I have never liked waiting, especially when it involves waiting for certain knowledge about the future. Presently, I am doing a lot of waiting. I am waiting on clarity about where God is calling me to serve after I leave Good Shepherd. With the announcement last month about Robert McCormick’s late January departure from Good Shepherd, and my ensuing departure, the parish has entered a time of waiting. We are waiting through the discernment towards a new Organist and Director of Music. You are patiently waiting with me as we determine the timeframe for my departure. I am grateful for your patience. Waiting is never easy.
But I have been pressing myself to settle more into this period of waiting. There is a real gift in waiting, for it requires that we relinquish control and listen for God’s will to be done, not ours. Waiting is a gift to live in the present moment, a supremely difficult task for our impetuous culture. So much information is at our fingertips, but our future always remains elusive and beyond our control.
Advent, of course, is a season for waiting. Though we are waiting for Christmas, we do know exactly when it will arrive. But we are also waiting for our Lord to come again in power and great glory and to establish God’s kingdom for all time. We are waiting for the final consummation of all things, where Christ will be all in all. And as Sunday’s Gospel reading will tell us, we do not know when this will be. We are not meant to know, which seems to be the point. But we know that it will happen, and it will be glorious.
The Christian journey is always about waiting. We never fully arrive where we hope to be in this life, and so we must be patient with our daily struggles. We take two steps forward and then one step back. Nothing is a straight line. There are no easy answers. Following Christ is murky, messy, and circuitous. But the fullness of life that he offers us is abundantly clear. Being open enough to receive that life is another matter.
I suspect that this Advent at Good Shepherd will have a particularly acute meaning for us. As we wait for our Lord to come at Christmas, into our daily lives, and at the completion of all things, we wait on God to show us where to go next. We wait on God to send this parish new leaders, new challenges, new opportunities, and new faithful people who will be a part of the vision God has in store for this parish. We don’t know what the end will look like, but we do know that, because God is good and gracious, it will be wonderful.
On Sunday, November, 30, the First Sunday of Advent, I encourage you to attend our next Parish Conversation, which will have everything to do with waiting. How can we be faithful, patient, and open to the Holy Spirit’s murmuring voice in this season of waiting? If you are traveling for Thanksgiving, I invite you to consider coming back to town a bit early to be present for Sunday’s Parish Conversation. Your presence and your voice matter as we wait on God to give us direction and clarity. May this season of Advent be a holy time of expectation and hope. What we know is that God is faithful to us, and God is good. What we are waiting for is how we will be called to respond to God’s generosity and love.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle