Today I want to talk about Christmas and waiting. The Christmas season is one of waiting. Advent means, “the arrival,” and for those who celebrate, we wait for the arrival of Jesus into the world—because of all that he represents to us. And at this deep-winter time of year, we wait for the light to return, after months of light decreasing day by day.
I feel too that much of the world is currently waiting. People wait to see what will happen with conflicts happening around the globe. We wait to see what will happen with the economy or with other realities that affect our country as leadership changes here. We wait to see what will happen to people we love. Maybe in our personal lives, we are in times of waiting—between jobs, between relationships, between medical tests, between bills. Something most people hold in common is that we share in a time of stress just now. Most of us feel it; we feel it together.
So what does this ancient practice, or season, of Advent teach us about waiting? What does our faith mean, our faith in a God who came to lift up the lowly, to free the oppressed, to liberate our hearts, to give rest to our souls—all things the gospels say? The Christmas stories give us many examples of hopeful, expectant waiting: from Mary and Joseph; to shepherds so expectant of the promised savior that they immediately left their work when angels heralded his arrival; to the elders in the temple who said, This is who we have waited for, when they saw Jesus.
And our gospel lectionary reading this Sunday tells us of Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother. When Mary arrived to her house, Elizabeth blessed Mary because Mary had faith in what God had spoken to her. She was still waiting for it to come, but waiting with faith and expectation.
Promise Fulfilled … And Not
What do all of these stories and characters teach us about how to wait? First, the people around at the time the gospels were written, when writers reflected on Jesus’ life, knew that things didn’t quickly get better because of Jesus. They knew that Jesus’ promise of a restored world and restored relationships was partially here and partially not. Jesus changed their lives enough that they were willing to sacrifice greatly to follow him. And yet many things around them, such as the Roman occupation, were worse than ever. The people of the Jesus Movement knew that waiting is hard and change is slow. Yet they were completely committed to the new path Jesus had taught them. They show us what faith looks like in the world. It’s about living as if the path you hope for is already here because it is the more beautiful and worthy path.
Following Jesus isn’t just the way to get to something. Following Jesus is the destination itself. This is what the gospels and our tradition show us. No matter what it is we wait for, Jesus helps us as we wait to walk a path of love and peace. And to live by faith that what we hope for is coming.
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Wren, winner of a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal
Winner of the 2022 Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction; Finalist for the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards. (2021) Paperback publication of Wren , a novel. “Insightful novel tackles questions of parenthood, marriage, and friendship with finesse and empathy … with striking descriptions of Oregon topography.” —Kirkus Reviews (2018) Audiobook publication of Wren.
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