The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
December 13, 2020
Year B: The Third Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
While We Wait
We have now entered what are perhaps the most dangerous, deadliest days of the pandemic that has dragged on now for something like ten months, this time of fear, loss, and sorrow which will not end until most of us get vaccinated, hopefully by the middle of next year.
This terrible pandemic has lasted so long now, it’s sometimes hard to grasp just how much it has changed us – and how much we have learned about ourselves.
During these hard days, we’ve learned, in a way deeper than we understood before, just how much we need each other – how much we miss just being together in the same room – sitting around our table at home or next door in Carr Hall – how much we miss touch – exchanging the peace here in church – giving or receiving a warm hug – the simple but profound feeling of holding the hand of someone we love.
We’ve also learned that we’re stronger and more resilient than we might have suspected – able to withstand fear, sickness, and loss – able to adapt to a new reality – able to find creative ways of being church, even if it’s not quite the same as it was before.
We’ve learned that, unfortunately, a whole lot of people seem to value their individual freedoms over the wellbeing of their neighbors – that a lot of people are suspicious of expertise and authority – that some of us can politicize anything, even the deadliest pandemic in a century.
And, in this time when we’re forced to wait – to wait for the person ahead of on the supermarket checkout line – wait outside stores and businesses that have reached capacity – wait for the end of political disputes - wait for the vaccine to be distributed – during this time when we’ve been forced to wait, we’ve learned that many of us are… not so good at waiting.
Maybe it’s partly because of fast food and microwave ovens and instant communication and next day delivery (or even same day delivery!), but generally we’re not good at waiting. We want the problem solved right this minute – we want the disease eradicated today – we want to go back to the way things used to be, no later than tomorrow – I want the person ahead of me on the checkout line to get a move on already!
We may not like waiting, we may not want to wait, but here in church Advent is the season of waiting – all about watching and preparing.
In fact, our resistance to waiting is one of the reasons why most people usually don’t pay any attention to Advent – we’re impatient to just get Christmas started already.
But, this year is different.
Even if we’ve already put up our tree (and that’s fine), even if we’re already playing Christmas music (and that’s fine, too), this Advent we are being forced to wait.
So, the question is, what are we to do while we wait?
If you were here last Sunday, you may remember that we were reintroduced to one of the main characters of Advent: John the Baptist.
John was a powerful prophet, unafraid to place his total trust in God, courageous enough to point out the wrongdoing he saw going on around him, and bold enough to call people to repent, to change their ways, to be dunked in the River Jordan, washing away their sins, making a fresh start on a different kind of life.
One of the things that I find surprising about John the Baptist is that he was popular. Despite his seemingly harsh message, we’re told that he attracted large and devoted crowds from Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside.
John the Baptist was so popular and powerful that some people, probably quite a few people, wondered if he might be the Messiah, the savior of Israel.
The people had been waiting for a messiah for a long time – and especially now under harsh Roman rule there was much anticipation that this long period of waiting was about to end.
So, maybe it’s my imagination but in today’s gospel lesson I think we can hear some impatience when the priests and Levites are sent to find out who John is exactly.
They cut right to the chase, asking John, “Who are you?”
Well, it turns out that John is not the long-awaited messiah or even the return of Elijah, but he is the one preparing the way for the messiah.
And then John gives them news that still must have been surprising, even though they had been waiting so long. John says,
“Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me.”
What are we to do while we wait?
In today’s second lesson we heard a beautiful snippet from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, what most scholars believe is the oldest text in the New Testament, written just twenty or so years after the days of Jesus’ earthly lifetime.
And, it turns out that the members of the little Thessalonian church have been waiting, too.
They’ve been waiting for the promised return of Jesus – an event that was expected to happen very soon – but now a couple of decades have gone by and the Thessalonians are starting to worry, starting to get impatient.
So, in part, Paul writes to reassure them, to remind them of God’s faithfulness no matter what, even if God’s timetable is not ours.
And then Paul tells the Thessalonians what they are to do while they wait – what we are supposed to do while we wait.
We are to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…hold fast to what is good; abstain from every evil.
Finally, in today’s first lesson from the Prophet Isaiah, we heard the passage that Jesus himself quoted in his hometown synagogue – the passage that serves as a kind of job description for Jesus – words that serve as a kind of job description for us, his followers:
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners…”
So, what are we to do while we wait?
Well, with God’s help…
We are to rejoice always.
We are to pray without ceasing.
We are to give thanks, no matter what.
We are to hold fast to what is good and abstain from every evil.
And, we are to bring good news to the people who are hurting, offer freedom to those who are imprisoned.
With God’s help that’s what we are to do while we wait – and, you may not have realized this, but actually that’s what we have been doing during these long months of waiting.
By now, you may be tired of hearing me talk about our Church By Phone services but, my goodness, I’m amazed that so many of you continue to call in day after day – holding each other tight over the phone - rejoicing as we acknowledge the blessings we receive day after day, especially during this hard time – praying without ceasing for one another – praying for the many people who are hurting, all those many people on our prayer list, praying for the doctors and nurses and scientists, for those in positions of great responsibility, for those about to assume positions of great responsibility - asking God for our daily bread and to forgive us our trespasses.
That’s what we do while we wait.
Christmas is going to be a difficult time for many people this year, including many of us here in our congregation.
To be honest, knowing how many of you are facing financial challenges and how hard it is to get around, I wasn’t sure if we should even try to do our usual Christmas giving tree, but finally the staff and I agreed we should try and hope for the best.
The need is so great.
Garden State CDC sent us information for forty children from poor families, whose Christmas joy depended at least in part on us.
To my amazement, despite all of the obstacles, thanks to you, all forty of those children will be getting Christmas gifts (actually we have a few extra!) – bringing a little bit of good news indeed to the oppressed.
That’s what we do while we wait.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago a former student of mine – someone I haven’t seen in probably twenty-five years – sent me a message asking if there was a family in our church who needed help this Christmas.
I said yes, and with incredible generosity this woman and her husband have taken it upon themselves to provide a beautiful Christmas for this family, buying gifts for people they don’t know and will probably never meet, even ordering them a tree with ornaments.
I still can’t get over this kindness and sacrifice – this binding up of the brokenhearted.
That’s what we do while we wait.
Today is the Third Sunday of Advent.
We’ve switched the liturgical color from blue to rose (not pink!), reminding us to rejoice, because Christmas is not so far off.
Christmas really is coming, and thanks to some amazingly generous people it will be even more joyful than it might have been.
But, after Christmas we’ll have weeks and months of more waiting ahead of us.
That’s tough to take.
But, with God’s help we’ll manage, because we know what to do, while we wait.
Amen.
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