Waiting is the Hardest Part ~ Isaiah 64:1-9 ~ First Sunday in Advent

I want to tell you about my cell phone.

I’m not here to brag about how fancy it is—because it’s not…

I want to tell you about some of the calls I’ve made and received on this phone that have changed my life.

I used it to tell my loved ones that I was getting married.

Bishop Kusserow called me on this phone to tell me about a congregation in need of a pastor in the town of Leechburg.

These were some good news calls.  But there have been plenty of bad news calls as well…

It’s amazing how much life can change with one phone call…

But sometimes, we wait desperately for a life-changing phone call that never seems to come…

Have you ever waited by the phone for a much-needed job offer?

…or for the results of a medical test for a serious illness?

Have you ever waited for someone you love to call so that a broken relationship can be restored?

So often in life, we find ourselves waiting desperately for a miracle; for God to pull us out of a desperate situation—and the waiting never seems to end.

The words of our first lesson from Isaiah were the words of a people who had been waiting desperately for God’s help…

Not so long ago, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the most of the Israelites had been taken into exile.  But now they had been allowed to return to what little remained of their city—and starting over proved to be anything but easy.  The people needed a miracle of God to rebuild their shattered lives—but none ever came.  After years and even decades of waiting, many people began to give up on God.  Many felt that if God were real—or if God still cared about these people—God would have come through by now.  Others strongly believed that God had abandoned the people because of their sin…

Isn’t this what it’s like for us—there’s a tremendous need in your life, and you keep praying for months or even years—and nothing happens?  In time, you begin to question…  Is God angry with me?  Am I not praying hard enough?  Is it God’s will that I go through all this?  Does God even exist at all?  This kind of waiting can make it impossible to trust God—especially if things get even worse and we fall into a state of deeper anguish… 

How can we keep waiting on God when God’s help never seems to come?  How can we keep waiting on God when God seems hidden from us?

The best answer to these questions is to follow the example of the words of Isaiah… 

Since God was silent, they were crying out to God all the more…  And they were blatantly honest about their feelings towards God.  These were words of frustration and hurt and anger.  They voice to God every question, every doubt, every pain they feel in their hearts… 

And we must do the very same.  If God seems silent to us, then we must cry out to God all the more.  Even if all you can do nothing but yell at God, God will still hear you—and not reject you for your feelings. 

The second thing we must do is remember what God has done for us in the past.  We learn to trust God by remembering all the ways that God has carried us through life’s ups and downs to get us to where we are now.  There wouldn’t be a God for you to believe in had God not done great things for you during your life. 

The third thing we must do is obey God; to continue to do the things that we know God wants us to do.  We continue honor God by serving our neighbors.  We gather together with the Body of Christ to be nourished by Word and sacrament.

By doing all these things, we are preparing for God to come to us.  We’re keeping watch for Christ’s promises to be fulfilled.  We’re tuning ourselves in to the works of Christ right in our own lives. 

In Vacation Bible School last summer, we taught our kids about “God sightings.”  They learned to see God not in miraculous, earth-shaking events, but in everything that was going on around them.  They saw God in the animals and trees.  They saw God in the people who love them, and in little things they did for others and others did for them.  They learned to see the significant in what would have ordinarily been insignificant.  That is how we keep watch for God and God’s deliverance…

God works in ways that we can’t be aware of.  God works in ways that we just don’t expect; ways that we our human minds even imagine.  So often do God’s most extraordinary deeds come cloaked the ordinary. 

Just consider the way the Savior of creation came to this earth.  Jesus didn’t come with lightning flashes and earthquakes or fanfares.  He came as an infant wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. 

God does not work out our deliverance in accordance with our plans or our expectations.  God works in ways that are far too great for our human minds can imagine. 

Never should we interpret our unanswered prayers as signs of God’s absence, or worse yet, God’s rejection…  And while it can be so very hard to wait for God’s deliverance, we are given this assurance today: God is always active in our lives, even when we cannot perceive it.  Even while we wait for that one miracle that changes everything, God cares for us in the little miracles of everyday life.  When we cry out to God, when we obey God’s Word and we remember God’s acts, we will be better able to experience the power of Christ’s presence with us.

God is working out your salvation every moment of every day in your life.  We keep watch and get ready not just to see God, but even for God to send us so that we can be a God sighting for someone else. 

It is impossible to wait in vain for God’s deliverance.  Christ is coming—and Christ is already here.  Now is the time to prepare ourselves for God’s promises to come to life.