The beginning notes for a sermon I once preached in another state simply said, "Wait in silence for one minute." So, I stepped up to the podium, arranged my notes and Bible, and then stood looking out at the people.
At first, the congregation looked at me hopefully and expectantly. By about the 10-second mark, a look of bewilderment started creeping across a number of faces. At 20 seconds, peoples' hopeful looks transitioned into crestfallen stares. By 30 seconds, fidgeting started to overcome the crowd. At 45 seconds, I finally stopped the mayhem and chaos by beginning my sermon. "It's hard to wait."
Simeon and Anna, whose accounts we find in Luke 2, spent a long time waiting. God had told Simeon he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Anointed One.
Anna, married for seven years, and then widowed until 84, was a prophetess who spent all of her life worshiping at the temple night and day, waiting for the day of redemption. A lifetime is a long time to wait.
We often feel as if we are waiting for a lifetime. We wait in doctor's offices. We wait in the airport for our flight, hoping we will make our connection and arrive to our destination on time. We wait in turn for a seat, then a server and then our food at a restaurant. We wait through interminable previews, trailers and advertisements for a movie to begin. And, during the holiday season, we wait impatiently for the craziness to end and the relaxation and enjoyment of family, friends and gifts to finally be upon us.
We are in the midst of Advent. It is a season of waiting. It is a season when we are reminded of the long years of silent waiting between God's promises of a Messiah through the likes of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah until His final arrival in a manger in Bethlehem. They were long, hard years of exile, foreign rule and even lost hope.
Like the congregation to whom I was preaching, waiting can drive us crazy. We begin looking for any way out, any way to end it, anything that might simply allow us to just get on with the next thing.
But waiting is something that is common in the Bible. There are 130 verses in the English standard version that I regularly use that contain some form of the word wait. "Wait for the Lord," the psalmist cries in Psalm 27:14 and then continues, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" Isaiah promises renewed strength for those who wait for God. Paul says in Galatians that we who have faith in Christ wait eagerly for the hope of righteousness.
Waiting is a large part of life. It is a significant part of our spiritual life as well. The people of Israel waited centuries for a Messiah who has come, though many of them have never recognized Him. We wait now for Christ to come, not just as a baby in a manger at Christmas, but in the full glory of a reigning King of Kings, as we sing during this season, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!"
In the hustle and bustle of rushing from here to there and getting all of the holiday stuff accomplished, don't forget to pause. Stand in silence for a while, even if it brings stares of bewilderment. Because we are waiting. Wait well.