What Are You Waiting For?
Rev Rod Sprange

Luke 1:39-55

What are you waiting for?

We humans end up doing a lot of waiting in our lives - you’d think we would be better at it. You’d think we would get better at it. It’s not something that our western culture teaches or claims to reward.

Some waiting is good - expectant - full of promise and anticipation. Other waiting can be hard - anxiety filled, seemingly never-ending, fear of what is at the end of the wait. Some waiting can be a mixture of anticipation and fear. When families are getting together for Christmas. Some flying - some driving in winter conditions. We can’t help but be anxious until we know they have landed or arrived safely - it can be a long wait. Then the joy of reunion. Do you remember that final scene in the movie Love Actually - all the different people arriving at London’s Heathrow airport and the hugs, and tears and laughter. The signs of love all around.

And how can we not think of all the refugees from war torn countries, desperately waiting for another country to take them in and make them welcome. Families that have experienced horrors we can’t even imagine. And they wait in deplorable conditions in refugee camps. How long must they wait for a chance at a safe life, sufficient food and medicine, a proper roof over their heads, a warm coat. And amid that waiting in hope is the fear of the unknown, the uncertainty of the future.

Waiting is part of life, and can be very beneficial. The church gives us two wonderful seasons of waiting Advent and Lent - times for quiet self-reflection and preparation. This is good waiting. Purposeful waiting. Waiting that should change us - like the caterpillar in it’s cocoon. Gradually transforming us. Waiting isn’t necessarily passive.

The title for my sermon ‘What are you waiting for’ came to me somewhere in the middle of its preparation. The title - is deliberately ambiguous. I am using it one way at the beginning and another at the end of this homily.

So to make the beginning less ambiguous I’ll stress the word ‘what’. What are you waiting for? What is it you are waiting for?

There are probably a number of things in your life for which you are having to wait. Waiting can be hard. Right now I expect many children are waiting for the school to end and for Christmas to come. I remember that excited feeling in the pit of my stomach when, as a child, I caught a glimpse of Father Christmas (Santa Claus). And Christmas Eve was such a deliciously painful time of anticipation of parcels and toys and games - do you remember trying to get to sleep, it was almost impossible; waiting expectantly to see if Santa had really brought that one present you really had your heart set on. As parents or lovers, waiting to see our loved ones open the gift we have lovingly chosen for them. That is happy waiting.

As Christians we are in the first season of waiting - Advent. Why do we wait in Advent? What are we waiting for? We wait to give us time to prepare - to do some personal and possibly corporate reflection on what we need to do to be ready for two events. The first that comes to most of our minds this season is the day we celebrate as the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth - Christ. Christ’s Mass. The miracle of Immanuel - God coming to live as one of us; to live among us. Some get hung up about the idea of a virgin birth (despite the angel saying ‘with God anything is possible’) instead of the real miracle - the reality that God has come to this tiny world on the edges of an unimportant galaxy, the God who has created all this, has come to live as one of us, to live among us and to reveal God to us, to demonstrate God’s love for us. That’s the miracle of Christmas for which we wait; to remember and celebrate and wonder.

But we also wait and prepare for the return of Christ in great Glory, when the whole of creation will have been made new. And we reflect on our lives and our church and about how we are helping to bring about that wonderful day, or perhaps what we are doing to delay it.

So we wait through these four weeks of Advent and our lectionary gives us readings to help us to reflect and prepare.

This is the year of the Gospel according to St. Luke. The one who gives us so many human details to help us experience the good news of Christ.

The last two weeks we read about John the Baptist and last week heard about John haranguing the ordinary people who had come to listen to him and to be baptized. John’s message was one of urgency and could only with generosity be described as ‘tough love’! Remember him greeting the gathering crowds with “You brood of vipers” in other words, you bunch of snakes! Repent now, before it is too late, was his message. The Messiah was coming and the people had better be ready. It was no time to wait in the weeds and watch. It was time to chose sides!

I think those who chose our lectionary should have given us a clue that they would suddenly move back 30 years this week. Something like those tv shows or movies where you have been watching the drama for twenty minutes or so and then there is a subtitle that comes across the scene - Thirty Years earlier...

So here we are thirty years before John will berate his congregation - three months or so before he will be born.

Two pregnant women meet. One young, very young by our standards, and one much older - past the child-bearing age. The first still a virgin - engaged but not yet having had sexual intercourse.

Both were pregnant. Women waiting. One newly pregnant the other in her sixth month - both waiting in anticipation and probably some fear.

Elizabeth had waited for years -and had given up the hope of becoming a mother. Her husband a priest, had clearly put thought of a child, especially a son out of his mind. Elizabeth had probably experienced scorn from her neighbours. It was a woman’s duty to bear children and important that one be a son. It was shameful to be considered barren. They were seen to be out of favour with God. Such despicable hurt added to the pain and disappointment of not having children.

But now Elizabeth is pregnant as foretold by the Angel Gabriel - her husband has lost the ability to speak as a punishment because he didn’t believe Gabriel when he told him his wife would become pregnant and produce a son.

But Elizabeth is no longer young, infant mortality was high in those days, the possibility of the mother dying in childbirth very real. There were probably raised eyebrows at this pregnancy so late in life. So along with her jubilation and thanksgiving to God, I expect there was some anxiety. Waiting to come to term would be harder than ever.

And what of Mary - a young teenager, not married, still a virgin, visited by an angel who told her unbelievable news - that through the power of Almighty God she would become pregnant, and bear a son who would be a great man and be called God’s Son. And she willingly accepted God’s call.

But what about the problem of having to tell Joseph this unbelievable story. What would the neighbours say when she started to show? At the very least she would be thrown out of the village - disgraced, physically abused and punished. Possibly stoned to death.

The angel tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is also expecting a child - and perhaps she goes to see Elizabeth hoping to find compassion - and to avoid the whispers and gossip of the village - even though Joseph (according to Matthew’s account) accepted the words of the angel and continued with the marriage plans. The whispers and gossip would continue - the sideways glances and knowing looks - villages have long memories.

And the two women meet, and the child growing in Elizabeth’s womb leaps with joy. And Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit has this wonderful insight of the two miracles. And blesses Mary and her child, and Mary bursts into joyous song.

And in our waiting we are invited to burst into joyous song too - as we get so close to the nativity and as we look with longing to the return of Christ and the fulfilment of all God’s promises.

But, wait a minute. Are we ready? Are you ready. Last week we heard John’s advice to the ordinary people about preparing for the coming of the Messiah. The people asked him what they needed to do. He told them if they had food and another was hungry, they should feed them; if they had two coats and another had none, they should give them that extra coat. He was encouraging them to radical generosity.

At this time of year, people tend to become more generous. They get caught up in the season of giving. And that’s a good thing. Hearts are full before Christmas, but then comes the pushing and shoving of the Boxing Day sales and the cold reality of the early days of January. What then? Why are so many churches rather empty the Sunday’s of the Christmas season (of course you would need to be here to notice). But notice, I said the Sundays of the Christmas season. We celebrate Christmas Day, but continue celebrating until Epiphany - the 12 days of Christmas. It is sad when by the 27th of December people are saying “Christmas is over” and some wonder what all the fuss had been about.

We need to think as we wait this Advent, what will we do after Christmas? What is God calling us to do to hasten the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom on earth? How will we walk in God’s ways? We know what God wants of us. We know what Jesus taught us. We know about loving God and loving neighbour as self - we know about doing for others what we would have them do for us. We know about welcoming the stranger, we know about seeking to serve Christ in all we meet. We know about feeding the hungry and visiting the prisoners. We know about sharing the good news of Christ. We know our church should be a visible Christian community - a sign of God’s healing love to a broken world.

God has shown us how he wants us to live our lives.
What are you waiting for?

Amen