Advent Waiting

We do not wait very well.  Even if we arrive somewhere early and our appointment time has not yet come, we find ourselves fidgeting and wondering what is taking so long.  If the places which impose waiting upon us did not have some kind of music filling up the room from hidden speakers, or a blaring television to entertain us, we might end up acting like Flannery O'Connor's character, Mary Grace, in the short story entitled, "Revelation."  We simply do not wait with ease and grace.  It is no wonder that the season of Advent is so distressing to so many of us.  It calls us to wait.  

While we know the Scripture is always calling us to wait upon the Lord, the waiting of Advent challenges us beyond measure.  Everything within us tells us December is about Christmas and here is this invitation to gather not around the Christmas tree, but in a silence and stillness which is broken only by the sputtering of flickering candles.  In most churches the moments in which quiet waiting might take place during the Sundays of Advent are filled with some kind of music much like it is in the secular waiting places.  

Years ago in an attempt to underscore the fact that Advent is about waiting and anticipation instead of celebration, the choir did its usual procession into the Sanctuary, but in silence instead of singing.  Much to the dismay of many in the pews, we sang no Christmas hymns until two Sundays of Advent had passed.  It was only on Christmas Eve that songs like "Joy to the World"  and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" were heard in a moment of worship.  While some fussed, it was an effort to create Advent's sense of anticipation and expectation by withholding certain elements of worship to the point that we would long for them and look forward to the joy they unleashed in our hearts.