AN
EXPECTANT WAITING
A
Meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale
Presbyterian Church
February 9; 2003
Text:
"those who wait for the Lord." (Isaiah 40:31)
First
Second
"Those who wait for the Lord" may have a difficult time these
days. There are
those of the present generation for whom "instant gratification"
seems to be part of their birthright. They have difficulty waiting for anything. Two young ladies who live in our
neighborhood have been having a house built for the past year. What with the
economic downturn and this winter's weather they've had to wait what seems to
them to be an intolerable amount of time to move in. When I would see them during my run in the morning I would ask them how
the house was coming. NOW I no longer ask; it's a sore subject with them.
Yet, on the other hand, it seems as though we as a nation are just
waiting for another terrorist attack. Yesterday, the alert level was raised a
notch as the Islamic festival of Hajj is about to begin and our nation seems
bent on going to war with
Now
the government is telling us how best to protect ourselves against what could
be a chemical, biological, or conventional attack. So, while "instant
gratification" seems to be the
norm on the one hand, interminable waiting to be destroyed in some fashion
seems to be our fate on the other,
There rue those in the Arab world who accuse the United States of
developing its foreign policy based upon "waiting for the Lord" a
sort of messianic justification for seeking to destroy the Muslim nations so
that Christ may come into his glory. Indeed, many in this country applaud the
current march towards some sort of Armageddon as preparation for the long
awaited rapture, so that, as the bumper sticker announces, "this car will
be unmanned."
Most
everyone would agree that "waiting" is a somewhat passive exercise.
We wait for someone to call. We wait for our ship to come in. We wait for the
doctor to see us. We wait for St. Valentine's Day. We wait for another
terrorist attack. We wait to go to war. Yet none of that is what the writer intends when he speaks
of "Those who wait for the Lord" This past year we've had quite a few
births and adoptions in the congregation. Whether the birth has been natural or
the child has arrived through adoption there's been quite a bit of waiting
involved. But it's by no means been passive. Throughout the adoption
proceedings, throughout the pregnancy both parents have been actively involved
preparing for the arrival. I've yet to meet parents expecting the arrival of a
child who've passively sat back and waited for it to happen. Each step along
the way there's been work to do to prepare themselves.
Each step they've taken has given them strength to take the next and the next
until the day arrives and they're still not prepared for what's to come. As the writer tells us they seem walk
and not grow weary; they run and don't faint. On any given Sunday morning you
can see one of the parents carrying a child in each arm and holding onto
another walking behind. I ask some of them when they ever get any sleep and
they only shake their heads and smile. That's far from being passive.
Today we celebrate Scout Sunday. Many of the scouts are
waiting to earn their Eagle or Gold Award. That's far from being a passive
wait. Along the way they have merit badges to earn, they have tests to take,
character to build and projects to complete. Each step prepares them for the
next step, keeping in mind the goal that lies before them.
It always amuses me to speak with those who've completed all of their
class work towards the Ph.D. degree, and they tell you that all they have left
to do is to write the dissertation. It took me ten years to write my dissertation and it was only when my committee
threatened to terminate me from the program that I quit reading that one last
book and got the thing written. Waiting to get the degree could have been a
passive exercise, but I still wouldn't have it.
Parents, scouts, those involved
in writing terminal degrees come close to the writer's intention when he speaks
of' "Those who wait for the Lord." To wait for the Lord is to give
God thanks for the gift of life, and to seek the patience and strength
necessary to assure the well being of that life once it arrives. To wait for
the Lord is to improve one's life through learning whatever skills necessary to
move on to the next challenge and the next and the next. To wait for the Lord
is to learn as much as possible about one's particular discipline so that we
will be the best we possibly can be in our chosen profession. Those who wait
for the Lord have work to do along the way.
Those who wait for the Lord can
also expect that there'll be wonderful surprises. They shall mount up with
wings like eagles. When Luther Immler died this past
Wednesday it was one of those wonderful epiphanies of God's presence at his
bedside.
All
the family was there and Sally was reading aloud a testimony that Luther had
written about God's presence in his life some eleven years ago. God had been
very present to Luther at that time and he'd wanted to record it so as not to
forget it. Wednesday evening
Sally
asked where Hazel's copy of it was and it just happened to be in the nightstand
next to the bed. As she was reading it the rest of the family noticed his
breathing got shallower and shallower until finally Luther took his last
breath. It was as though now it was time for Luther to meet the God about whom
he had written some years ago, and while Sally was reading, Luther mounted his
eagle's wings. His wait for the Lord was over.
I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard such a
story, nor will it be the last. Those who wait for the Lord are given
epiphanies all the time of God's presence in their lives, whether it's like
Luther and they're given the wings of an eagle or like our young parents
they're able to walk and not grow weary, to run and not faint. You see those
who wait for the Lord has nothing to do with what we commonly think of waiting.
It has everything to do with what goes on at the Outback across the street.
Those who wait tables over there are those who serve. A good waiter or waitress
learns to expect the customers every desire and be there to serve them before
they request it. That's what the writer of Isaiah wants us to learn about
serving the Lord. He wants us to wait upon
God's
every desire and be there to serve the Lord in all that we do. Then we'll not
only mount up with wings like eagles, we'll
also walk and not grow weary, we'I1 run and not faint.
Thanks
be to God,
Amen