Anthony's sermon at St. Andrew's Church, Rome - 30th July, 2005

WAITING

Jeremiah 29.10-14; Luke 24.36-39

Waiting. Now here's a word with very negative connotations. We don't want to wait. If we are children and we have been promised a treat we want it now. But even when we are fully grown, waiting is usually a complaint. We still want things now.

'I'm sitting here waiting for my sister to get ready. I wish she'd hurry up.'

'I've got to stay in today and wait for a plumber to turn up.'

'I'm waiting to hear if I've got the job.

'Look at the queue for the tickets! I don't want to wait in that.'

Waiting is something we would all rather not do.  Now there are often times when waiting is very negative. There are times when waiting is just not on, times when we have to take action sooner rather than later, and waiting can always be an excuse to put things off that we don't want to do.

Yet maybe what we need to discover is that there are times when waiting is actually a positive thing. There are times when the best thing we an do is wait. In our Bible text today from Luke's Gospel, the disciples were told to wait [Luke 24.49[. Jesus says: 'I will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down on you.' In this case the waiting is for the Holy Spirit, a very obvious and particular case you might think. Yet I think there are lots of references in the Bible to the business of the need to wait on God or wait for God.

Waiting shows we are serious about getting God's input and not just our own. Waiting shows we are ready to accept God's timescale. Waiting shows the ability to trust God for what is to come, even when we cannot see the future. And waiting connects up with prayer. When we persist in prayer we are showing God we mean it and we seriously want to discover His guidance.

Waiting on God can be done by a church group or congregation, and it can be done by individual people at different times in life. Possibly the best place for us as individuals to see the need for it is in personal times of trouble. The Old Testament in particular is full of brutal honesty about people facing all kinds of crises, who were prepared to wait on God.  And this is a phrase, an expression that comes up, again and again.

For example, take the Psalms. In Psalm 40 we are told: 'I waited patiently for the Lord's help, then he listened to me and heard my cry.' Note the important word: 'then'. These words have been sung in many different ways down through the years in all kinds of settings.  Fans of the pop group U2 may have wondered why there is a song on one of their albums called '40'. The number '40' never appears in the song. It’s called '40' because it is Psalm 40. Right up to the present day, this psalm has meaning and relevance. Or there's Isaiah 40.31: 'Those who wait on the Lord will find their strength renewed’ - or those who trust in the Lord.  Notice here waiting implies trust

Many of the most famous Christians have gone through periods in their lives when God has seemed far away and distant and remote. Some people have called them 'desert' periods. One famous Christian [St. John of the Cross] called times like that the 'dark night of the soul'.  Maybe the phrase 'dark night' is quite good, because it's a good picture of this experience of feeling God is far away.

Richard Holloway, the Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh, described in one of his books, Anger, Sex, Doubt and Death, what Christians can do when faith seems hard. He ends with these words: 'There is also the way of gentleness and waiting. If the night is dark, wait for daybreak. It usually comes.' God says:

'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'   [Jeremiah 29.13]

A well-known Scottish minister, the late Professor James Stewart, was on holiday in Interlaken, and was impressed at the great view of a huge mountain towering overhead - the Jungfrau.  The day after their arrival the mist and clouds came down and the mountain was hidden.  For a few days it couldn't be seen, and the disappointed tourists on day trips arrived and went away again without a sight of the Jungfrau.  They would gaze up; it wasn't there.

But Professor Stewart knew it was there, not just because others said it was, but because he had seen it and he knew it was real. And he knew it was only a matter of time before the weather changed and the mountain would be clear again. Likewise, there may be times when God seems to be obscured from view, times when we feel heis remote from us, when the clouds come down and surround us. One day the clouds will disappear and it will be clear again.

The disciples waited and they received the Holy Spirit. They received, in fact, all that they needed to live their lives, all that they needed from God for the journey ahead. They waited and trusted God to supply their needs.

May we learn to do the same in our churches and in our homes. God hasn't changed. And His call to us is the same. God has promised to give us the support we need for our road ahead.