Patient, Faithful, Prepared

A man was seated at a table in a restaurant. A waiter was passing by. “Excuse me,” said the man, “but how long have you been working here?”

“About six months,” replied the waiter.

The man said wearily, “In that case it couldn’t have been you that took my order.”

Waiting is no fun.

Over the next few weeks our children and grandchildren will become restless with expectation and excitement waiting on the coming of Christmas. So it is with the people of God. The Old Testament concludes with the people of Israel waiting on a coming Messiah. The New Testament concludes with the followers of Jesus awaiting his return. We have been waiting now for about 2,000 years.

Jesus said that no one, not even him, knows the hour or the day when the Son of Man shall return. He will come as a thief in the night. Oh, I know that it is good box office among some Christians to always be looking for the right signs. Some preachers preach on nothing else.

But we shouldn’t try and rush God. If we are constantly looking toward the sky we end up ignoring the responsibilities we have here and now.

A young boy returned from two weeks at summer camp. He showed his mother two badges that he had won: one for making improvements in swimming, the other for naming the most birds on a nature hike.

There was a blue ribbon in his pocket signifying a third prize, and his mother asked him about that. “Aw,” he said, “I got that thing for having the neatest packed bag when we were ready to come home.”

“I’m so proud of you,” his mother said.

“No big deal,” he said. “I never unpacked it in the first place.”

If we are continuously looking for God to right the world’s wrongs some day in a great cataclysmic conclusion to life on this earth, we may never “unpack our bag” and realize that it is here and now where God has placed us.

As Thomas Carlyle once put it: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”  So be patient and get to work.  As one wag put it: “Jesus is coming back – look busy.”

We are also called to be faithful. Some of you remember the ancient epic poem by Homer called the Odyssey. It is the story of Odysseus, who traveled the world pursuing many adventures. Meanwhile, back home, his beautiful wife Penelope was being pursued by various suitors trying to take advantage of Odysseus’ twenty-year absence. In order to keep these suitors at bay, Penelope announced that when she finished weaving a particular garment, she would choose among these persistent suitors. There was something these suitors did not know, however. Each night Penelope undid the stitches that she put in during the daytime, and so she remained faithful to Odysseus until he returned.

We, too, are called to be faithful. While we wait for Christ’s return, we are his body in the world, called to do his work, even work that might seem mundane on the face of it.

A pastor once said, “I sometimes fear going into heaven to stand before Jesus with his nail-pierced hands. When he asks, ‘What have you suffered?’ all that I will be able to show him is a paper cut from folding the bulletin.”

Well, folding bulletins is important. Singing in the choir is important. Working with children and youth is important. Doing outreach ministry is important. We are here doing our duty as we await the coming of our Lord.

Be faithful. Remember Albert Einstein’s words after the Second World War: “As a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it, because the church alone has had the courage to stand for intellectual truth, and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, now I praise unreservedly.”

We are Christ’s body in the world today. So be patient. Be faithful.

But one thing more: be prepared. Be prepared for Christ’s coming. Nothing is more unpredictable than the future. If there is one lesson from history, it is that.

When the city fathers of New York City planned for the future growth of their town, they laid out the streets and numbered them from south to north. When they began, there were only six or seven streets. In their planning maps, they projected how large they thought the city might grow.

Reaching beyond their wildest imagination, they drew streets on the map all the way out to 19th Street. They called it “Boundary Street” because they were sure that’s as large as New York City would ever become. At last count, the city had reached 284th Street.

Be careful when you try to predict the future. Today’s experts turn out sometimes to be tomorrow’s fools.

In 1881 the New York City YWCA announced typing lessons for women. Amazingly, angry protests greeted this announcement. Why? Many believed that the female constitution would break down under the strain.

Some of you can remember when girls were only allowed to play half court in basketball for the same reason. Nobody envisioned what today’s women athletes would be capable of.

There is still so much we don’t know about all the things that matter most, and predictions can only be based on current knowledge. For instance, what wise person predicted the collapse of both the real estate market and our major financial institutions nine years ago?

With all of the latest super computers, economists cannot even predict with certainty what our dollar will be worth next year. As one man put it, if all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion.

In the Greek there are two words for time: One is “kairos” and the other is “chronos.” “Chronos” as in “what time is it?” is a neutral kind of word. “Kairos,” on the other hand, is a word charged with power. As in the phrase “THIS is the time.” It is that word that Paul uses when he talks about the time of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This may be the time. Or it may not. But it is certainly the time to take stock of our lives to see if we are prepared for an unknowable future. Live each moment as if it were your last moment. The good that you would do, do now. The love that you would give, give now. The commitment you would make, make now.

Take the advice of John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This Advent, be patient. Be faithful. And be prepared.