3rd Advent-A’16
“WAIT on GOD”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
John the Baptist is not having a good day. Locked up, little hope of escape, he sends word to Jesus asking if he is “The One.” How often can we find ourselves in John’s sandals? Locked up in prisons of sickness, grief, betrayal, resentment, helplessness, or unforgiveness, we find ourselves questioning God. Jesus are you the One or should I look for another?
Jesus’ response: Wait on God, or in other words, Be Patient.
Now this is not the trite “Be Patient” we sometimes rattle off to antsy worriers. Jesus teaches us both how and why we are to be patient. First, the how… The key to patience is found in the phrase, “Wait on God.” It is a matter of where we place the emphasis when saying it. When we say, “Wait on GOD,” we are reminded of who it is we await…GOD. God is in control. God will act. God promises and fulfills.
Every promise of God in the OT unfolds in the NT. Each successive event in salvation history discloses a new unanticipated fulfillment of previous prophesies. For instance, the prophet Isaiah promises in our first reading that God will come with vindication, with divine recompense God will come to save us. And God does just that, but not like everyone expected. God came not as a great political worldly power, but as an itinerant preacher, Jesus. And God did not just send a preacher, God came Himself.
Time and time again God fulfills His promises in ways we could never imagine, and the end result should be trust on our part. We should grow to trust that just as God has been with us throughout salvation history, God will remain with us into paradise. Wait of GOD. The first key to patience: trust our future to God.
Change the emphasis of our sentence and we discover a second key to patience… “WAIT on God.” Here I mean “wait” in the sense of a waiter working a table. We need to “wait” on God. We need to attend to God in the present moment.
What happens to us when we lose our patience? We obsess about something in the future. Whether it is a red light that won’t change to green; a checkout clerk who cannot find the price tag; or a child learning how to get along with siblings; we get caught up in what “ought to be.” I believe Jesus calls us back to the now. Wait on God. Be attentive to God in the now. Notice what God is doing right now… The blind to faith, see. The crippled by sin, walk. The wounded by resentment, heal. The deaf to injustice, hear. The dead to forgiveness are raised to life. The grieving, hope.
By waiting on God, being attentive, noticing grace, we pull ourselves back to the present and then more readily can entrust our future to God. THIS IS PATIENCE.
But why be patient? Jesus teaches us this as well. By being patient we witness our trust and attentiveness to God. Like John the Baptist, we become messengers of God’s good news, preparing the way of the Lord. Perhaps like me many of you are receiving Christmas cards. Some declare friendship; some invite to parties; some catch up on events that have occurred; and some express gratitude for a gift received. Yet despite their differences, all point toward Christmas. All announce this good news.
Each of us intentional disciples are called to serve God’s purpose of preparing the way for others to find Jesus Christ. As we each witness our trust and attentiveness to God in our own unique circumstances, we allow ourselves to become “Christmas cards” for Christ, announcing the good news of his presence in our lives and our world.
May Christ say of our witness what he said of John the Baptist’s: “God cares enough to send his very best!”
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