“Questions of Christmas: How Can I Wait So Long?”
Is. 61:1-3; Luke 1:39-56
Waiting is hard. Young children see gifts under the tree and beg to open ‘just one’ early. When told “No, you need to wait!” they respond “I can’t wait that long!” A person with great pain is told by the doctor’s office, “He can see you in a month.” She responds, “I can’t wait that long!” Parents get word that their son, who lives across the country, has been involved in an accident and is in serious condition. They call the airlines and are told the earliest flight available is the next morning. They plead, “We can’t wait that long!” Waiting is hard.
Advent is a time of waiting. So this morning we consider THE MATTER OF WAITING. We’ve all had times when we’ve blurted out, “I can’t wait that long!” WE DO NOT LIKE TO WAIT. Preacher and author Calvin Miller wrote that he had been preaching on the second coming of Jesus and was trying to say how most of us would like to adjust the timing just a bit. We want Jesus to come…but after the kids graduate, we get our first royalty check, or something else. To illustrate he told about his daughter Melanie’s reaction to his rule that she could not date until she was 16. At 15 and ¾ years of age a boy asked her to go to the Christmas Prom. When Calvin stood firm she became incensed and said, “Dad, I just hope the Lord comes back between now and February so you have to live with yourself all through eternity knowing that I never had a date!” Waiting is hard; we don’t like to wait.
Waiting is especially hard if we hurry up for something and then have to wait. You hurry to the airport to get there in ample time to go through security – and then sit hours at the gate – waiting to board your flight. A wife begins experiencing labor pains so the couple rushes to the hospital – and waits, for hours, for the baby to arrive. You hurry to make it to the doctor’s office on time for your test – and you wait, and wait, and wait. You learn about something exciting so immediately text your friends – then wait for what seems like an eternity for them to respond. You order that cherished item via the internet and your anxiety increases each day it does not arrive; you convince yourself you just cannot wait. You pray for something to happen, and it doesn’t; so you pray again, and again, and again. You share Jesus Christ with a lost friend and she doesn’t respond; you’re frustrated because you so long to see her come to Jesus. It’s hard to wait; we don’t like to wait.
GOD’S PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CALLED TO WAIT. Remember when Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to meet with God? Because he didn’t return quickly the people rebelled and made a golden calf. They found it hard to wait for God to work out His purpose; and they didn’t like waiting. Luke, in his Gospel, lets us know that Mary knew about hurrying and waiting as well. Our passage has what I call bookend verses (39 & 56): We’ve already been told that God broke into Elizabeth and Mary’s lives with the promise of miracle babies. Then we read “…Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea...Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.” The surrounding scenes are filled with waiting. On one hand two women wait for the birth of their very special babies. On the other hand, all of creation is waiting. Both the women and the world are waiting for the purposes, plans, and promises of God to be worked out – which is precisely where we are this morning. We are waiting for Jesus to return, for God to work all things out.
In fact, GOD IS OUR MODEL OF WAITING. The Bible repeatedly shows GOD IS PATIENT, LONG-SUFFERING, AND FAITHFUL. From Genesis with it’s “He shall crush his head” to Revelation with its “new heaven and a new earth,” God waits. He waited for Abraham to arrive at his appointed place. He waited while Noah built the ark. He waited for an entire generation of Israelites to die off in the wilderness so the next generation could enter the Promised Land. God waited 400 years from the time of Malachi, at the end of the Old Testament, to the birth of Jesus. He waited nine months for the birth of His Son. He waited 33 years for the cross. He waited three more days for the victory to be complete.
The Apostle Peter wrote that EVEN NOW GOD IS WAITING. He was writing to a people who were wondering when Jesus was returning; since they were undergoing persecution they were wondering “How can I wait so long?” So Peter said (2 Pt. 3:8-9 GNT): “But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you…” Eyvind Skeie, in a little story about death and hope called “Summerland” wrote, “But I cannot say anything about the light unless I first tell you about the One Who Is Waiting. That is what I call Him, the One Who Is Waiting. I know it is a strange name but I am quite sure He likes this name better than any other. For that is exactly what He does, He is waiting – always.”
Think about God the Father as He is portrayed in THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. Day after day he longingly looks out his front door, and waits. That’s God, the One Who is Waiting – for us! The One Who Is Waiting for us to slow down, and listen and wait; for people to respond to Him; for hearts to change; for faith to be born. Seneca, a Roman writer, put it well: “Hasten to him, my friend. He waits on the hill for you. For you alone.”
GOD CAN WAIT BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING. Listen again to Peter: “But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” God is waiting, giving everyone the opportunity to turn to Him. God knows how long that will take; He knows what it will take. God is working all things out.
But how can we wait so long? What does a MINDSET OF WAITING look like? It begins by BELIEVING AND ACCEPTING THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN. When we have faith in God’s sovereignty – that God is in charge and is working all things out for good – we can begin to accept and rise above the situations and circumstances of our lives. This is not the same as giving up; it is not reluctant surrender to whatever happens. No – Mary was blessed because she accepted her calling and everything it involved – even waiting. A speaker at Wheaton College Chapel shared his faith with the Wheaton Community. He said “Life is something that happens to you when you have other plans.” He went on to relate that he had lost his wife, through a sudden death, his teenage son had to be committed to a psychiatric hospital, and his daughter had gone through two divorces. He told that he had to learn that he was not in control of life. For him, living was no longer in directing his own course so much as it was learning how to rest in the sovereignty of God.
That’s faith. It is the presence of the Spirit who enables us to believe that the invisible purposes of God are being worked out for and through us. God’s prenatal activity in Elizabeth and Mary only proves it. He will, in His way, bring justice, peace, and healing to the world. He worked in a loving, sovereign way with an elderly woman, too old to bear children, and in a young maiden, a virgin. He worked through a birth in a stable. He had a King born in Bethlehem. He used a cross for a throne. He used a tomb for a symbol of life.
R. Benjamin Garrison wrote that one Christmas his wife gave him something he really wanted – a computerized chess game. He said that one night he found himself shouting at the game, “All right, you idiot, if you’re going to cheat, I won’t play with you any longer.” But of course the game had not cheated; it had simply and subtly made a decisive move several minutes before that he had not seen. The computer, all the while edging towards the inevitable victory, let him go on making his moves – some good and some bad. Garrison then said, “This is quite like what God had done in the serious game of life and salvation. Sometime back – over 20 centuries ago – God made the decisive but mostly unnoticed move, in sending Christ into the world. That move secured the future. That move guaranteed the outcome. Meanwhile, we are free to go on making our moves on the chessboard of life, some rather good, other unbelievably bad. Yet all the while God is edging us toward the inevitable triumph – not over us, but in us.” God is sovereign.
GOD, THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT, HAS IMPLANTED THE SEEDS OF FAITH WITHIN US. There is a sense in which we, like Mary, bear Christ within us. Whether or not the seeds sprout and grow is up to us. Yes – life will turn sour; the future will often seem blurry, even terrifying; there will be days we walk through the dark valleys; there will be hours when we are certain we do not have the courage to face today, let alone tomorrow; there will be days we’re convinced we can’t wait any longer. That’s when we go back to a virgin named Mary, to a manger in Bethlehem, and rest again in the sovereignty of God.
That will free us to adopt a second characteristic of the waiting mindset: RESOLVE TO LIVE A GODLY LIFE. Peter in his letters wrote (2 Pt. 3:11-14 GNT): “… what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God, as you wait for the Day of God and do your best to make it come soon… we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home. And so, my friends, as you wait for that Day, do your best to be pure and faultless in God's sight and to be at peace with him.” And what does that look like? (1 Pt. 2:12) “Live such godly lives among the pagans that, although they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (2 Pt. 1:3a, 5-9) “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you posses these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is what Advent is all about. How can we wait so long? By living a Spirit-filled life each day. Today be the venue through which Jesus appears in your world. Today be the conduit through which God continues to transform hearts and lives. Today let your seeds of faith blossom as you comfort all who mourn, bring good news to the poor, help heal the broken-hearted, announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison. Proclaim that now is the time the Lord is saving people. Put God’s agenda into action here and now.
If we do that, how long will we have to wait? We do not know. And because we do not know how much time we have, we must live godly lives now. What we do know and do HAVE IS THE BLESSING OF TODAY, THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF ITS HOURS. What we do know is God has work for us to do and has called us to be faithful to the tasks at hand, to live in a way that hastens the day of Jesus’ return.
The best way to develop and maintain this mindset of believing and resolving is to SPEND QUALITY TIME WITH GOD. While always important, during Advent it is doubly so – for this is the season we are most apt to cut Him out. Ron Johnson addressed this once in the devotional The Upper Room. He wrote:
During a heavy downpour my little sedan ‘whooshed’ to a stop in the middle of a foot-deep puddle. Anxiously, I tried to start the car, but the engine was soaked. A passer-by stopped his truck. “Here’s what you do,” he instructed. “Stop cranking the starter before you kill the battery. Just sit and wait. There’s enough heat in the engine block to dry out the plugs and wires. But you’ve got to wait about 15 to 20 minutes.” And he left. I took his advice and waited 20 minutes (which seemed like an eternity). When I turned the key, the engine started on the first try, and I was on my way. I was reminded…that there may be times in our lives when things come to a complete stop. But in that time God teaches us a lesson that can be learned only when we are still. We discover that the secret to power and strength for our lives is … in our willingness to wait in God’s presence for renewal.”
CATCH THE RHYTHM? Spend quality time with God; then get busy living a godly life. Then step back and spend quality time with God; then get busy living a godly life. Truly God’s divine power has given you everything you need for a godly life. Yes – life will turn sour; the future will often seem blurry, even terrifying; there will be days you walk through the dark valleys; there will be hours when you are certain you do not have the courage to face today, let alone tomorrow; there will be days you’re convinced you can’t wait any longer. That’s just when God may say to you, “The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid; you have found favor with God. The Holy Spirit is upon you and the power of the Most High overshadows you. Be the venue through which Jesus appears in your world. Be the conduit through which God transforms hearts and lives. Comfort all who mourn, bring good news to the poor, help heal the broken-hearted, announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison. Proclaim that now is the time the Lord is saving people. Put God’s agenda into action here and now. You can do it for nothing is impossible with God.” You need not wait – for Jesus Christ is ready to come again in you. So you can respond, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
