Do not miss the arrival

The lection for the First Sunday of Advent evoked the theme of waiting, so there is an appropriateness, on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, in returning to the same theme in a slightly different form.

One of the challenges of waiting can be that we sink into it too well. We can become too good at waiting, so much so that we move from active to passive waiting.

Active waiting demands that we are alert, with our senses finely tuned to what is going on around us, looking keenly for the arrival of that for which we wait. Passive waiting involves the mere passage of time, with our senses dulled or focused on other matters.

Both pass the time but passive waiting risks us missing that for which we wait. I have lost count of the buses or trains I have missed, while sitting at a bus stop or on a platform waiting for them, simply because I have become so engrossed in my own thoughts (or these days my smartphone) that I omitted to notice the arrival (and departure) of that for which I waited.

Christmas can also be like this. If our Advent preparations take a wrong turn we can become so engrossed in getting ready for Christmas – the writing of cards, the buying of presents, the cooking of food – that, by the time the great feast arrives – that moment when we celebrate the grand mystery of God made flesh among us – we are so weary, so bored or even so focused still on those preparations that the moment passes us by.

This week’s reading reminds us of Elizabeth who stands as a symbol of waiting, long endured but joyfully ended. In my view, this is one of the most beautiful of all of Luke’s stories that build up to and prepare us for the long-awaited birth of Jesus the Messiah. In the story, two women meet, both unexpectedly with child: Elizabeth because she was so old and had waited too long, and Mary because she was so young and was not yet fully married. Both had been blessed by God. Both, no doubt, found within them a maelstrom of emotion at the blessing that they had received.

What is so striking about this story is the mutual recognition that occurs between the women: a recognition marked by the leaping of John in Elizabeth’s womb.

This moment of recognition allowed Elizabeth to speak of Mary’s blessedness and Mary, in the verses following our reading, to break into praise of the God who had wrought such wonders in the world in the well-loved words of the Magnificat.

Theirs is a dynamic, active waiting, a waiting that leads to deep recognition and onwards from there into praise. May each one of us, this year, experience this kind of Advent waiting; a waiting that ends not in a whimper of exhaustion, but in joyful recognition and praise of him for whom we wait.

Paula Gooder is theologian in residence at Bible Society and author of Journey to the Manger: exploring the birth of Jesus, published by Canterbury Press.