Waiting!

Sermon for November 27, 2005

1. Good Morning. Let’s pray: O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

2. Opening Comments: Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Did you notice any recurring themes in our readings for today?

Today’s readings contain several images:

In the First reading from Isaiah chapter 63 we hear a plaintive cry for the Lord not to tarry but to return very soon. But it concludes so beautifully with peaceful resignation captured so well in the potter and clay imagery – “Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands” In these closing lines the plaintive cry turns to a peaceful waiting resignation.

In our Psalm reading we repeatedly sang the words, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” Can you again hear in these words a “plaintiveness?” It’s not a cry out of frustrated anguish but rather it’s a cry to “someone” who seems to be lingering too long in the coming!

The Epistle reading is much more affirmative in its central cry of “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The reading affirms the “coming one” Again, like the Old Testament reading, we hear affirmation in the “Coming One!”

And finally our Gospel reading Jesus calls us to vigilant watchfulness:

“Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It’s like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. . . What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Watchfulness is clearly being called for here. But most interesting – this time it’s the landlord or more precisely God who is asking watchfulness from his servants. He wants them to be ready when He returns. In the other three readings the focus was on our desire for God to come soon but in the Gospel reading we hear the heart of God and guess what – it’s a lot like ours – He wants our love to keep us watchful. He doesn’t want us to miss His coming! The focus is on God’s desire to be recognized immediately when He comes!

Do you think that our Lord might be telling us that our need for His return is reflected in His heart’s desire to be recognized when He returns?

Could God be telling us that His lingering is not a test or a trial – that He desires to return sooner than later.

And so the waiting is for a reason! It is no mere serendipity of God.

3. Analysis: So what’s the central driving ethos of this first Sunday of Advent? Isn’t it about “vigilance” – that state of mind that is always and ever watchful?

Life is to become a “vigil” – a waiting for the coming of our Lord. This Sunday is all about “waiting” in vigilant expectation.

So I’m convinced that today our Lord wants to reveal something to each and every one of us about this thing we spend most of our lives doing – “waiting.”

What is “waiting” all about anyway?

Some of us have been waiting for Jim Orefice to come good after a lengthy operation on his back. It was a time punctured by a few ups and a few downs but all is going very very well with Jim now but he and Cheryl experienced elements of the “dark side” of waiting – that sense that things could spiral downwards very easily and the end of waiting could be a profound sense of loss! But such was not to be the case.

Mercy and her family have also experienced the darker side of waiting as they awaited the passing of her dear father “Robert” into the arms of His sovereign King yesterday morning.

This time of waiting too was punctured by deep feelings that have gently matured into feelings of relief and relinquishment. Mercy is in the process of coming to terms with life without her father’s physical presence. She has now entered a new period of waiting. She has joined the rest of us who have lost a loved one in Christ. She has joined us in awaiting the certain resurrection of all who know and love Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. This is a “poignant” time of waiting for while there is a sense of reunion anticipated there is still a very present feeling of sadness over the prolonged separation. And so there is a vigilant waiting!

But what about Sarah and Eric Ockrin – they are waiting for the arrival of a new little being into the world – a playmate for Gracy and an object of wonder and delight to Eric and Sarah. A little being upon whom they can lavish their love and affections for a life time. The waiting will end not in a separation but in an arrival. Still this time of waiting has already proven “poignant” and trying and while it will conclude with a new life, this new life will be born out of some real pain and real work especially on the part of Sarah. And by the way, she knows this and is, in her own way, getting ready for the ordeal. She faces this both with great joy and with some anxiety I suspect.

How about the rest of us?

Doug McBean is about to retire in little more than 30 days. This will mark the end of a life time of work and begin a season of play and rest but then there is the anticipation of the end – which looms more and more imminent with each and every passing day. Again I’m sure Doug will experience a complex admixture of joy and perhaps something approaching “sadness.”

Again, this waiting is often a complex mixture of extreme emotions.

Some of us are anticipating a change in our employment while others are perhaps waiting for a long anticipated vacation or reunion with family or old treasured friends. Some of us are anticipating the end of Primary School and the beginning of High School . . . and so the merry go round of life goes on and on up and down – waiting arriving, going, coming and then waiting. Waiting is so so so much a part of our very existence isn’t it?

3. Advent – a season of waiting. Many of us can relate to some of these “waitings” can’t we? But there’s a waiting that each and every one of us – who are Christians - can relate especially to during the next 4 weeks of this Advent Season. It’s at this time of every year that we once again are encouraged to get in touch with our heart’s yearning for our Lord’s coming and are reminded that He too yearns to come once and for all for us - to gather us to Himself!

Do you live with a sense that something has gone terribly wrong and that what is our lives today was never meant to be?

Do you live with a sense that something that was supposed to be wonderful has turned out terribly badly?

Do any of us live with a growing sense of “unfulfilled” potential? This sense sometimes drives us into deep depression and sometimes it drives some of us into lives of terrible driven-ness – ever seeking to mollify that terrible sense of loss!

But the season of Advent is a time God gives us to remember paradise lost and paradise yet to come! To get in touch with our feelings of loss and deep desire for our precious Lord’s return but also that certain truth that God Himself years for this final return too – with all of His heart!

But then we must also be reminded of the certain fact that Jesus – our Lord, is with us always even to the end of the age! He is present with us always and ever more!

Please close your eyes and allow our Lord to draw near to you without any distractions.

Let Us pray!