"Let the Waiting Begin"
“Let The Waiting Begin”
Advent I
Mark 13:24-32
Rev Carolyn Waters
November 27, 2005 CCUM
It’s the first Sunday of Advent! Do you know what you are waiting for?
Wait you must, for the next four weeks. Wait you will, whether you want to or not.
Waiting is the single most word that describes these four week of our liturgical year. It has become a helpful way to “countdown” 4….3…..2…..1…..Christmas!
According to an article Ben found in an old Christianity Today, the tradition of Advent began in the 4th/5th Century of Spain as a preparation for Epiphany! The time we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, the visit of the Magi! The Romans took over Advent in the 6th Century, linking it to the “coming” of Christ. “Coming” was not about the birth, but about the “second coming,” thus the scripture today from Mark warning listeners to be alert and awake for we do not know the hour or the time that Christ will come. By the middle ages, Advent focused on the “birth” of the Christ Child, but not without the mixture of the second coming theology. (Advent---Close Encounters of a Liturgical Kind<” by Chris Armstrong. Dec 6, 2002 Christianity Today.)
So today we begin the process of liturgical waiting, anticipation of getting from this day, to the 25th day of December.
A story is told about a little boy that could not wait to get to high school. The high school kids seemed to have so much fun. Once he got to high school however, he noticed that the people, like his sister, who had gone off to college were having more fun than he was. He could not wait to get to college. But college seemed to drag on after a time and he was tired of all the homework. He couldn’t wait to get out of school, get a job and make some money. When he got his first job, it seemed as though people who were really happy were the ones with a wife or husband, a couple of children and a home with a back yard – maybe even a family dog. But once he was married and had two children and a mortgage and a dog, he envied those couples whose children had gone away to college. They had so much more time for each other. Finally his children had left for college. But now the burden of a mortgage and tuition for two children was very heavy and he couldn’t wait to be out of debt, pay off his house and retire. Then he could have some real fun like all those people who move to Arizona and play golf every day. Then one day – in the early winter of his life – standing at the tee of the 18th hole of the golf course near his home in Phoenix –– he thought to himself, "What’s the point?"
Our senses are often numbed by the Christmas season. We look around and go “What’s the point?” We may step aside from the hustle and bustle, declaring it all too commercial or far to full of simple consumerism mentality. But often in doing so, the cynic is alive and well in our attitude and even the spiritual aspect of the season is lost, forgotten, or simply ignored.
What is the point? Well, if we can’t enjoy the waiting………..we miss the experience and the expectation. If we can’t live in the midst of the unknown, the not knowing, then our dept of faith is wanton and shallow. Whether we are waiting for new life, or waiting for the announcement of death, we are living in the mean time………..we are living in the moment of the experience, we are living with the known and the unknown.
What we know is that God will show up again and again and again. What we don’t know is exactly how or when God will show up. So in the mean time we rehearse a story that has come to be so meaningful that nothing else can replace it. We rehearse a story for 4,3,2,1 weeks that opens our hearts to the possibility of beauty and love coming into the world over and over again. The already and not yet nature of God with us, but we are waiting for the already and not yet presence of God to return.
Part of the reason we can wait is because we know what we are waiting for. Part of the reason we can wait is because of the anticipation of a surprise that we know nothing about. We wait with patience because we know the wait is not forever, we wait with impatience because we just can’t wait to find out what God is going to do next.
Jenee Woodward, is the pastor of a local church, and shared her “Advent Waiting” story three years ago with her congregation. Her son Phil has autism. At the time she told her story he was 10 years old. He is severely handicapped by his disability. The family learned to slow down at Christmas a number of years ago when Phil was unable to tolerate *any* of the celebration. “He could not handle the changing scenarios - the twinkling lights, the changes in grocery store displays, the changes in the sanctuary at church, presents appearing under the tree, the tree ITSELF, and the moved furniture. He would fall on the floor and scream, unable to move, afraid to open his eyes, almost constantly from Thanksgiving until well after Christmas when it was all over.” His parents carried him through that time his head covered with his coat so they could get through the grocery store, or sat they with him huddled in his room, carefully ordered EXACTLY the same since summer, with no Christmas trappings.
Their neighbor across the street was one of those folks who bought every new outdoor Christmas display. Phil slept on the sofa in the living room for two Decembers, trying to stay awake so he could make sure that all of the lights across the street (on the whole block!) were functioning correctly. If one went out, or if the lights came on or turned off outside the proper times, he would scream and cry in panic until it was fixed.
Worship on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day was over-crowded and yet hushed, not a good combination for an autistic child. Christmas celebrations at home were a nightmare. Phil would scream and cry as each package was moved and (gasp!) unwrapped. As frightened as he was when each new thing appeared, he was equally frightened when it changed or disappeared. The family would try to find him a present he'd enjoy, but he'd merely scream and cry in panic at the intrusion on his carefully ordered world, and the gifts would sit ignored until he outgrew them and they gave them to some little boy who could appreciate them.
He wanted nothing. He would look straight at toys his parents thought he would like, and he would not react at all. He asked for nothing. He anticipated nothing. He just screamed and cried at all of it. His mother Jenee said in her story that “it is no bliss to have a child who doesn't get it - who doesn't want anything and doesn't want to have anything to do with Christmas commercialism - or it is only bliss in some romantic fantasy. In real life it is a surreal nightmare.”
Three years ago, right around Thanksgiving, one more time they asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Their 14-year-old daughter sat down and made out her list. And Phil, their 10-year old son, for the first time in his life, answered the question. "PlayStation 2," he said. "I want PlayStation 2 Christmas." She says they just about fell over. His sister gave him a piece of paper. She wrote "Phil's Christmas List" at the top. He wrote, "PLAYSTATION TOW" under her heading. "At Sam's," he said. "Go to car."
So, they drove to Sam's right then. Phil had never looked at anything there, never seemed to notice that Sam's had anything he might want. But he led them right to the PlayStation 2 sets, picked out the bundle he wanted and put it in the cart. "Open at Christmas," he said. He watched gleefully as they wrapped the package, and then he solemnly placed it under the tree. So, a PlayStation 2 game set sat there, wrapped, with his name on it, and he waited to open it. "December 25," Phil says. "Open PlayStation 2 December 25."
One night during Advent the family returned from yet another Christmas rehearsal with at church, Phil found a Best Buy ad in the paper and turned immediately to the PlayStation games. He circled "Harry Potter" and "John Madden Football", handed the ad to his dad, and said, "I want Christmas." There were tears in his mothers eyes. Jenee says of this moment: “It's was such a small thing, but such a truly amazing thing. It was one more bit of hope that Phil will be able to function in some semblance of society as an adult one day - that he might be able to live just a BIT more independently, and one day want the things he needs to survive enough to work for them. His mother says “consumerism might be ‘the enemy’, but a kid who understands none of it is only a hero in a Chicken Soup For The Soul story.
Jenee ended the story of Phil’s advent this way: “This Advent season I am grateful for being able to appreciate what complexity and miracle is involved in such small "selfish" acts as wanting something for Christmas and expressing those wants to another person. I'm grateful that my son is able to enjoy all of the commercial cultural trappings of the holiday this year instead of running from them screaming. I'm grateful for the many ways Phil helps me stop and look again, even at my most ‘Christian’ conclusions. And I'm especially grateful that my son helps me see Christ's humble birth, over and over again, even in the midst of nightmares and worries I could not have imagined 10 years ago, even in the midst of Advent.”
(http://www.textweek.com/advent_story.htm)
After I read that story several weeks ago I e-mail Jenee Woodward and thanked her for sharing her life with thousands of would be strangers on the Internet. She responded saying that Phil is 13 years old now and enjoys the preparations for Christmas more and more.
Phil’s story reminds me that even when we know what we are waiting for, we can do so with joy and expectation. And Phil’s story reminds me that even when we know what we are waiting for, we can do so with anticipation and wonder. No matter how much we think we know about what we are waiting for, we are still caught in mystery and darkness and not knowing. Jenee and Phil both knew what was under the Christmas tree, but neither of them knows what the future will bring.
We know most of what we expect will happen in this time of Advent as we prepare for our individual celebrations with family and friends. But there is always space in the stolen moments of darkness that surprise us. Not all of the surprises are filled with joy. Many of them are filled with great sadness.
Some people wait to be able to return to their home, after almost four months of homelessness. Others wait to return from war. Some familys wait for a doctor’s report or text results, others may have to wait for endless hours in a surgery waiting room.
Whether we wait for the known or the unknown, whether we wait for the expected or unexpected, whether we wait for the good news or the hard news, we are invited to wait for it with patience, and we are invited to wait for it with God. If we wait all alone, it’s chaos and terror, like a neighborhood full of lights to an autistic child. If we wait for the unexpected with God, then we wait with hope, knowing some of how the story goes, but also knowing that in God’s universe the unknown holds the deepest mystery of expectation and grace.
We can wait, because we know what we are waiting for. We have to wait, because we really have no idea what God is going to do.
Advent I
Mark 13:24-32
Rev Carolyn Waters
November 27, 2005 CCUM
It’s the first Sunday of Advent! Do you know what you are waiting for?
Wait you must, for the next four weeks. Wait you will, whether you want to or not.
Waiting is the single most word that describes these four week of our liturgical year. It has become a helpful way to “countdown” 4….3…..2…..1…..Christmas!
According to an article Ben found in an old Christianity Today, the tradition of Advent began in the 4th/5th Century of Spain as a preparation for Epiphany! The time we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, the visit of the Magi! The Romans took over Advent in the 6th Century, linking it to the “coming” of Christ. “Coming” was not about the birth, but about the “second coming,” thus the scripture today from Mark warning listeners to be alert and awake for we do not know the hour or the time that Christ will come. By the middle ages, Advent focused on the “birth” of the Christ Child, but not without the mixture of the second coming theology. (Advent---Close Encounters of a Liturgical Kind<” by Chris Armstrong. Dec 6, 2002 Christianity Today.)
So today we begin the process of liturgical waiting, anticipation of getting from this day, to the 25th day of December.
A story is told about a little boy that could not wait to get to high school. The high school kids seemed to have so much fun. Once he got to high school however, he noticed that the people, like his sister, who had gone off to college were having more fun than he was. He could not wait to get to college. But college seemed to drag on after a time and he was tired of all the homework. He couldn’t wait to get out of school, get a job and make some money. When he got his first job, it seemed as though people who were really happy were the ones with a wife or husband, a couple of children and a home with a back yard – maybe even a family dog. But once he was married and had two children and a mortgage and a dog, he envied those couples whose children had gone away to college. They had so much more time for each other. Finally his children had left for college. But now the burden of a mortgage and tuition for two children was very heavy and he couldn’t wait to be out of debt, pay off his house and retire. Then he could have some real fun like all those people who move to Arizona and play golf every day. Then one day – in the early winter of his life – standing at the tee of the 18th hole of the golf course near his home in Phoenix –– he thought to himself, "What’s the point?"
Our senses are often numbed by the Christmas season. We look around and go “What’s the point?” We may step aside from the hustle and bustle, declaring it all too commercial or far to full of simple consumerism mentality. But often in doing so, the cynic is alive and well in our attitude and even the spiritual aspect of the season is lost, forgotten, or simply ignored.
What is the point? Well, if we can’t enjoy the waiting………..we miss the experience and the expectation. If we can’t live in the midst of the unknown, the not knowing, then our dept of faith is wanton and shallow. Whether we are waiting for new life, or waiting for the announcement of death, we are living in the mean time………..we are living in the moment of the experience, we are living with the known and the unknown.
What we know is that God will show up again and again and again. What we don’t know is exactly how or when God will show up. So in the mean time we rehearse a story that has come to be so meaningful that nothing else can replace it. We rehearse a story for 4,3,2,1 weeks that opens our hearts to the possibility of beauty and love coming into the world over and over again. The already and not yet nature of God with us, but we are waiting for the already and not yet presence of God to return.
Part of the reason we can wait is because we know what we are waiting for. Part of the reason we can wait is because of the anticipation of a surprise that we know nothing about. We wait with patience because we know the wait is not forever, we wait with impatience because we just can’t wait to find out what God is going to do next.
Jenee Woodward, is the pastor of a local church, and shared her “Advent Waiting” story three years ago with her congregation. Her son Phil has autism. At the time she told her story he was 10 years old. He is severely handicapped by his disability. The family learned to slow down at Christmas a number of years ago when Phil was unable to tolerate *any* of the celebration. “He could not handle the changing scenarios - the twinkling lights, the changes in grocery store displays, the changes in the sanctuary at church, presents appearing under the tree, the tree ITSELF, and the moved furniture. He would fall on the floor and scream, unable to move, afraid to open his eyes, almost constantly from Thanksgiving until well after Christmas when it was all over.” His parents carried him through that time his head covered with his coat so they could get through the grocery store, or sat they with him huddled in his room, carefully ordered EXACTLY the same since summer, with no Christmas trappings.
Their neighbor across the street was one of those folks who bought every new outdoor Christmas display. Phil slept on the sofa in the living room for two Decembers, trying to stay awake so he could make sure that all of the lights across the street (on the whole block!) were functioning correctly. If one went out, or if the lights came on or turned off outside the proper times, he would scream and cry in panic until it was fixed.
Worship on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day was over-crowded and yet hushed, not a good combination for an autistic child. Christmas celebrations at home were a nightmare. Phil would scream and cry as each package was moved and (gasp!) unwrapped. As frightened as he was when each new thing appeared, he was equally frightened when it changed or disappeared. The family would try to find him a present he'd enjoy, but he'd merely scream and cry in panic at the intrusion on his carefully ordered world, and the gifts would sit ignored until he outgrew them and they gave them to some little boy who could appreciate them.
He wanted nothing. He would look straight at toys his parents thought he would like, and he would not react at all. He asked for nothing. He anticipated nothing. He just screamed and cried at all of it. His mother Jenee said in her story that “it is no bliss to have a child who doesn't get it - who doesn't want anything and doesn't want to have anything to do with Christmas commercialism - or it is only bliss in some romantic fantasy. In real life it is a surreal nightmare.”
Three years ago, right around Thanksgiving, one more time they asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Their 14-year-old daughter sat down and made out her list. And Phil, their 10-year old son, for the first time in his life, answered the question. "PlayStation 2," he said. "I want PlayStation 2 Christmas." She says they just about fell over. His sister gave him a piece of paper. She wrote "Phil's Christmas List" at the top. He wrote, "PLAYSTATION TOW" under her heading. "At Sam's," he said. "Go to car."
So, they drove to Sam's right then. Phil had never looked at anything there, never seemed to notice that Sam's had anything he might want. But he led them right to the PlayStation 2 sets, picked out the bundle he wanted and put it in the cart. "Open at Christmas," he said. He watched gleefully as they wrapped the package, and then he solemnly placed it under the tree. So, a PlayStation 2 game set sat there, wrapped, with his name on it, and he waited to open it. "December 25," Phil says. "Open PlayStation 2 December 25."
One night during Advent the family returned from yet another Christmas rehearsal with at church, Phil found a Best Buy ad in the paper and turned immediately to the PlayStation games. He circled "Harry Potter" and "John Madden Football", handed the ad to his dad, and said, "I want Christmas." There were tears in his mothers eyes. Jenee says of this moment: “It's was such a small thing, but such a truly amazing thing. It was one more bit of hope that Phil will be able to function in some semblance of society as an adult one day - that he might be able to live just a BIT more independently, and one day want the things he needs to survive enough to work for them. His mother says “consumerism might be ‘the enemy’, but a kid who understands none of it is only a hero in a Chicken Soup For The Soul story.
Jenee ended the story of Phil’s advent this way: “This Advent season I am grateful for being able to appreciate what complexity and miracle is involved in such small "selfish" acts as wanting something for Christmas and expressing those wants to another person. I'm grateful that my son is able to enjoy all of the commercial cultural trappings of the holiday this year instead of running from them screaming. I'm grateful for the many ways Phil helps me stop and look again, even at my most ‘Christian’ conclusions. And I'm especially grateful that my son helps me see Christ's humble birth, over and over again, even in the midst of nightmares and worries I could not have imagined 10 years ago, even in the midst of Advent.”
(http://www.textweek.com/advent_story.htm)
After I read that story several weeks ago I e-mail Jenee Woodward and thanked her for sharing her life with thousands of would be strangers on the Internet. She responded saying that Phil is 13 years old now and enjoys the preparations for Christmas more and more.
Phil’s story reminds me that even when we know what we are waiting for, we can do so with joy and expectation. And Phil’s story reminds me that even when we know what we are waiting for, we can do so with anticipation and wonder. No matter how much we think we know about what we are waiting for, we are still caught in mystery and darkness and not knowing. Jenee and Phil both knew what was under the Christmas tree, but neither of them knows what the future will bring.
We know most of what we expect will happen in this time of Advent as we prepare for our individual celebrations with family and friends. But there is always space in the stolen moments of darkness that surprise us. Not all of the surprises are filled with joy. Many of them are filled with great sadness.
Some people wait to be able to return to their home, after almost four months of homelessness. Others wait to return from war. Some familys wait for a doctor’s report or text results, others may have to wait for endless hours in a surgery waiting room.
Whether we wait for the known or the unknown, whether we wait for the expected or unexpected, whether we wait for the good news or the hard news, we are invited to wait for it with patience, and we are invited to wait for it with God. If we wait all alone, it’s chaos and terror, like a neighborhood full of lights to an autistic child. If we wait for the unexpected with God, then we wait with hope, knowing some of how the story goes, but also knowing that in God’s universe the unknown holds the deepest mystery of expectation and grace.
We can wait, because we know what we are waiting for. We have to wait, because we really have no idea what God is going to do.
posted by Rev Waters | 7:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home