The Richness of Waiting

Many of you know that Advent is a season of the church year that I treasure.  The roots of this come from my time in the Episcopal Church, in my 20s and 30s, and a rector who was insistent that we not celebrate too early.  So we didn’t sing “Christmas” hymns and carols until Christmas.  During Advent we sang Advent hymns – Come Thou Long Expected Jesus or O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  

I’d grown up in a church where Advent pretty much consisted of a different family each week lighting the candles on the Advent wreath and reading a short liturgical script to accompany that.  It wasn’t particularly meaningful to me.  And it was nothing compared to the richness of learning the value of seasons that focus on waiting and yearning.

So my Advent wreath comes out each year, a collection of tall thick candles so I can light them daily and let them burn most of the day.

I’m now in a church I love, but we’re halfway through Advent and there has been no reference to it at all.  And I’ll admit – I miss it.  

I miss contemplating as a church family the privilege of walking with those who had waited 400 years for the appearance of the Messiah.  Sharing a bit of their journey.  Simeon and Anna – I love the stories of their joy when they met the One they had waited their whole lives for.  (And I wrote some about this waiting in Waiting and Advent.)

Waiting – and the yearning that increases as we wait – is a good thing.  It prepares our hearts.  It creates a deeper gratitude when the gift is received.  It is rich in and of itself, not just a “necessary evil” that eventually gets us where we want to be.  

But Advent, for those of us in the 21st century, is a season that should remind us that we are also, in a very real sense, waiting for the coming of Jesus.  Not a reminder that he came at Christmas.  Not just an experiencing a bit of our ancestors’ journey.  But the expectation that He is coming again – in glory and love and power and righteousness.  To reconcile creation to Himself.  To bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth in a way that we haven’t seen before.  

I didn’t grow up realizing that was part of Advent.  (Actually, I grew up in a church that never mentioned the second coming of Jesus!)   And I still don’t think I’ve fully embraced it.  But the hope of that future day, and the desire for it to come, has begun to put down deeper roots in my spirit.  The weariness of the world stirs the desire for the day to come when there will be an end to war and pain and death.    

The incarnation has always resonated deeply with me – the reality that Jesus would come into our messy world.  Scratch and Dent Jesus  and Jesus and Poverty and Dwelling Among Us talk about that.  The God who is “down here” and not just “up there”.  And it’s a richness I tap into during Advent.  

This year, however, I’m trying to tap into the desire for when He comes again.  And I think I’m learning to wait on that in ways that build desire and yearning.  Come Lord Jesus.