College students today have it easy! My son is a student at the University of Central Florida and I have watched him register for classes.
The way he does it is to go to the computer, get on the Internet, and in 5 minutes he’s registered for all of his upcoming classes.
Back in my day, we had to stand in line and wait. And this was not a small line.
On the day of registration, we couldn’t be at home in front of a computer; we had to physically be on the college campus. We would get to the Administration Building very early and take a place in line. The line would stretch from the entrance of the door, around the building. Some students would take books to read. Some took chessboards. A few wise and learned students took folding chairs.
Slowly, inch by inch, the line would creep along until at last you would enter the doors of the Administration Building, only to find that inside there were MORE lines.
A line for student loans.
A line to pay last year’s delinquent bills.
A line to get a dormitory assignment.
A line to register for each class.
One year, the pre-med students of my school decided to make a comment about these long lines.
They broke into the Science Building and went into the biology lab where they stole – something.
Then they went to a store and had a special T-Shirt printed up.
They placed these items at the front door of the Administration Building so that when the registration process was to begin, and a college official opened the door, the first thing the college official saw was the item that had been stolen from the Science Building – a human skeleton wearing a newly printed T Shirt with the words, “Class of 1901.”
Thanks to the Internet, now everything has changed for students registering for college classes. But don’t worry – the world is still FULL of long lines.
There are still long lines at the bank.
Long lines at the check out line of the grocery store.
Long lines of traffic at the stop light.
By and large, we are part of a society that hates to wait.
Let’s not wait for the bank to open tomorrow morning, let’s go to the Automatic Teller Machine today, use our plastic card, punch in our Personal Identification Number, and withdraw the cash from the computer today.
Let’s not wait ten minutes to brew the coffee – let’s stick a cup in the microwave and get some instant coffee in seconds.
Now even though most of us do not like to wait, and while most of us submit to having to wait only with a lot of impatience, I suspect that it is also true that there are DIFFERENT ways in which we can wait.
In fact, much as we dislike waiting in general, sometimes waiting is not such a bad experience. In fact, waiting in expectation might very well energize us.
We have all known, in small ways, the energy an eagerly anticipated future can give to our actions in the present. The expectant parents who find joy in what would otherwise be a toil – assembling the crib, painting the nursery, practicing the pushing and breathing. Or take the residents of a town who eagerly wait for the visit of a famous celebrity or dignitary – the lawns are mowed, the sidewalks swept, the cracked windows are repaired at City Hall, the colorful banners are stretched between telephone poles on Main Street as they prepare to welcome someone important to their town.
Christmas itself has that kind of power. People brave crowds at the mall and face up to edgy store clerks.
Gifts are carefully chosen. Packages are wrapped. Ceramic nativity scenes are dusted and set in place, piece by piece.
Every action has meaning, because people are waiting, expectantly.
The sadness of our waiting is when we lose the excitement of anticipation to the dreariness of apathy.
We have all known the sense of loss and disappointment over a hoped-for-future that does not come quickly.
The husband and wife who try to conceive a child, in vain. Or again, plans are changed and the famous celebrity travels by another route, bypassing the town, leaving the once festive banner to droop in the rain.
Even Christmas day has its own measure of disappointment. The packages are opened, the gifts admired and put away. The tree comes down; the shepherds and angels are stored for another year, and the long-awaited day passes with a sense that nothing has happened.
We have waited, and waited, and nothing has happened.
And the way we have waited is with apathy.
In our Gospel lesson, the church is told to wait, and to watch – for something important is about to happen – Jesus is going to set up his Kingdom. And so, that first century church is able to stand on their tiptoes and watch the horizon of time in anticipation, waiting to see the dawn of a new day, when there will be justice, when crime will be eradicated, when the poor and oppressed will be freed, when the hungry will be fed and the sick healed.
Then came the 2nd century, and the standing on tiptoes in expectation became more tiring.
Then came the 3rd century.
And the 4th.
And the 5th.
And the 6th, and on down the centuries, until now we find ourselves in the 21st century.
It is hard to wait.
After 2000 years it is difficult to still stand on tiptoes waiting for the Kingdom.
And the sadness in waiting is that sometimes we lose the excitement of anticipation to the dreariness of apathy.
Not long ago, I was teaching a group of second graders in a Sunday School class. It occurred to me that it might be good to encourage those who would to memorize the key verse of Scripture each week. One week, the key verse of Scripture for the lesson came from Mark’s Gospel – the part we read a few moments ago.
“So watch, for you don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”
One of the children memorized it and repeated it to me with perfection – well, almost with perfection. What he actually did was to miss one word – replacing the word “WATCH” for the word “WHAT.”
So what he said came out like this – “So what, you don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”
An amusing mistake, but it was a revealing one. For you see, that is the approach many of us have toward the return of Christ and the anticipation of the Kingdom being established on earth. So what? You don’t know when it will happen. So what?
You see, it is not only important that we know that someday Jesus will return, that someday the kingdom will be established. It is also important that we know HOW to wait.
In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples to wait and watch for the coming of the Kingdom. In the chapters that follow Mark’s Gospel, it becomes obvious that the disciples know absolutely nothing about HOW to wait and to watch.
What is wrong with the disciples in these chapters is that they don’t understand that the way one waits for what God is doing in the FUTURE – out there – is to respond to things that God is doing in the PRESENT – the here and now.
In our Gospel lesson, Mark says that the Son of Man might come at evening, at midnight, at cockcrow, or in the morning.
Look at how Mark weaves his threads back to those times as he progresses in the last few chapters of his book.
In our lesson, Mark says that the Son of Man might come at evening. And in the very next chapter, Mark says, “When it was evening” Jesus ate his last meal and announced, one of you will betray me.
In our lesson, Mark says that the Son of Man might come at midnight. And further in Mark’s book, the Gospel says that later that night, when the disciples went to Gethsemane, and while Jesus prayed, they slept. In the words of Jesus, “Could they not have WATCHED one hour?” Couldn’t they have waited up with him a little longer?
In our lesson, Mark says that the Son of Man might come at cockcrow. And later in Mark’s Gospel, there is Peter, denying his Lord not once, but three times – and in the distance is heard the cock crowing.
In our lesson, Mark says that the Son of Man might come at morning. And later in Mark’s Gospel we read that as it was morning, Jesus was bound and led away to trial and crucifixion.
Morning. Cockcrow. Evening. Midnight.
The four times here are the four Watches in that culture. It seems to me that what is being raised here is the fact that in every watch, shift, hour, moment, we need to be watchful. – because while the Kingdom and the Second Coming of Christ are still over the horizon, there are things continually happening NOW, in this watch, in this shift, in this hour. Things that challenge us as disciples.
God may be at work in the distant future, but he is also at work today, in every hour, moment, shift and watch.
Watching then, is more than waiting. It is an ACTIVE sort of waiting, in which one is continually looking out to the horizon, waiting for the kingdom to come, and at the same time, dealing with the challenges of the present.
What is wrong with the disciples in Mark’s Gospel is that they never realize that the way to wait for the future Kingdom is to realize that while God is at work out there in the future, he is also at work right here and now. And while there is a future Kingdom of God, out there, God is also at work here and now -- and there are things that are happening now that call us to respond as disciples of Jesus Christ.
As Mark writes his Gospel book, he has looked at the story of Jesus and realized that every moment of the passing day is already alive with the promise of God’s future. As the church strains its sight toward the horizon of the coming kingdom, it also hears the ticking of the clock on the wall, and knows that each passing minute is filled with the potential for faith or denial. For decision or tragedy. For hope or despair. Those who trust in the promise of God’s coming kingdom are also able to see advance signs of its coming all around them.
Advent is a season of waiting.
We wait to celebrate the birth of Christ.
We wait to celebrate and remember his first coming.
We also wait in anticipation of his second coming when he will return to earth and establish peace, and justice and his kingdom.
We wait – and that is something we are not good at.
While we wait, we need to be at work.
We don’t just wait for peace; we work for it here and now.
We don’t just wait for justice; we work for it here and now.
For in the time of waiting, life is full of opportunities. So therefore, Jesus says to us, “So watch, for you don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”
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Written by Maynard Pittendreigh
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