Mar 18, 2026
Part 1: “THE SPIRITUALITY OF WAITING ”
It has been four months since we celebrated the season of Christmas. In that time period we all have been experiencing winter as we have been waiting for the next big celebration of Easter which is coming quickly upon us. Four months seems like a long time to wait, doesn’t it? A lot can happen in four months, some good & some not as good. In the Chrisitan faith tradition, the time between Christmas & Easter is referred to as “Lent”. Lent is a quiet somber time of the year. It is a season of prayer, fasting & reflection leading up to Easter as the festivities of the holiday Christmas season quiet down & the cold & snow surrounds us. The quiet of winter invites us to reflect & plan as we wait in anticipation of the new life of spring that most assuredly will break forth.
Though initially, the idea of quietly waiting for the time to pass as we pause, plan & anticipate the next season of celebrating to come, people tend to grow itchy after the first month or so as they wait. Unless you are an avid skier, most people are tired of the cold & snow as they try to patiently wait for signs of warmth & the birth of new life; plants, birds, & butterflies. In our personal lives, waiting is not a very popular pastime. Waiting is not something we anticipate or experience with great joy & gladness. In fact, most of us consider waiting a waste of time, don’t we? I am not certain of that in other countries, but the culture in which we live is basically saying: “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there & wait!” So, for us & for many people, waiting is a dry desert between where we are & where we want to be. Generally, most people do not enjoy such a place. We want to move out of it & do something that is worthwhile. In our particular historical situation, waiting is even more difficult because we are so fearful. Studies will tell us that one of the most pervasive emotions in the atmosphere around us is fear. We as a people are afraid of other people who may be different, afraid of inner or uncomfortable feelings & also afraid of the unknown future. As fearful people, we have a hard time waiting because fear urges us to get away from where we are. If we find that we cannot flee, we may fight instead which is a problem not only for individuals but for nations as well. The more afraid we are, the harder waiting becomes for we are mostly afraid that some sort of harm will come to us. Fear is why waiting is such an unpopular attitude for so many of us.
Given this view of waiting, it is interesting that the word “waiting” is one of the most frequently used words in both the Old & the New Testament of the Holy Bible. We read in the Gospel of Luke that the story of Jesus’ birth introduces us to five people who are all waiting: Zechariah & Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon & Anna. In the Gospel of Luke, the whole opening scene of the good news is filled with waiting people & right from the beginning, all these waiting people in some way or another hear the words, “Do not be afraid. I have something good to say to you.” These words indicate that these five people are waiting for something new & good to happen to them & thus they have nothing to fear.
Waiting, as we see it in the people on the first pages of the Gospel, is waiting with a sense of promise as stated in the scripture in Luke 2: “Zechariah, your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son.” “Mary, listen! You are to conceive & bear a son who will be the savior of the world.” “It has been revealed to Simeon by the Holy spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord.” (Luke 1;13, 31 & 2:26). Those who were waiting had each received a promise that gave them courage & allowed them to wait. They received something that was at work in them, a seed that had started to grow. It was a promise from God that nurtured them, fed them & enabled them to stay where they were. By their waiting, the promise could gradually unfold & realize itself within them & through them.
Waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something to something more. The five people in the birth scene in Luke’s Gospel were living with a promise. When we are waiting with a promise to be fulfilled our time of waiting is active, not passive. Most of us consider waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our control. The Psalms are full of active statements of faithful waiting: “My soul is waiting for the Lord. I count on God’s word.” “My soul is longing for the Lord because with the Lord there is mercy & fullness & redemption.” “My soul is waiting for the Lord” is the theme that reverberates all through the Hebrew Scripture. Those faithful writers of those Psalms were trusting Gods promise, waiting, knowing that the seed had already been planted by God & something had already begun to grow. They believed & they had faith & trust in our living Lord.
~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy