December 11, 2022 + Third Sunday of Advent + Lessons and Carols
I can’t wait. A child frustrated when they need to wait to open presents. Or pleading from back of the car: “how much longer?” Or asking how old they need to be to get a cell phone, a pierced ear, or to a go on a date. I can’t wait.
I can’t wait any longer, we say in a long line. In a traffic jam. In a crowded waiting room. When our computer takes forever to reboot.
I can’t wait any longer for justice, for an end to violence and corruption and racism. I can’t wait any longer.
Our readings today urge us to be patient until the coming of the Lord. Like a farmer waits for rain to water the crops. Wait for—look for—the day when the desert blossoms. And the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.
Oh, waiting is hard. We are used to instant gratification. We can download an entire book or movie in seconds. We can text or FaceTime with someone across the globe. We can access financial and medical records online almost immediately. Waiting for a letter to arrive with important news, a thing of the past.
Waiting can seem like a waste of time. Yet in the scriptures people are not passive in their waiting. So writes Henri Nouwen. “They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing.”
Nature teaches us to wait. The seasons. A seed germinating and growing. And of course, pregnancy. You can’t rush Mother Nature.
Nouwen goes in: to wait patiently for life to unfold is to be willing to stay where we are. To live the situation to the fullest, believing that something hidden will be revealed.
Impatient people are always expecting something to happen somewhere else and thus they want to go elsewhere. The moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Nurturing the moment as a mother nurtures the child growing in her.1
Mary and Elizabeth wait together. Gathered around God’s promise. I imagine them saying to one another: I can’t wait to see what becomes of your child. I can’t wait to see how life will unfold for us.
As you wait and as you wonder, pay attention to the new thing God is doing. Pay attention to your longings. Embrace the stillness. Love the darkness. Listen to the impatience. Learn from the moment, whether empty or full. For God is waiting with you.
For as one writer beautifully puts it:
Life begins with waiting
and life ends with waiting. . .
We wait for everything that is really worth having.
We wait to be born.
We wait for love to touch us.
We wait for life to grow.
Till the very end, we wait.
We even wait for God.2
1Henri Nouwen, “A Spirituality of Waiting”
2Anthony Padovano