“The Time of Waiting”

What are you waiting for?

This is the question I want you to consider as we enter into Advent this upcoming Sunday. What is the unanswered yearning pulling at your heart? How would you complete this sentence: I am waiting for…

…healing. …relationship. …peace. …rest. …comfort. …justice. …an answer. …?

We’re all waiting for some sort of an intervention, for something at last to come into our empty, hurting, entrapped places and fill, heal, and free us and those we love. It won’t surprise you, of course, to hear me say that we’re actually waiting for Jesus. But even as Christians who know Jesus is present with us right now, we still experience the yearning for more. What are we waiting for?

Advent acknowledges this experience of waiting. Madeleine L’Engle writes that these December days are “not waiting, as we so often are taught as children, for Christmas, for the baby Jesus to be born in a stable in Bethlehem. We’re waiting for something that has not happened yet, that has never happened before, something totally new. We know only what the end of this waiting has been called through the centuries: The Second Coming.”

This Saturday, November 30, we’ll talk more about Advent as we gather at the church from 10am-11am to make Advent wreaths. The wreaths can then become part of your waiting as you light them each week in Advent, praying through the simple liturgy we’ll provide both in person and via email. We’ll also see how the Scriptures answer the question, “What are you waiting for?” each Sunday in Advent. (You’ll notice several changes to our worship services that highlight this anticipation.) And each of the Wednesdays in Advent at 7pm you’re invited to join us for Compline at the church, expressing our anticipation through liturgy, chant, and contemplation.

I look forward to entering into Advent with you, waiting together with confidence for the “once and future coming of Jesus Christ” (Fleming Rutledge).

Your Pastor in Christ,