A Reading from Romans 8:
22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Advent is the season of anticipation. But what are we waiting for? The Christ Child has already come! He has already died, resurrected, and ascended, but we still live in a world full of heartache and longing. We decorate our homes with tinsel and garland, we hustle and bustle through stores, and we drink expensive alcohol and sing carols, but I fear these may only be distractions from the greater reality of this world: the creation isn’t as it was made to be. Oceans are polluted, children are exploited, families are separated, and even though the savior of the world has lived among us, our hearts still ache for salvation.
So again I ask: if the Christ child already came over 2,000 years ago, what are we waiting for? Is Jesus going to come back like a divine Superman and save us all? Did Jesus ascend and abandon us? Are we left to fend for ourselves until he comes back? Of course not, we as followers of Jesus are also bearers of Jesus. The Christ child never left but rather dispersed and lived in the hearts of his followers.
Therefore, the season of Advent asks us to return. As we wander through the wilderness of our lives, as our ambition drives us to alien territory, as our suffering drifts us further into the sea of despair, the season of Advent calls us to come back to the beginning. To allow the Christ that dwells in us, which guides us and empowers us to be healers of this broken creation, to be reborn. We return to find sanctuary from the pressures and chaos of ordinary life, to listen to the groaning and longing within our soul and to hear the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit calling us to simply be.
And so we wait, actively sitting in the tension of who we are and who we wish to become. This promises to be painful and hard work: In the same way a mother waits for her unborn child, we will be stretched and our deepest fears will come to surface. However, our struggle will be deeply purposeful. The Apostle Paul says, “the longer we wait the larger we become.” Waiting forms us into a people that are big enough to take on and reconcile the real forces of evil in this world. Waiting gives us space to truly address the truth about ourselves, the places where we aren’t whole, where our insecurities and doubts hurt others. And the longer we wait, the more strength we have to lift our darkness up to God our healer.
The irony of this holiday season is that there is very little space for waiting. But I urge you strongly, to find that space. Be vigilant. The Christ child isn’t just growing inside of you, he is growing in every corner of the creation! I invite you to be present to this season’s most wonderful gift: the Christ child growing all around you…Shalom.
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