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Lynne Hill – St Andrews, Bolsover, Ont.
Linda looked out the window and smiled. “I guess I’ve kept ‘em waiting long enough. Addy and I had better go for our walk.”
It was 30 – below – Celsius and the wind was blowing briskly off the lake. It took a few minutes for Linda to bundle up in her layers of winter duds. I looked outside and could see the two crows waiting patiently near the top of the spruce tree down by the lake. As the door opened and Linda and Addy stepped outside, the crows let go a muttered caw and swooped to the power pole nearest our house. Soon the whole tribe, Linda, Addy the Chesador and the two crows, set off for the morning walk. The crows leapfrogged from power pole to power pole as Linda and Addy walked quickly down the road. The walk wasn’t going to be over until Linda had her exercise and Addy did her business. Only then would the crows get their slice of bread.
This winter morning routine started a couple of years ago when two young crows decided to stay for the winter; one because it was small and obviously injured and the other seemingly just for company. Linda fed them through till spring keeping them alive. They have hung around ever since. They are always within beckoning range. They are Linda’s constant companions whenever she is outside. I once asked Linda why she made them wait each morning for their crust of bread, wait until she had finished her walk instead of giving it to them before she left. She told me, “Just about everything seems so much better if you have to wait for it.”
Linda and I have had 41 years of blissfully happy incompatible marriage. We can and do disagree on just about anything. On this point however, we both agree. Waiting seems to be life’s appetizer. We have some friends over for supper and make them wait in the living room with a small bowl of olives for an hour and we can feed them cardboard, or even one of my barbequed bear steaks, and they will devour it. We plan a simple, inexpensive camping vacation six months in advance and the wait makes it seem like an extravagant world cruise when we finally launch the travel trailer down the road. We buy a puppy from a breeder that has just had them installed in the oven and waiting out the gestation period makes that puppy seem like the birth of one of our own kids when it’s finally whelped. I drop hints about the inexpensive straw cowboy hat that I have been admiring for months, and a hat – sized box shows up under the tree two weeks before Christmas. When I finally rip off the newspaper wrapping on Christmas morning, it’s as good as a genuine beaver fur felt Stetson in my eyes; which brings me to the point.
The Advent of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom on earth is about waiting. Not the symbolic kind of waiting that involves Advent wreaths, candles and calendars, but real and deep, genuine anticipation. Not the psycho – drivel theological school tried to sell me years ago, “the already but not yet of the kingdom” kind of waiting … but real down to earth yearning. One of my favourite Advent texts is Acts 1:1 – 8. The Risen Christ is about to ascend to the heavens. His disciples, who have been waiting for three long years, following him so closely that the dust from his feet still sticks in their throats, plead with him: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’ reply is: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.” (Acts 1:6 – 7) His point is, ‘Guys, you are going to have to wait for it.’ He then sends them to the ends of the earth to be his witnesses. And according to the rest of the Acts of the Apostles, they went, inspired by an appetite for the arrival of Christ’s Kingdom that only waiting can muster. Better than a half – century later, the elder John would conclude the revelation given to him with the antiphonal prayer that reverberated with that same kind of pregnant anticipation of the Kingdom of Christ: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)
Can’t you just feel it in those concluding phrases? Waiting in the faith sense is holy anticipation, which is cousin to what my friend and Kiwi soul mate Bruce Fraser talks about as holy desperation. Historically, both have given fuel to the Christian life to take great risks in serving Jesus. Historically, both have instilled a passionate appetite for serving Jesus at great cost. Biblically and historically, Kingdom – waiting, this Advent attitude, seems to be fundamental to everyday Christian faith and faithfulness.
But I come from a world devoted to instant gratification. We can’t even wait to brew a proper pot of tea let alone take the time to write a handwritten letter or save money to buy a car or read a whole book to get complete, insightful information on a subject. We thrive on steeped tea from a Tim Horton’s drive – thru, one – sentence texts rapidly delivered by an iPhone, 10 – year automobile mortgages and Googled tidbits of instant information. All of our devices and vices are built around having it now. Little wonder that I have trouble with the concept that waiting for the Kingdom of Jesus is a deeply enriching spiritual thing for my life and faith. And so it seems I tend to dismiss Jesus’ words telling me I can’t know the time of the Advent of his completed Kingdom as meaning “it’s not important, so why think about it?” I totally miss the intent of his words, “my Kingdom is coming, you must wait for it.” If I am bone honest I am not waiting with thirst and anticipation for his Kingdom on earth. I have sold out to a realized eschatology. And somehow I end up with a Christian faith that is neutered of hope because hope itself is grounded in waiting: “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24 – 25)
In the face of all this, it is dawning on me that for me the Advent season in the Christian year is about recovery. It’s a tremendous counter – culture season devoted to helping me recover the desire to actively wait for the Kingdom of Christ and to reclaim a capacity for hope. It’s about lifting my eyes from my culture of instant gratification and turning them heavenward to seek first the Kingdom. My Lord, what a season; what a Kingdom. I am waiting! ¦
