A Waiting Faith (Dec. 23, 2007)
Christmas Message: December 23, 2007 Ken Shigematsu
Title: A Waiting Faith…
Big Idea: What God does in us while we wait is just as important as what we are waiting for…
We live in the Cambie area and so with all the Canada Line (i.e., the new subway line) construction along the Cambie Street we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the last couple years waiting in traffic… (and learning the best back roads). This time of the year traffic generally is heavier as people are out and about getting ready for the holidays… it’s the time of the year when the lines at the supermarket, the post office, and shops are longer…
But, it’s not just at Christmas time that we wait… we spend a good deal of our lives waiting in a more general sense…
As children we wait to start school and then we wait for vacation, and then we wait for school to start again. Years later, we wait to graduate. We wait for a job. We wait to find a partner… We wait to leave a difficult relationship… We wait for children and then down the road we wait to come for our children to experience a “turning point.” We wait to be successful…we wait to feel comfortable in our own skin.
For most of us, waiting is hard. We love things to come to us right away, this is why fast food is such a huge business (even though we know it’s not good for us), it’s why we use the microwave so much, why we text message each other…
We don’t like to wait, but waiting is a necessary part of God’s economy.
Simone Weil the French mystic says, “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
This why the Psalmist in Psalm 37:7 exhorts us to rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him…
43X we are told in the Hebrew Scriptures (or the Older Testament) to “wait on the LORD.”
Luke’s gospel opens with pictures of God’s people who are waiting: Zacharias and Elizabeth wait as a couple past child-bearing years for a baby to be born; Mary, a teenager, waits for Jesus to be born; Simeon and Anna wait for the opportunity to see the Saviour….
This morning by looking at Simeon, we’re going to explore the question why does God allow to us wait?
Joseph and Mary have brought their baby Jesus to the Temple dedicate him to the LORD, as was the custom of their day.
Please turn to Luke 2:25-33 (NOTE FOR POWERPOINT THE SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN ABBREVIATED):
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
33 The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
Simeon and his people the Israelites had been living in a land dominated by the iron-fisted, dictatorial rule of Rome. They were living in fear of cruel King Herod and felt like slaves. Simeon was a man who had been waiting all of his life for a Savior who would deliver his people. Simeon and his people yearned for a Messiah who would lead them and set them free them.
Among Jews of Simeon’s day one of the popular titles of Messiah was Comforter. The prophet Isaiah had prophesied years before:
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for…
That the glory of the Lord would be revealed on his people’s behalf.
God made promise years before through Isaiah and other prophets that he would send a comforter, a “Prince of Peace” who would deliver his people…and the people of the world.
When Simeon saw the 6 week old baby Jesus in the temple courts, he knew that God’s promise had been kept, he prays…
29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
(The Latin phrase famous in church history nunc dimittis… (you may now dismiss your servant in peace… the waiting is done) comes from this verse…
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
Simeon had been waiting for the Savior of the world because the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen this gift from God…
But why does God allows Simeon to wait...? Simeon was nearly eighty years old and had waited a long time to see the Saviour
Why does God allow Simeon to wait for years?
Why does God allow Anna, the devout 84 year old widow who was fasting and praying at the Temple night and day to wait for decades?
God could have sent Simeon or Anna an email just before Jesus was born letting him know Jesus would be born on such and such date on such on such time at such and such a place and that would have saved the ache of waiting…
Sometimes God allows us his people to wait…
In my morning Bible reading this past week, I read from Habakkuk 2:3
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it…
Some times God makes a promise and the fulfillment of it seems delayed and we wait…
God promises Abraham at age 75 and his wife Sarah at age 65 that would have child. When do they receive their child 9 months later? Two years later? 5 years later? Not until almost 25 years later when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is ninety…
Why does God allow Joseph an innocent man, who honors God to wait in prison for two years before he’s released?
Why God allow Simeon and also Anna to wait a life-time for the Savior?
Why does God allow us to wait?
Why does God allow us to wait for __________...
Fill in the blank with whatever it is or whoever it is you’re waiting for?
At this time I’m going to invite Alex Thompson one of our children’s pastors to come forward… (I’m going to ask her a couple of questions).
Ken: Alex, can you tell me of a time when you experienced waiting in your life?
Yes, my stay in Canada involved a lot of waiting. I was born in Guatemala. My mom works as a diplomat for the government of Guatemala. When I was 14 years old, my mom was transferred to Vancouver.
Once we arrived here, I had a strong sense that Vancouver would become my home. We lived here for about 5 years and then it was time to move again! My mom was transferred to Texas. All of us moved and while we lived there, I still longed for Vancouver to be my home. I did not know what to do with this strong feeling of longing.
I looked into the possibilities of moving back to Vancouver to do my post-secondary education and even this seemed too difficult and complicated due to immigration and financial matters. As I studied my options to return here, there were many friends and family who pointed out the difficulties and impossibilities of this dream for me.
My mom could not understand my longing either and as I heard all these voices in my life, it seemed crazy to keep on hoping and believing that this longing had come from God and that it was real.
I ended up waiting for 8 months to return to Vancouver and 11 years to actually become a permanent resident in Canada. The waiting period was long and not easy. I often wondered:
-How much did God want me to do and how long did I have to wait for Him?
-Was this longing coming from God or was it my own longing?
-When things seemed hopeless, I even wondered, “Was God in the midst of all this?”
Ken: What did this teach you about yourself and about God?
In retrospect, I know now that my life is not a series of accidental circumstances but rather a careful and ordained plan. Part of this plan was God’s perfect timing; He actually prepared me to receive his gift for me. At the end when things worked out for me to be here, I knew more about God’s character, His love, his provision, and his faithfulness. What was interesting was that if I was able to just stop and “smell the roses” rather than worrying… I was able to see how God put little buds of hope throughout my waiting time. He was actually there and he was deeply involved and caring for me.
Our waiting time is not always resolved neatly… but our waiting time is never wasted.
As Alex looked back, God did something in her while she waited. She learned God’s character, love, provision and faithfulness.
Henry Nouwen says, ‘Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting. Waiting is not a static state. It is a time when God is working behind the scenes and the primary focus of his work is on us.”
In Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8: 24, he says that “waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.” While we wait, God is creating his life in…
What kinds of things does God does God enlarge in us while we wait?
As we wait, we learn humility. As Alex waited, she realized that God had a careful, ordained time table for her.
Someone has said, “When we wait, we realize that God is not in our appointment book. We are in God’s appointment book; we are part of his time table.”
Philips Brooks was a pastor renowned for his gentle spirit and enormous patience. One day a friend walked into his study and found him pacing back and forth very agitated. His friend was shocked! “Dr. Brooks, what is the matter?” his friend asked. “I am in a hurry,” he said, “but God is not!” Often, we desperately want something that may be legitimate and worthwhile and there is nothing we can do, but wait.
And waiting humbles us because it makes realize we are not in control.
As was true for Simeon… waiting for something that God has promised us fills us with hope… Alex spoke about how God placed in her “buds of hope” during her waiting time.
Paul says in Romans 5 while we're waiting for God to set everything right, we suffer. But suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.
Romans 8… (POWER POINT) 23 We… groan inwardly for the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently…
David Peterson, former pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington, told about a time when he was preparing his sermon. His little daughter came in and said, "Daddy, can we play?" He answered, "I'm awfully sorry, Sweetheart, but I'm right in the middle of preparing this sermon. In about an hour I can play."
She said, "Okay, when you're finished, Daddy, I am going to give you a great big hug."
He said, "Thank you very much." She went to the door and (these are his words) "Then she did a U-turn and came back and gave me a chiropractic, bone-breaking hug." David said to her, "Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished."
She answered, "Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!"
One meaning of Christmas is that God wants us to know, through this First Coming, how much we have to look forward to in the great Second Coming.
Or through our going to be with him at the end of our lives. I find elderly people, who are experiencing health challenges at time have an intense longing for the savior.
Writer Luci Shaw talks about her father, a man of God, who was stricken with leukemia in his senior years. In the final weeks of his illness he wrote a farewell letter to all his friends describing his excitement at the prospect of heaven and meeting Christ face to face. He wrote: “I feel like a boy expecting a new bicycle.” He could hardly wait. He was an impatient man, according to Lucy, but he was filled with hope…hope that one day he would experience his Maker, his Christ, face to face.
Waiting can fill us with humility—God is in control of the time-table and it can fill us with hope…. And sense of God’s presence…
When Christian psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb was speaking here last year he said, One Saturday afternoon, as 3 year old, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help.
So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. He said, “I tried… but I couldn't do it. I panicked. "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom." My parents heard my desperate scream. "Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door. "Get me out of here!" I shouted.
He said, “I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage got the ladder and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bathroom window. He pried the window open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," Larry said—and ran out to play. Larry said, That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the things I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't usually work that way… we often wait..
We may not be admitted to school we want to attend or get job we want, or relationship we want… . or friends betray us, or find ourselves in financial trouble, or kids aren’t doing well or our health nosedives…
God has climbs through the small window into of my dark room.
But he doesn't walk by me unlock the door and open it. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
I don't always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!" Larry says, either we can keep asking God to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and also him create humility and hope and other virtues in us.
Know that if you are in a time of waiting in dark for something that you deeply long for, this season is not wasted, but that God is with you and doing something powerful in you… building in humility and hope… and other virtues….
Henry Nouwen wrote about some friends who were trapeze artists (Powerpoint image) called “The Flying Roudellas.” They told Nouwen that there is a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. This relationship is governed by important rules such as “the flyer is the one who lets go,” and “the catcher is the one who catches.” If the flyer swings high in the trapeze high above the crowd, the moment comes when he must let go. He flings his body out into mid air; his job is to keep flying and wait for the strong hand of the catcher to take hold of him at just the right moment. One of the “Flying Roudellas” told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher. The flyer’s job is to wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.” (2x)
43 times in the Old Testament we are told to wait… Simeon waited for the Saviour, so did Anna and will we in our way…
Some of you have let go of what it is God has called you to let go of, but you can't feel God's hand catching you yet. Will you wait in absolute trust? Will you be patient? Waiting requires patient trust. That's the first thing waiting on God requires. The second one is this…
Are you waiting for something?
Are you waiting in fear, or in trust?
Are you waiting impatiently, or with hope?
Open your hands and place into God’s hand the things for which you are waiting …as the flyer to the catcher.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
Title: A Waiting Faith…
Big Idea: What God does in us while we wait is just as important as what we are waiting for…
We live in the Cambie area and so with all the Canada Line (i.e., the new subway line) construction along the Cambie Street we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the last couple years waiting in traffic… (and learning the best back roads). This time of the year traffic generally is heavier as people are out and about getting ready for the holidays… it’s the time of the year when the lines at the supermarket, the post office, and shops are longer…
But, it’s not just at Christmas time that we wait… we spend a good deal of our lives waiting in a more general sense…
As children we wait to start school and then we wait for vacation, and then we wait for school to start again. Years later, we wait to graduate. We wait for a job. We wait to find a partner… We wait to leave a difficult relationship… We wait for children and then down the road we wait to come for our children to experience a “turning point.” We wait to be successful…we wait to feel comfortable in our own skin.
For most of us, waiting is hard. We love things to come to us right away, this is why fast food is such a huge business (even though we know it’s not good for us), it’s why we use the microwave so much, why we text message each other…
We don’t like to wait, but waiting is a necessary part of God’s economy.
Simone Weil the French mystic says, “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
This why the Psalmist in Psalm 37:7 exhorts us to rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him…
43X we are told in the Hebrew Scriptures (or the Older Testament) to “wait on the LORD.”
Luke’s gospel opens with pictures of God’s people who are waiting: Zacharias and Elizabeth wait as a couple past child-bearing years for a baby to be born; Mary, a teenager, waits for Jesus to be born; Simeon and Anna wait for the opportunity to see the Saviour….
This morning by looking at Simeon, we’re going to explore the question why does God allow to us wait?
Joseph and Mary have brought their baby Jesus to the Temple dedicate him to the LORD, as was the custom of their day.
Please turn to Luke 2:25-33 (NOTE FOR POWERPOINT THE SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN ABBREVIATED):
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
33 The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
Simeon and his people the Israelites had been living in a land dominated by the iron-fisted, dictatorial rule of Rome. They were living in fear of cruel King Herod and felt like slaves. Simeon was a man who had been waiting all of his life for a Savior who would deliver his people. Simeon and his people yearned for a Messiah who would lead them and set them free them.
Among Jews of Simeon’s day one of the popular titles of Messiah was Comforter. The prophet Isaiah had prophesied years before:
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for…
That the glory of the Lord would be revealed on his people’s behalf.
God made promise years before through Isaiah and other prophets that he would send a comforter, a “Prince of Peace” who would deliver his people…and the people of the world.
When Simeon saw the 6 week old baby Jesus in the temple courts, he knew that God’s promise had been kept, he prays…
29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
(The Latin phrase famous in church history nunc dimittis… (you may now dismiss your servant in peace… the waiting is done) comes from this verse…
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
Simeon had been waiting for the Savior of the world because the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen this gift from God…
But why does God allows Simeon to wait...? Simeon was nearly eighty years old and had waited a long time to see the Saviour
Why does God allow Simeon to wait for years?
Why does God allow Anna, the devout 84 year old widow who was fasting and praying at the Temple night and day to wait for decades?
God could have sent Simeon or Anna an email just before Jesus was born letting him know Jesus would be born on such and such date on such on such time at such and such a place and that would have saved the ache of waiting…
Sometimes God allows us his people to wait…
In my morning Bible reading this past week, I read from Habakkuk 2:3
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it…
Some times God makes a promise and the fulfillment of it seems delayed and we wait…
God promises Abraham at age 75 and his wife Sarah at age 65 that would have child. When do they receive their child 9 months later? Two years later? 5 years later? Not until almost 25 years later when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is ninety…
Why does God allow Joseph an innocent man, who honors God to wait in prison for two years before he’s released?
Why God allow Simeon and also Anna to wait a life-time for the Savior?
Why does God allow us to wait?
Why does God allow us to wait for __________...
Fill in the blank with whatever it is or whoever it is you’re waiting for?
At this time I’m going to invite Alex Thompson one of our children’s pastors to come forward… (I’m going to ask her a couple of questions).
Ken: Alex, can you tell me of a time when you experienced waiting in your life?
Yes, my stay in Canada involved a lot of waiting. I was born in Guatemala. My mom works as a diplomat for the government of Guatemala. When I was 14 years old, my mom was transferred to Vancouver.
Once we arrived here, I had a strong sense that Vancouver would become my home. We lived here for about 5 years and then it was time to move again! My mom was transferred to Texas. All of us moved and while we lived there, I still longed for Vancouver to be my home. I did not know what to do with this strong feeling of longing.
I looked into the possibilities of moving back to Vancouver to do my post-secondary education and even this seemed too difficult and complicated due to immigration and financial matters. As I studied my options to return here, there were many friends and family who pointed out the difficulties and impossibilities of this dream for me.
My mom could not understand my longing either and as I heard all these voices in my life, it seemed crazy to keep on hoping and believing that this longing had come from God and that it was real.
I ended up waiting for 8 months to return to Vancouver and 11 years to actually become a permanent resident in Canada. The waiting period was long and not easy. I often wondered:
-How much did God want me to do and how long did I have to wait for Him?
-Was this longing coming from God or was it my own longing?
-When things seemed hopeless, I even wondered, “Was God in the midst of all this?”
Ken: What did this teach you about yourself and about God?
In retrospect, I know now that my life is not a series of accidental circumstances but rather a careful and ordained plan. Part of this plan was God’s perfect timing; He actually prepared me to receive his gift for me. At the end when things worked out for me to be here, I knew more about God’s character, His love, his provision, and his faithfulness. What was interesting was that if I was able to just stop and “smell the roses” rather than worrying… I was able to see how God put little buds of hope throughout my waiting time. He was actually there and he was deeply involved and caring for me.
Our waiting time is not always resolved neatly… but our waiting time is never wasted.
As Alex looked back, God did something in her while she waited. She learned God’s character, love, provision and faithfulness.
Henry Nouwen says, ‘Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting. Waiting is not a static state. It is a time when God is working behind the scenes and the primary focus of his work is on us.”
In Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8: 24, he says that “waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.” While we wait, God is creating his life in…
What kinds of things does God does God enlarge in us while we wait?
As we wait, we learn humility. As Alex waited, she realized that God had a careful, ordained time table for her.
Someone has said, “When we wait, we realize that God is not in our appointment book. We are in God’s appointment book; we are part of his time table.”
Philips Brooks was a pastor renowned for his gentle spirit and enormous patience. One day a friend walked into his study and found him pacing back and forth very agitated. His friend was shocked! “Dr. Brooks, what is the matter?” his friend asked. “I am in a hurry,” he said, “but God is not!” Often, we desperately want something that may be legitimate and worthwhile and there is nothing we can do, but wait.
And waiting humbles us because it makes realize we are not in control.
As was true for Simeon… waiting for something that God has promised us fills us with hope… Alex spoke about how God placed in her “buds of hope” during her waiting time.
Paul says in Romans 5 while we're waiting for God to set everything right, we suffer. But suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.
Romans 8… (POWER POINT) 23 We… groan inwardly for the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently…
David Peterson, former pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington, told about a time when he was preparing his sermon. His little daughter came in and said, "Daddy, can we play?" He answered, "I'm awfully sorry, Sweetheart, but I'm right in the middle of preparing this sermon. In about an hour I can play."
She said, "Okay, when you're finished, Daddy, I am going to give you a great big hug."
He said, "Thank you very much." She went to the door and (these are his words) "Then she did a U-turn and came back and gave me a chiropractic, bone-breaking hug." David said to her, "Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished."
She answered, "Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!"
One meaning of Christmas is that God wants us to know, through this First Coming, how much we have to look forward to in the great Second Coming.
Or through our going to be with him at the end of our lives. I find elderly people, who are experiencing health challenges at time have an intense longing for the savior.
Writer Luci Shaw talks about her father, a man of God, who was stricken with leukemia in his senior years. In the final weeks of his illness he wrote a farewell letter to all his friends describing his excitement at the prospect of heaven and meeting Christ face to face. He wrote: “I feel like a boy expecting a new bicycle.” He could hardly wait. He was an impatient man, according to Lucy, but he was filled with hope…hope that one day he would experience his Maker, his Christ, face to face.
Waiting can fill us with humility—God is in control of the time-table and it can fill us with hope…. And sense of God’s presence…
When Christian psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb was speaking here last year he said, One Saturday afternoon, as 3 year old, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help.
So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. He said, “I tried… but I couldn't do it. I panicked. "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom." My parents heard my desperate scream. "Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door. "Get me out of here!" I shouted.
He said, “I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage got the ladder and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bathroom window. He pried the window open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," Larry said—and ran out to play. Larry said, That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the things I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't usually work that way… we often wait..
We may not be admitted to school we want to attend or get job we want, or relationship we want… . or friends betray us, or find ourselves in financial trouble, or kids aren’t doing well or our health nosedives…
God has climbs through the small window into of my dark room.
But he doesn't walk by me unlock the door and open it. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
I don't always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!" Larry says, either we can keep asking God to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and also him create humility and hope and other virtues in us.
Know that if you are in a time of waiting in dark for something that you deeply long for, this season is not wasted, but that God is with you and doing something powerful in you… building in humility and hope… and other virtues….
Henry Nouwen wrote about some friends who were trapeze artists (Powerpoint image) called “The Flying Roudellas.” They told Nouwen that there is a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. This relationship is governed by important rules such as “the flyer is the one who lets go,” and “the catcher is the one who catches.” If the flyer swings high in the trapeze high above the crowd, the moment comes when he must let go. He flings his body out into mid air; his job is to keep flying and wait for the strong hand of the catcher to take hold of him at just the right moment. One of the “Flying Roudellas” told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher. The flyer’s job is to wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.” (2x)
43 times in the Old Testament we are told to wait… Simeon waited for the Saviour, so did Anna and will we in our way…
Some of you have let go of what it is God has called you to let go of, but you can't feel God's hand catching you yet. Will you wait in absolute trust? Will you be patient? Waiting requires patient trust. That's the first thing waiting on God requires. The second one is this…
Are you waiting for something?
Are you waiting in fear, or in trust?
Are you waiting impatiently, or with hope?
Open your hands and place into God’s hand the things for which you are waiting …as the flyer to the catcher.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
posted by Shigematsu at 11:21 AM
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