{"id":3290,"date":"2020-12-14T08:21:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2020-12-14T08:23:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:23:18","slug":"waiting-for-a-who-not-a-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2020\/12\/waiting-for-a-who-not-a-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for a \u201cWho\u201d – Not a \u201cWhat\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is easy to wander in and out of a season like Advent without ever really understanding what it is all about.\u00a0 On the whole, we don\u2019t work very hard to orient our congregations to the Christian calendar and \u2013 given the way in which popular culture has wrapped itself around some of those seasons \u2013 it is hard to ensure that those explanations are heard, even when we offer them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s unfortunate, to say the least, because the Christian calendar is not just a way of organizing the readings from Scripture or a guide to which color vestments we wear at any time of the year.\u00a0 It is actually a spiritual discipline \u2013 a map for the way in which we think about our lives each year.\u00a0 And each season challenges us to think about the saving work of God in a different way and to prepare ourselves spiritually as companions of Christ.<\/p>\n

It is particularly difficult to help people get clear about the purpose of Advent, given the way in which sentimental and commercial categories have dominated Christmas.\u00a0 For all practical purposes, Advent looks like the call to decorate our homes and shop for gifts.<\/p>\n

Last week I began to make the effort to get clear about the nature of Advent by describing what it means to \u201cwait,\u201d which is a common theme of the biblical texts that we read in Advent. \u00a0And I talked at length about the four characteristics of \u201cpatience for the sake of others.\u201d\u00a0 We described that kind of patience as one that has a capacity for growth and struggle; a patience that does not discriminate; a patience that cannot be \u201cphoned in\u201d or \u201cfarmed out\u201d; and a patience that is convinced that our relationship with God is ultimately the one and only certain source of healing and freedom.<\/p>\n

This week I would like to take the effort a step further to describe by raising another question.\u00a0 If Advent waiting is about \u201cpatience for the sake of others,\u201d then what is it that we are waiting for?\u00a0 Or for the grammarians among you, \u201cFor what are Christians waiting?\u201d\u00a0 Spoiler alert: It isn\u2019t a brand-new Lexus with a big red bow on it.<\/p>\n

The first thing to note is that Christians aren\u2019t waiting for a \u201cwhat\u201d, they are waiting for a \u201cwho\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fact that we wait on a \u201cwho\u201d and not a \u201cwhat\u201d is an inescapable given of the Christian faith and of Advent. \u00a0We wait on the one who embodies the divine and the human \u2013 the one who made the divine real among us in the incarnation \u2013 the one who is both priest and sacrifice in the crucifixion \u2013 the whose Resurrection conquers death and vindicates God\u2019s claim to be the author of life \u2013 the one who, in his ascension into heaven, takes humanity back into the Godhead, restored and perfected.<\/p>\n

This is not a complete departure from our Jewish roots as a faith.\u00a0 The Old Testament, no less than the New, is oriented toward waiting for God \u2013 the God of creation, the of the Covenant made with Israel, the God who will ultimately heal and restore the nation.\u00a0 But just as the faith of ancient Israel follows on the saving acts of God, so too, the faith of the church follows from an encounter with the Resurrected Christ: Mary at the tomb, the disciples by the seaside, Paul on the road to Damascus.\u00a0 One could reasonably argue that the entire New Testament is an outworking of an encounter with the Resurrected Christ and is an attempt to answer the question, \u201cNow what?!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an odd and not at all healthy thing, then, to recognize that Christians are constantly trying to end-run that fact.\u00a0 Some put Scripture or a body of theological ideas first.\u00a0 Some put politics or a social program first.\u00a0 Some think in some way that Christianity is about being nice or about ushering in a better world.\u00a0 Others wait for an ideal set of circumstances \u2013 either personal or social \u2013 into place.\u00a0 Good, bad or indifferent, they are all the wrong things to wait for.<\/p>\n

Why any one of us looks for an alternative is hard to say.\u00a0 But it isn\u2019t hard to guess the several reasons that come into play.<\/p>\n