Advent is our time as a community to enter once again, on what it means to be a people who wait. Wait in expectation. Wait with hope. Wait for the Christ child to come to us once more.
For many of us, waiting is a difficult discipline. We can be an impatient people. Whether we are waiting at a set of traffic lights, or waiting to be served in a restaurant, or waiting to pay for our goods at the shop till, stuck in the long and winding queue as our children vie for our attention. Engrained deep within our culture is a desire of instant gratification. Adverts on television, or in the magazines we read that all of what we feel we need or want is only a moment or click away. Our needs of hunger in the Western World can be gratified by going to the closest fast food restaurant. Our desire for the latest fashion item can be found in the local shopping mall. Don't worry if you don't have the money in the bank at the moment, a credit card with 'cash' instantly available will help with that.
Scripture however, teaches us something different. The Psalmist waited patiently for God to answer him in the depths of his despair. James encourages us to wait patiently for Christ's return when all creation will be restored. Mary, having been visited by the angel Gabriel in her home, and upon hearing the news that she would carry, and birth God's Son Jesus to the world, waited patiently through those nine months of child-breaing. She waited patiently for the birth of Emmanuel as her body changed, as she somehow coped with sleepless nights enduring the aches and awkwardness of a body carrying the light of the world in her womb. She waited until that day of his birth when the cosmos was changed forever and the angels sung out their chorus to a shocked and bewildered group of shepherds.
May your advent season teach you to be patient. To wait.
O come O come Emmanuel
Peace
Phil
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