EXPECTING, PREPARING, WAITING, COMING.

This week’s Advent word is “waiting”. Waiting can be a deeply frustrating experience. For example, I am writing this whilst my computer is on a go slow for some reason. Each time I type a letter on the keyboard it seems to take an age before registering on the screen. As I write the words they don’t appear, and it plays havoc with my train of thought as I wait for the sentence to materialise before my eyes. I think that sense of frustration is recorded in the gospel reading of today. The disciples of John the Baptist have been sent to ask Jesus if he is the one to come or must they wait for someone else. The answer they get is priceless. Go back and tell John what you hear and see. Jesus tells them that the prophetic deeds which they are witnessing are all the evidence they need. Before their very eyes, Isaiah’s words are being fulfilled. Jesus ends with a beatitude: Happy are those who do not lose faith in me.

This is at the heart of what our “waiting” is all about in Advent. Like the disciples of John and like me with my snail-paced computer we can all feel frustrated that we are having to wait for what we want. Why do we have to wait and how long will it all take? Such attitudes can and do cause annoyance and lead to upset. And when it’s the “big” questions for which we are seeking answers then we become all the more impatient, and often compelled to wonder if what is being promised is ever going to happen. We ask ourselves what is the point of all this waiting, and will it ever come to fruition?

Let’s look again at what Jesus said to John’s disciples and what, through them, he is saying to us. Happy are those who do not lose faith in me is how the Lectionary translates it. The actual word used has a more literal meaning: Happy are those who are not skandalised by me. This may give us a better understanding of why our waiting is not going to end in frustration. It is the word Jesus uses to describe Peter’s desire to frustrate Jesus with his own agenda when he wanted to prevent him from going to the cross. It reminds us once more that our discipleship is deeply embedded within the context of “waiting” no matter how frustrating it may seem. The mission of Jesus is to bring forth the kingdom in all it fulness and the mystery of the cross is at the core of his mission. It is only when we fully understand this, that our waiting will be over, and this will happen when we finally have put aside all our own agendas and are at last “in Christ”. And oh yes, my frustration with my computer didn’t last long – its working fine now.

Come thou long awaited Jesus, come. Happy Gaudete Sunday!