Waiting on the Lord

I’ve never met anyone who wants to suffer ! It’s not a natural desire ! I’ve also never been someone who suggests that suffering is good for us – the hurt, the pain and the misery are surely not worth it. There are preachers and there are people who suggest that suffering is somehow good because Jesus did it. I think the people who talk like that are people who have never really known suffering.

However there is no doubt that suffering can sometimes strengthen us for the future, and I think this is the spirit in which tonight’s psalm (130) was written… We can sense the depression in that very first line, ‘Out of the depths have I called to you O Lord, Lord hear my voice’.

These are words written in desperation. They are written by a person enduring suffering, and the writer is crying out to God. We don’t know if God is a last desperate turning point or whether the person writes from a position of faith to start with, but the person understands and trusts God.

‘There is forgiveness with you’ the writer says, and then a couple of verses which are perhaps a little bit more difficult – ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits for him, and in his word is my hope.’ The concept of waiting is not one that most of us are very good at – we expect things here and now, and we can generally get them.

We have drive through restaurants, supermarkets open 24 hours, credit available (maybe not quite as freely as it was some months ago !) but still available, photos available almost instantly; in fact all kinds of services freely and quickly available…

Our natural reaction when something is wrong is to desperately try and do something about it as quickly as possible, and yet the writer here is suffering and is prepared to just wait… And this is what real faith must be about – accepting and waiting in the knowledge that God is still with us, and still caring for and loving us.

And we can have this confidence because of Jesus. Today is Passion Sunday. It’s the day in the Church calendar when traditionally we move a little closer to the cross at Calvary and our minds reflect on the pain and suffering of the next couple of weeks for Jesus. Some people don’t like to think of the suffering of Jesus too much – when the Mel Gibson film of ‘The Passion of Christ’ came out there were complaints because some of the scenes of suffering were too graphic, but the reality is that the suffering of Christ was horrendous.

He wasn’t the first or the last innocent man to die, he wasn’t the first or last to die on the cross, and he wasn’t the first or last to die for someone or something else, but Jesus’ death was remarkable because he based his ministry totally upon this willingness to die in order to do a number of different things.

Firstly he died to take away sin. The Bible tells us that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and if we’re honest it probably won’t take us very long to think of any number of occasions when that truth is borne out, but Jesus took on himself the punishment of every one of us, for every sin we have ever committed.

Secondly he did so willingly because that was and is how much he loves every one of us. Love is an incredible thing. It is often described as being blind, as many people end up doing things for people because they love them even when those people keep turning their back on them. Some don’t even notice how badly they’re being treated, but God knows all about the treatment he receives from us… But it doesn’t change his love for us, a love that is unchanging and never ending.

And thirdly Jesus pleaded for a response. His death was accepted in order to draw people to him as he opened wide his arms of love. The death and resurrection of Jesus was not an end. There was no magical solution to the problems and the needs of the world. We are still called to respond to his love, his sacrifice, his compassion, and we do that with our lives.

In the reading that we heard from the letter to the Hebrews (9:11-15), the writer contrasts the Old Testament way of cleansing with the way of Jesus. In Old Testament times blood was considered to be something that cleansed people. It’s good to have this as an evening reading rather than before Sunday lunch because it’s not so nice to think about the blood of goats and bulls or the ashes of a young cow before eating, but these were the things that were seen as important in building a relationship with God.

But the writer of this letter to the Hebrews reminds his readers that this is no longer the case. Jesus has offered to cleanse everyone by the power of his blood shed on the cross. One sacrifice, lasting forever, offering salvation for all.

And so we are called to respond. We respond first of all with our decision to follow Christ, and then we respond by trying to live as he calls us to live, serving him and serving others. As we do that there will be times of waiting, times when the ways and purposes of God don’t seem at all clear.

And then we have choices to make because there are 2 kinds of waiting, There is the waiting where we sit down and do nothing, just expecting that something will eventually turn up, or there is the waiting with excitement and anticipation. Here there are things to do – the work of Jesus in helping to build his kingdom - prayer, worship, mission, the Bible, or simply loving people into the kingdom.

The work of the kingdom of God has been entrusted to us, his servants. We have been told that Christ will return, but in the meantime we wait, and we follow sometimes the path he took - as we’re waiting there will be times of pain and suffering as well as times of great joy, there will be times when God seems far away, but other times when God seems near.

Advent is the season of the church year when we consider how well we are actively waiting for the return of Jesus, but Lent is also a time for self examination and it’s a good time to ask ourselves questions like:

How seriously have I taken the fact that Jesus died and rose for me?
Have I been half-hearted and lukewarm about living the life that God wants for me or have I just done what pleases me or followed the crowd?
Have I been content to say a prayer every now and then when I think of it?
How well and how often have I worshipped God ?
Have I been going about my daily activities without any reference to God or giving any thought to his presence?

We spend a lot of time waiting – In an average lifetime, something like a third of our lives is spent asleep, while someone worked out that we spend 6 months of our life sitting at traffic lights, 5 years eating, and some spend 4 years doing housework !

But there is nothing more important to wait for than God. This is what the psalmist understood, ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits for him : And in his word is my hope.’ And this is the message of the Passion of Christ… We have not been left alone, God is with us constantly, and we are invited to journey with him, sometimes on a road of suffering, sometimes on the road of joy, but always on the road to ultimate victory and a life spent with him. AMEN