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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2003
From the Pastor
WAITING
Having to wait is one of the most difficult relationships we have to time. Whether it is waiting in line at a supermarket, or sitting by a phone waiting for a loved one to call, waiting in traffic, or waiting for the first day of vacation, we don’t do waiting well.
Mostly, but not always, we think of waiting as empty space. It is a period of uselessness when we could be doing something else - if we didn’t have to wait. Waiting is also a period of uncertainty because we don’t yet have what we wait for. Waiting is, therefore, often filled with a low grade sense of angst.
Although we think of waiting as almost the enemy of our personal time or an unproductive time, or time without inherit value, waiting is what we mostly do with our time. We are always waiting and there is that final sense in which all of us wait for death, the inevitable end to our life.
With this reflection on waiting it becomes less surprising when we realize the calendar of the Church begins with a period of waiting. That period is called the season of Advent. Before I offer an explanation of Advent, however, I want to say a further word about the Church calendar.
The Church calendar is not the church office calendar but it is the calendar belonging to the whole Church. It interprets the year in the light of Christ. It is a way of expressing Christ’s redemption not only of creation but time. It is divided into seasons, the two most famous being Advent and Lent, and special days, the most important being Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost.
In the Church calendar the New Year does not begin with January 1, but with the first Sunday in Advent. This means our New Year’s day in the church this year is November 30 and in recognition of this new beginning we light the first candle on the advent wreath. Advent in the church year is a time of waiting. It is a period of preparation leading to Christmas.
Our New Year in the church inaugurates a period of waiting! Waiting is affirmed. It is seen as a holy use of time. We await the coming of the Lord. Those who wait are blessed. They are blessed even in their waiting.
At times waiting can be reflective and quiet, but other times it can be filled with preparation for the time that is coming. Advent should contain both. Advent teaches us the positive side of waiting. It is a period of anticipation. It is a time of excitement. We are the maidens waiting for the bridegroom as told in the story of Jesus and all our preparation for Christmas is a way of insuring that we have enough oil in our lamps to welcome Him. (Matthew 25:1-13)
But let us also use this time of waiting to reflect on waiting. How well do we wait, even in such ways as the line at the grocery store? Instead of fretting, can we not use this time as a time of prayer. And in our faith when it seems that God is less present than what we would want to feel or that a prayer has long gone unanswered, let us meditate on the periods of waiting in the Bible some as long as 40 years and 400 years.
There is a holiness in waiting. There is a sacredness to it. A time to wait, a time to prepare.
“You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
Want us to wait
For the right time in which to discover
Who we are, where we are to go,
Who will be with us, and what we must do.
So thank you... for the waiting time.”
John Bell
Dr. David W. Andersen
           
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