WAITING AND WATCHING

Ever since our son Robert was hit in a crosswalk by a car that failed to stop for the
flashing pedestrian crossing signal, I have been especially cautious at intersections. Not just when driving but especially when on foot. I pay a lot of attention to the traffic light’s orange hand raised in a gesture that tells me “wait.”

Waiting is everywhere, however, and not just at traffic lights. There’s a waiting room at the doctor’s office. We are put on a wait-list if an item we want is out-of-stock. We are advised that someone is playing a waiting-game, expecting the price to change before negotiations conclude. We wait in line at the grocery store. We wait for a table at a restaurant. At our favorite café the wait-staff comes and takes our order. This December, we are painfully aware of families waiting for hostages to be released or displaced people waiting to return to their homes.

Advent’s theme is also about waiting. Our hymns speak of people who wait in lonely exile” for Emmanuel to appear. We read an ancient prophecy of a people in deep darkness who are waiting for a great light to shine upon them. Luke’s gospel includes Anna and Simeon who have waited a lifetime in the Temple for Israel’s Savior. In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable in which the servants who have been left in charge of the household are warned to watch and wait so that the owner does not find them sleeping when he returns unexpectedly. (Mark 13:33-36)

Having to wait reminds us that our lives are not completely in our own hands. All of us are held in a thick web of mutual dependences that sustain our lives. It’s the receptionist who calls our name in the doctor’s waiting room. It’s the maitre d’ who escorts us to the table. It’s the clerk who tells us that the wait-listed sofa has finally arrived. None of us are islands unto ourselves. Waiting reminds us that we all depend upon the grace and good will of others to make our lives safe, meaningful, and rich. The flip side of this acknowledgement is that others are equally dependent on our responses to them. Waiting speaks to our mutual dependencies upon each other and our gratitude for the grace and response-ability of others to us.

This dynamic accounts for why learning to wait is a life skill emphasized in early childhood. Children are taught to wait in line, to wait for their turn playing with a particular toy, to wait until someone else finishes their thought before they speak. In the same way, the season of Advent schools us in waiting as a spiritual practice. Waiting is trusting; and trusting is relinquishing some degree of control in good faith that God will not make us wait forever. It is trusting others to be response-able when we relinquish some measure of control to them.

But this doesn’t mean we are passive in our waiting and do nothing. In the theater, an understudy doesn’t wait a half-heartedly until the lead performer falls ill. Understudies keep preparing so they are ready when the call comes. Advent waiting is a lot like being an understudy. While we are practicing the spiritual discipline of waiting in trust upon God and others, we are also practicing our faith: To feed the hungry and clothe the naked, to welcome the marginalized and nourish our own souls, to sing carols, light candles in the dark, and share Christ’s love in this season of waiting for his coming. Amen.

Pastor Thomas

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