I was telling someone recently that all of my life, as far back as I could remember I have had a strong tendency to live for the future; to project my life beyond today. As I was saying that, I realized anew, to my dismay, that I am not good at being in the present. I am not good at just being, “smelling the roses” as the saying goes. Being still and enjoying the moment and the people present is often difficult for me. Sometimes I know what events in my life fostered that. Often it is a puzzle to me. But this is not the place to psychoanalyze why this is so for me.
Our western society, and maybe the world in general, is definitely not an encouraging place when comes to being still. The prevalent trend is to go, go, go… produce, produce, produce… buy, buy, buy…
If you and I embrace this message – and often we do – then Advent is a non-issue, the world around us is already in big-time Christmas mode. Just go to Wal-Mart or the mall and you will see that Christmas started in early October if not before, well… the marketers definition of Christmas that is.
As followers of Jesus, the Scripture texts that we read this season are calling us to a very different mode of operation. Instead of go, go, go… they are saying wait, wait, wait… This is a radically counter-cultural message, you know.
Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, something to endure. But there is none of this passivity in Scripture. Those who are waiting (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary…) are waiting very actively. Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.
A waiting person is a patient person. Patience is one of the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22) I probably have the most growing toward to do. Yet it is one of the most important in terms of growing in Christian maturity. A pastor friend tells me often that life/ministry is not a sprint but a marathon, it’s a long haul, life-long thing. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The moment becomes empty because some of us have a hard time being fully present in it. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we looked at a passage out of Mark 13 (referred to as the little Apocalypse). Jesus was telling his disciples that the Temple they are in awe about will not remain standing. He describes events that very much look like what we are witnessing now around us, wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines… They ask a logical question” “when is this going to happen?” Jesus answers, “Take heed watch; for you do not know when the time will come.” (13:33, RSV) The point is to be awake, alert to the ways in which God will come to us. In a fearful, frazzled time, that exposes us to so much that say to be very afraid, and cover that fear by going, going, gong, buying, buying, buying… Jesus says to actively watch and wait?
So how are we to wait and watch? We watch and we wait open-endedly, not for what we want but for small signs of how God has already come into our midst – the hidden acts of love, the great acts of faith done by people we don’t even know, the daily graces that sustain us. We serve with Christ.
How are we to wait and watch? With hope, with yearning, with expectations that God’s promise is ultimately faithful and true. Whatever form his coming takes, we know that it will be the same Jesus who came to set the prisoners free, to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the lame, and to give sight to those who cannot see. Because he has already come to us with such mercy, we can sing the Advent song, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (UMH 196).
Our western society, and maybe the world in general, is definitely not an encouraging place when comes to being still. The prevalent trend is to go, go, go… produce, produce, produce… buy, buy, buy…
If you and I embrace this message – and often we do – then Advent is a non-issue, the world around us is already in big-time Christmas mode. Just go to Wal-Mart or the mall and you will see that Christmas started in early October if not before, well… the marketers definition of Christmas that is.
As followers of Jesus, the Scripture texts that we read this season are calling us to a very different mode of operation. Instead of go, go, go… they are saying wait, wait, wait… This is a radically counter-cultural message, you know.
Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, something to endure. But there is none of this passivity in Scripture. Those who are waiting (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary…) are waiting very actively. Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.
A waiting person is a patient person. Patience is one of the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22) I probably have the most growing toward to do. Yet it is one of the most important in terms of growing in Christian maturity. A pastor friend tells me often that life/ministry is not a sprint but a marathon, it’s a long haul, life-long thing. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The moment becomes empty because some of us have a hard time being fully present in it. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we looked at a passage out of Mark 13 (referred to as the little Apocalypse). Jesus was telling his disciples that the Temple they are in awe about will not remain standing. He describes events that very much look like what we are witnessing now around us, wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines… They ask a logical question” “when is this going to happen?” Jesus answers, “Take heed watch; for you do not know when the time will come.” (13:33, RSV) The point is to be awake, alert to the ways in which God will come to us. In a fearful, frazzled time, that exposes us to so much that say to be very afraid, and cover that fear by going, going, gong, buying, buying, buying… Jesus says to actively watch and wait?
So how are we to wait and watch? We watch and we wait open-endedly, not for what we want but for small signs of how God has already come into our midst – the hidden acts of love, the great acts of faith done by people we don’t even know, the daily graces that sustain us. We serve with Christ.
How are we to wait and watch? With hope, with yearning, with expectations that God’s promise is ultimately faithful and true. Whatever form his coming takes, we know that it will be the same Jesus who came to set the prisoners free, to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the lame, and to give sight to those who cannot see. Because he has already come to us with such mercy, we can sing the Advent song, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (UMH 196).
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