“What Are We Waiting For?”
Advent 1
November 30, 2008
Read Scripture
The poet Ann Weems hits the message of our lessons for today — and the meaning of the season of Advent — square on the head in her poem The Coming of God. She writes:
Our God is one who comes to us in a burning bush
in an angels song
in a newborn child.
Our God is one who can not be found
locked away in the church,
not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where our God will be,
with no constraints,
no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
and destruction has no power
and not even death can stop
the living.
Our God will be born where our God will be born,
but there is no place to look for the one who will come to us.
When God is ready
God will come
even to a God-forsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem.
Watch …
for you no not when God comes.
Watch, that you may be found
Whenever – wherever — God comes.
Ann Weems Kneeling in Bethlehem p.13
You know — Advent is a strange season.
It is a season of waiting — nothing but waiting – waiting for something to happen.
Well — what are we waiting for?
In our personal lives we prepare for the Christmas holiday – and wait for Christmas — during the month of December.
In the Church we call the month of December Advent.
As a Church we wait in Advent — we prepare for — the coming of Christ — the coming of God — into our lives. We prepare for God to come to us — touching us and changing us with God’s mysteriously powerful love — a love so great God breaks into our lives in surprising ways — like a baby in a manger who becomes an adult on a cross — and invites us into deeper and more meaningful relationships with Him and others.
But –
What are we waiting for?
We know that Christ has come — the baby has been born — the angels have sung — the shepherds and Wise Men have gathered — and yes — the man has even died on the cross and rose from the dead — returned to heaven — and promised to come to earth again.
So –
What are we waiting for?
Maybe we are waiting for God to come to us in a new way — and really make a difference in our lives.
Maybe that’s why Advent is so important — it forces us to pause – to pause as individuals in our rush towards Christmas and all its frantic pace – to pause as a Church before we rush to the manger and reflect on what God has actually done for us through the Christ child — and even reflect as individuals and as a Church on what the God we meet at the manger is doing for us even now — and how — even now — our lives and our world have been changed because the baby has been born — Christ has come — and continues to come — and will indeed come again — and make a difference in our lives and our world.
So –
What are we waiting for?
Waiting is a predominant theme in the 3 Scripture lessons we heard a few minutes ago.
Isaiah cries to God the pain and anguish of captives desperately waiting for God to do something — to
“Tear open the heavens and come down”
as He had done in years past — and free the people in exile in Babylon.
He and the people of Israel were waiting.
Desperately waiting.
What are we waiting for?
Paul writes in I Corinthians to a congregation getting impatient as they await Christ’s second coming.
Waiting.
Impatiently waiting.
What are we waiting for?
Mak has Jesus telling the disciples that He will return at an unknown time — but unitl that time they are like slaves entrusted with work to do until the return of their master.
Slaves — doing their masters work until their master returns.
Waiting.
Busily — expetantly — waiting.
What are we waiting for?
Do we know?
In all three lessons for this day the people knew what they were waiting for.
Isaiah could speak so boldly to God because he knew what God had done in the past. He was only waiting and praying for God to do it again.
What are we waiting for?
The Christians in Corinth knew they were waiting for the return of Christ in all His glory to come and change the world into God’s glorious kingdom.
What are we waiting for?
The disciples knew what Jesus expected them to do until He returned — all they had to do was do their jobs while waiting for their master to return.
But –
What are we waiting for?
Do we know?
What are we waiting for?
Maybe we are waiting for God to come into our lives and change our world in a powerfully new way. Maybe we are waiting for a new experience of God that will shake us up – shake up the world – awaken us from our complacency – and excite us for God’s work.
Well – if that’s the case —
What are we waiting for?
Hasn’t Christ already come?
Hasn’t God already come into our world — completely changed our world through Christ?
Hasn’t God already changed our lives?
Haven’t we already had our lives shaken up by God?
Haven’t we already been awakened from our complacency — and excited about doing God’s work?
What are we waiting for?
Friends — the truth is — we no longer have to wait.
Christ is born.
Christ has come.
Our lives have been changed.
Our world has been changed.
God has come.
All we have to do is realize it.
All you have to do is let it make a difference in how you live.
Sure — realizing that God has come — and letting God change your life — is a tall order — but God can fill it .
God can change you — God can make difference — regardless of what kind of change or difference has to be made.
Let God do it!
Like the disciples — we have the work of our master to do until He returns. Our work is realizing that God has come to us — and proclaiming the coming of God into our world every day in concrete and specific words and actions.
Yes.
Christ has come.
The baby has been born in Bethlehem.
Our lives — and our world — have been — and can continue to be – changed.
Every day — as we let God change our lives — God comes to us again and again.
Our job is realizing that and proclaiming that.
So –
What are we waiting for?
Indeed — Advent is a time for us to pause before we rush into Christmas — before we let the world get us so hurried — before we as a Church rush to see the baby in the manger – it’s a time for us to pause and remember what God has done for us through Christ — how God has come into our lives — changed us — continues to change us — and calls us to proclaim Him in all we say and do.
It has happened.
God has come.
It is up to you to respond – and to let Christ’s coming make a difference in your life.
What are we waiting for?
Indeed — as Weems writes:
When God is ready
God will come
even to a God-forsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem.
Watch …
for you no not when God comes.
Watch, that you may be found
whenever
wherever
God comes.
What are we waiting for?
Amen.
[...] You can read the sermon here. « Young People Leaving The Church? [...]
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