Waiting is not something that I do well. Just ask my good wife! Waiting is not one of my spiritual gifts. Even when I try harder, I still get impatient. I am not proud of the fact. But it is the fact. 

Some of you may be familiar with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. My MBTI implies that I want to get on with it. Stop the analysis. Stop exploring all the options. Just do it. 

I don’t like waiting to board a plane or the next “T” into town. I am not fond of checkout lines in a grocery store. Several years ago I started using the self-check out lines as soon as they became available. Most of the time they were empty. Then more and more people started using them. Then glitches developed in the system and people got bogged down. So now I wait again. 

I don’t like lines at the bank. So I use the drive thru every time. Except one day the ATM ate my bankcard. So I had to wait in line to talk to a manager inside. Waiting is not something that I do well. 

We spend a considerable chunk of our lives waiting. What do you wait for these days? Do you wait for Christmas? Or do you wait for Christmas to be over? Do you wait for your kids to leave home – finally?! Or do you wait for them to come back home – finally?! Do you wait for your grandchildren to come for a visit? Or are you waiting for them to leave? 

For what do you wait?

        Do you wait for the light to finally turn green?

        Are you waiting the arrival of a college admission acceptance letter?

        Are you waiting for things to finally get better in your life?

        Are you waiting for a baby to be born or for a struggling life to finally come to an end?

        Are you waiting to feel well again? Are you waiting for the Doctor’s office to call? 

Do you wait for the receptionist in your doctor’s office to finally say, “Ok, it’s your turn. You can go in now?” In the town in which my first church was located there was a beloved woman doctor. She took no appointments and she had no fixed office hours. People just went and sat in her waiting room until she was available to the see them. It was an odd way to run a medical practice. But for many people it was worth the wait.  

You may remember the story of the man who showed up at the doctor’s office. He said to the nurse, “I would like to see the doctor.” The nurse barked, “You need to go into that room over there and take off your cloths, climb into a cot, cover up with a sheet and the doctor will see you in a few minutes.” “But, but, but”, the man stammered. “Listen sir, I am the nurse here and what I say goes. If you want to see the doctor, you will do as I say.”  

The man finally obliged, went into the room, took off his clothes, climbed onto the cot, pulled the sheet up over him. He looked across the room and saw a man in the same position he was in. The first man said, “I really don’t know why I had to go through all of this. I only need a blood test.” The new arrival said, “You think you’ve got it bad, I just came in here to read the water meter.” 

We wait. We wait for all sorts of things, for all sorts of people, for all sorts of solutions. 

Are you waiting for the war in Iraq to finally come to an end? Or are you waiting for some clarity toward a national vision? 

We seem to be always waiting for something. The same was true for people in Isaiah’s time, in our Old Testament reading this morning. They have been waiting for a long time; some of them had been waiting for a life time. Waiting by the waters of Babylon. (Ironically, that is what is today, Iraq.) 

Isaiah’s people waited. Their hearts were broken. They were waiting for deliverance. They were waiting for a new day to dawn. Waiting to finally go home. 

Isaiah 40 is one of the most powerful passages in the Old Testament.

I sometimes think it is the most “New Testament” chapter in the whole Old Testament. This is the chapter upon which I placed my hand at the time of my ordination (we were each invited to place our hand someplace in the Bible as the Bishop laid hands upon us to ordain us.) Isaiah acknowledged the pain and impatience of waiting. He says to the people, “You may not realize it; but you are waiting for something much deeper. Deeper than you may know.” 

Long ago, I read a strange play. The play was written by Samuel Beckett. It’s title was Waiting for Godot. It came to this country in English in 1954. It was a part of what was then called the “Theater of the absurd.” It is a story of two men who were probably tramps. Standing under a tree, waiting. They are waiting for someone named “Godot” to arrive. He never comes. Godot never comes and they never move. That is the whole play. The very last scene of the play one man says, “Well? Shall we go then?” The second responds, “Yes, let’s go.” But neither of them move.  

There have been many attempts to explain the play. Samuel Beckett never told us what it means. One theory is that Godot is God. The two men are waiting for God.  

Isaiah writes to a people who are waiting for God. They are feeling abandoned, forsaken, forgotten and depleted. Isaiah seems to shout it out. “Make straight in the desert a highway for God. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. The Lord God comes with might.” (All this is from the powerful Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah.) Later in that same chapter Isaiah writes, “They who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint.” 

What is Isaiah offering here? He is setting the real tone of the Advent season. He is inviting the people to create a waiting room in the heart. In the midsts of hustle and bustle of life, even in the midst of disappointment, you are to build a waiting room in your heart. 

Simone Weil, a Jewish writer once said, “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.” I think I like that. Create a waiting room for the promises of God to be fulfilled. 

DO IT INDIVIDUALLY 

In the first instance we need to do it as individuals. It is a discipline we all need to learn. I need to learn it first.  Richard Foster wrote a book some years ago called A Celebration of Discipline I want to suggest that you celebrate the discipline of waiting in your life. 

Some of you are here today for that very reason. You have come to worship desperately hoping for an Advent of God. You are eager for a personal moment of divine inspiration. You are here waiting for God to open up to you. You are waiting for God to nurture you. 

Perhaps you have sensed the reality of God beside you somewhere in the past. You want that experience again. You come hoping it will happen again – here. You hope that God will gloriously break into your life. God will be along side you, be with you, and be within you once again.  

I am reminded here that waiting is an active experience. It is not passive. While I was in seminary we learned something about counseling as a listening act. In one theory of counseling the client does all the work. Later, however, I learned about something called active listening. This means involved listening. It means energy and work. Being part of the listening process in a vigorous way. That is the way we listen to God. That is the way we wait for God.  

You may have come here to build a waiting room. It is an essential component of your life. It is something that you and I need to do now. Don’t wait until life is broken or falling apart before you start to build your room. 

A woman called an insurance agent. She said, “I want to insure my house.” The agent said, “I’ll have to come and see the house first.” The woman replied, “You better hurry. It’s on fire.” 

I read of a woman recently who came up with a prayer idea. She wore a band on the wrist call a “PRAYcelet.” She suggested we wear it to remember emergency workers, military personnel and government workers. The last five letters stand for Compassion, Empowerment, Leadership, Enlightenment and Trust in God. 

Maybe you and I should wear a “PRAYcelet”. As one writer says, “A “PRAYcelet” on the wrist might remind us to stay in touch with the One from whom we don’t want to experience any degree of separation.” 

Is that not what Isaiah was promoting in his writing? Build your waiting room as an individual. Wear a “PRAYcelet”. Celebrate the personal Christian discipline of waiting for God. Use Advent as a time for that discipline. 

ALSO IN COMMUNITY 

Do it in community as well. Wait upon God alone and wait in community. Isaiah says, “OUR soul waits for the Lord. THEY who wait upon the Lord shall renew THEIR strength. THEY shall run and not be weary. 

I believe that much of the richness of God is revealed in community. This is one of the reasons I am concerned about the eroding attendance patterns in many Christian churches. It is true across the church and across the country. It is only a slight erosion, but it is measurable. People have not stopped going to worship, but they have stopped going regularly. 

In the world of electronics, you find many different kinds of “connectors. “ These are devices that attach you to the source of power. I brought a few of them into the pulpit with me this morning. One is a telephone connector; one is a network connector, and one a wireless connector. Connectors come in all shapes and sizes, but all carry the same name. A community gathering like this is a connector for us. 

The first step in our vision statement is to “Connect people with God.” Worship is a spiritual discipline that “connects.” Waiting in community to meet God. “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” 

This service of worship is kind of a community waiting room. This sanctuary (now 46 years old) – is a marvelous waiting room in its own way. This order of worship, this choir, the symbols help you and me build a waiting room in our own hearts.  

Then you add some smaller groups gathered together. Not just the large group from worship, but smaller groups as well. Small groups are not a gimmick, but a tool for waiting. You may not know that I have at least six small groups with which I meet periodically. They nurture the waiting room of my own heart. I do not believe my faith could have remained all these years without them. 

Let yourself go deeper in community right now. That is something we tend to neglect or postpone. We tend to say, “Yes, I know I should, maybe later but not now.” 

Herb Miller writes:

“The branch does not need to get up every morning and say to itself, I must work hard, or there will be no grapes. The branch’s power comes from staying connected to the vine. In the same way, God gives us spiritual growth as a gift, through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we connect and stay connected with Christ.” 

So, let yourself be nurtured in these Advent weeks. Let yourself be nurtured by the Christmas concert tonight. Come early next Sunday morning to be nurtured by 9 am communion in the chapel. Make a decision now to be a part of some smaller group in 2007. 

This is a waiting time. Don’t miss it. Don’t neglect it. That is the simple Advent challenge. Let your heart be molded into a wonderful waiting room. Build that room well. Work on it. Construct it carefully. There is no greater strength of soul than a well constructed waiting room.