Waiting in Hope

       The summer my second son was born, my mom came to stay with me to help after the baby was born.  She arrived on my official due date.  Unfortunately, my son wasn't born until three weeks later.  All of this was complicated by the facts that we were living in student housing with no air conditioning and we were having record-setting July temperatures!
       Every morning (it seemed that way to me anyway) when I came out of the bedroom, Mom would say, "You're still here".  She was disappointed to still be waiting and I was growing ever more uncomfortable and disappointed myself.
       It seemed like that birth was never going to happen.  I tried everything: bumpy rides over the railroad tracks, washing the kitchen floor, baking pies and bread, going for long walks, and what ever else came to mind.  All that happened was that I got tired.  And grumpy.
       I was reminded of my own stories of waiting as I was contemplating the stories of Mary and Elizabeth this week.  Elizabeth had waited for years on end to have a child until any real hope of pregnancy was gone.  She was too old, but yet she conceived.  And Mary was so young and a virgin.  And yet their stories converge as they meet and the Holy Spirit reveals just what is happening to them both.  It seems that even John and Jesus meet as John leaps in his mother's womb upon hearing Mary.   Their next recorded meeting is 30 years later as Jesus comes to be baptized by John at the beginning of his ministry.
       Mary's words at their meeting recall the history and generations upon generations of those who have been waiting for the coming of the Savior.  There is that sense of heaviness, of long hard waiting that is finally released.
       We are still in the waiting of Advent.  It isn’t Christmas yet.  It is probably the most radical thing the church does throughout the year, taking the whole time of Advent to wait for Christmas while the rest of the world runs pell-mell into Christmas. 

       But in church, we still have Advent, the time to repent, to prepare for the coming of Jesus, time to be still and take time to think and pray, to take our faith seriously.

       Advent takes a long time, and a lot of waiting, especially this year.  Advent is defined as the four Sundays before Christmas.  And with Christmas Eve not happening until Saturday night, Advent this year is the longest it can get.  There are four full weeks of Advent this year.  We wait and we wait.  And perhaps we get a little grumpy and out of sorts for the waiting.  But we wait with hope.

       We are not waiting for presents and parties but for the Savior of the world to come.  He comes out of God's love.  For God so loved the world, that Jesus has come and is among us.  This is not just about the past but is also about our present and our future.  Because of Christ, we are forgiven, and restored to God. 

       Our hope in Christ is real and strong.  Even death is defeated by this hope.  The Christ we wait for came and destroyed the power of sin and death.  This Christ is with us through the power of the Holy Spirit and will come again.  We are still here, waiting, but God is also waiting with us.  Jesus is coming!  Read Mary's words called the Magnificat, Luke 1:39-55.