“And sure enough even waiting will end… if you just wait long enough.”
William Faulkner
This past week I submitted the text of
my novel, Somewhere West of Rocky Ford,
to the company I am using to “self-publish” it.
After I hit the “submit” button I needed to order a “proof” copy of the
book so I can read through it, find all the typos and formatting errors, fix
them, and then resubmit it. In the near
future it will be available to order in paperback format on Amazon.com and
eventually I’ll order some copies to have on hand if anyone ever wants to buy a
copy. Why am I telling you this? Because the week between when I ordered the
proof copy and when it arrived in the mailbox was excruciating. It has been a dream of mine for more than
half of my life to write a novel and to hold it in my hand, to see my name on
the cover. When the package arrived, for
the first time ever I’d get to hold my dream, to see it made manifest in front
of my eyes. The waiting was torture.
Waiting can be very difficult whether it is waiting
for the proof copy of your novel to arrive or waiting for the workday to be
over, to be called out of the waiting room to see the doctor, to check out at
Wal-Mart, for a family member to arrive for a visit, to see if you got into college,
for test results, or for a baby to be born.
Waiting both tries our patience and
it is the only way to develop it. This is
true of Advent as well.
The current way that our culture
celebrates Christmas is basically as a month long festival of shopping that now
begins before the turkey and stuffing of Thanksgiving have settled in our
bellies, even though by then the Christmas music has already been playing for a
couple of weeks in the stores. Just
after Thanksgiving certain radio stations switch to playing only Christmas
songs. We have work, school, and club
Christmas parties starting in early December.
Even a lot of churches have just thrown up their hands and gone along
with this or they may not know any different.
However, churches like ours that follow the liturgical calendar with
seasons like Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and
then more Ordinary Time, proclaim a different message this time of year. Even if our culture wants everything now,
now, now, we’re going to do something that seems incredibly silly to a lot of
people—we’re going to practice waiting on God.
So much of human existence (and the Scriptures say the existence of
everything in the universe) is spent waiting on God. Advent is a holy season that pays special
attention to this waiting. We want it
now, now, now, but the Church says, “Wait.”
I know some of you are unhappy that we haven’t
sung any Christmas carols in worship yet this year. I’ll go ahead and warn you that we’re not
singing any this Sunday either. Why
not? Well, because even if Christmas is
a month old already outside the
church, Christmas is still a week away in
the church. With Advent the Church is
making you wait. By faithfully observing
Advent in Sunday worship, I am making
you wait. This may be trying your
patience, but I would imagine that it is also developing it.
When we observe Christmas before it is
Christmas then Christmas Eve worship is anticlimactic. After all, we’d never dream of singing “Jesus
Christ is Risen Today” during Lent, on Palm Sunday, on Maundy Thursday, or on
Good Friday. No way! That’s an Easter song. David opens up the organ on Easter morning
and blows the doors off the church like the stone being blown away from the
tomb! Easter worship is a great release
of all the tension that has been built up during Lent and Holy Week. Christmas Eve is supposed to be the same kind of release, albeit a bit more subdued. We lessen and cheapen Christmas Eve when we treat Advent as the first four weeks of Christmas. Christmas Eve should be just as special as
Easter, special enough that we save the carols for that holy night. I promise you that on Christmas Eve we’re going
to read that holiest of stories, we’re going to light candles, and we’re going
to sing, sing, sing Christmas carols until our throats are hoarse and our hearts are filled with
hope, love, joy, and peace. That’s what
we’re going to do on Christmas Eve, but not yet. It’s not Christmas yet. It’s Advent, and Advent is the season for
waiting.
This post will also go out as an email to the congregation.
