Thurs, Day 5, Waiting? You Kidding?

As a child waiting for Christmas to come seemed to last forever.  Little marker points made it clear it was getting closer - Mom's baking, the shopping, putting up the tree and decorating the house.  All made it clear we were "in" Advent, but also that we had not yet arrived at Christmas.

Advent invites us to enjoy the journey. God is never in a hurry. 

The cast of characters in the Advent drama are few: An aged priest and his can’t-bear-children wife, a virgin teenager and her confused, but obedient soon-to-be husband, some shepherds on a hillside who were lucky enough to do “night” duty, one didn’t-have-a-clue-what-was-about-to-happen innkeeper.  Oh yeah, some astrologer Magi who went exploring a celestial anomaly. 

THESE were the people God chose to introduce his Son into the world.  THESE are the cast of characters that God chose to make known the coming of His son.

Nothing to me could be more clear about the way God thinks and the way I do, and, I might add, nothing so clearly shows that God has a sense of humor than in seeing the people God chose to reveal his plans to.

For example, Zechariah was an aged priest who was waiting.  He had been waiting for a son, hoping for a child to be born to he and his wife, Elizabeth.  But his wife was not able to get pregnant.  Not only waiting for a son, he was waiting with all of Israel for the Messiah to come and throw off the shackles of Rome.  One day, while on Temple duty, God interrupted his waiting. 

Luke 1:8-11 (NIV)
⁸ Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God,
⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

There's a story in these words to tell:
• There were 18,000 priests and all had a chance to get selected to serve in the temple, but the odds of any one out of 18,000 is pretty large; This service in the temple was privileged and it was possible for a priest to serve in the Temple only once in their lifetime; and yet, on that day he pulled the lot and was given the duty to enter the holy place to burn the incense.  

• There are 30 Zechariah’s in scripture, but this one…this one is specific…the Zechariah that God reveals himself here is THIS one – a child of Aaron’s line, and a man who tried to order his life around God, a man whose name means "Yahweh Remembers".
• “Yahweh remembers” was something he had to exercise as faith…because his country was occupied by a foreign power – a mark of shame…and he was childless – a mark of personal shame.
• Angels aren’t on every page, so when they appear something usually quite amazing is being announced – and in this case, it’s Gabriel, an angel close to God who appears.
• The announcement seems improbable to Zechariah…and his reply is simple:  “You kidding me?” After years of trying to have a child, and years of praying for one, an angel of God comes into the Holy Place to tell him it's going to happen...and his reply?  "You kidding me?"  Sometimes we wait so long for something that personal disappointments can weigh us down and we lose sight of God and faith.

• Gabriel says, “Be Silent”…an act of judgment for unbelief?  Perhaps, but perhaps it is a sign of the “awe” events that are about to take place in the next few months.

Advent involves waiting in faith.  As Jesus came the first time, and this is what we are celebrating now; so also scripture says Jesus will come again…so we wait.   

Zechariah waited and when God sent his angel to tell him “your prayers are answered”, Zechariah might as well said, “what prayers?”  "You Kidding?" 

Brennan Manning once wrote:
“It never ceases to amaze me why God could not have chosen "better" people to do His work in the world. Yet if God can use them, and reveal Himself through them in such marvelous ways, it means that He might be able to use me, inadequate, and unwise, and too often lacking in faith that I am. And it means that I need to be careful that I do not in my own self-righteousness put limits on what God can do with the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of circumstances. I think that is part of the wonder of the Advent Season.” 

Did we sometimes think we are too little in the universe?  I do!  I wonder at times, does God - in this vast universe he has created - really know or see who we are?  Then in places like this, I look…for here God shows that he is more than capable of bringing the universe to each of us!  

Advent is a season where we are challenged to think about our "waiting" prayers,  the ones that have gone on and on, and be reminded that faith often involves waiting. 

Galatians 4:4 (NRSV)
⁴  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 

Is there a “fullness of time” in God’s working in our lives?  I do believe there is.  We pray with hope and expectation but we also pray with perseverance.  It is in our praying that we say all over again, “Lord I believe…even though I wait…and that’s ok…because I trust you”.

My Prayer:
“Lord, I struggle many times to feel significant to your purposes.  I think at times I’m too hidden to feel noticed, or needed. Do you want to use me? I know this, I need you.  Lord remind me that my prayers are never wasted.  That each day my cries to you are remembered, stored up in a book of remembrance, and that you delight in showing yourself to us according to your perfect will.  This I know Lord, I trust in You.  You God are my salvation and I will trust and not be afraid...even as I wait.”