What are you waiting for? (with audio)

What are you waiting for?

A sermon offered in worship at Grace Presbyterian Church, Jenkintown, PA on December 29th, 2019.

http://www.gracejenkintown.org/sermons/2019/12/26/december-29-2019-what-are-you-waiting-for

A bucket list is a compilation of goals and aspirations that you would like to experience before the end of your life.  Some people wait decades to save for, plan for, or make time for their dream vacation, dream experience, something they have waited and waited and waited for.  

Some of the most common items on bucket list surveys are to:

See the Northern Lights

See the pyramids

Visit all seven continents

Swim with dolphins

Run a marathon

Write a book

or 

I found a list on Buzz Feed of some of the most ridiculous Bucket list Items:

To purchase a dozen traffic cones and control traffic for an entire day

To jump up at Starbucks when someone else’s name is called and take the drink yelling I volunteer!

One person wanted to travel to the amazon rainforest and find a tarantula and roast it and eat it.  

Another interesting idea was to dress up like a clown and bungee jump off of a building and then when she reached the bottom to honk her clown horn.  

One person wanted to train a dog to react to Harry potter spells

and another really really wanted to climb up on a billboard and snag a Chik Fil A Cow before she died.  Just because. 

My friend , Matt has a similar plan in life.  He and his brother have a goal to skinny dip in as many major bodies of water as they can before they die.  They have jumped naked into the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Nile and the Danube, The Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Dead Sea and the Indian Ocean.  

They have their sights set this summer on heading to South America and they have a trip planned next year to India.  They have a points system assigned to their scheme.  Major bodies of water get higher points.  Matt’s brother tried to get points for going in some streams where he was fly fishing and Matt said those didn’t count.  They also lose any points they may have gained if they get in trouble for skinny dipping in the body of water.  So the adventure has to be quick, secretive and go unnoticed.  

Year by year they carefully plan these adventures, waiting for the thrill, thriving on the challenge, excited by the experience, trying to cross things off of the list before they kick the bucket. 

What are you waiting for?

Let us pray.  

Some oral narratives claim that Simeon was 270 years old.  According to the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, Simeon, the man who greets Jesus in the temple on the day of his dedication, was one of the original translators of the septuagint, the greek translation of the Old Testament.  As the legend goes, he was translating the words of Isaiah 7:14 Behold, a virgin shall conceive a child and he went to change the word virgin to young woman in the translation because it didn’t seem possible to him and an angel appeared to him and said he would not die until he saw the child born of the virgin and so he kept the original wording.  Such a legend, if it were true would place him at over two hundred years old when he meets Jesus in the temple in our story today.  

We know what Simeon was waiting for.  He was waiting to meet Jesus.  Luke says he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.  He was waiting for the people he lived with, worshipped with, prayed with, ate with, he was waiting for the people he loved to feel consoled.  To know that they were taken care of for all of eternity.  

Simeon had only one thing on his bucket list.  Only one hope before he died.  To meet Jesus face to face.   

I can’t help but think about the circumstances of those present that day in the Temple.  Mary and Joseph, performing a ritual, bringing a child to be dedicated.  

They had traveled a long way and had a young baby and the text makes no mention of their struggle or difficulty, we don’t hear if Mary was having trouble nursing, if the baby slept through the night, if they got lost and argued.   We do hear that they came to the temple, observing religious law and that they brought their offering, just two turtle doves because they  were not wealthy enough to bring a lamb. 

Simeon, so advanced in age, whether he was 100 or 200, had spent all of his life waiting for the arrival of Jesus.  Not seeking personal gain, wealth, career status, we don’t hear of one single worldly desire, Simeon was waiting only for Jesus.

Anna, the prophetess, the strong female character in the story, is the one who proclaims that Jesus is Lord.  She had been a widow for over 60 years and spent all day and all night in the temple, likely cared for by the temple priests.  When she sees the Messiah she suddenly begins to tell everyone around about who Jesus is.  She begins to testify, to proclaim.

The cast of characters, the people gathered in the temple that day did not bemoan one thing about their circumstances, not one complaint about the weather, not one utterance about how long the journey was, not one moan about how the system abandoned widows or how the rituals were arduous.  There was no talk of how hard it was to get old or how difficult it was to be a young mother.  

I was struck by this as I read the text.  

I have found myself in almost every stage in life, waiting for it to be over.  I was an elementary kid who thought she was ready for college.  I wanted to be a high school teen who fell in love early and married a high school sweetheart.  I wanted to be an adult as soon as I could be.  I wanted my kids to walk early, to talk early, I wanted diapers to be over quickly and so I potty trained my children at just over one year.

I always wanted to be in the next stage, in the next moment.  

I am in awe of how Anna and Simeon, Mary and Joseph, how they are not waiting for their circumstances to change, they are not waiting for their journey to be easier, they are wholly and only waiting for Jesus.

We all spend plenty of time waiting.

Waiting for pain to go away

Waiting for the court documents to be finalized

Waiting for a child to be born

waiting for a pie to be done

waiting for a lover to call.  

There are different kinds of waiting.

On one hand, waiting can be about where we see God’s absence, when we wait for war and fighting to end or when we wait for race and class to no longer be a defining factor in our worth.  Waiting for God to solve the social ills of our day.  Wondering why it seems as though God hasn’t shown up.  

On the other hand, waiting can be about where we see God’s possibility, when we have a sense that God could do something great, in a new relationship, in a new opportunity, we wait to see if God will act in a way that clears a path, that opens a door, that sparks a fire. 

A devotion that I’ve been following over the past few months titled Common Prayer,  A liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, begins each morning with the words: 

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you

As the day rises to meet the sun.  

The first few days of reading that, I was honestly a little bored by the liturgy.  It felt formal and formulaic. But as I kept reading it each day I started to imagine that perhaps my soul needed a little coaching to rise up to meet the Lord.  Perhaps my inner spirit was looking down, focused on my circumstances, looking around, focused on my neighbors and the ones who have it all figured out.

In our bedroom, we don’t have any curtains. Don’t worry, we don’t have any neighbors, either.  But this time of year, especially, we can lie in bed in the morning and slowly watch the darkness turn to light. We can watch the golden and orange hues peek up between the trees and we can see how the whole sky changes every single morning.  

And that is how I imagine that liturgy is supposed to feel, as if our spirits can fall into slumber, darkness, weariness, a hyper focus on our circumstances and forget, our spirits can forget over time, what it feels like to rise, to rise up like a sunflower painting it’s face to it’s source of warmth and light.  

As the day rises to meet the son, so our sprits can rise to meet the Lord.  

What are you waiting for?

I asked one of my children this question this week, having no idea what the answer would be. It could have been a vacation, a pony, a new phone.

You know what the response was? 

I am waiting to see if Jesus is real.  If I will really meet him some day. 

Even as a pastor I was blown away.  

I assured my child that Jesus is real and she pressed on asking How do you know.  Do you think you know or do you 100% know?  I told her I 100% know and that my greatest prayer is that some day she 100% knows.  

So much of our time, so much of our energy is spent on planning and fixing and organizing and plotting.  Schedules and spreadsheets and receipts and budgets and reports and calendars.  

Perhaps we can’t escape our busyness.  After all, there are sports to play and doctor’s visits to attend and work and school and life.

But perhaps we can change what we are waiting for.  

What if instead, we turn our waiting into longing.  

What if all week long, this week, every time you find yourself waiting, turn the channel of your brain to long for Jesus.

In the car at red lights, waiting for the coffee to brew, in the restaurant waiting for the server to bring the check,  when the popcorn is popping the microwave, resist that urge to fill your moments with a quick cheap look at your phone and instead, remember Anna and Simeon, and speak to the Lord, saying:  I am your servant and I will wait upon you.  

And just as God met Simeon and Anna after they waited in faith all of those years, God will meet you as you wait in faith.  God will not solve your circumstances, God will not put a new car in your driveway or pay off your credit card debt, but God will be with you in the waiting.  God will walk with you.  God will fill your emptiness with assurance.  God will calm your doubts and God will lift your spirit, God will redirect your eyes from any downward gaze and invite your soul to rise as the day rises to meet the sun. 

And you will see, slowly, surely, you will feel the presence of God in your waiting.  You will see Jesus show up for you, you will feel Jesus walk with you, as you feel the urge to utter that gossip or spew that anger, you will hear God reassuring you, saying, wait for the words i will give you, words of love.

This text where Mary and Simeon meet, it’s the only time in the Bible where they meet and it is said to be the fullness of all that God is to us and all that God wants for us in one experience.

Mary is known as Theotokos — The one who bears God.  The one who carried God in her womb and births God into the world.

Simeon is known as Theodochos — The one who receives God.

How powerful for us that God is teaching us and showing us that we too can bear into the world by opening our hearts, our prayers, our lives, by saying:  Look world, God is being birthed among us again this day through my belief in new life, in hope in new beginnings.  

When I believe in new birth, in being born again, I am one who bears God

How powerful is it that God is teach us and showing us that we can receive God.  That no matter how long we have waited for god to show up, no matter how closed off our hearts are, no matter how many times we have sinned and fallen short that we can like Simeon, we can be theodochos and receive God.  

Simeon’s song, his words upon seeing the Messiah are known in Latin as Nunc Dimitis and are quite often spoken at funerals.  

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,  light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

His bucket list was complete.

And so, friends, I invite you to wait.  Wait for God’s leading.

Wait for God’s comfort.  

Wait for God’s presence.

Wait for justice.

Receive what God has for you and offer what God has given to you and may your soul rise up to meet the Lord as the day rises to meet the sun.