The secret of the world’s power of meaning

Here's the sermon I shared in the Candlemas Eucharist at St Mary Magdalene Great Burstead this morning:

“Why are we waiting? We are suffocating. Why, oh, why are we waiting?” Did you ever sing that as a child? Maybe you sang some variant lyrics, but we won’t go into that here!

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon (Luke 2. 22 - 40) had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why are we waiting? We don’t like it and we can’t see the point? And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and involves the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously, to remain steadfast under strain continuing to press on and the showing of tolerance and fortitude toward others, even accepting difficult situations from them, and God, without making demands or conditions. Patience allows us to endure a less than desirable situation to make us better and more useful and even optimistic and prudent. Hence, its other name is longsuffering. It allows us to put up with others who get on our nerves, without losing other characteristics of grace.

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

We see this in today’s Gospel reading in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

Valuing passivity and passion over activity and action

Here is the sermon that I preached at today's midweek Eucharist in St Andrew's Wickford, drawing on materials from A Soul Laid Bare, Liz Horwell, Alison Morgan, Randall Nolan and Gregory Wolfe:

“Over thirty years ago, W.H. Vanstone, canon of Chester Cathedral, wrote a book called, The Stature of Waiting. Early in the book, Vanstone talks about Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. The word ‘betrayed’, he says, as when Judas betrayed Jesus, really means ‘handed over’.” He explains that, “The word ‘betrayed’ is used only once in 33 mentions of what Judas did; the other 32 times the phrase ‘handed over’ is used. Where that phrase is used in other contexts of the NT it has no connotation of betrayal – eg the talents are ‘handed over’, Jesus ‘handed over’ his spirit as he died, Paul ‘hands over’ the gospel by preaching it to the Corinthians. The gospel writers use it consistently and automatically; it must have been the stock phrase, perhaps the one Jesus himself used at the Last Supper.”

“The gospels show a marked change from activity to passivity, action to passion, at the point where Jesus was ‘handed over’ – a phrase [which was] in common Christian currency in the first century.” According to John’s account … when Judas leaves the Last Supper to set in train the handing over of Jesus, John tell us ‘that it was night’… which must mean that the ‘daylight’ period is over and that the time foreseen by Jesus has come - the time at which ‘no one can work’, the time at which ‘working’ must give place to ‘waiting’…and is also associated, in a most striking way, with the end of Jesus’ freedom from restraint by human hands … ”from working to waiting and from freedom to constraint.” “The handing over of Jesus was His transition from working to waiting upon and receiving the works of others, from the status and role of subject to that of object, from ‘doing’ to ‘being done to’.”

“Jesus moves from being active to being passive in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas hands him over.” “Until Gethsemane … Jesus had chosen to spend the whole of his ministry ‘demonstrating God’s kingdom’ both to individuals and to the people as a whole. And his ‘demonstrating’ invited people to respond. He longed for them to respond by choosing to deepen their relationship with God and work in the cause of justice: but that was their choice, it could never be obligatory.”

Vanstone “tells us that the word ‘passion’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘suffer’: or ‘allow events to happen’.” It means, being passive. “The emphasis is … on being the subject not the object; being a patient.” “The passion then describes the time in Jesus’ life when he stopped taking control of the situation and simply allowed people to respond to him as they chose.” “So Vanstone says: ’The passion is not the pains he endured or the cruel manner in which he was treated by the hands of men but simply the fact that he was exposed to those hands and whatever those hands might do.’”

“This point is important because many people see God as ALWAYS taking control, always active, never passive; yet if Jesus is the perfect revelation of God’s character, Jesus’ passion demonstrates that being passive is also God-like.” “So Vanstone argues that Jesus’ death was the result of his passion, his ‘allowing events to happen’”: ”It wasn’t Jesus’ death that brought us benefits … It was his willingness to spare himself nothing, not even his own life, in the cause of winning the nation to the discipleship of God’s kingdom. He sought from the nation’s leaders that which could not be compelled: the response of discipleship.” “So, when Jesus prays in Gethsemane he still hopes that the priests might respond positively, though he knows it’s unlikely. He prays that God might be able to find him another way through this, another way for his message of love to be heard and understood. And until the moment when the priests come into the garden mob-handed there’s still the slim chance they’ll turn themselves around and support him. But in the garden they make their choice and he’ll accept it for what it is: their choice.”

“Jesus did the only thing that love can do: it can only offer itself out and wait for a response. With love, action must give way to passion, to waiting for a choice to be made. Because, as we know, Love is not possessive: it doesn’t insist on its own way; it never uses force. God offers such a love to us: an abundant, free-flowing, bountiful, love: and he waits longingly for us to want to love him in return. Jesus shows us that God’s love is not only active in showing itself, but passive in allowing us to choose what our response will be.” “The activity of love is always precarious … Herein lies the poignancy of love, and its potential tragedy. The activity of love contains no assurance or certainty of completion: much may be expended and little achieved. The progress of love must always be by tentative and precarious steps: and each step that is taken, whether it 'succeeds' or 'fails', becomes the basis for the next, and equally precarious, step which must follow.” “Love proceeds by no assured programme. In the care of children a parent is peculiarly aware that each step of love is a step of risk; and that each step taken generates the need for another and equally precarious step.”

So, “the hallmarks of the creator’s love for his creation [are] an endless love that must always shift with circumstances to see to the good of the beloved. And a vulnerable love that cannot force a response from the beloved but must watch and wait and hope for a response, whether it comes or not.” “Theologian that he is, Vanstone could not help feeling that these were the characteristics of God’s love for us — a self-emptying (kenosis) love that is always attempting to find out how to address the welter of circumstance that is every individual life.” “In the kenosis, or self-emptying of Christ, nothing is held back, nothing unexpended (Phil. 2:7). In this we recognize God’s love as unlimited. God’s love is also vulnerable. The Lord risks rejection at the hands of His own creatures and is pained by our refusal to accept love. And lastly, God’s love is precarious. By the humble condescension of the Lord, we have power to determine whether His love succeeds or fails in its communication, or its intended effect.” “The vulnerability of God means that the issue of His love as triumph or tragedy depends upon His creation.” This is the form of authentic love. If we want to know 'what love ought to be', we need enquire no further than what the love of God is.

“We live in a world which values activity and action over passivity and passion. We have lost [our understanding of what it means to be ‘handed over’]; but perhaps we should recover it, and in recovering it find our human dignity enhanced, our powerlessness removed – for so we can be like God himself, attaining the dignity which is ours because we share in his being, and reconnecting with some of the values we overlook in our emphasis on doing over being.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian Snell - Betrayal.

Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

Here's the reflection I shared in the Choral Eucharist for Candlemas at St Martin-in-the-Fields today:

50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why, I wonder, should we wait? As we have just seen, often we don’t like it and we can’t see the point. And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

One reason is that waiting can lead to revelation. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of The Father's Love Begotten.

Through long years of watching, waiting

Here is my reflection from today's Eucharist for Candlemas at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.” The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring.

Simeon had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why, I wonder, should we wait? As we have just seen, often we don’t like it and we can’t see the point. And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

One reason is that waiting can lead to revelation. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer: “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God, as in Isaiah 40. 31: "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness. We see this in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

Amen.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U2 - Ultraviolet (Light My Way).

The form of authentic love

Here is the sermon that I preached at today's lunchtime Eucharist in St Martin-in-the-Fields, drawing on materials from A Soul Laid Bare, Liz Horwell, Alison Morgan, Randall Nolan and Gregory Wolfe:

“Over thirty years ago, W.H. Vanstone, canon of Chester Cathedral, wrote a book called, The Stature of Waiting. Early in the book, Vanstone talks about Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. The word ‘betrayed’, he says, as when Judas betrayed Jesus, really means ‘handed over’.” He explains that, “The word ‘betrayed’ is used only once in 33 mentions of what Judas did; the other 32 times the phrase ‘handed over’ is used. Where that phrase is used in other contexts of the NT it has no connotation of betrayal – eg the talents are ‘handed over’, Jesus ‘handed over’ his spirit as he died, Paul ‘hands over’ the gospel by preaching it to the Corinthians. The gospel writers use it consistently and automatically; it must have been the stock phrase, perhaps the one Jesus himself used at the Last Supper.”

“The gospels show a marked change from activity to passivity, action to passion, at the point where Jesus was ‘handed over’ – a phrase [which was] in common Christian currency in the first century.” According to John’s account … when Judas leaves the Last Supper to set in train the handing over of Jesus, John tell us ‘that it was night’… which must mean that the ‘daylight’ period is over and that the time foreseen by Jesus has come - the time at which ‘no one can work’, the time at which ‘working’ must give place to ‘waiting’…and is also associated, in a most striking way, with the end of Jesus’ freedom from restraint by human hands … ”from working to waiting and from freedom to constraint.” “The handing over of Jesus was His transition from working to waiting upon and receiving the works of others, from the status and role of subject to that of object, from ‘doing’ to ‘being done to’.”

“Jesus moves from being active to being passive in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas hands him over.” “Until Gethsemane … Jesus had chosen to spend the whole of his ministry ‘demonstrating God’s kingdom’ both to individuals and to the people as a whole. And his ‘demonstrating’ invited people to respond. He longed for them to respond by choosing to deepen their relationship with God and work in the cause of justice: but that was their choice, it could never be obligatory.”

Vanstone “tells us that the word ‘passion’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘suffer’: or ‘allow events to happen’.” It means, being passive. “The emphasis is … on being the subject not the object; being a patient.” “The passion then describes the time in Jesus’ life when he stopped taking control of the situation and simply allowed people to respond to him as they chose.” “So Vanstone says: ’The passion is not the pains he endured or the cruel manner in which he was treated by the hands of men but simply the fact that he was exposed to those hands and whatever those hands might do.’”

“This point is important because many people see God as ALWAYS taking control, always active, never passive; yet if Jesus is the perfect revelation of God’s character, Jesus’ passion demonstrates that being passive is also God-like.” “So Vanstone argues that Jesus’ death was the result of his passion, his ‘allowing events to happen’”: ”It wasn’t Jesus’ death that brought us benefits … It was his willingness to spare himself nothing, not even his own life, in the cause of winning the nation to the discipleship of God’s kingdom. He sought from the nation’s leaders that which could not be compelled: the response of discipleship.” “So, when Jesus prays in Gethsemane he still hopes that the priests might respond positively, though he knows it’s unlikely. He prays that God might be able to find him another way through this, another way for his message of love to be heard and understood. And until the moment when the priests come into the garden mob-handed there’s still the slim chance they’ll turn themselves around and support him. But in the garden they make their choice and he’ll accept it for what it is: their choice.”

“Jesus did the only thing that love can do: it can only offer itself out and wait for a response. With love, action must give way to passion, to waiting for a choice to be made. Because, as we know, Love is not possessive: it doesn’t insist on its own way; it never uses force. God offers such a love to us: an abundant, free-flowing, bountiful, love: and he waits longingly for us to want to love him in return. Jesus shows us that God’s love is not only active in showing itself, but passive in allowing us to choose what our response will be.” “The activity of love is always precarious … Herein lies the poignancy of love, and its potential tragedy. The activity of love contains no assurance or certainty of completion: much may be expended and little achieved. The progress of love must always be by tentative and precarious steps: and each step that is taken, whether it 'succeeds' or 'fails', becomes the basis for the next, and equally precarious, step which must follow.” “Love proceeds by no assured programme. In the care of children a parent is peculiarly aware that each step of love is a step of risk; and that each step taken generates the need for another and equally precarious step.”

So, “the hallmarks of the creator’s love for his creation [are] an endless love that must always shift with circumstances to see to the good of the beloved. And a vulnerable love that cannot force a response from the beloved but must watch and wait and hope for a response, whether it comes or not.” “Theologian that he is, Vanstone could not help feeling that these were the characteristics of God’s love for us — a self-emptying (kenosis) love that is always attempting to find out how to address the welter of circumstance that is every individual life.” “In the kenosis, or self-emptying of Christ, nothing is held back, nothing unexpended (Phil. 2:7). In this we recognize God’s love as unlimited. God’s love is also vulnerable. The Lord risks rejection at the hands of His own creatures and is pained by our refusal to accept love. And lastly, God’s love is precarious. By the humble condescension of the Lord, we have power to determine whether His love succeeds or fails in its communication, or its intended effect.” “The vulnerability of God means that the issue of His love as triumph or tragedy depends upon His creation.” This is the form of authentic love. If we want to know 'what love ought to be', we need enquire no further than what the love of God is.

“We live in a world which values activity and action over passivity and passion. We have lost [our understanding of what it means to be ‘handed over’]; but perhaps we should recover it, and in recovering it find our human dignity enhanced, our powerlessness removed – for so we can be like God himself, attaining the dignity which is ours because we share in his being, and reconnecting with some of the values we overlook in our emphasis on doing over being.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Candlemas: Patience has formed itself in me a virtue

Tonight we were please to celebrate Candlemas at St Stephen Walbrook with our patrons, the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Here is the sermon that I preached as part of their Candlemas Service:

50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why, I wonder, should we wait? As we have just seen, often we don’t like it and we can’t see the point. And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

One reason is that waiting can lead to revelation. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Cockburn - Waiting For A Miracle.

Start:Stop - The stature of waiting

Bible reading

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2. 25 – 32)

Meditation

50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.” The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring.

Simeon had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Waiting can grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can also sharpen our sense of anticipation and our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting.

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God, as in Isaiah 40. 31: "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Prayer

Lord God, there are so many things that can distract us from waiting. Although our 24-7 instant society seems to teach that impatience is a virtue, help us learn the virtue of waiting.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

We cry, “how long O Lord?” We have remembered your coming and we long for your coming again – your second coming when all sorrow and suffering will cease. As the season of celebrating your first coming ends, teach us to wait expectantly and watchfully for your second coming.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

May we recognise your love by forging an offering; the coming-to-be of understanding - knowing you more clearly, loving you more dearly, and following you more nearly. As this understanding comes in our lives, may your love convey its richest blessing and complete its work in triumph.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Blessing

Love conveying its richest blessing. Love completing its work in triumph. The cessation of all sorrow and suffering. Learning the virtue of waiting. May those blessings of almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Howard Goodall - The Lord Is My Shepherd.

Start:Stop - Love must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it

Bible reading

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1. 9 – 13)

Meditation

Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting to celebrate the first coming of Christ and reflecting on our wait for his second coming. Waiting is a common experience; one that used to characterise the British as we were known for our ability to wait patiently in queues. Now that would seem to have changed, as adverts claim that impatience is a virtue. Waiting is something which characterises both the Christmas story and the wider story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection:

Waiting

Waiting.
Elizabeth waiting years for the conception of a child.

Waiting.
Mary waiting nine months for the birth of God’s son.

Waiting.
Simeon waiting to see the salvation of Israel.

Waiting.
Eastern visitors following a star, waiting to worship the baby born King of the Jews.

Waiting.
Joseph and Mary living in Egypt waiting for the death of Herod.

Waiting.
Jesus working and waiting for his ministry to begin.

Waiting.
Jesus tempted and waiting for his ministry to begin.

Waiting.
Disciples asking, “when will this be?”, and waiting for fulfilment.

Waiting.
Jesus waiting in prayer at Gethsemene, his disciples sleeping, unable to wait with him.

Waiting.
Mary weeping at the foot of the cross and waiting for death.

Waiting.
Jesus in the tomb, waiting for the third day.

Waiting.
Disciples, fearful and hopeless, gathered together behind locked doors and waiting.

Waiting.
Disciples waiting in Jerusalem for baptism by the Holy Spirit.

Waiting.
Church waiting for the kingdom coming through the return of the King.

Love waits.
Birth waits.
New life waits.
Revelation waits.
God waits.

Why are we waiting? Why does God wait? The answer that the Bible seems to give is that he is waiting for us to respond to him. W. H. Vanstone wrote in Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense: “So it is with the love of God. For the completion of its work, and therefore its own triumph, it must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it. The love of God must wait for the recognition of those who have power to recognise … Recognition of the love of God involves, as it were, the forging of an offering: the offering is the coming-to-be of understanding: only where this understanding has come to be has love conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

God waits for us; waits for our recognition, understanding and response to his love. So, let us make it our aim and prayer this Advent to see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly day by day.

Prayer

Lord God, there are so many things in Advent that can drive us to distraction. Some of them are seasonal: Christmas shopping, holiday traffic, the hustle and bustle. Some are personal: family struggles, vocational crises, broken relationships, hopes deferred and deep disappointments. Some of them are corporate: Injustice, War, Terror, Poverty, and Apathy for the Vulnerable. We cry, “how long O Lord?” We remember your coming and we long for your coming again – your second Advent when all sorrow and suffering will cease.

Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, this Advent may our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Although our 24-7 instant society seems to teach that impatience is a virtue, help us learn the virtue of waiting. Help us value Advent as a time of waiting to celebrate your first coming and also to wait expectantly and watchfully for your second coming.

Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, this Advent may our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

This Advent may we recognise your love by forging an offering; the coming-to-be of understanding - knowing you more clearly, loving you more dearly, and following you more nearly. As this understanding comes in our lives, may your love convey its richest blessing and complete its work in triumph.

Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, this Advent may our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Blessing

Love conveying its richest blessing. Love completing its work in triumph. The cessation of all sorrow and suffering. True light enlightening everyone. May those blessings of almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

River City People - I'm Still Waiting.

Why are we waiting?

“Why are we waiting? We are suffocating. Why, oh, why are we waiting?” Did you ever sing that as a child? Maybe you sang some variant lyrics, but we won’t go into that here!

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon (Luke 2. 22 - 40) had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why are we waiting? We don’t like it and we can’t see the point?

And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and involves the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously, to remain steadfast under strain continuing to press on and the showing of tolerance and fortitude toward others, even accepting difficult situations from them, and God, without making demands or conditions. Patience allows us to endure a less than desirable situation to make us better and more useful and even optimistic and prudent. It allows us to put up with others who get on our nerves, without losing other characteristics of grace. 

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
    and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
     which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
    and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God, as in Isaiah 40. 31: "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint"

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

We see this in today’s Gospel reading in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,

anticipation of a time which has not come.

Not yet come. Through long years of watching,

waiting, I have questioned my vocation,

understanding, calling, yet patience has formed

itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.

And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself

seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave, 

at the last moment, when hope had faded,

then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -

now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.

Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where

cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.

Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

Why are we waiting?

Have you ever observed people waiting at a bus stop? Some people are entirely focused on the experience of waiting, constantly checking their watch to see how much time has gone by and how late the bus in question is in arriving. Others take the opportunity to look around them to observe other people and the area in which they are waiting, perhaps to notice things that they would not otherwise see. Which, I wonder, are you most like?

Many things in our world have become instant. Today we can connect to people, information and misinformation with a few mouse clicks in a way that was simply not possible a few years ago. But we shouldn’t assume that such changes make us any wiser or that the benefits we can gain by waiting have been eradicated by the speed with which our society moves.  

Hebrews 11. 1 - 2 tells us that:

“To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.”

In other words, faith is about waiting, and Abraham, who we heard about in our Old Testament reading (Genesis 17. 1 – 7, 15, 16) is held up in Hebrews 11 as a hero of faith precisely because he was someone who waited:

“It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God. For Abraham was waiting for the city which God has designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.

It was faith that made Abraham able to become a father, even though he was too old and Sarah herself could not have children. He trusted God to keep his promise. Though Abraham was practically dead, from this one man came as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, as many as the numberless grains of sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11. 8 – 13 GNB)

“Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that — heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.” (Hebrews 11. 13 – 16 The Message)

Abraham waited and was commended for his faith being held up as an example for all of us who come after him. Why? We can ask the question in the song traditionally sung by those waiting in queues - why are we waiting?

W.H. Vanstone is a theologian who has written particularly profoundly about the experience and he gives at least two answers.

Firstly, he wrote, in The Stature of Waiting, that as we wait “the world discloses its power of meaning – discloses itself in its heights and its depths, as wonder and terror, as blessing and threat.” We become, so to speak, “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.”

When we experience moments of seeing the world as “a wonderful terror or a terrifying wonder,” we become “a point at which something in the world is not only registered but understood, experienced, recognized.” Because we are in the world seeing it as it really is, the world no longer “merely exists” but is “understood, appreciated, welcomed, feared, felt”; “the world is received not as it is received by a camera or a tape-recorder but rather with the power of meaning with which it is received by God.”

Our role within creation is to articulate and name the meaning of the world which God has created. As James Thwaites has suggested the creation is crying out (Romans 8: 19 - 22):

“for its goodness to be fully realised and fully released. The creation cannot be good apart from the sons and daughters because we alone were given the right to name it; we are the image bearers who were made to speak moral value and divine intent into it. We were created to draw forth the attributes, nature and power of God in all things.”

The world and its meaning cannot be understood and appreciated quickly or lightly - it takes time and experience, observation and reflection – and so we wait. We wait like those people at the bus stop who take the opportunity to look around them to observe other people and the area in which they are waiting to notice things that they would not otherwise see.    

Vanstone also wrote in Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense: “So it is with the love of God. For the completion of its work, and therefore its own triumph, it must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it. The love of God must wait for the recognition of those who have power to recognise … Recognition of the love of God involves, as it were, the forging of an offering: the offering is the coming-to-be of understanding: only where this understanding has come to be has love conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

God waits for us; waits for our recognition, understanding and response to his love. His love is written in to his creation and his purposes are being worked out through history. Paul writes in Romans 1. 19 & 20 that:

“the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.”  

We need to come to a point where we see this for ourselves. Instead, as Paul writes in that passage from Romans, we have often trivialized ourselves into silliness and confusion so that there is neither sense nor direction left in our lives. We pretend to know it all, but are actually illiterate regarding the real meaning of life and the love of God within human history.

Recognition of the love of God involves, as Vanstone states, “the forging of an offering.” That is what Abraham did, he offered himself by obeying when God called him to go out to the country which God had promised to give him. He offered himself to God by leaving his own country without knowing where he was going and by living as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. The offering which we make to God reveals the extent to which we have recognised and responded to his love. It is “only where this understanding has come to be” that love has “conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

We are changed by this recognition and this response. For Abraham, this change was acknowledged by a change of name for him and Sarah and by the act of circumcision – outward signs of an inward grace. For us, as Christians, the outward sign of the inward grace is the act of baptism; the public declaration of faith in the forgiveness held out by Jesus and the enacting of that cleansing by dying to our old way of life as the water goes over us and rising to a new way of life as we emerge from under the water.

Why are we waiting? Like Abraham, we wait to see the meaning of world – its terror and wonder – and within this to see the love of God for us embedded in the beauty and fear of existence and threaded through human history. Why are we waiting? Both God and the creation are waiting for our full response to this love in creation; for us to fully offer ourselves to God, as Abraham did and as the greatest commandment (Matthew 22. 35 - 37) encourages us to do, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There.

Waiting

Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting to celebrate the first coming of Christ and reflecting on our wait for his second coming.

Waiting is a common experience; one that used to characterise the British as we were known for our ability to wait patiently in queues. Now that would seem to have changed, as adverts claim that impatience is a virtue.

Reflect for a few moments on the spiritual significance of waiting through the use of two meditations. The first, by Alan Stewart, simply lists some of our common experiences of waiting:

Waiting

Waiting for news
News you long for
News you fear
Waiting for answers

Waiting to rejoice
With tears of laughter
Tears of regret
Waiting to grieve

Waiting to remember
Waiting to forget

Waiting to greet
or to say goodbye
Waiting to embrace
or to push away

Waiting to feel
Waiting not to feel

Waiting in emptiness
Waiting in pain
In discomfort
In anger
Waiting in shame

Waiting to heal
Waiting to destroy

Tired of waiting
Inspired by waiting
Frustrated by waiting
Elated by waiting

Waiting for a beginning
Waiting for an end

Waiting for birth
Waiting for death
For growing up
For growing old
Waiting for growing helpless

Waiting for marriage
Waiting to break-up

Waiting to work
Waiting to rest

Waiting for rain
Waiting in the rain

Waiting for harvest
Waiting for justice

Waiting for gunfire
for a knock at the door
For freedom
For sanctuary
For sanity

Waiting alone
Waiting together

Waiting for God
And in the waiting
God waits
With us.

So, God is with us in our waiting. That is the first thing for us to realise and sense. It is something that we see both in the Christmas story and in the wider story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection:

Waiting

Waiting.
Elizabeth waiting years for the conception of a child.

Waiting.
Mary waiting nine months for the birth of God’s son.

Waiting.
Simeon waiting to see the salvation of Israel.

Waiting.
Eastern visitors following a star, waiting to worship the baby born King of the Jews.

Waiting.
Joseph and Mary living in Egypt waiting for the death of Herod.

Waiting.
Jesus working and waiting for his ministry to begin.

Waiting.
Jesus tempted and waiting for his ministry to begin.

Waiting.
Disciples asking, “when will this be?”, and waiting for fulfilment.

Waiting.
Jesus waiting in prayer at Gethsemene, his disciples sleeping, unable to wait with him.

Waiting.
Mary weeping at the foot of the cross and waiting for death.

Waiting.
Jesus in the tomb, waiting for the third day.

Waiting.
Disciples, fearful and hopeless, gathered together behind locked doors and waiting.

Waiting.
Disciples waiting in Jerusalem for baptism by the Holy Spirit.

Waiting.
Church waiting for the kingdom coming through the return of the King.

Love waits.
Birth waits.
New life waits.
Revelation waits.
God waits.

Waiting.
Waiting for human response.
Waiting.
Never demanding or compelling.
Waiting.
Needing, but never seeking, our recognition.
Waiting.
Only complete once we have received.

Why are we waiting? Why does God wait? The answer that the Bible seems to give is that he is waiting for us to respond to him. W. H. Vanstone wrote in Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense: “So it is with the love of God. For the completion of its work, and therefore its own triumph, it must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it. The love of God must wait for the recognition of those who have power to recognise … Recognition of the love of God involves, as it were, the forging of an offering: the offering is the coming-to-be of understanding: only where this understanding has come to be has love conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

God waits for us; waits for our recognition, understanding and response to his love. So, let us make it our aim and prayer this Advent to see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly day by day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Marley - Waiting In Vain.

The Ways of Affirmation & Rejection

I've been musing on the ways of affirmation and rejection since being at Greenbelt. This has been prompted by the The Garden's installation/performance Possibility of the Impossible and Pete Rollins' discussion of Bonhoeffer's 'religionless Christianity'.

The sense of their being two ways by which we can approach God was clarified for me in the writings of Charles Williams. Williams' views on these two ways have been summarised as follows:

"The Way of Affirmation consists in recognizing the immanence of God in all things, and says that appreciation of whom and what God has made may lead us to appreciation of Himself. The Way of Rejection concentrates on the transcendence of God, the recognition that God is never fully contained in His creation; it says that we must renounce all lesser images if we would apprehend His. These two Ways have been expressed by the paradox "This also is Thou; neither is this Thou," and tend generally to illustrate, respectively, Catholic or Protestant thought in their attitudes toward the use of images.

While Williams insists that a complement of both these Ways is necessary to the life of every Christian, and that none of us can walk the Kingdom's narrow road by only affirming or only rejecting ... yet he contends that Christians are usually called primarily to one Way or the other. Williams himself was a practitioner of the Way of Affirmation. Explains C. S. Lewis:

'[Williams was] a romantic theologian in the technical sense which he himself invented for those words ... The belief that the most serious and ecstatic experiences either of human love or of imaginative literature have such theological implications, and that they can be healthy and fruitful only if the implications are diligently thought out and severely lived, is the root principle of all his work.'"

As an artist and priest, i.e. someone dealing on a daily basis, with signs, images, metaphors and symbols, it seems to me that I cannot do other than primarily follow the Way of Affirmation. My Greenbelt posts finished with the dilemma that, ultimately, both ways seem to exclude the other.

However, Williams holds out some possibility for these two ways been complementary aspects of the life of a Christian but I am unclear, other than shuttling back and forth beteen the two, how this might work in practice. On this front, though, it is interesting that both Rollins and The Garden are making extensive use of the Arts and of imagery in order to discuss what is essentially apophatic theology (the Way of Rejection). In doing so, they are either not fully appropriating apophatic theology or have seen ways of appropriating Williams' suggestion of a complementarity between affirmation and rejection in ways that I have yet to understand.

In thinking about the theology of betrayal, as Rollins' does in this latest book, it would be useful to introduce the ideas of W. H. Vanstone in The Stature of Waiting into the debate. This book is based on a search for a different understanding of the betrayal of Judas from the understanding that has been traditional in the Church and which throws light on the exprience of waiting and dependence as signs and consequences of the image of God in us. Also of relevance would be the theme of betrayal in the plays of Dennis Potter with his masterpiece The Singing Detective being a stunning example both of the effect of betrayal and the way in which re-living and re-shaping the experience of betrayal can lead to recovery.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Train and Peter Case - Two Angels.