The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 28, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 47
A new year begins today by waiting. Waiting for Godot? No, Godot won’t be coming [if you don’t know who Godot is, ask Tom Stickland]. Can we ever be ready for the Christ who already has been here and whom we have missed so many times? Surprisingly, yes. Once again we are waiting for the One who is always coming to us again in the midst of our ordinary lives.
I don’t know where the waiting originally came from. While Luke does have a longish prologue of stories about Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph no one talks about waiting in preparation. Of course, nine months waiting for a baby to be born requires patience we didn’t know we had. Advent as the first season of the Christian year is somewhat artificial, Christmas Day being the starting point, and that’s why we begin the new Christian year at such an undistinguished time.
Nevertheless, waiting during Advent is good for the soul. Nothing happens during Advent – that is, there are no signature events one can point to. Pure waiting is not a time when anything happens, only that we are dying in anticipation. “Dying”? A metaphor perhaps, but you know how you feel when you have determined you have waited too long. The Advent is a kind of resurrection of our being, the moment when being all-too-human and a little bit divine find one another. Some people believe and act like they are God, and others assume they are no more than dirt. Waiting for Christmas we slowly realize that dirt is also part of God’s creation.
In the bleak mid-winter we are already caught; nature has caught on to the idea. Come downstairs after worship for a Cup of earl Grey.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan