What Are We Waiting For?

Like many of you, I have spent the past few weeks baking cookies and various treats for neighbors, friends, and family in anticipation of the Christmas holiday. I’ve always enjoyed baking and have fond memories of helping my mother bake Christmas cookies every year- she would make hundreds, sometimes even thousands of cookies to distribute to all sorts of people. Now, I wasn’t necessarily what you would consider a “patient” baking partner- my favorite part of helping was getting to eat raw cookie dough. There is something magnificent about eating a spoonful of fresh cookie dough, or better yet, getting to lick the mixing utensils once the batch is ready to bake. My mother would frequently remind me not to eat too much of the dough so I wouldn’t get sick- but even after she would cut me off, I would find ways to sneak spoonsful of dough away. Mom’s recipes always seemed to yield a few too short whenever I helped- it was a great mystery we never did figure out…

Eating cookie dough is still a treat- though I have much more self-control these days. And I know I am not alone; there are all sorts of cookie dough products designed to be eaten before even entering the oven. However, despite how good cookie dough is in its initial form, add a little patience to a good recipe, and the gooey, raw dough transforms into something truly spectacular- a chewy, flaky, and slightly crispy fresh baked cookie. It’s hard to beat a fresh baked, warm chocolate chip cookie. The dough is a start no doubt- it signifies something has taken place, but the baking process, the waiting, hope, and promise, reminds us that something more is yet to come.

We have been in a season of waiting and promise- Advent is our time of anticipating and preparing for the promised coming of Christ. In some ways we have arrived, all four of our advent candles have been lit- we have arrived at this “coming of Christ”- a coming which has been, was, and is to come- a coming for which we have awaited with patience and anticipation. Yet, we are still waiting– we are still anticipating. We have arrived, but we are not there yet. Our Advent season of waiting and anticipation is teetering upon a promised season of what is to come, and we find ourselves in the in between, in a sacred and uncertain place.

We see allusions to this “here and now yet still to come” in the text from the prophet Micah. In chapter 5, he writes of the promised coming of one “who is to (future) rule Israel, whose origin is from old (past), from ancient days.” [Micah 5:2] Something has already been and is already here, but something more is coming- and in the in between, we find ourselves in a moment of arrival that carries with it both curiosity and anticipation. Indeed, the people of Bethlehem find themselves in a similar moment of waiting in Micah’s prophecy- Bethlehem is established, but something more is promised to come from this tribe which has been relegated as too insignificant and small to be part of the Judean clans. Here is where we are, here is the promise we also look forward to. We are here but not there yet. We have this dough, but patience brings about cookies.

Elizabeth and Mary’s interaction in Luke’s Gospel also sets up this image of happening now but still to come- arrived yet still waiting. Elizabeth and Mary have both been visited by an angel of the LORD and have been told how God is planning to use them in this grand story of love and salvation. I’m sure for both Mary and Elizabeth there are feelings of uncertainty and expectation. Fear and excitement. Commitment and wavering. Upon hearing Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth takes on the role of disciple and prophet. She recognizes the presence of GOD in their midst, in the Christ Emmanuel which Mary bears in her womb. She recognizes that God is present now, yet there is still more to come. She praises God in this moment and looks with hope and expectation to the promises to come. And, like Elizabeth and Mary, we too find ourselves in a season of promised arrival that continues in waiting and anticipation.

Like Elizabeth and Mary, we find ourselves in a season of promised arrival that continues in waiting and anticipation.

What are we still waiting for? Is our waiting worth anything? What is our responsibility during this waiting- if we even have one? Diving further into our text from Luke, we find that Mary’s words provide a framework for what we are waiting for and what we are to do during that waiting. There are three primary aspects of Mary’s song in verses 46 through 55: (1) witness, (2) praise, and (3) promise. Each of these can provide a frame to understand our place in this season of arrival, anticipation, and hopeful waiting.

Witness

First, Mary bears witness to God in this in-between space. Mary recognizes that God is already at work- “he has looked upon his humble servant” and “the mighty one has done great things for me”. We bear witness to what God has already done- the hope we have in God’s peace, joy, and love which is made manifest within us by the Holy Spirit- as we anticipate what God will do. We know that God is working in our present circumstances as we await the promised thing God will do. We have a responsibility to bear the witness here and now- in a world that is plagued with violence, broken discourse, religious intolerance, hatred, and grief- we have a responsibility to point to the places where God is working despite and in our brokenness. Amid her uncertainty and her anticipation, Mary bears witness to the goodness of God’s grace in her life at present, we would be wise to follow in that example as we wait in hope.

Praise

And by bearing witness to what GOD is doing in her life, Mary’s song is one of praise to GOD. Although she is likely concerned about what is to come, her song is one that glorifies all God has done and will do and signifies her willingness to trust in God through it all. It is a song of praise and witness to all God has done, is doing, and has promised to do through Christ. But there is a third component that makes Mary’s song more than a song of praise and witness, but a joyful prophecy of promise.

Promise

The aspect of hope- the anticipation of what is to come in this place of what currently is- is fundamental to understanding Mary’s song as a prophecy. She proclaims the goodness of what God is already doing in her witness and praise, yet proclaims what God will do through Jesus Christ in the future. Christ’s life and teachings challenge the powerful and the greedy and uplifts the lowly and the poor, and God’s coming reign- which has been from ancient times but we still anticipate today in this place- has something in the works for this world. It is this hope of something more that moves us past a place of arrival, and sets our sights on what God has promised to do. It is this prophetic hope that Mary proclaims which tells us both what we wait for and our role in this waiting.

We are called to bear witness, we are called to praise, and we are called to live out this prophetic hope as the body of Christ on earth.

We are called to bear witness, we are called to praise, and we are called to live out this prophetic hope as the body of Christ on earth. We are called to live the life that Christ exemplified in preparation for the life Christ is coming to bring. Cookie dough is delicious, but only eating dough and forgoing the patience and the magnificent and wonderful treat that is coming only leads to feeling unwell and unsatisfied. It’s important to bear witness to what God has done while also bearing witness to the promise of what God will do- like Micah, like Elizabeth, and like Mary. And in the waiting, in the uncertainty, in the anticipation for what is to come, we have a role in preparing, in living out the prophecy of hope, in proclaiming what God has done and what God will do. God is here, even through the turmoil of this world, and God is coming to bring something new, something glorious, something that reflects the love of Christ that has been, is now, and will come.

I don’t know how cookies bake- it seems like a miracle to me that a gooey buttery mess can become a crisp cookie, but I know I have to do some work here. I have to put the cookies in the oven- I need to be attentive to the process while I am waiting- I have a responsibility in this waiting. Sometimes the waiting brings anticipation, other times, say when I’m trying a new recipe I found online, uncertainty, and sometimes a mixture of both, but I have a role in staying present, in doing my part now with the hope of what will come. And of course, I’ll try a bite of dough, but I won’t get stuck just proclaiming what is happening now, but I will take joy in also proclaiming what God will do through us in Christ. Because we have indeed arrived, but there is still something more to wait for. And in that waiting, praise be to GOD!

Preached on Sunday, December 22nd, 2024 [4th Sunday in Advent]

Scriptures: Micah 5:2-5a and Luke 1:39-55