I once heard a story about a little rural town that was suffering through a very serious, very severe drought. Months went by with next to no rain, and in response, the little local church decided to gather for a special prayer service where they’d all come together in order to ask God to send them rain.

And as the story goes, the preacher got up in front of the church and began his sermon, saying:

“Thank you all for coming here today to pray for rain… But I have just one question for you: Where are your umbrellas?”

They all probably looked at him like he was crazy. But that preacher was asking his congregation a very, very crucial question — a question that we all need to ask ourselves as well:

Where is your EXPECTATIONAL FAITH? — You’re asking God for something? Something you need? Well then!… are you prepared for the possibility that He could, that He even would… provide for you right now?

…Or… have we at some level already decided He won’t answer? Have we already made up our minds that our prayer is sort of powerless?

So the question stands: WHERE ARE YOUR UMBRELLAS?

What a fantastic, challenging question!

We just heard the story from Mark’s gospel about the time Jesus came back to his hometown of Nazareth, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom to the people he grew up with — and suffice to say, nobody had umbrellas that day.

…Barely anybody had bold, high-expectation FAITH!

Jesus’ friends, relatives and neighbors had already put him in a box — a box that LOWERED all of their expectations collectively and made them hard of heart: “‘Where did this man get all this? […] Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him.’”

What was the result?

“He was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.”

Think about that for a minute:

Jesus is amazed! That seems like it would be hard to do! But here, he is amazed for all the wrong reasons. He’s AMAZED at their lack of faith. Amazed… at how LOW their expectations really were!

And this actually prevents Him from performing mighty deeds! God’s glory is somehow veiled due to THEIR lack of faith!

This is so convicting to me!

How often have I missed the opportunity to see God do something incredible because of my own lack of faith? How often have I placed limits on the Lord by my own low expectations?

Maybe I’ve sometimes done this out of fear? Fear of being disappointed! “… Well, what if God doesn’t answer my prayer in the way I want Him to? Maybe it’s better if I hedge my bets, and sort of expect to be let down?”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to do that to God anymore! 

…I want to have HIGH-expectation faith in His goodness, don’t you?

I want to have faith that unlocks and unleashes mighty deeds! I want to have faith that moves mountains! I want to have an attractive, confident, infectious faith that can’t help but inspire and encourage the people around me!

So let’s ask the Lord for that right now…

“Lord, give me high-expectation faith!”

“Lord, fill me with faith that moves mountains!”

As you all know, I’m brand new here at Holy Spirit, and I don’t know what the Lord wants to do here yet. All I know for sure is that I’m very grateful to be here with you.

But I also just want to say from the outset — hold on to your umbrellas!

Because I firmly believe that we can and ought to expect the Lord to continue to do even more amazing things here.

I fully expect God’s grace to deepen our prayer lives together. I expect conversions. I expect breakthrough. I expect healing and transformation… I expect holy vocations. I expect evangelization. I expect good fruit!

We don’t want to be like the people of Nazareth, do we?

…We don’t want Jesus to be amazed at our lack of faith!

No… of course not!

I desire a fresh outpouring of God’s grace here at this parish. I want His fire to fall here among us!!! I want to give the Lord full and complete permission to do whatever He wants to do with us…

So let’s expect God to be God. Let’s embrace our weakness, and trust that His grace is truly sufficient.

That’s why we come to this altar today:

Every time we come together to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, we come with the very highest expectational faith.

We fully, totally and completely expect bread and wine to become — by the power and working of the Holy Spirit — the true Body and true Blood of Jesus Christ. We expect this food to change us. To strengthen us, and embolden us.

Jesus never lets us down. He never fails. So Come Holy Spirit — fill us with more and more expectant faith! You will never disappoint us!