Waiting ...

“Hurry up and wait!” is the sardonic phrase a lot of us use to describe the phenomenon of having to rush to get someplace on time only to have to wait before whatever event it is comes to pass. In the past 10 years, I’ve come to think of the season of Advent illustrating that very phenomenon.

In the liturgical year, Advent is a time of waiting. It’s a time when we simultaneously remember that the world once waited for a Savior and anticipate the time that Savior returns and will reign for good. In a way, we’re living in the present with a foot in two other time zones: the past and the future.

For those churches who follow the lectionary, the cycle of Scriptures that outline the church seasons, we’ve not yet read the first word about the baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or Joseph. We’re waiting, taking time for worship, reflection, and repentance before Jesus’ arrival. It’s a literal way to “wait for Christmas.” Strictly speaking, the Christmas season doesn’t begin until Dec. 25, and it only lasts until Jan. 6.

When I first began ministry with four churches way out in the country, I naively insisted on waiting for Christmas as much as I could. I was also more than a little rigid about it. Thank God (literally) that I had churches who were understanding with a newly-minted preacher, the first woman who had ever served there.

It’s just that I couldn’t help then, as I can’t help now, the feeling of being extraordinarily rushed during my Advent wait. I want Advent to be a time of spiritual reflection and sometimes it seems that the entire society is conspired against me in this. Advent, in our modern day, is essentially pre-Christmas.

As I grew, however, I decided that this is okay. Still, as we hurry into the Nativity story, let ‘s also take time out to wait.

Often, we think of Isaiah as the “waiting for a savior” story. However, Advent is also John the Baptist’s story. We see him in his camel-hair clothes, eating locusts and wild honey, preaching, “Repent!” and baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins.

We see him calling the religious leaders of the day a “brood of vipers,” and finally, we see him pointing to the one who is to come after him.

In real time, this, of course, is right before Jesus starts his public ministry, and not before Jesus’ birth. They are both grown up. John is ready to take the world by storm and he’s convinced that Jesus is the one who will.

We see him go to prison, and while there to send word to Jesus to ask rather sadly, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?” It seems that John, too, struggled with Advent: hurry up and wait.

Jesus gets this word and sends back his message (Mt. 11:4, ff), ‘“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.’”

It seems there is another paradox. John had been looking for more “flash,” more winnowing forks and burning chaff. He was looking for a Savior who’d take the world by storm. What he found was one who took the world by humility and ministry to the deaf, the lame, the outcast. What John the Baptist finds, what we find, during Advent is that Jesus came, as Very Rev. Samuel Candler says, “for those who knew they needed him.”

In all our pre-Christmas activities, let us not forget Advent. Let us spend time in prayer and worship, just knowing we need him. In our luncheons, gatherings, and missions giving, let’s take a moment to know we need him. When we hear, “Santa Baby” or “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” on the canned music at the department store, let that prompt us to a moment of prayer. Before we head to the shopping center, checking our shopping lists so we don’t forget anyone, let us remember: we need him. Hurry up! Sing all the Christmas carols you want, go to all the Christmas presentations and luncheons you can. But don’t forget to wait.

Sally Oakes is pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church, 607 Rivers Road, Fayetteville, GA 30214. Phone: 770-964-6999 or 770-964-6992, or e-mail bethanymnc@bellsouth.net.