It seems we wait all our lives: wait to grow up, go to school, drive a car, have a date, graduate. Wait to go to college, leave home, get a job. Wait to find the right person, to marry, wait to earn and save and enjoy life. Wait for financial security, wait to travel and see the world, wait for retirement.
Americans are not very good at waiting. We're impatient in traffic, in airport security lines, in doctors' offices. The late Henri Nouwen wrote an essay on the "Spirituality of Waiting" and observed that "waiting is not very popular. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. . . ."
Yet, there is a lot of waiting in the Bible. It's not the impatient-with-the-present-rush-to-the-future kind of waiting, but waiting expectantly, waiting in faith and trusting that something will happen, that God will act.
Biblical waiting, Mary's and Elizabeth's waiting, and (hopefully) our waiting, is not idle, passive, empty, but hopeful, trustful, expectant waiting -- like a pregnancy. Something is going to happen because it is already happening. In the Bible, the word wait is from the same word as watch. To wait for the Lord is to watch, to look carefully, in order to see what God is already up to and then to join God in doing it.
This weekend's scripture passage is a marvelous story that has a lot to do with waiting. I encourage you to read it and to ask "What am I waiting for?" And then, like Zechariah, to be silent (maybe not for nine months!) and listen for an answer. You might be surprised by what you hear.
We'll have great music and other rich dimensions of Advent worship. Come, and bring a friend.
Warmly,
