Anticipation in Advent - Looking Back. Looking Forward.

Carole King wrote and Carly Simon sang: "Anticipation - Anticipation Is making me late, Is keeping me waiting." Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40: 1-11) and Gospel writer Mark (Mark 1: 1-8) know what these feelings of anticipation mean. Isaiah was anticipating God's mighty arm to release the Hebrew people out of the wilderness of exile when he speaks for God: "Comfort, O comfort my people." (40:1) Mark narrates John the Baptist's anticipation of the birth of Jesus. John the Baptist shouts for people to repent as he prepares the way for the ministry of his cousin shouting, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals." (1: 7)

Anticipation heightens our preparations throughout Advent as we await the birth of the Babe. My questions are: What are we waiting for? How do we wait?

It is a time of uncertainty; anxiety reigns; prices are skyrocketing; turmoil is everywhere; and tensions are high. If we're describing the time of the Hebrew people in exile, Jerusalem is under siege, leaders are being assassinated, the price of olive oil has gone through the roof, and different sects fight against one another. If we're describing the time of Jesus' birth, we hear about the assassination of babies, the cruelty of Herod's reign and fears of the Roman government, leading the Jewish people to meet in houses rather than publicly for fear of persecution. If we're describing today, we read about Syria's massacre of over 200 children; we see uprisings nationally (Occupy...) and abroad (Arab Spring); we hear presidential candidates offering good news if elected; and we see a debt crisis committee fail in their efforts.

What good news are we waiting for? Isaiah paints a picture of God coming in the power and might of love - God as a shepherd who will feed the flock and gather the lambs into her arms, gently leading them. Mark anticipates our Savior who will baptize us with the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we wait through these times? One answer is frenzied waiting: shop til we drop; scour the ads for deals; schedule ourselves tightly; eat on the run. Instead of nursing our longings (as Kate preached last week), we satisfy ourselves with short term, unsatisfactory actions designed to get us through the immediacy of the moment.

Waiting and preparing for the Lord is, instead, something to savor.