ON EAGLES WINGS

(Preached on Sunday, February 8, 2009)

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.  They spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don=t get tired, they walk and don=t lag behind.                                                                                              -Isaiah 40:31

 

I HATE to wait!  I know I am not alone in that feeling.  Most of us hate to wait.  You can see it almost anywhere C at stop lights, in traffic jams, in grocery lines, in doctor=s offices C no one much likes waiting.  Last Friday I had to wait 30 minutes at the physical therapist=s office, because they forgot me!  And when I encounter a slow-down on the Turnpike, or U.S. 1, I will often jump off the road and take side streets to try to get around the traffic delay.  (Of course, there is always heavy traffic on those roads, too, plus street lights, slower speed limits, and to get where I want to go often requires a rather round about route, so I almost never save any time, in fact, sometimes I am sure it takes longer, but at least during that time I am moving, and not just sitting in traffic!)

 

Of course, our hatred of waiting has led to all kinds of time-saving inventions C microwaves, fast food, instant coffee, instant grits, instant just about everything.  No one likes to wait for anything.  It seems like such a waste of time.

 

And yet... waiting is a very common part of our lives.  We wait up with a sick child; we wait for our teens to come home at night; we wait for the diagnosis after a series of medical tests; we wait in surgical waiting rooms for news about a loved on in surgery.  We wait for our children, sometimes a spouse, sometimes our parent, to come home from war.  We wait to hear if we got into college or grad school, or if we got that job for which we applied.  We wait for that reply from that friend, or that loved one, we hurt and to whom we reached out with a text or voice message, or letter, or email, seeking reconciliation and forgiveness.  Now we are waiting for the economy to turn around, for the job market to pick up, for the housing market to begin moving again, for the economic stimulus package to be passed. 

 

To be told that waiting is a good thing sounds like complete and utter nonsense to us.  Which is how it must have sounded to the Israelites in exile in Babylon over 60 years!  That is three generations of waiting!  They were beginning to put down roots!    In fact, they began to doubt that God could or would do anything about their exile.  Not that God wasn=t capable, but that God no longer cared for them or loved them.  It was the same feeling the Jews of Jesus= day felt after the more than 60 years of occupation by the Romans.  It was the same feeling the Jews expressed during and after the Holocaust of World War II.  For many of us today certainly the doubts creep in as it has been over 2,000 years since Jesus= life, death and resurrection, and we are still waiting for his return, or for the Kingdom of God to become dominant in our world.  Yes, how does one wait on God with faith, trust and belief, when one=s overwhelming experience suggests God is absent?

 

The answer is in the quality and style of our waiting.  The Hebrew word used by the prophet Isaiah here is kawah.  This is not the kind of waiting in which one sits with folded hands and pious inaction, twiddling one=s thumbs, expecting God to do something to get us out of this mess.  No, kawah originally had to do with twisting or plaiting strands together, as in making a cord or rope.  It carries a sense of the strength that comes from binding things together.  There is also a feminine form of the word, makawah, used to denote a place for collecting waters.  That is, a reservoir, tank or cistern.  In this dry, desert land, where the rains come only a few times a year, it was vital and necessary to have cisterns in every community to collect and hold the rain when it fell to provide water for the rest of the year.

 

Waiting on God then, implies an experience of allowing God to bind together our strengths, or to collect our resources.  Or as we might say these days, letting God help us Aget our act together.@  God focuses us, gathers the frayed strands of our being, conserve our resources, reinforces us, enables us.  God assists us to get ready to whatever challenges are thrown at us.  Waiting is active, not passive.  It is not waiting with dismal resignation to our fate, but active trusting with confident expectation that God will employ the various strands of our life to the strongest and fullest degree possible.

 

Another way to understand this type of waiting is the monastic practice of vigil prayer.  In monasteries, since the middle ages, monks have maintained a discipline of seven hours, or times, for prayer throughout the day.  The first of these is called vigils and took place in the heart of the night,  basically the early morning hours after midnight, while it was still dark.  The theme and quality of this hour of prayer was vigilance.  So that those who keep vigil are viewed as sentinels of the night.  Many monastic communities today still maintain this practice.  Unlike other prayer times that are filled with chants and songs and scripture and spoken prayers, vigils prayers are filled much more with times of quiet, times of waiting in silence, times of listening for the voice of God.  Very likely the prayer of Jesus recorded in Mark=s gospel, after his very full day of teaching and healing, which occurred in the early morning hours, while it was still dark, in a lonely place, was a vigil prayer.

 

Vigilant waiting has a different quality to it.  Anxious, fretful, impatient waiting is nothing more than just waiting.  Waiting with purpose, patience, hope, love is vigilant waiting.  Waiting with expectation is vigilant waiting.  Vigilant waiting holds firm to faith and trust in God.

 

This is what the prophet Isaiah calls the people to remember in their waiting.  He reminds them that God, contrary to appearances, still knows them, cares for them, and will act on their behalf.  To wait is to trust in God, to place our faith, our well-being each day, each moment into God=s hands.  It is to affirm and keep affirming, no matter the circumstances, that we belong to God, that God loves us, knows our needs, and will act to minister to us in God=s own time and way.  

 

Now I am not suggesting that you add to the burden of your already stressed life by getting up at 2 or 3 a.m. to spend time in prayer.  That is not the only way to wait on God.  But the example of the monastic hour of vigil prayer demonstrates an attitude of prayer we can carry into our own prayer times: an attitude of waiting expectantly, of listening without agenda, of yearning with anticipation.

 

Vigilant waiting also reminds us of the importance of solitude in our lives.  Even psychologists today lift up the importance of solitude for helping us cope with the pressures of busy lives.  If we don=t take time to recharge our batteries, we soon feel overwhelmed and irritable.  Solitude is that state of constructive engagement with oneself.  During times of solitude, one can reflect, meditate, read, think, and be creative.  Solitude replenishes us.  Jesus led an extremely busy life, as Mark documents in his gospel.  People flocked to him bringing their sick and demon possessed for healing.  Jesus needed to be replenished.  So he sought solitude in which he prayed, equipping himself for what lie ahead.  Do we really think we can live better lives than Jesus without solitude?  I know I am healthier and I have more to offer, to my family and to you, my church family, when I have kept my regular times of solitude with God C times for reflection, for meditation, for vigilant waiting.  In those times I know God has gathered my resources and plaited together my few strengths and made them much stronger.  My sabbatical was a major time of solitude and vigilant waiting during which I was renewed.  My daily walks to the bay, provide me time when I am alone with my thoughts and with God=s spirit.