Yes, it stung. But, in thinking about that moment, something occurred to me… I realized that even at an early age, God is trying to teach us a fundamental truth: The Christian life – really, life in God – is a life of waiting! In fact, I’d say that we are shaped by God in these moments of waiting.

In the Old Testament we find:

Abraham & Sara – had to wait until they were well into old age, before they would see God’s promise of a child happen, and with it the fulfillment of God’s covenant that Abraham that he would be the father of a nation.

Zechariah & Elizabeth – the parents of John the Baptist, had a similar experience.

Moses was long-suffering, leading the people through 40 years of wandering and ultimately not being allowed to join them in the Promised Land.

In the New Testament:

Time and again Jesus cautions someone that was touched by him, healed by him – do not say anything – it is not my time yet! In a sense, he was asking them to wait!

In the book of Acts, Jesus tells the disciples they must wait for the Holy Spirit to come so that they would receive power and be able to stand against all that would be thrown at them as they made their way out into the world as witnesses for Jesus Christ.

And, the Epistles that we read from Sunday to Sunday are meant to help us, the Church, to learn how to cope in this world while we wait for Christ’s return.

Even if you examine a basic difference between our faith as Christians and that of Judaism, the root from which we sprang: we wait for a Messiah who is yet to return; they wait for a Messiah who is yet to come! Life in God is a life shaped through waiting! 2

The trouble is that in this world – we really don’t like to wait! It’s an inconvenience; a nuisance; almost an irritant. Waiting is to be tolerated; gotten through, or just avoided altogether.

It’s an irritant – like that burst of annoyance that bubbles up when you’re driving behind someone that is going slower than you’d like – and there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it – there’s no one in front of him – why isn’t he going? So you go around him. Doesn’t matter if you were really trying to get somewhere by a certain time – it’s the principle of the thing.

Waiting is… a nuisance – the thing that – this time of year – drives us to move from check- out line – to check out line – to check out line – at the department store – trying to find the shortest one that’s going to get us out faster. After all, waiting on line is cutting into my time to get to the next thing on my list! At the supermarket, I especially love folks at the self-checkout - who start scanning their items before you’ve even bagged yours!

Waiting is… to be avoided – it’s an inconvenience! I don’t want to see the commercials, so I DVR right through them. I don’t want to or have to wait until I get home to check my e-mail or get a phone call – I carry my Blackberry or iphone with me. I don’t want to wait on line for movie tickets – I’ll order them online and pay a little extra.

Waiting is...something to be endured – Thanksgiving night – Marv and I were driving back from the city after midnight –and as we approached Central Avenue and passed ‘Toys R Us’, we saw that there was a line of cars snaking down from the parking lot to the roadway. We decided to make a game of this, so we took the long way home and drove up Central Avenue to see if there were mobs of people at the malls. And, sure enough, we passed 2 Best Buy stores and saw that the line stretched from the front entrance, around the building to the back of it. We’ll endure waiting if there’s a pay-off.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with liking convenience – and- This is how the world views ‘waiting’. But, as with so many other things, we as Christians are called to be ‘IN the world and not OF the world!’ Not only are we called to ‘wait’ - WE are called to wait in a posture of ‘joyful expectation’! But, what does that mean to us in this time and in this place – a people called to a life of waiting joyfully – living in a world that does not like to wait?

Our Old Testament lesson provides some insight, but we need some context in order to appreciate it. You see, the prophet Zephaniah was speaking to God’s people, and they were living in particularly difficult times. I have to believe that we’re not that much different from the people of that time. Judah had had its ups and downs. We can imagine that the average person was just trying to live their life, take care of their family, and serve God. But, they looked around them and saw a world that was going from bad to worse. They saw leaders who had no morals, no scruples and no values. 3

They experienced oppressive greed, intolerable violence, government corruption that led all the way to the top. As with us, I’m sure the evening news for them was no picnic to hear either. They’d felt the impact of fear so constant it was numbing. Every some odd years someone would come into power that truly loved God and desired to follow God’s lead. And things would be good – for awhile. And then, that ruler would die out and things would go from good to bad to worse again. And over the years, God would send prophet after prophet to warn the people and their rulers – ‘turn back to God before it is too late. Life does not have to be this way; stop trying to do it on your own. Seek Me, and My ways or you will pay a terrible, terrible price.’

I can imagine that when their city was demolished, their honored place of worship, the temple -destroyed, when they were dragged away from everything they knew and loved, and taken into slavery, that Zephaniah’s words came back to them. I can imagine that when they were taken away from people that they loved; from traditions they cherished; from the central place where they communed with their God – Zephaniah’s words became something to hold on to.

Thru Zephaniah, God had made a promise. Yes, you will suffer for a time. But, eventually, you will be made whole. You will see your homeland and your loved ones again. I will restore you. Rejoice and be content in the knowledge that what you are seeing and experiencing right now will not last. But my promises to you for peace and prosperity and joy – that is lasting and that is coming! Zephaniah provided the people with hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. They could survive the Now because, in faith, they knew the future God promised to them.

The people of Judah were taken to a strange land to live with and serve strange people. And, despite all of their problems, this had been a close knit community, bonded over centuries by a common experience – now torn away and torn apart. There is something about a group’s common experience of suffering that bonds them in ways that are very powerful.

My great-grandmother was born in the year 1900 and I was blessed to know her until I was well into my 20s. I am just the fourth generation in my family that emerged out of American slavery. Having known her, I can listen to or sing a spiritual and still grasp what that meant to an oppressed people – they were my family; my community. I’ve stood at the ‘door of no return’ on Goree Island in Senegal and can grasp what it meant to be dragged away from your home across a vast ocean, never to be seen by your loved ones again – and I’m grateful to have experienced what it feels like to be welcomed back as a ‘symbolic incarnation’ of those 4

that were taken away. There is a very personal response in me thinking about what deliverance meant, because I would very likely not be standing here without it.

I would imagine that with Israel - both ancient and modern day Israel –there’s a similar sensibility. Or even, Palestinians or Native Americans. The point is there is something about a group’s common experience of suffering that bonds them; there is a collective drawing in and drawing together that is centered by a common belief, a common threat, a common lifestyle, a common identity, and, yes, even a common God.

But, for the average person, we probably can’t personally relate to this situation, can we? What are the chances that folks are going to come into Mamaroneck, destroy our church and cart us off to be slaves? That kind of collective fear and despair is a bit removed from us. We are blessed to enjoy so much freedom and we take much for granted. It makes it a bit difficult for us to understand that kind of collective pain and oppression. So, how do we begin to get our arms around what it means to long for deliverance? Not just to live our lives as time passes day by day, but to really experience life as ‘waiting in joyful expectation’?

I wonder if this is why Jesus, throughout his earthly ministry, emphasized that we love each other as much as we love ourselves. As modern day Christians, WE are called to re-create that collective sensibility; Feel that kind of collective pain of suffering – understand that - my brother or my sister’s pain IS my pain - Wherever it’s happening. Think of it as us being Israel or Judah now scattered across a global expanse – for we are all God’s children. This is our common belief, our common lifestyle, and our common identity. It is an identity that at once is sacrificial, compassionate, and redemptive. It is found in Christ and he is the ultimate example of what it means to empathize with a people so completely in their common experience of suffering that he would do whatever he was called to do to bring about an end to it.

This points us toward a longing, a true desire to see God’s promises of peace, prosperity and joy come to pass for all of God’s people. Then, we can begin to center ourselves in this life of ‘waiting’ with joyful expectation - Knowing that, whatever injustice and pain we might see and experience in the NOW is not what God has planned for any of us.

The word from Zephaniah to Judah is a word for us today as a collective, global community of faith – REJOICE, for your deliverance is at hand. If that points us in the right direction, John the Baptist’s words take us the rest of the way. And he’s not particularly genteel in making his point. Reading him here helps you understand why prophets were not particularly popular or well-liked. I read him here, in this passage, almost like a drill sergeant- talking to a group of new recruits that he’s got to help get into shape before the master comes. 5

He’s talking to the ones who have shown up at the water’s edge to be baptized- who say by their presence “I’m ready to turn away from my old ways. If the long awaited Messiah is on the way, I want to be on the right side of things when he gets here. Baptize me, I want to be covered; I want to be saved, I want to be freed. “

But, John figuratively grabs us by the shoulders, saying “You bunch of snakes-not even snakes, but sons and daughters of snakes! This is going to take more than a ritual. It’s more than some words you say. I can baptize you with water. But get ready, because you are going to have to go a whole lot deeper than that. There is one who is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” It’s God’s Spirit that joins us heart to heart; that bonds us as part of this global community of faith.

Get ready – the old ways of belonging won’t apply anymore. It’s not going to be enough to stand on Abraham’s name. It’s not enough to rely on the fact that you’ve gone to church all of your life or that you come faithfully. Be prepared to go deeper. There’s got to be some visible proof – you’ve got to bear fruit –showing that you’ve turned a corner and want to live your life for God.

And with sincere hearts, they say- and hopefully we say - we are ready - what should we do?

We bear fruit when we remember and share with folks who don’t have as much as we do; when we don’t take advantage of each other out of greed or envy; when we don’t lie about - or to - each other. We bear fruit in how we do our jobs; how we treat our immediate and extended family; how we see and respond to the world around us. And we affirm our collective experience at this communion table, which is open to anyone who wants to come. There, we remember that we are one in God’s Spirit; my brother or my sister’s pain IS my pain, wherever they are. And we experience joy at the thought that when Christ comes that pain is relieved forever, for all of us.

What should we do? God calls us to go deeper. Deeper in prayer; deeper in study, deeper in service – until we get to the cross. The cross of collective suffering. The cross of sincere empathy and compassion. The cross of victorious sacrifice.

That is where we await Christ’s return in joyful expectation. Glory Be to God!