Worth Waiting For: Habakkuk 1:1-7; 2:1-4 - First Sunday in Advent

Last August, Elizabeth and I purchased a new couch. The store promised delivery in two weeks, but that gradually became four months (but they didn’t wait to take our money). I waited four weeks for parts to come in so my car would pass inspection. We have all waited seven months for Route 356 to reopen, though you’re still going to encounter construction delays if you travel it during the daytime.  

Click here to read the sermon text

Patience has always been a challenge for me. What I hate even more, however, is keeping other people waiting on me. I feel guilty whenever I don’t return a text message right away, or when someone’s waiting behind me at the self-checkout. 

When you’re made to wait, it messes with your life! It slows you down; it wrecks your plans; it causes you stress. And it is an inevitable part of life. 

Photo by Lucas Santos on Unsplash

Today is our first Sunday in the great season of waiting, which we call Advent. As someone who hates waiting, I hate that Advent is only four weeks, because I love the music and the building anticipation for Christmas. I would love to have more time to savor the season. 

But it’s different when you’re waiting for Jesus to answer a prayer or heal a wound. We don’t have the luxury of knowing when Jesus going to come or what he’s going to do—anymore than we know when he’s going to return to earth. The longer you wait, the more time there is for doubt and despair to set in. It’s been two millennia since Jesus’s death and resurrection—and one could argue that if he truly was coming back, he would’ve come back by now.

As much as it pains me to say it, waiting is the Christian way of life. But this is not an idle waiting. Waiting on Jesus is a completely different matter from sitting in a traffic jam or dealing with a supply chain disruption. It is an active waiting. It is a life spent preparing for what we know is to come. God has spoken promises, and we are waiting for God to fulfill them. The holy spirit uses this time of waiting to build you up in preparation for God’s promised future.

You aren’t merely waiting. You are growing. You are becoming. 

Think of it this way: I waited thirteen years to graduate from high school, from the time I entered kindergarten to when I received my diploma. But those thirteen years weren’t wasted. Those were years of learning, growing, exploring, making mistakes, and learning from them, facing challenges, and meeting them, building relationships, discovering gifts and talents, developing a sense of purpose. It wasn’t always pleasant or easy, but that wasn’t the point of it. The point was me, becoming what God created me to be—and that’s still going on, to this day.

The Christian life is no different. It wasn’t always pleasant or easy, but that’s not the point of it. The point of it is salvation.

Incidentally, the prophet Habakkuk spoke the words of our sermon text during a time when life was about to get harder for God’s people. The Babylonian Empire was rising in power, and the tiny Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel was not going to be able to hold them off much longer. And instead of crying out to God, God’s people kept clinging to their idols. They weren’t loving their neighbor and doing justice. Only a faithful remnant was even going to listen to what Habakkuk had to say. 

But that’s how God’s Kingdom is born. God’s future begins when God speaks a vision of a brighter and better future—and we shape our lives according to that vision. 

This congregation began in 1814 because God inspired a vision. Our clothing closet began with a vision, as did GriefShare, the Leechburg Food Bank, Community P.A.T.H., Bethesda Lutheran Services. God inspired a vision, and God provided the gifts to bring that vision to life. God also has visions for our children, to be loved, supported, and educated to put their God-given gifts to work to make a difference in the world. God has visions for our church, so that the transforming power of the Gospel will meet the pains and longings of the people we are not currently serving. 

We don’t give up hope when the future feels hopeless. We don’t give up on love when evil seems to be winning. We don’t wait for circumstances to be favorable before we move forward. 

If the future promises struggle and pain, we accept that—because death and resurrection give birth to God’s future. But without a vision, there is no future. 

The time we wait for Jesus to return and God’s kingdom to be revealed—it’s not a curse. It’s a blessing. It’s time the Spirit will be using to make us and the world ready for a glory that is beyond all measure. Like Christ was born in the manger, God’s Kingdom is being born among us now and we get to watch it grow. We sow seeds of faith, hope, and generosity and trust God to give the growth. We dream dreams, we seek visions, we strive towards the Kingdom of God—because we believe it’s worth the fight. 

God’s Kingdom may be in the future, but Jesus is here today to lead us there. You never need to wait for his grace. We get to be God’s hands and feet and voice to bring that future to bear. 

That is the joy and the purpose of the Christian life. When we see it, we will know that God’s Kingdom was worth working for, worth suffering for, and worth waiting for.