What Are You Waiting For?
How much of your life have you spent waiting for something to happen? How often have you heard those wonderfully seductive phrases like: “All of our representatives are assisting other customers at this time. Please stay on the line and the first available representative will assist you”… or, perhaps, “Please have a seat on that table and the doctor will be right with you”… or “If you want a table on the patio, there will be about a 25-minute wait”… or “Please hold, Mr. Abernathy will be right with you”… or “Please sign in at the reception desk and take a seat in the waiting area”… or “Don’t go away. I’ll be right down”… or “For better service, please take a number”… or the one we probably hear most often: “I’ll be ready in just a minute, Honey”?
Then there are the places you go where you know you have to wait, but no one tells you so in advance… like the wait for a waiter or waitress to notice that you need something… the wait in line at the post office… or the drivers license bureau… the wait for your favorite software to load on your computer… the wait for a ride at Six Flags or Hurricane Harbor… the wait for the results of a medical test… the wait for the gas pump to fill up your car… the wait for a telephone call from that very special person in your life… the wait for crops to grow… or cows to give birth… the wait for results on an eBay auction item… the wait for a glimpse of your first child… or grandchild… and so on.
Some experts estimate that we spend as much as one-third of our lives waiting for something to happen. For all the time we spend doing it, we are not good at it. Waiting seems to not be a natural talent… or gift… of any of us. For the past month, I have watched my son religiously check the mailbox in front of our house each day… first for news of his acceptance into law school and now for news of any financial aid that might be available. And we’ve all waited this week to receive word about Luke Tatum and to pray for his continued recovery. We all know what it is like to wait and, as a society, we are impatient with it.
Just about everything in our society tells us that waiting is bad. “No news is good news,” they say, but it seems “Slow news is always bad.” Juries that take to long to return a verdict, for example, usually mean bad news. An operation that takes too long often means that problems have developed. I learned several years ago that long waits for food at an outdoor concert venue can mean that they have run out of food completely.
You see, in today’s world, we can have virtually anything instantly. We don’t have to wait for Mom to cook for us… thanks to fast food restaurants… or microwave ovens. We don’t have to wait for pictures to be developed… thanks to digital cameras. We don’t have to wait for the banks to open to get cash… thanks to ATM’s. We don’t have to wait for stores to open to buy things… thanks to the Internet. We don’t have to wait for newspapers to be delivered to hear the latest news… it is comes to us via CNN or our PDA’s. We have instant coffee… instant potatoes… instant super glue… instant heat… instant entertainment … instant communication… and so on. In fact, if we are forced to wait for something to happen, we have a negative word for it. It is called “down time”… that time when nothing happens… when nothing gets done… when productivity stops and all measures of productivity take a nosedive.
In the first few verses of Acts, we learn that Jesus has told his disciples to wait…to wait for the “gift” that God has promised… a gift that Jesus had spoken to them about many times. The disciples want to know whether this will be the time when Jesus will restore the kingdom to Israel. Once again, as he has done so many times before, Jesus tells them that the timing of events that God has planned is, bluntly, none of their business. They are to wait…with faith… in hope… for the gift that God will send… the gift of God’s Spirit. And then, Jesus is lifted up and taken away from them into the clouds and they are left standing… gazing into the sky… waiting. For what? For Jesus to reappear?
How many of us have waited… in the same way… for something that has disappeared to reappear? I remember just such a wait when I visited Guatemala several years ago… and I know the Ellisons will know what I mean. The national bird of Guatemala, the Quetzal bird, is a stunningly beautiful creature with green plumage, a snow-white breast, and bright red highlights near its wings. But the wonder of the Quetzal bird is its tail. The feathers in its tail are a shiny metallic blue-green and grow to up to three feet in length. In bygone days, the tail feathers were the property of kings and priests of the Aztecs and the Maya.
The Quetzal bird can only be found in the Cloudy Forest, a remote area of Guatemala. Their natural habitat is rapidly disappearing and the bird, once plentiful, is now an endangered species. But, in certain places, at certain times of the year, and only at dawn, the bird can be seen. I was fortunate enough to see a Quetzal bird, not once, but twice during my visit. And there were several birds… not just one. There were a group of us standing on the ground, far below the leafy canopy that is the home of these birds, straining to see the tiny creatures and fighting over the binoculars to get a closer view. I remember when the birds disappeared into the forest… one by one… and, after the last one disappeared, we stood there for a long time… hoping that one of them would return. They did not reappear that day.
Neither did Jesus reappear for the disciples after he was lifted up into the clouds. They stood there, gazing after him, until angels appeared to them and basically asked, “What are you waiting for?” Now imagine… for a moment… what it must have been like for those disciples. Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, with palm branches waving and people shouting Hosanna. What a high! Jesus is arrested and crucified. What a low! Jesus is raised from the dead and appears to them, teaching them again about the kingdom of God. What a high! Jesus vanishes into the clouds. What a low? Was he really gone? I mean, for good this time? He had appeared and disappeared many different times to many different people. Would he reappear soon? When? Where?
“What are you waiting for?” Well, for Jesus to come again… what else? “He will come again… in the same way in which he left, but not now. In the meantime, what are you waiting for?” “There are things you need to be doing… and standing here isn’t one of them. What are you waiting for?” Good question. I can feel the confusion of the disciples… their lack of understanding… even their sense of loss. But, given the attitude of the angels, there was no point in staying on the mountain. The disciples weren’t sure what to do next, but going back to Jerusalem seemed to be the only option. So, they returned to Jerusalem … to the other disciples… to wait… as Jesus had instructed them. They knew they were to wait for the gift that God would send… the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. What was that? No one knew. No one knew what they were waiting for… they were just waiting… for something to happen. Something that God would do.
Research reveals that time spent waiting can vary significantly in the minds of those who wait. For example, in the early 1300’s, the length of an hour was measured in the perceptions of different people from as little as 36 minutes to as much as 82 minutes. We all have different perceptions of this thing we call time. Research reports that waiting time for those of us in the United States has eight distinct categories: immediate… very short… short … neutral… long…very long… terribly long… and forever. But how each of us defines each of these categories can vary widely. What may be very short for one person may be long for someone else. Much of that perception comes from the culture in which we were raised. North Americans and Northern European peoples are exact and precise about time. They measure time by the clock. It is objective. In South America, Thailand, and Italy, and other places, people are much more relaxed about it. They measure time by the rhythms of life. It is subjective. And even within that framework, our perception of it is different.
Let’s try a brief experiment. If I say the word “soon” to you, what does it mean? When does the word “soon” begin and end? Is “soon” five seconds … five minutes… five hours… five days… five weeks… or five years to you? If the Holy Spirit is coming “soon,” when is that precisely? Is that “soon” in God’s time… or in our time? Five decades would not be “soon” to most of us, but, perhaps measured against eternity, it would be “soon.” So, the disciples are waiting. They don’t know what they are waiting for, precisely. (Pause) And they don’t know how long they must wait…exactly. What do they do in the meantime? Good question.
There are times when we are called upon to wait for God to act as well. What do we do in the meantime? What is it that God calls us to do while we are waiting? Fortunately, in this case, our text tells us what the disciples did when they returned to Jerusalem. They gathered together in the room where they were staying and, together with the other disciples and the women, they prayed constantly. Are there other examples of this in the Bible? Yes. (Pause) This is not an isolated incident. Ask yourself what Jesus did when he was called upon to wait on the night he was betrayed. He, too, gathered with his disciples and spent time in prayer, asking them to pray with him. When Peter and, later, Paul, were in prison, the church prayed for them. Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns together while they were in prison.
What are some other ways in which people have waited for God to act? Jesus spent time alone in the wilderness with God… so did Paul… so did Elijah… so did Moses. Paul wrote letters… lots of them… letters of instruction… letters of encouragement… while he was waiting in prison. Daniel used his time of waiting to seek wisdom from God. David spent his time waiting herding sheep and perfecting the use of a slingshot. The five wise virgins spent their time waiting for the Bridegroom making sure they had enough oil for their lamps. Gideon’s time of waiting while the Philistines plundered Israel lulled the Philistines into complacency. Joseph spent his time in prison interpreting dreams for others.
Time spent waiting is not passive time, but active. God’s people do not sit around doing nothing. They act… even when they are waiting. They pray. They encourage each other. They sing together. They learn more about God. They learn more about themselves. During those times of waiting that come into all our lives, what can we do that will insure that we are prepared for whatever God might do next?
Many people say that this time of waiting changes them. Even their prayers change over time as they wait for God to act. At first, their prayers on centered on themselves. “Do this for me, Lord, and my life will be better… days will flow more smoothly for me.” But, as they wait, their prayers become more focused upon God… and others. So, the disciples waited… and we wait… for the gift that God will give… has given. And we do not wait passively… but actively… searching for God… seeking God’s will… holding each other up… and rejoicing in our fellowship together… and telling stories of the God we know… all in a time of waiting… waiting for God to act. Amen.