November 27, 2010
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Active Waiting
I am not very fond of waiting, I think the express lane in the store should move quickly, traffic on an expressway should move without delay, and waiting rooms should be unnecessary if people keep appointments. My aversion to having to wait may be a result of my not knowing what to do while I am waiting. I know of people who always carry a novel or puzzle book, or some game system with them at all times. They see lines or delays as an opportunity to catch up on their reading or perfect they game strategy. I don’t do this because I would be annoyed if my reading or my game playing was interrupted by the line moving or the person I am waiting to see showing up. I realize this is not a problem for some people as they sit reading or playing long after the line had moved or the traffic has cleared only adding to the frustration of those stuck behind them. Having something else to do while you are waiting is not what I mean by “active waiting”.
Advent is for us as Christians, a time of active waiting. We are waiting for the birth of the Divine into humankind. I think waiting for the birth of a child is the best example of what I mean by active waiting. The person who is carrying the child and their spouse and loved ones do not see the time of gestation as wasted time to be endured. Instead, it is a time of preparation. There is excitement with each developmental change, there is concern over everything that seems out of the ordinary. Preparations are made to provide for the child when he or she arrives. It is time for each one to think about how this child is going to change their identity or their relationships. It is time to think about and plan for what it means to be a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or a sibling. Friends consider how an infant is going to change the friendship. Some people will begin to map out the whole future for the child before he or she takes her first breath of air. Waiting for a baby to be born should not be idle time.
As Christians, advent should also not be idle time. I fear that the coming of God into flesh has become routine for some of us. We think there is nothing new in the Christmas story for us, it comes around every year and it doesn’t really change much. These feelings make advent like waiting in the checkout line or stuck in traffic or a waiting room. We may even bring other stuff with us to the advent season to occupy our time until we can get to Christmas and the gifts and partying. We lose so much when we fail to use advent instead like waiting for the birth of a child. Infants are born every day. Some people give birth to many children and yet, the birth of each child is miraculous and worth our attention and planning. Each child is unique and brings with her or him great potential. Each Christmas is unique and brings with it great potential to change us and the world. Each advent we should be involved in active waiting.
During advent we have the opportunity to consider what the coming of God into flesh means to me. We should ask ourselves these questions, how does it change my life, how does it change my understanding of who I am, and how does my belief in God come in flesh change how I relate to other people? What does it mean for me to take on the name “Christian”? And probably most importantly, what does it mean to believe God has become flesh in me? God incarnate, God in flesh happens not just in a manger in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. It happens in each of us as we recognize God born in us, living in us, being expressed through us. Advent is a good time for us, while we wait for the Christmas celebration, to actively work on what God being born in me means to me and to the world.
Advent, for this congregation, is also a good time to actively wait for what God is birthing here, in this church. We cannot rush the birthing process, there are important developmental activities that occur during the gestation period and rushing them never improves the outcome. What we need to about is to get ourselves ready for the birth of something new here. I think we can see the work we need to do to be very similar to what people do as they prepare for the birth of an infant in their family. You take stock in what how your home is. You look at things that you have accumulated that you no longer want in your home when the baby arrives. You look at things that may have at one time been very important and that brought you joy but they no longer serve any purpose and they take up space that will be needed for the infant. You look at things in your home that present a hazard to the child and you get rid of them. When the house is cleared of the unnecessary, you take stock of what you will need to care for the child and you set about to find those needed items so that you will have them when the child arrives. You also make plans for how you will function when the child comes into your life; you make plans to be a family. This congregation has been working on identifying the things you have accumulated over time that you need to let go of, and the things in the congregation that present a hazard to healthy living together, and now we will look at what is needed for the new thing God wants to birth here so we can be ready when God delivers it to us. And we need to be working on how we are all going to live together in community so God’s plan will succeed here. Together we can actively wait to see what is being birthed at Eternal Joy MCC. Amen.
