Advent 2024: Waiting as One

Advent Day 3: December 3, 2024

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”  (2 Peter 3: 8)

A funny thing happened to me at church this past Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. As I settled in my pew, I noticed that the manger scene had been set on the communion table, and that the BABY JESUS was already in it! Placing Jesus in the scene before he’s even born is, to me, close to sacrilege! Well, maybe not sacrilege but certainly a pet peeve, one I’d thought I’d gotten over. But, alas.

Most people, I admit, wouldn’t be bothered at all. What’s a Nativity (or creche) without a baby, right? It IS December, after all. BUT . . . I spent twenty-eight years in the Roman Catholic Church, including my formative years. Two meaningful gifts that I received from that part of my spiritual journey are the reverence for mystery and the importance of waiting. The Catholic Church is big on making people wait. Children have to wait until a certain age to be able to receive communion. (That may have changed, but in my time, you had to reach the “age of reason,” around seven.) Before communion, members have to fast (wait) an hour before receiving the bread and wine. (It used to be 24 hours, but I guess people complained about waiting that long.) The Church makes you wait to become a member and wait to get married. And then there are Advent and Lent, the two most important—and emphasized/preached about/practiced—seasons of waiting:  Advent for the birth of Jesus and Lent for his resurrection. Trust me that Baby Jesus did not show up in the manger scene at church until CHRISTMAS EVE worship at midnight. Ready or not, we had to wait.

The above photo, taken at a resort in Mexico early last December, is an illustration of this theological “meddling.” There was NO Baby Jesus yet (ignore the fact that the Magi are there early, along with a duck the size of a sheep and a live cat). How my heart sang that someone had gotten it “right.” And then I realized thatI was a victim of theological pride.

I’ve learned over the years that “theology” doesn’t always get everything right. For instance, which creation story is “true”? Genesis 1 or Genesis 2? Which story of Jesus’ birth is the “real” one? Matthew’s version or Luke’s? And on and on. The study of God (theology)is simply that—a study. Nowhere in scripture are Advent and Lent even mentioned; they’ve become traditions. So when that star turned on over my own head, I thought, “What does time mean to God? To the Universe? To Love?” Yes, we’re waiting to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the return of more sunshine, the hope of Light, the time when all things will be made right, the beauty of a season filled with bright stars and crisp snow and wood smoke. But Jesus’ name is Emmanuel:  God with us, not God is going to be with us on December 25, or God was with us last December 25. The great name that Yahweh gave Godself is “I am who I am,” not “who I was” or “will be.” Wherever we are waiting, and for whatever we are waiting, God/Love is here in the waiting with us, even if it feels like we’ve been waiting a thousand years. We do not wait alone.

These times are troublesome, and there’s so much for which we must wait. Who am I to claim the “right” way to wait? So, put that Baby Jesus in your creche if it makes you happy!  Sing those carols now!  To you who put your trees up before Thanksgiving, I’ll not judge. Celebrate that extra Light! I’ll continue to light my Advent candles but I may just sneak the Christ-Child into my manger to remind me that the Light is already here.

Blessings ~ Rosemary