Watching and Waiting

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Advent B1
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Micah 5:2

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

Do you realize that there’s a lot we hold in common with the first-century inhabitants of Bethlehem?

We (at times more noticeably than at others) share the burden of living in the expectation of what is yet to come – what has yet to be. We, like our counterparts then, live with the longing of a time of fulfillment, of rejoicing, of celebrating the coming of the Messiah.

To be sure, we have a degree of comfort in our waiting the likes of which the residents of Bethlehem could not even dream about. Air Conditioning, Heating, indoor plumbing, transportation and mobility in general as well as communication capabilities that would stun them into silence, to say nothing of the ease with which we go about feeding ourselves, all these and even the clothes we wear would be so far out of even the wildest imagination of those early … watchers and waiters that it is almost like comparing apples and oranges.

That is not the only thing we share with our counterparts of the early years of the first century of the Common Era.

We also share the burden of oppression – though it takes a less obvious form than a despot named Herod, or occupying armies of soldiers with spears and swords. The oppression we live under is more pervasive, more insidious, than they were.

I don’t believe in taking on a victim mentality, but there are certain aspects of living in this day and age that can be as degrading, as nullifying as the prospect of death was then. We face the prospect of being relegated to irrelevance just as quickly and with just as little thought.

As I have noted before, one of the deepest-seated needs of the human heart is to have made a difference – to be of significance – maybe not in a grand way, we are not all called or gifted in such a way as to make that a probability, but in a local, more personal, and in that sense, a more immediate way.

I remember watching a documentary once, it was entitled ‘the heart of hatred’, and it dealt with racism in contemporary France. The producers took a mixed group of individuals – from Algiers and other former Franco-African colonies, and put them together with a cross section of Frenchmen of European origin, and over the course of 3 or 4 days had them talk through, in several sessions, talk out their fears and anxieties and attitudes towards each other.

At one point, one of the senior native Frenchmen in the group, who had been outspokenly pro-integration of the disparate communities, on hearing a comment from one of the other, less open-minded men in the group which gave an indication that he was coming around to a more inclusive attitude burst into tears. When asked why he was crying, his response was ‘if I’ve made any difference, any difference at all, in the heart of that man that might result in a change of attitude and a reconciliation between the races, I would consider this time to not have been wasted.’

To be honest, in watching the documentary, it seemed a response that was not entirely proportional to the event. It didn’t seem to be that big a deal to me. Though part of it might have been due to the fact that the documentary was in French, with Spanish subtitles … so there’s a real probability that some of the emotional impact was lost in translation. Be that as it may, we come back to the fact that there is a longing in human nature to … have made an impact, in however small a way, on the society in which we live.

I heard a wonderful saying on NPR yesterday. It was a saying by an unnamed rabbi, which was “always carry two notes with you – one in each pocket – on one have written the message ‘today, the world was made JUST for you.’ On the other, have written the message, ‘you are an insignificant speck of dust in a meaningless world.’”

Somewhere between the two is where we live our lives. But we are under the oppression of a world that says ‘what is of most value is what you can lay your hands on, and whoever has the most wins.’ That can be oppressive in the extreme. One of our more socially conscious Christian Magazines has for the last several years promoted the day after thanksgiving as the ‘buy nothing day’ – in order to make a statement about how we will not bow to the rampant materialism that is taking over the season of Advent.

So it really can be sneaky – after all, you’re giving a gift TO someone you love OUT of love. And yet, in that giving, there are ways in which we can easily lose sight of why the season was celebrated to begin with.

So we find ourselves watching and waiting. Waiting for what comes next, for the coming of the Messiah. How easy, it seems in retrospect, they missed it the first time around. “They” were expecting someone else … “they” were expecting a political and military champion … “they” were expecting this or that …

When in truth, God surprised us all by sending a baby … one of THE MOST defenseless creatures we can ever imagine – to become the savior of us all.

So we watch and wait and pray for God to surprise us again – to catch us in the act of being his disciples, his lovers, his followers.

Let’s pray.