Bethlehem Lutheran Church

During the Advent season, we so often refer to “waiting,” waiting for the birth of the Christ child, waiting for the second coming of Christ.  And at first glance, waiting implies a passive posture.  You wait for the bus.  It’s not there yet, so you sit and wait.  Waiting rooms are lined with chairs as clients remain seated until their name is called. 

In college, I participated in an Advent Service of Waiting, a Religion class project.  In preparation for the service, I had to spend time in prayer and journal reflection about those things that I longed for, those things that I anticipated would come and the excitement that builds as I put my faith in their arrival.  As a student, I most often waited for classroom success or Bananas Foster day at the cafeteria.  I could put my trust in them as I was confident they would happen.  One because I saw the weekly dessert menus posted in the the Commons.  The other, because I studied hard, paid attention in lectures and class discussions and strived to comprehend that which I was learning.  Waiting for classroom success proved to be far more than a passive belief.  It was guided and defined by a variety of actions.

Advent is my favorite season of the church year, because of waiting.  Henri Nouwen writes, “Waiting is to live expectantly.  The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed has been planted, that something has begun.  Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.  A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, who believes that this moment is the moment.”  So often our waiting is full of wishes, like Bananas Foster.  Or our waiting becomes more about controlling our future, like studying for classroom success.  What if we saw, like Henri Nouwen, waiting as open-ended?  What if we filled our waiting with hope?  Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises, in this case the promise of Christ entering in.  Waiting with hope is a radical posture!  It is to be present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things far beyond our wildest imagination!  How will you wait this Advent season?