Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. (Romans 13:11-12)
Recently, I acquired a book. For those who know me on a personal level, you know full well that I love books; so it’s no surprise that I purchased a book. It is called Wild Goose Big Book of Liturgies. In that book there is a liturgy for Advent entitled: “What Are You Waiting For?” When I saw that, it struck me like a ton if bricks. In Advent, what are we waiting for? Now that we are in the hopeful season of Advent and in the current time we are living in, the question of “what are we waiting for?” is a question that we can ask ourselves, not only for personal reasons but also for spiritual reasons.
This time of year especially, approaching Christmas, we often hear the question: “Are you ready?” I think we are ready for a lot of things. I think we are ready to be finished with this pandemic. We are ready to be able to celebrate and live our lives without the worry of becoming ill. We are ready to live in a post-COVID world. But what else are we waiting for?
Not only am I waiting for a post-COVID world, but I am waiting for someone who is making all things new. I am waiting for someone who is going to change the world as we know it. I am waiting for someone who is going to “eat and drink with outcasts and sinners.” I am waiting for someone who is radically going to change the way we live, the way we think, literally turn the world upside down and inside out. I am waiting for Jesus. I am not only waiting for Jesus to be born again in a manger in Bethlehem, but I am also waiting for the kingdom of the future to be the kingdom of the here and now. As much as I love to celebrate the one who was born the greatest of kings in the poorest of places, I wait for him to change the world, to change my life, and to change your life.
So what are we waiting for?
We wait for the kingdom, we wait for Jesus, we wait for the light.
This Advent season, may we know what it is we are waiting for. As we answer for ourselves what it is we are waiting for, may we realize that we wait for a radical change and not a meek and mild change. As we travel from the wood of the manger to the wood of the cross, may we continue to ask ourselves: what are we/you/am I waiting for?
From Wild Goose Big Book of Liturgies:
God of Advent
among refugees and outcasts
you breathed your first breaths.
In the cry of a newborn child you proclaimed
Emmanuel, God-with-us.
Come, God of the margins,
breathe into us the spirit of longing for your Kingdom.
Come this Advent to make us dream of
and work for
a better world of justice and freedom.
Come, Lord, come.
Amen.
