Sermon: Holy Waiting, Together

A Sermon Preached in

St. James Episcopal Church, Dexter, MI

The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

(Proper 27A RCL) November 12, 2017

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, 

Director of the Whitaker Institute

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan

Readings found here.

Good morning! 

Greetings from the Diocese of Michigan

in my role as the Director of the Whitaker Institute. 

Who knows about WI or what WI does?

The Whitaker Institute is the teaching

and Christian formation department of the Bishop’s office. 

Founded by Priest Bob Whitaker, we now

provide learning opportunities in the Dio

beyond what individual parishes can

developing and forming disciples

to do God’s work in the world. 

Practically speaking,

this includes three main programs:

First, Safeguarding courses – (currently under revision)

regular courses designed to teach church ministers

about protecting the safety and dignity

of children and vulnerable adults. 

Second, Exploring Your Spiritual Journey – “EYSJ”

a twice-monthly circle of people (facilitated)

listening with the ear of their heart

how God is calling them to serve in the world.

Third, Academy for Vocational Leadership –

a monthly seminary operating collaboratively with

Dio E Mich and Dio W Mich.

Whitaker offers several other enrichment courses

that arise through commonly expressed needs –

such as the Epiphanies Conferences,

the Saturday series and Holy Land pilgrimages.

I would like to thank Priest Carol, in absentia,

for inviting me here today to be with you.

pause

Rainer Maria Rilke once said,  

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart

and try to love the questions themselves…

Do not now seek the answers,

which cannot be given you

because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps you will then gradually,

without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
…

Today’s gospel text remains unsolved in my heart- 

the message was so subtle, I almost missed it.

The bridesmaids waited together.

It was what they had in common.

They waited, they got bored, they fell asleep. 

The action of the story takes place afterward, after waiting. 

The shout of the groom’s arrival

fueled the “so-called” wise ones to go immediately

and the “so-called” foolish ones to realize, only then,

that they could not light their lamps. 

Is this what the kingdom of heaven is like?

Being shut out because you are not prepared?  I think NOT. 

Let me be clear.

Here is what we believe –

the Kingdom of heaven, which we experience, every. Single. Day…

Is full of God’s love and acceptance, hope and forgiveness. 

And sometimes the Kingdom of Heaven can only be recognized against

the parabolic rhetoric of Jesus’ parables or extreme events. 

In this text there was a commonality: they waited. 

Waiting.  We all do it; willingly or not.

How many of you had to wait for something or someone today? 

How many of you are still waiting for someone or something? 

Think about it: what are you waiting for?

For what is St. James as a faith community waiting?

For what are we, as a nation, waiting? 

For what, are we, as a humankind, waiting?

These questions are that yearning

that is part of the Kingdom of Heaven,

whether in the extreme parables of Jesus or

the extreme events of shooting in Sutherland Springs.

Waiting.  We do it together. And it is hard.

…..

Let’s look at the Gospel in context. 

See, the Gospel of Matthew was written

at least fifty years after Jesus. 

The faith community, by that time,

had been waiting a long time for Jesus’ promised return.

Most of the people who knew the first disciples

were probably dead. 

During those 50 years, the Temple

(that most holy place of committed Jews who confessed Jesus and

the Jews who did not)

– well, that temple had been destroyed. 

And the followers were still waiting. 

And it was still hard.  

And they waited, day by day, together.

So of course Matthew wrote about the difficulty of waiting.

The letter that Paul offered to the Thessalonians,

written only 20 or so years after Jesus’ death,

addressed the anxiety present from waiting,

so Paul encouraged one another.

Paul, during his time, knew a thing or two about waiting. 

He waited, often times in jail,

with the support of other believers in the community.

So with all that going on,

Paul emphasized being prepared,

saying how hard it is to wait,

and to encourage each other.

-------

That waiting was not just hard for the first century people.

Here we are 20 centuries later and

we post-moderns still find it hard to wait.

We are particularly challenged by

delayed gratification

Impulse control

Drive to be busy

Fear of wasting time.

And begrudgingly, we wait.

Waiting. We all do it.  It’s what we have in common.

For some, waiting is good:

It’s the wait for the full term birth of a healthy child, or

the wait for confirmation that we got that promotion, or

the wait for our retirement party marking the end of a successful career.

But waiting for something that is hard, that’s different. 

When will the diagnosis be made?

Why have I not heard back from that job interview? 

Has my family arrived safely in their journey?

When will God be clear

about what I am supposed to do with my life?

Veterans of our armed services

– they waited a lot, and we do, too:

when will wars be over?

It is still hard to wait.

Waiting. We all do it.  It’s what we have in common.

.. .. . . .

And those bridesmaids – they all waited. 

Yet they did not wait alone

– they just waited and waiting and waited,

even through the delay.

They waited till they all fell asleep.

And they did it together – the wise and the foolish – together. 

And God was with all of them the whole time. 

For God knew exactly where each person was

And what they were up to,

whether wise or foolish, stingy or unprepared – they were not alone.

And God was with the people in the shooting,

God was crying, too, in the horror.

And God showed up in the waiting, after.

God bonded those people to us, together, forever.

. . . .. .

Let’s wonder together –

how can we prevent isolated waiting? 

What kind of community can St. James be,

and what can be done to ensure that

 no one is locked out of any banquet, wedding or not?

We start with God, who calls EVERYONE to this table:

rich, poor, gay, straight, trans, black, white, saint and sinner.

Everyone is welcome.

St. James – where your mission statement is

“to restore all people to unity with God and with each other in Christ.  “

Does that happen quickly? No, it happens in the waiting.

In the space between our words,

in the pause we take before speaking,

in the interval between “Coffee and Conversation” events,

in the recess between invitations and acceptance. 

A friend of mine, going through a rough illness,

waits a lot at that hospital.

His life is punctuated by IVs and therapists.

He waits.  A Lot. 

I asked how does he do that, what keeps him going? 

Well, he looks for flowers each day. 

He reports his flowers on his blog:

·        The kind woman who stopped by with a smile.

·        The grandchild who facetimed with him in the morning.

·        The added oxygen when he felt ill. 

·        The Spirit-inspired medication that will make him well. 

His practice of waiting

shows the grace of God’s presence

even in the midst of hard times. 

People of God gathered at St. James –

you know that it is hard to wait.

It’s what we have in common.

You, as a faith community,

are a genuine place of welcome

in a broken, isolated, divided world. 

You celebrate, here, week after week,

the opportunity to be with God in the waiting,

to encourage each other for action in the world.

For in solidarity with each other,

the Spirit binds us with wisdom

about which we heard in the first reading. 

Think about how often we have shared

with a friend only to realize,

yes, *that’s it!* to a burden we previously could not solve.

“…wisdom is easily discerned

by those who seek and love and desire it. “

In the waiting, wisdom appears on the path

and shines with the light of Christ. 

The good news? You are not alone in your waiting. 

God is with you and loves you in that midst.

So today,

think about something you are waiting for

(other than for me to finish my sermon). 

When you get to coffee hour, ask each other

                          what are you waiting for?

                          What hopes and dreams do you anticipate

                             that make your heart skip a beat?

In sharing how you wait,

1.     God’s presence will lift your load

2.     God delights in your joy

3.     God gives us patience toward those unsolved questions

For how we wait and live into the questions is

part of who we are as a faith community

– a holy people, with holy dreams and holy hopes. 

This is who we are in holy waiting, living into God’s answers.

Amen