Day Twenty-Two:
Aware

Waiting.  Life is filled with it, but it rarely gets easier.  It takes many forms from the mundane to the life-changing: from waiting for a checkout to become vacant at the supermarket, to waiting for medical results; from waiting for public transport finally to make an appearance, to waiting to find a new job.  No matter what we wait for, good waiting requires a great deal from us.

The challenge that many people face today is that waiting is not something that our culture encourages.  We are urged, especially as Christmas approaches, to take the waiting out of wanting.  Why wait when you can have it now?  Why look forward to something that can be yours today?  The problem is that the more we avoid waiting, the harder it is to do well.  No wonder, then, that Advent with its deep emphasis on waiting feels increasingly alien today.  It introduces something unfamiliar and calls it a virtue.   However, learning to wait, and wait well, can be life transforming.  Advent waiting can teach us that waiting is not an encumbrance but a gift.

Waiting stands at the heart of this week’s gospel lection. It might appear, at first glance, to be solely concerned with the events that will take place at the end of all times – to a certain extent it is about this – but, more importantly than that, it is about waiting and how to do it. The word that best sums up this kind of waiting is ‘sentinel’. Although the word sentinel is not much used these days, it has not been replaced adequately by a new word (watcher simply doesn’t have the same ring to it). Sentinels are called to keep watch and wait; to observe what is happening around them and to interpret the significance of what they see. This is exactly what Jesus calls his followers to do in Luke. There he calls us to be people who see the signs of the times, who hold fast when others are fainting from fear, who stand ready waiting for redemption. He calls us to be people who are not so absorbed in our everyday life – its parties or its worries, – that God’s appearance comes as a surprise or a shock and to be people who pray constantly for the strength to face what is coming with integrity and courage.

Luke 21.25-28 and 34-36 reveal to us the character of a good sentinel, someone expert at waiting. Waiting requires of us that we remain alert for signs of God’s presence in our world; that we do not become ground down by the distractions and fears of our lives but that we are steadfast, courageous and expectant. Learning to wait well can be transformative and can affect not just the way we celebrate this particular season but the way we live the whole of our lives. Learning to wait well means not only that we are ready when that for which we wait arrives; it means that we no longer rush through our lives intent solely on what is coming next. Waiting well invites us to anchor ourselves in this present moment and to savor it with all the riches and blessing it has to offer.

Dr. Paula Gooder Canon Chancellor St Paul’s Cathedral

Christ depicted as man with a beard in a white hooded tunic, seated at the centre of a flock of sheep, with a lamb on his lap. His arms are opened in a blessing gesture; a mountain range as a dark blue silhouette forms the background against a golden sky, surrounded by a wreath frame in blue and gold. The whole is set in a square with representations of grapes and vine against a golden background, with an outer frame of scrolling foliage in gold against a blue background. Richmond, Sir William Blake (1842 - 1921) (Designer), Messrs. Powell of Whitefriars (Maker)