The Wait Is On
Advent #1 Nov 27, 2011
Intro:
What do the following have in common:
• Doctor’s office
• Holiday shopping
• Connecting flights
• Red light
• Advent
Can you guess? The answer is waiting, and that that is what we are going to explore together today. Now, how many of you like to wait – hands up?
In a society where time is often a more valuable currency than money, being kept waiting often feels like being robbed, of something we can’t ever get back. That busier-than-normal traffic sets us behind, we left with just enough time to get where we need to be and now we are in trouble. The appointment we set for 2pm – how long will you wait before deciding the other person is not going to show up and you leave; and if they show up 20 minutes late what kind of a mindset are you in? How do you handle it when you pop into the grocery store to just grab a couple things, choose your teller lane which looks shorter than the others but in reality moves at a snail’s pace, and then you notice the nametag on the clerk that says in training. How do you respond? Or how about the busy Canadian Tire store with only one bathroom?
As a society, I think it is fair to say that we hate to wait. What does that say about how important we think we are, each of us individually? When the traffic is backed up and we get angry because it is making us late: don’t those roads exist for me – to get me where I need to go? Why can’t those construction guys work from 10pm to 6am so they don’t inconvenience me? Or why can’t that guy with the smashed up car learn to drive so I’m not waiting. We have these feelings of anger and impatience and frustration at him, instead of compassion for his loss and quite possibly his injuries. We hate to wait.
So it doesn’t actually surprise me that we import that culturally-shaped perspective into our spiritual lives. I mean, we have instant pain relievers, instant messaging, instant coffee; why don’t we have instant answers to prayer, instant healing of all our diseases, instant victory over our addictions, perfect kids by Friday? We hear and believe that God loves us deeply and completely, and that He is never too busy to listen and never too far away to be with us, so why isn’t He doing what I want/need right now?
When I say it like that, we recognize how crazy that is, and we would all say oh no, that’s not right. But we keep living like that. We keep expecting the instant result.
And yet, waiting is actually a gift of God that forms our souls. If we step back, we recognize what getting everything you want whenever you want it produces: spoiled, self-centered, selfish people who believe they are the center of the universe and who believe that everyone and everything else exists for them. And you know, that is not what God wants us to be. In fact, He wants the very opposite. And so, we wait.
Advent
Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent, the season of waiting for God to quietly slip into our world, taking upon Himself human flesh, becoming one with us. We take four weeks to wait and prepare, to discipline and train ourselves, to ready ourselves to embrace, once again, the history-shaking truth that God became human. We trace the story, we try to enter in and feel the desperate need and then the great joy, we try to identify with those who waited for the coming Messiah and then realize that we also wait. And my great hope and prayer is that by the time Christmas actually comes, our waiting and preparing will enable it to be not about presents and decorations, but rather that it would be about Jesus.
Zechariah and Elizabeth: Luke 1:6-25
Luke records the story for us, and I want to point out today that in Luke’s Gospel, it seems that everyone is waiting. First Luke introduces us to Zechariah and Elizabeth:
6 Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations. 7 They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. 9 As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.
11 While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. 12 Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. 13 But the angel said, Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer.
Let’s pause there: what prayer? The one Zechariah was praying in the inner sanctuary at that moment? They were both very old… I highly doubt Zechariah was praying at that moment for a child – but I’m completely convinced that many, many years ago they had prayed like crazy for a child. And been disappointed, frustrated, angry, and scorned when God had not answered. How long has it been? How long have they waited?
The angel continues, Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. 14 You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. 16 And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. 17 He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.
18 Zechariah said to the angel, How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.
19 Then the angel said, I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news! 20 But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah to come out of the sanctuary, wondering why he was taking so long. 22 When he finally did come out, he couldn’t speak to them. Then they realized from his gestures and his silence that he must have seen a vision in the sanctuary.
23 When Zechariah’s week of service in the Temple was over, he returned home. 24 Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months. 25 How kind the Lord is! she exclaimed. He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.
Zechariah and Elizabeth waited their entire life for a child. The crowd is waiting outside for Zechariah to appear, wondering why he was taking so long. Zechariah then has to wait 9 months until he can speak again. Elizabeth waits in seclusion for five months. Even once the child is born, they have to wait years and years and years for him to grow up and begin to do all the amazing things Gabriel said he would do. Everyone is waiting.
Others waiting too: Luke 2
And Zechariah and Elizabeth are not the only ones waiting. Mary and Joseph are waiting to be married. The angel appears to Mary, and she goes to visit Elizabeth and stays there three months – Joseph would have spent those three months waiting for Mary to come home so they could figure out what they were going to do. Then comes the census, forcing Mary and Joseph to leave for Bethlehem when she was very nearly ready to give birth – she was undoubtedly waiting for that journey to end and the baby to finally be born.
Then we meet two more people who have also been waiting – actually waiting their entire lives:
25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,
29 Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
30 I have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared for all people.
32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!
33 Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. 35 As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.
36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.
39 When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. 40 There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.
We Also Wait:
Simeon and Anna, both waiting their entire lives, and the result is a brief encounter with a baby in the temple. And that was enough – because their waiting prepared them to recognize what God was doing.
I think there is something critically important there. Waiting is a gift of God that forms our souls. If we don’t learn to wait, we won’t be able to see what God is doing or recognize where He is acting, we will continue to flit around like a trapped housefly on a window, constantly darting back and forth, smashing ourselves repeatedly against the glass.
Conclusion:
We must learn to wait. I think part of our struggle with waiting is that we see it as passive, boring, and ourselves as helpless bystanders. But that is not the way of the Spirit. Hear the words of Henri Nouwen:
Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for his coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps.
Waiting for God is an active, alert – yes, joyful – waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.
At the table:
We choose to celebrate communion on the first Sunday of Advent, rather than the first Sunday of the month of December, because it reminds us at the start of the season of Advent why Jesus comes. It orients us at the beginning of the birth story to the reason for the incarnation – God become human, so that He might die for us and rise again.
And as much as the individual characters in the story were waiting, this table reminds us of an even longer wait. The people of God had been waiting thousands of years for the Messiah to come. God had been waiting since the first rejection for the perfect time to send Jesus to deal the decisive blow against sin.
And we continue to wait. In the communion narrative, from 1 Corinthians 11 which we read each time, it concludes with For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again. We are still waiting, for Christ to return as He promised.
So as we wait, we do so in Nouwen’s words, with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We live as we wait; not passive but obedient, not bored but engaged, not helpless but with the power and urgency of a rescue force trying like mad to move people out of the path of an impending hurricane to safety. We wait for the fullness of the Kingdom of God to come, and we work tirelessly to see that happen, wherever God has placed us. Come, Lord Jesus.
