"Are You Ready?" - Mark 13:24-37 - November 27, 2005

I asked a friend of mine if he had his Christmas shopping done. He said, "Are you kidding, I always wait until the last possible moment. I usually do my shopping on Christmas Eve." I personally can’t imagine waiting that long to get ready for Christmas, but one thing is sure; this is the season when people have many things to do and so little time to do them.

It’s the season of waiting in lines, waiting for packages to come in the mail, waiting for children to give you their Christmas lists, waiting in line to have your picture taken with Santa, waiting for your Christmas bonus check, waiting in traffic, waiting for a parking space, waiting, waiting, waiting.

One thing we don’t do very well in our society is wait. We get impatient. We get nervous and some even get angry. That’s because we see waiting as wasted time. It’s boring to sit and wait. It’s "down" time or "dead" time. We equate waiting time with being non-productive.

Waiting does not have to be seen as a bad thing. Waiting is an opportunity to reflect or meditate. Nor do we have to fill our idle time with things to do. The more time we spend working the less time we have to spend with our families or attending to our souls. Our society has become so production focused that we have lost sight of the fact that we need time to think, relax or just wonder.

Last year for Christmas I bought Lin a garden sign that say, RELAX. Last weekend she moved it to a place in the yard where it can clearly be seen from the kitchen window. Every morning when I pour my first cup of coffee and open the kitchen shutters I see the sign. It reminds me that I don’t have to rush through my day or be overwhelmed with everything I need to do.

This time of year people are anxious about many things. When we become overwhelmed there is a tendency to give up or fall into a deep depression. The name, R. Buckminster Fuller probably doesn’t mean anything to you. There was a point in his life when he was ready to end it because things were going badly. He had been expelled from college and was so down he decided to throw himself in Lake Michigan. At the age of 32, he stood on the bank, ready to throw himself into the icy waters and took one last look at the starry sky above him. As he looked to the heavens he felt a sense of awe and something inside him said, "This is not what you should do with your life." From that point on Fuller embarked on a journey that led him to careers as an inventor, engineer, mathematician, architect, poet and cosmologist. He won dozens of honorary degrees and even a Nobel Price nomination. He wrote two dozen books, circled the globe 57 times and shared his story with millions of people.

The day Fuller became filled with hope was the day he found himself, wondering, contemplating, reflecting on the meaning of life. Fortunately he became intimately aware of the presence of God and chose to live out his full potential. (from God’s Little Lessons for Graduates, Honor Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma)

In this chapter of Mark, Jesus, was speaking to anxious and impatient disciples. After telling them that someday the temple would be destroyed and that the world would some day come to an end they started asking questions. They were anxious and Jesus needed to reassure them by giving them hope.

Their impatience reminds me of my childhood. Our family used to travel to our grandparents’ home in northern Ohio for Christmas. It was exciting for my brothers and I and I must have asked my parents a thousand times, "Are we there yet?" Their reply would be, "You’ll just have to wait and be patient."

No doubt parents have to deal with their impatient children as they look forward to Christmas. Our grandchildren are staying with us overnite for our family Christmas so the three-year-old has been asking her mother everyday, "Is this the Saturday I get to go to Papa’s house?"

You could say this is the season of impatience. There are many things to look forward too. Jesus, however doesn’t want us to worry or be preoccupied with things we can’t control. Rather, he wants us to be hopeful. He tells us to "watch" or "keep awake."

To watch means to endure, remain steadfast, or to use a modern expression, "Hang in there." I like to tell those I counsel who are working through a crisis that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel. On the other hand, while waiting requires fortitude and patience, we can still be expectant that something good is going to happen.

Advent is also a season of anticipation, the time when we look forward to the "Son of man coming in glory." I believe that means that Christ is coming, not to pluck us out of the world, but to redeem us and refresh our soul. God is coming to intervene in our lives and shower us with grace.

In order for that to happen we have to make room. My wife has been busy preparing our home for the open house next month. For the last few weeks she has been cleaning out cupboards, drawers and closets. I haven’t said anything to her because I know our home is important to her. But, I can’t imagine that our visitors will be looking in our cupboards and closets to see what is there. Perhaps it is her way of preparing room, making our home ready for the arrival of guests.

One of my chores was to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic over the garage. When I climbed up the ladder and looked around I said to Lin, "Where did all this stuff come from? We seemed to have accumulated many things we never use." There was carpet, several Christmas trees, boards and even part of a fence. We have no idea where it came from. I was rushing to get the decorations down when I whacked my hand against the attic door frame. It really hurt. I thought to myself later, "I really need to get rid of some excess stuff." But, I also realized I am trying to do too many things. I need to downsize and make room in my life for those things that nourish me instead of those things that consume my time.

In the Christmas hymn, "Joy to the World," we sing the words, "Prepare Him room." In other words, we are making our lives ready for the arrival of God. That means we need to throw out some things that are cluttering up our lives. Perhaps you are overbooked. Perhaps you are frantically trying to please everyone which is simply not possible. Perhaps you are holding on to someone or something that is preventing new space in your life.

We prepare for the coming of the Lord by emptying our lives of needless things. I’m not just talking about stuff. We also need to clear our lives of negative thoughts and feelings, guilt, resentment, envy and pride.

May this season of Advent be a time when you make room in your life for the love of God. Be expectant, for great things are going to happen. And, most importantly be assure that the time you spend waiting my just save your life.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio