Preach it, Sister!

The Paul Simon lyric of the day:

"They say losing love is like a window in your heart--
Everybody sees you're blown apart."

-- from "Graceland"

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The following is my sermon [homily] for tomorrow. It is my first one for preaching class and only needed to be 4-6 minutes long. The text is Romans 8:22-27. Enjoy, and feel free to comment.

One of the first lessons we learn as children, in addition to basic reading and mathematical skills, is how to wait in line. Mastering the art of waiting in line, at least in an Elementary school setting, was important; our teachers desired for us to learn how to wait patiently, maturely, and (hopefully) quietly. The goal behind this pedagogy was to prepare us for was a lifetime filled with waiting- a lifetime of waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting for the arrival of special occasions, Waiting for Guffman….you get the picture.

I decided to investigate how long an average person spends waiting during their lifetime and statistics say that a typical 70 year old spends about 3-5 years out of their life waiting. That number goes higher up depending on if you live in Austin and have been subject to rush hour traffic on I-35 or MoPac. Human life could certainly be defined as simply waiting sandwiched between brief periods of productivity.

Christianity is a religion characterized by waiting. During the liturgical season of Advent, we anxiously await the birth of the Christ child. On Good Friday, we bear witness to the crucifixion and wait for the joy of Easter Morning. All the while, we await God’s new heaven and new Earth.

In this section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul is addressing the Early Christians who are waiting—waiting for the return of Jesus Christ and the realization of the Kingdom of God. As modern readers, we must understand that the Early Christians were absolutely certain that the Kingdom of God was eminent, that Jesus was going to return in glory “any day now.” They thought that if they worked diligently to usher in the Kingdom of God, surely Christ’s return would be around the proverbial corner.

Waiting, however, soon becomes wearisome. Paul is addressing his reader’s frustration, for although they had been blessed with the “first fruits of the spirit,” they could not see these fruits become manifest throughout God’s creation. As time passed and there was no sign of the Kingdom of God, many were becoming discouraged. Perpetual waiting, after all, can fester and grow into feelings of frustration, of futility, of apathy.

Do we, too, not become discouraged, just as our ancestors once were? How can we continue to preach and live out a gospel of hope and grace where world is seemingly absent of such hope and grace? I am reminded of the denizens of Narnia, who, while under the curse of the White Witch, lamented that it was always winter in Narnia, and never Christmas. The Narnians, too, were growing weary of waiting without any sign of redemption.

Paul uses the analogy of labor pains because it is often only through pain that a new life is grown. Renewal, growth, change does not occur without pain, loss, and even despair. In the darkness of winter, it is often easy to forget that spring will soon return, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When it is always winter and never Christmas, it can feel as if we have been abandoned by God.

But my friends, we must remember that even when all is desolate and the world is groaning with the burden of sin, new life lays dormant, incubating, waiting for the sunshine of burgeoning spring! It can be easy to lose hope when all appears lost. But as seminarians, we must be resolved to fight against hopelessness, both in our own lives as well as the lives of our sisters and brothers in Christ. Seminary can, at times, seem hopeless, especially when there are pages of Barth to decipher, passages of Hebrew to exegete, and sermons to write.

All of this work can seem futile if we do not experience immediate results. But we must have hope. We have hope in what is not seen. We have hope that spring will return, that under the surface of the cold, dead earth lies life waiting to surface.

God will not abandon us.

So we shall wait…and wait….and wait….all the while, continuing to nurture ourselves and others, continuing to nurture the new life that longs to be born. As children, we learned how to wait. Now as adults, we must re-learn these lessons of our youth. Waiting, coupled with faith brings Hope. May we always have the courage to wait, the courage to have faith. May we live in the hope of the Kingdom that is, and is to come. Amen.