22nd December 2024
Waiting in Love
The children at Alexandra Infants were absolutely tingling with suppressed excitement on Monday when Ray and I went in for assembly. Santa had visited earlier that morning; Year 2 had been rehearsing for their Nativity Play, and now it was their Christmas assembly (in truth, probably the least exciting of those things, but, never mind...) In each small person trying their best to sit still and do good listening, both the promise and the pain of waiting was visibly present.
The people whose stories we have been exploring afresh this Advent are people for whom waiting involved both promise and pain. The pain, for Sarah, Hannah and Elizabeth of waiting for a longed-for child. The pain of being ridiculed and marginalised by the society in which they lived. The pain of God's silence. And then, in the pain, the promise. The promise that the God who made a covenant with Abraham, the God who rescued his people from enslavement in Egypt, the God who brought his people back from exile in Babylon - that this God would, at the right time, act to make his salvation known to them and to a weary, longing world.
As we draw near to this fourth Sunday of Advent, the promise is about to be fulfilled. An angel sent from God arrives in an obscure town, Nazareth, to announce God's salvation to a young, unmarried girl named Mary. Unlike Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary has not, as far as we know, been waiting. We learn nothing from Luke about her back story. She is introduced with the angel; her surprise is our surprise. Her faith is the faith to which we are all invited - the faith which says "yes" to God, even when what God is asking seems incomprehensible, even impossible.
Mary's waiting comes later. Mary waits for the birth of her baby amidst whispers and rumours. Later she waits with her child in Egypt, a refugee from the violence of King Herod. Later still, we see her waiting outside a house as her son teaches the crowds inside, waiting and wondering what on earth is going on. Mary waits by the cross when nearly everybody else has deserted Jesus. And Mary is still present, waiting with the disciples for the gift of the Holy Spirit, after Jesus ascends into heaven. Mary's "yes" to God leads her into a lifetime of waiting, of promise but also of pain.
In our waiting, still, we, like Mary, like Elizabeth, like Hannah and Sarah, experience that blend of promise and pain. Like them, there are moments when the pain may seem overwhelming, when a sword may pierce our hearts (Luke 2:35). Yet, like them, we too wait in the promises of a faithful God. We wait in love, the love of God who gave his only son, the love of Immanuel - God with us.
