WAITING
by Reverend Murray Spackman, Vicar.
ADVENT 1, Sunday 1st December, 2002


On almost any day of the week, if you were to take up a vantage point across the road, you would most likely observe a variety of people visiting this church. Some come to pray fervently, perhaps regarding a crisis they, or others, are facing – others come to rest while on their walk around the block or on their way home from the shops; others come to visit or sight-see. Still others come just to sit, to reflect on life and to think, to sit quietly…. and to wait.

The Church is also waiting! This waiting is the central theme of Advent. The Coming of Christ!

Many Christians are bothered about "waiting". I know I am, sometimes. In a busy world where time is precious, waiting is regarded as an extravagant waste! Some people handle waiting very badly – they are too impatient; too activity focused; or maybe too proud to have to wait for anyone! I know of a couple who were experiencing a great deal of difficulty in their relationship because the husband could not bear to be kept waiting for more than a minute! To wait for five minutes precipitated a major crisis! But what are we like when it comes to waiting for God? (Not the T.V. series!).

I suppose that all depends on WHAT kind of waiting we are talking about, doesn’t it? There ARE different kinds of waiting, aren’t there.

Someone rings me up and tells me their mother has been taken to hospital for a critical operation. The family gather together and wait for the outcome. The surgeon comes out of the operating theatre and says : "Well, there’s nothing more we can do now, but wait"… and we feel the heaviness of our anxiety and helplessness. Our waiting seems so feeble and so weak. If only we could DO something. But we can’t. Nothing we can do can change anything.

Some people have the idea that that’s how we are to wait for Christ to come again! For the Bible surely teaches that He will! - - "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead". Some think that history will all eventually unravel, that we REALLY have no say in it at all - - that we are just the helpless pawns who are moved across the board of history, and what we say and do won’t make any difference!

But that’s not how the Bible looks at Christ’s return, Christ’s ADVENT. We don’t just wait passively or helplessly.

You see, there is also another kind of waiting!

I bump into Jane and Peter on the street - those are not their real names but they will do for now – and their eyes are bright and sparkling. I had married them a few years ago. As our conversation catches up on the years that have passed so quickly I sensed they had something else to tell me! With a great deal of excitement Jane exclaims that she is expecting their first child! They begin to tell me all that had to be done. New furniture to be bought – a cot, a bassinette, a pram, a push-chair. Of course, the house has to be redecorated for this special arrival! There were to be visits to the doctor; ante-natal classes; - changes were happening to their life style - and their finances. Their lives would never be the same again!

"Nine months is hardly long enough to get everything ready" they said! You see, this was a different kind of waiting, wasn’t it? Jane and Peter were "involved" in the coming event – they were involved joyfully, excitedly, actively.

Advent recalls the Church to this same kind of active waiting. It’s the message that Christ is coming again, that there is much to be done. Get ready! Our belief in the inevitability of God’s coming again into this world is therefore meant to influence all that we do and are. This kind of waiting is different, isn’t it?

It’s the waiting that makes restitution to all whom we have wronged. Repentance and reconciliation are key words for Advent – our colour, purple, reminds us! It’s the waiting that gives and receives forgiveness because the time is short; it’s the waiting that causes us to come humbly into the presence of the great and awesome God; because we know that He will come again soon, and we want to be right with Him and others. It’s the waiting that galvanises us into caring action for others, knowing that His coming is closer now than when we first believed.

Advent calls us to live every day in the expectation of His imminent return.

Let us pray: Wait with me, Lord, this Advent and Christmas. Wait with me and wait for me. And help my prayers to join in the unceasing stream of prayerful waiting and hoping that has been carried from generation to generation, and which will continue until your Kingdom is come in all its fullness.

Amen.

Download Sermon as MS Word
Download Sermon as Acrobat pdf