“May it be to me as you have said.” – Mary of Nazareth (Luke 1:38)
“Advent is the first season in the Christian liturgical calendar. Derived from the Latin word adventus and the Greek word parousia, it means ‘coming’ and refers to the coming of Christ. Christians recognize the four weeks of Advent as a time to anticipate the birth of Christ and the second coming of Christ at the final judgment.” – Enuma Okorru, Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, p. 7
In the past, I had appreciated the meaningful and necessary spiritual preparation that the Advent season offers for all Christians who anticipate the first coming of Christ that we celebrate during Christmas and Christ’s second coming.
With Pastor Dave’s physical presence gone this year, Advent has become even more meaningful and a source of comfort.
I recognize that God is teaching me a very difficult lesson in hopeful waiting not just for Christmas but for Christ’s final advent.
In my quiet moments, I find the biblical characters in Luke’s Gospel as inspiring companions in this challenging journey of living in the here and the not yet.
In my waiting, I am learning to trust God even when all I can hear at the moment is silence.
The late Henri Nouwen, one of the Christian writers whose wisdom I value, wrote, “The gospels are full of stories of waiting. The story of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke introduces us to five people who are waiting with expectation –Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon, and Anna.
Besides being individuals loved by God, they are representatives of the waiting Israel. They can wait for the promise to be fulfilled, to wait with attention to the Word, and to wait with hopeful expectation…They were alert and responsive to the voice that spoke to them and said, ‘Don’t be afraid. Something is happening to you. Pay attention.’
Mary, especially, was patient and attentive in her waiting. ‘May it be to me as you have said’ (Luke 1:38) … Patient waiting is staying fully in the present moment.” (Henri Nouwen, Discernment, 151 and 153)
Patient waiting is not easy. We feel restless and impatient. We want to do something other than wait.
But patient waiting is not idle waiting. Patient waiting is active waiting.
For Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon, and Anna, it meant listening to God in prayer, worship, and service.
The five people in Luke’s Gospel knew how to live with God’s silence and keep moving forward while anticipating the fulfillment of God’s promise. They were practitioners of patient waiting.
Out of this patient waiting, God will act and invites us to participate in God’s actions that bring about salvation, justice, and peace.
God will show us the way to a hopeful future as a church and servants of God.
In our journey towards the joyful day of Christmas, may each Advent Sunday be a rest stop when we pause, pray, sing, listen to God’s message, give thanks for the gift of Jesus in His first coming, and prepare for his final Coming in his glory and majesty.
May we live with courage and patient waiting for God to lead and empower us to be the hands and feet of Jesus not only this Christmas but in the coming new year.
Have a Blessed Advent and A Joyful Christmas!
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Carla
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