The Shape of Waiting

For Paul and for us, the shape of waiting is discipleship in Jesus Christ. Christ is our brother, “descended from David according to the flesh” and also raised from the dead, the “Son of God with power.” It may seem odd to ponder the Resurrection during Advent, but remember that the Christian Year doesn’t call us to act as if Christ were not yet born, much less not yet crucified and risen. Christians live in the midst of these spiritual dynamics, regardless of the season. Advent forms us to look for the places where the life of Christ is coming to birth, to look for places where it emerges from death. We wait, but with open and expectant eyes.
But how do we approach that waiting? I’m reminded of John Wesley’s General Rules, that address all those who “desire to flee from the wrath to come.” If you’re willing to hear it, that’s an Advent image for you. Notice that the Rules don’t call us to do anything spectacular about that word of judgment but rather encourage the normal round of discipleship: “[Do] no harm” and “[avoid] evil”; do as much good as possible and use the means of grace, such as praying, studying the Bible, receiving Holy Communion, even fasting and abstinence. When those “who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” do these things, they will likely encounter the One who brings life from dead places.
Often we find Jesus Christ in the midst of our lives in the flesh. I remember an elderly woman in church who told me as a five-year-old that I was special. I remember a grandfather, himself a pastor, who told me as a twenty-year-old preacher that I had gifts for the work. Those words encourage me, even today, and I know you recall similar experiences.