and also keeps company with such words as declare, preach, show, speak of, teach.   The Lords Supper was a visible sermon that proclaimed ‘the spiritual message of the Cross

D.    There is the HOPE   Just by sharing together in Communion you are saying that I believe that Jesus is coming again—to me it is a certainty!

II.      THE EXAMINATION OF THE COMMUNION - 1 Corinthians 11:27-32  The question becomes what is unworthy manner?

A.    This is A CALL TO CHRISTIANS, those who are followers of Jesus Christ.

B.    This is the CALL TO REMEMBER what has been said previously. What is the “therefore” there for?

C.    This is the CALL TO SELF EXAMINATION - The call to self examination is the call to self test. 
Have an honest look at yourself. Are you different than you were before you became a Christian?
Are you different than you were yesterday, last week, last year? In other words are you a growing Christian?

D.    This is the CALL TO BEING WORTHY. The word for “unworthy” is the word, “unfit.”
E.    This is the CALL TO JUDGMENT To not take this seriously is to tempt judgment.  If we fail to judge or we might say grade ourselves the text is saying that we then tempt the possibility of becoming guilty of the death of Jesus Christ.

III.      THE EXPECTATION OF THE COMMUNION 1 Corinthians 11:33-34

A.    There is the EXPECTATION OF OTHERNESS The problem was that the Corinthian Christian were coming to Communion for selfish reasons.
B.    There is the EXPECTATION OF UNIQUENESS This was not just another meal, place to satisfy physical hunger.  Make Communion something special—don’t make it a common but a spiritual experience
C.    There is the EXPECTATION OF MORE Apparently there was more to say but Paul held back until he could come and personally share the concerns with his brothers and sisters in Christ.

As we come to share the Communion let us remember that
There is the EXAMPLE OF COMMUNION—The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in correcting the Christians at Corinth give to us how we are to share Communion
There is the EXAMINATION OF COMMUNION—we are to have a look at our own hearts and lives and how we measure up.
There is the EXPECTATION OF COMMUNION—there is the expectation of His coming but there are other expectations such as setting aside the self, focusing upon others, and not taking for granted the Communion.