Who are you waiting for?
Okay, full confession. I was a theatre major and have never read the classic play, Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. My understanding is that the play is about two characters – sort of an odd couple duo – pontificating about life while waiting for someone named Godot to show up. Is Godot God? Maybe? Who knows, but the thing I do know about the play is that Godot or God never shows up – a fact meant to be a bit cynical and heartbreaking, I imagine. Please send me an email if I’m way off about any of this!
Advent is a time we say in the Chrisitan tradition that we’re waiting for God to show up. We read the Bible and sing songs about our hope that God will break into the world bringing peace and love. Then, surprise! God shows up in the form of a baby, Jesus, and we rejoice, and we go home and eat cookies and open presents.
We know the story so well – even if we didn’t grow up going to church every week – that we forget to pause and ask ourselves, “Who are we waiting for?” The birth of Christ was a historical moment, but also a spiritual one that we pray will happen over and over. The carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” gently calls on the Christ child, “O Holy Child of Bethlehem…be born in us today.”
If God in Christ is to be born again in us today – not far away in a distant time or place – what aspects of God need to be born? How can we carry the love and justice, the strength and vulnerability of God through our lives in order to heal a weary world? Who are we actually waiting for?
The Advent readings for this year happen to have a lot of images of the Holy One. From rock to healer, from teacher to shepherd, sometimes the images align and sometimes they conflict. Don’t let anyone ever tell you the Bible is clear. I invite you to use this calendar for your personal reflection and maybe conversations with others – around the dinner table or maybe after worship on Sunday. What images comfort you? Which frighten you? Which are needed right at this moment? Which line up with who God created you to be?
Finally, it’s impossible to read this ancient, sacred story without feeling again the deep grief of all that is currently happening Palestine and Israel. We know that violence and suffering did not end with Jesus’ birth. So it is worth sitting with the feelings of deep longing present in the words of prophets and psalmists this Advent. There are no easy fixes, but in my favourite image of God, Emmanuel or God with Us, we celebrate that God will be with us through it all, that our God will always show up.
Nativity scene in shadow with star above
