“My Soul Waits” – Sermon on Nov 27, 2011
Scripture: Mark 13: 24-37 November 27, 2011
24In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.
Sermon: My Soul Waits
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Advent means coming, and we have entered into the season of waiting for the coming of Jesus on Christmas day. One thing I love about Christianity is the paradox of it all. Each year we come around again to the season of waiting for he who has already come. Each year we cycle again, over and over, through all the seasons of our faith, through Christ’s birth, the visit of the Magi to the infant, and the baptism of the adult Jesus, into the period of Lenten fasting and Jesus’ trial, execution and resurrection. This cycling through over and over again allows us to live out the main paradox of our faith, that the reign of Christ has already come and not yet arrived. There is holiness in all the seasons, there is holiness in the already,and in the not-yet. And over the next four weeks we are asked to embrace the holiness of waiting.
What comes up as you think about waiting? As you waited for me to begin speaking this morning… as you wait in line at the bank or the grocery store or the registry of motor vehicles. Does your wait differ if you are making a deposit or withdrawal, or if you are worried about having bounced a check? Is it different to wait at the supermarket checkout if you are not sure you have enough money to cover the cost of the food?
There is the waiting for the college admission decision, waiting for the test scores, waiting for the medical test results. We wait for our flight to take off, or a flight to arrive. We wait for our loved one to come home – from travels, from war, from prison. We wait for the big day – for Santa to come, for the graduation, the wedding, the birth. That day that separates before from after. Yes even with all the technologies available that contribute to our expectation and desire for immediate gratification, we cannot escape waiting, and I say “thank God.” And I invite you to enter into this waiting time with hearts open to the spiritual riches you may reap by doing so.
There are many places in scripture where the people of God are instructed to wait on the Lord. And it seems it is never easy. God constantly tries to teach restraint and patience – whether it is to avoid a certain fruit as was asked of Adam and Eve, or tolerate that someone else is praised instead of you, as with Cain, or to hang in there and wait for a promised blessing, as with Abraham and Sarah. And story after story in scripture tells us how humans fail and fail again. Adam and Eve eat the fruit, Cain kills his brother Abel, Sarah offers her servant Hagar to her husband so that Abraham will have an heir. In these stories we learn that we lose the chance to see God’s plan take shape and be borne out when we take matters into our own hands. God still enables to find and make good even when we have thwarted Plan A. God is always willing to meet us where we are. But what opportunities are lost to us when we narrow the field God had in mind for us?
Taking matters into our own hands shows our anxiety and our difficulty trusting God, and it takes an intentional effort to set aside this anxiety. In this season we are offered a chance to practice doing so, to practice waiting on God. We wait on God as a waiter waits on, not for, a customer – alert, watchful, attentive, with no agenda of one’s own, ready to do whatever is wanted. We can use this time to encourage one another to wait with confident expectation. We can look to the scriptures, to our own lives and to the world around us for evidence that confidence in God is warranted. If we seek with open heart we cannot help but find proof of God’s promises kept, of God’s light and love unfolding and persisting despite the shadows that fall. Holy waiting is not passive, but involves times of doing and not doing. It means doing the right things at the right time, God’s time. It involves resisting actions that serve only to ease our anxiety. We avoid the self-protective actions that come from anger, judgment, and control. In practical terms that might mean we refusing to retaliate or take revenge. We stop judging and evaluating the motives of others by our own standards. We might commit to working on reconciliation rather than cutting off relationships, we might refuse to manipulate others because we want them to change. We might stop fretting over the prosperity of others.
It means keeping an attitude, as noted in this morning’s scripture, of alertness, watchfulness and expectation. We look inward, at our desires, our needs, our own hurts and longings, our motivations. And we suspend judgment even on ourselves, instead turning ourselves over to God for healing, for shaping and molding.
I invite you now to take a few minutes to reflect. The deacons will pass out strips of paper, each with a scripture passage relating to waiting or to hope. Take a moment to read it and reflect. Does this speak to something in your life or your heart right now?
…. I invite you to briefly share with someone sitting near you.
We are people of the covenant, people of God’s promise. We are asked to become more comfortable with paradox, to even find truth and beauty in it. We are people who understand that in the not yet of Christ’s reign, there is also the already. Waiting is a holy practice, and yet we are not asked to wait to live in Christ’s kindom. We are asked to look for it, to recognize it and live in it right now.
These words of Shauna Niequist resonated for me: “I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the grown-up self, the one my mind could see so clearly. But the “adult” person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. For twenty years, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that’s when life will really begin. And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin. I have always some sort of movie-worthy event, something that will change everything and grab me out of this waiting game into the whirlwind in front of me. I am still waiting for my own big moment. I had visions of life as an adventure, a thing to be celebrated and experienced, but all I was doing was going to work and coming home, and that wasn’t what it looked like in the movies. But the Big Moment is an urban myth. What I’m finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I’m waiting for, that adventure, that move-score-worthy experience that is unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets – this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of use will ever experience.”
She continues: “I believe that this way of living, with a focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was coal. I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.
The Heisman Trophy winner knows this. He knows that his big moment was not when they gave him the trophy. It was the thousand times he went to practice instead of going back to bed. It was the miles run on rainy days, the healthy meals when a burger sounded like heaven. That big moment represented and rested on a foundation of moments that had come before it.”
I say to you, Christmas is coming, Christ is coming. It has the potential to be a big moment every December 25 as we recall and celebrate the miracle of God’s incarnation. I say to you, Christ has come. Christ has lived and died for us, and we can live every moment seeing the beauty and glory of that. We can cultivate true attention and watchfulness, we can look for Christ all around us, within us and between us. For you are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God. And you have been shown the signs and given the gift of today. May you use it well.
