Waiting For God

Waiting for God – John the Baptiser in prison (Matt 11:2-11, Is 35:1-6, James 5:7-11)

Dec 12, 2010 - Albert Labun

A couple of weeks ago on CFAM I heard Gabrielle’s mom interviewing a Philipino peacemaker. He said, “When God sends waves, we surf; meanwhile we learn balance.” I have never done ocean surfing but I have watched beginners trying to learn to balance the feel for the board with the push of the wave. They work hard on little stuff so when the real waves come they will be ready. His statement nicely captures our position of active waiting during Advent.

Advent means a time of waiting for an arrival. But not just any kind of waiting. It is a time of preparation. I was blown away by John the Baptiser’s situation. I have long been interested in drama and this is such a dramatic story of waiting for an arrival.

John the Baptiser knew he had a special call from God. He was born to his parents in their old age and I am sure he grew up hearing the story of his birth, perhaps even from the neighbours. It’s not surprising he felt a strong call to challenge his beloved nation to get ready for God to move in their midst. Throw off the yoke of the oppressive government. Be alert to the needs of their neighbourhood. Make sure no one had a grievance against anyone else. They must all be united. Alert for who the leader would be that God would raise up and then follow that leader. John even thought he had discovered whom God had chosen. It was his own cousin, Jesus.  John was not jealous. His dedication was complete. He even sent some of his followers to join Jesus. He is quoted as saying, “Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.”

He continued getting the nation ready for God’s mighty act of liberation by boldly telling truth to power. It was risky business he knew, but it was preparing the way, so it had to be done. Sure enough the king sent soldiers; John was rooted out and thrown into jail. And left to languish there.  Day after day. Waiting. For something.  Anything! A trial would have been good but no trial.

Maybe he sang to himself the psalms he had heard the temple choir sing so beautifully as a boy when his father took him to Jerusalem when his father had had his turn to be the priest:

 Psalm 1 “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked…but their delight is in the law of the Lord…in all they do, they prosper”

Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd…Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Hah!

Maybe he turned instead to Psalm 40 “Let all those be put to …confusion who seek to snatch away my life” (v14)

#143 “In your steadfast love cut off my enemies” (v12)

John’s crisis was not a loss of commitment to the cause. His question was: “Are you the one or do we look for another.” John had not lost his sense of urgency. He had not stopped looking. He was sure something should be happening. But was he looking in the right direction? He had pointed to Jesus but maybe Jesus was operating an irrelevant sideshow. Where was the national repentance?

 He was not afraid of death but what if God was moving in a different arena? He had prayed for discernment. Had he misread? If he was wrong what did his life mean after all he had gone through? In this time of doubts he gets his message out from behind prison walls.

We all come to times in our lives when we have to evaluate. Is our experience meeting our expectations? We pursue a direction in life and then we are forced to pause and ask questions.

This occurs in all our passages of life. All through high school you look up to the Grade 12s. Finally it is your turn. Great! We’ll have the best grad! But what will happen next? Is there life after high school?

The time comes to consider a life partner. Are you saying yes to the right one?

Or you have been working your job for quite a few years. Then you start thinking- Is this what you want to do with the rest of your life? What would you really like to do? As Yogi Berra said,” The future ain’t what it used to be.” Mid-life crisis! Some people have several of them.

As you near 60 or 65 you start wondering - have you enough in your pension fund? Can you go on the mission tourism travel you hoped for or will the fund be eaten up just fixing your teeth?

A number of times I have come face to face with death, including my own. That too is a crisis of meaning, of evaluation.

Meaning in life is far more than just growing older. We are spiritual beings and all of those crisis points really need to be seen from that perspective.  Sometimes spiritual issues confront us and we grope forward for new understandings. Let me take a few specifically spiritual questions and include them in our approach to waiting. 

When I was an undergrad the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess came out on vinyl. I loved the music. You know the song “The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible – it ain’t necessarily so” Well if not from the Bible, where do I look for answers? I was active in IVCF and had the opportunity for a long coffee with an IVCF staff member. He said when he was at university if he had a faith question he could not answer he wrote it on a slip of paper and hung it on a nail next to the bedroom door. He didn’t know the answer then but that didn’t mean there was none. Occasionally, he would leaf through the questions. He found over the years many questions had been answered. Others just didn’t seem to matter any more. They seemed irrelevant. Waiting was important. Without patience he might have thrown his faith overboard at priceless cost.

 Being forced to wait gives opportunity for evaluation. Evaluations are part of the passage of life, but sometimes evaluations are destructive. There is much to learn in the spiritual life. You may plant a seed and be anxious for it to grow, but be patient. Learning a spiritual discipline takes time. Digging up the seed to see if the roots are forming is not helpful. For spiritual growth IVCF said to me, maintain the spiritual disciplines, Bible study, prayer, worship, meditation.

The discoveries of our sciencists are astonishing. During the last few decades we find even the mysteries of personality or the disorders of the brain can be understood by reading DNA codes and MRI pictures. My understanding of the world has changed profoundly since my childhood. Is there room for God among the atoms? How can I know if God is doing anything? It is a bit like the Baptiser’s request.” Help me to discern… do I ask God or do I look elsewhere?”

I think the answer is one of the values I learned in IVCF - that All truth is in Christ. If it’s true it is God’s truth. There is no contradiction. I may not understand but I may need to hold seeming contradictions in tension. I will need to be patient and continue to pursue truth honestly. The Baptiser didn’t give up but sent messengers to Jesus. To give up praying because some expert says,” I looked through a lens and didn’t see God”?! As John V Taylor says, “The true meaning of prayer is the communion, the delight and exchange of love which is God’s purpose in his creation of the world. To speak of ‘the use of praying’ is as wide of the mark as explaining the use of loving.” I find that statement worth remembering: “The true meaning of prayer is the communion, the delight and exchange of love which is God’s purpose in his creation of the world. To speak of ‘the use of praying’ is as wide of the mark as explaining the use of loving.” (paraphrased p275, The Christlike God by John V Taylor)

HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?  Finding models within the Christian community has been incredibly important to me. Following Jesus takes courage. Can we learn courage just by taking a class or reading a book? Courage has to be learned by sharing a life with friends. Our life together is a school of the kingdom of God.

Jesus’ answer to John’s messengers is as interesting in what it leaves out as in what it includes. Jesus asks them to be witnesses and send John evidence using the same Isaiah passage that he had read in the synagogue at the start of his ministry. But there are a couple of omissions from the Isaiah prophecy. In a way it is very affirming of John’s ministry. What John had worked for is indeed happening. But not quite what John had expected. There is no mention of setting prisoners free. Perhaps John had hoped for a liberating army. Nor did Jesus quote the line about “this is the year of vengeance of the Lord.” John had not known all the details of God’s next move but he had done his part. John had been centre stage in the drama. The next act was starting but Jesus declares that of all the prophets John had been the greatest.

In Advent we celebrate a time of preparation. Christ our king came once in a most surprising fashion. We have the security and joy of knowing Christ. He will come again and. we are alert in waiting. Meanwhile Spirit is at work. Like John we try to discern what Spirit is doing so that we can be her arms and legs. As sons and daughters of God we are expecting the arrival of the kingdom in its fullness. When our King arrives he will have work for us to do and we want to be prepared.