This week Pastor Margo brings you devotions from the Christian Century. Today’s is part of one written by John M. Buchanan, retired Presbyterian minister and former editor and publisher of the Century
(https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-11/awaiting-god-s-reign). Buchanan emphasizes that although Americans are not good at waiting, serious work is happening in the unseen, especially God’s strengthening and equipping.
Read Isaiah 40:27-31:
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
We are not very good at waiting, [Henri] Nouwen noted [after he had lived and taught in the United States for decades]. In fact, most people consider waiting to be a huge waste of time. The culture says don’t just sit there—do something! Patience is not one of our stronger characteristics. A flight delay at the airport, an unanticipated traffic jam on the freeway or a doctor’s appointment that leaves us too long in the waiting room can become an emotional and physical crisis, bringing with it stress, a racing heart and elevated blood pressure.
Our culture celebrates action, results and instant gratification. Relentless and highly sophisticated advertising convinces us that we deserve to have whatever we want now. As a result, Nouwen observed, waiting is an awful desert between where we are and where we want to be. Yet waiting is a major biblical theme. “I wait for the Lord all day long,” the psalmist wrote. Then there’s the promise of Isaiah 40: “Those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
The interesting thing about biblical waiting is that it almost always happens in situations that are bleak. People wait while they are in captivity, prisoners in a foreign land. Defeated, expelled from their homes and their beloved city, their beautiful temple in ruins, they are described by the prophet as “sitting in deep darkness.” We sing about those people and about ourselves in gorgeous Advent hymns: “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile.”
Near the end of his life Jesus began to prepare his disciples for something that was still to come. He told his followers to wait hopefully and actively anticipate the future. “Watch. Stand up. Stay awake. Be alert.” Christians trust that something is coming that is not yet fully here: redemption, fulfillment, wholeness, peace and the world as God intends it. The reign of God will be characterized by peace among nations and justice for all people—particularly for oppressed people. In this world, old and young will be secure and safe, little ones will not be shot in random street violence, people will not suffer for lack of access to adequate health care, and weapons will be melted down and recast into farm implements.
That’s why we do some serious waiting [after] Advent. Yes, Advent waiting is patient and unhurried, to be sure. But it is also living into the promised future. Advent waiting is gently but steadily working for the reign of God here and now. It is waiting for the birth of a child, and working for the future that that child promised and embodied and taught and lived.
Pray: God Who Never Tires, strengthen and renew us for the work to which You are calling us. Give us some of your divine patience so we can go at your speed, not ours. Amen.