Greetings to the Holy People of God,
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Psalm 27: 14
What is worth the waiting for? How would you answer that question? Family gatherings, a child, the homecoming of a loved one, a new season, a movie? Did “Advent” cross your mind? Advent is worth the wait. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning to visit, come or arrive. This four week season has a double focus as we look to the past with the first Advent in the arrival of baby Jesus and to the future with Jesus’ coming return, the 2nd Advent. We live in the in between time where we celebrate that Christ has come and will come again while we trust that he is present in the world with us now.
Advent is worth the wait. We wait with anticipation the coming of Jesus. It is this great mystery that we wait for what we already have and what is to come and it is well worth it. Let the images of this season sink in as we live in this in between time.
Isaiah 2 gives us the hope that weapons will be transformed into farming tools that nurture growth (Advent 1). Isaiah 11 gives us the peaceable kingdom where predator and prey eat and rest together (Advent 2). Isaiah 35 draws a beautiful picture of the desert coming to life (Advent 3). Advent concludes with Isaiah’s prophesy of a child who will come and be called Immanuel – God is with us!
In this season of waiting, I invite you to be awake to where the Holy Spirit is transforming tools of destruction into tools of life. Look for where opposites attract and exist together. Be attentive to life springing forth from what appears to be dead. Be ready to receive the life that God prepares for you.
I’ve had a glimpse of opposites attracting as I listened to Daoud Nassar speak about his farm being a “Tent of Nations”. Nassar is a Christian Palestinian whose farm is in the midst of five Israeli settlements. He and his family are struggling to keep their farm. In the aftermath of olive trees on his farm being bulldozed by Israeli forces, Jews from Europe bought olive trees and came and planted them. I am drawn to this place and these people that try to exist together when it would be so much easier to take the money offered for the farm and leave but rather stays and provides a powerful witness to the world. I think God is up to something here and it is worth the wait.
I hope that in this time of waiting you will gaze upon what the Holy Spirit is shaping and creating in front of us now, in this in between time, a beautiful, holy time, a time set apart.
Believing It Boldly Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
