Advent, as today’s Gospel proclaims, is all about watching and waiting. The big question of course, is, what exactly are we waiting for? At first glance, it seems that there as many answers to that question as there are people.
Some are waiting to die while others are waiting to start living.
Some are waiting for a cure while others just want the pain to end.
Some are waiting for true love. Some would be happy with a decent meal and a warm bed.
Some are looking for that perfect job and yet others are looking for any job at all.
Isaiah was waiting for peace.
What are you waiting for?
As believers, all of our desires are somehow tied up with our faith. Ultimately, no matter what the details or specifics, we’re all waiting for God to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. That’s actually a pretty good definition of salvation. Lord, come and save us! Save us from loneliness and despair. Save us from hunger and loss. Save us from pain and death. Lord, come and save us, for we are unable to save ourselves!
Isaiah was waiting for a day that looks far different from the world in which we currently live. Experts tell us that we are looking at several more years of war in Afghanistan. There are still American troops on the ground in Iraq. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have reached levels not seen since the armistice almost 60 years ago. India and Pakistan threaten each other with nuclear annihilation and a new nuclear arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia is now on hold. Smaller wars and skirmishes across the developing world seldom even show up on our first world radar. And as for the “mountain of the Lord’s house” in Jerusalem, tensions between Israel and Palestine continue unresolved.
As Christians, we rightly urge our government to choose peace over war, to implement policies that tackle injustice and to endeavor to dialog with enemies. We support the work of international groups such as the U.N. flawed as it might be, to make peace. To shut our mouths and sit on our hands is not an option for Christians. At the same time, however, we have to recognize the limits of our efforts. It is, in the end, God’s work in Christ. And so, with Isaiah, we wait.
The eradication of human war prophesied by Isaiah is just the tip of the iceberg . The wars fought in our own hearts, the wars between individuals and within families, the wars between cells that cause disease, the wars between carnivores competing on the food chain, the wars between tectonic plates that cause earthquakes, the wars between weather systems that cause hurricanes and tornados – none of these wars will be taught any more. That’s a “doosey” of a promise!
God’s promises really are outlandish. God, in Christ Jesus, promises not only the salvation of our souls but the salvation of, or better yet, the utter transformation of, all creation. This new world where war is no longer taught is built on the foundation of the world we know and experience but with everything changed. Like the risen Christ appearing to the apostles, strangely familiar but completely different at the same time.
God promises and we wait.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of waiting! Really! I’m not just saying it to make a point. I’m tired of waiting for swords to be beaten into plowshares. I’m tired of waiting for an end to hunger. I’m tired of being lonely even among family and friends. I’m tired of having friends get cancer. I’m tired of the aches, pains, and losses that come with getting older. I am tired that all that is beautiful and good and precious in our world is tinged with sadness and death. We, (I think I speak for most of us now) are tired of waiting.
You see, my brothers and sisters, we are faced with only two options this first Sunday of Advent if we indeed take this season seriously. We must either admit that we don’t really expect anything to change or we have to express our frustration with God’s apparent slowness to keep the promises made through Isaiah and the other prophets.
Most of us are here today because we have somehow managed, by God’s grace to hold on to God’s promise in Christ. We really do expect something to happen. We believe that all of creation is on a journey toward wholeness and redemption and that the death and resurrection of Jesus, for us and our salvation, has cosmic significance. We believe and so we have no choice but to complain. In so doing, we join our voices to those of countless others down through the centuries who have complained as well.
If we take the time to probe the scriptures during this Advent season, we discover the impatient voices of our ancestors in the faith. God’s outrageous promises have been met with equally outrageous demands from people like us – people tired of waiting. Rend the heavens and come down! How long O Lord? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Come Lord Jesus, come!
To understand the moment of crisis implicit in this season, we first have to rid ourselves of the notion that Advent is really just a nice little four week preparation for Christmas. This season does look back to the Incarnation and birth of Jesus, but only insofar as the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the means through which all God’s promises are ultimately fulfilled. Advent is about nothing less than the final fulfillment of all things in Christ, the coming of that great day when Christ will hand over the kingdom to the Father and God will be all in all.
And so, my brothers and sisters, we do watch and wait during this season of Advent. But we don’t do it quietly. The recognition of our deepest longings together with our faith in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his outrageous promises demands outrage at God’s slowness. It is no wonder then that the New Testament ends with just such a cry. The Spirit and the Bride say come! Let all who hear say come! Come, Lord Jesus!
Amen!
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