Advent I: Waiting

In 1966 a new musical debuted called "Auntie Mame."  Mame was a bohemian, liberated woman who danced to a different drummer and liked to challenge convention.  She had an entourage of her own, supporting her lifestyle.  And all went well until Patrick, her deceased brother's ten-year-old son, arrived to live with her.  He became a foil, testing her.  At one point, Mame announces that she intends to decorate for Christmas early.  Patrick replies, "Auntie Mame, it is only one week past Thanksgiving Day!"

You know where I am going with this.  In our culture, the decorations appear on shop shelves well before Thanksgiving.  The hardware often shows up in August.  The twelve days of Christmas are sometimes said to end on Christmas Day (when, in fact, the twelve days start on Christmas Eve, ending at the Epiphany.)  There are festive "countdowns to Christmas" and  Hallmark television programs that span many weeks.   Christmas hymns are played and sung months in advance.

What all this is symptomatic of is America's infatuation with instant gratification.  We cannot wait for anything.  I want Christmas and I want it now!  And the marketing world responds accordingly by distorting Christmas to a protracted period.  Everything must bow down before the Almighty Dollar and the world of consumerism.

Sometimes, obviously, waiting is hard.  In Jesus' time people lived on the edge of their seats.  At any time God would solve the world's problem by bringing in God's Kingdom, the Divine Reign, not through us but around us.  And that inbreaking of a perfect world be accompanied by amazing cosmic fireworks and special effects.  Apparently Jesus shared in that common Jewish expectation of a soon,  sudden, and spectacular end to the world as it had been known.  [viz. Luke 31: 25-36]  He even told a crowd that some of them would not die before the End.. However, elsewhere in Scripture that view is gone and he assures his disciples that no one -- not even he -- knows when the Reign of God may come.  But we do know now that it will come when we get off our duffs and change the world.

So where does that leave us?  Waiting.. Perhaps you will remember the phrase from Carly Simon's song, Anticipation, in which she sings, "We can never know about the days to come.  We think about them in many ways."  Yes, we do live in uncertainty but also in expectancy, because we wait, not in passivity or anxiety or fear -- as our culture does -- but rather in faith, confidence, and joyful preparation to celebrate again the birth of the Saviour.  We trust that in our lives and mission God is both companion on our journey, and our destination.  Thus, we know this Advent season that the one we await and will celebrate once again is Emmanu-El, "God is with us."