7 th February: 5 th Sunday after Epiphany

‘When the wait ends’

Part of what is known as Second Isaiah describes a prophetic response to a people who are crying out yet have fallen into the tempting belief that their cries have not been heard. The condition of life in exile or modern-day qualitative equivalencies have a way testing our ability to wait on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whose sovereignty exceeds the grasp of our natural comprehension. While many of us are experiencing what can be considered as prolonged wait during a seasons of tragedy, material deficiencies, and removed far away from that which was deemed as familiar, comfortable, or certain, we are forced to wait. After exhausting all of our resources, after tapping out on the best of our own human ingenuity but have been humbled by lacking the ability to solve our own problem and now crying out to God as a final resort, such occasions can cause us to long for the God of Deliverance, but this same God is also the God of Judgment. The speaker in the given text cries out as one feeling disregarded by God, while suffering from two critical features of the human experience, that is waiting and doubt.

Among the worst transgressions that individuals, communities, and societies have made entails waiting when it is time to act and acting when it is time to wait. Let us focus of the latter of the two which lies in the human inclination to refuse to wait during a time when waiting becomes necessary. Dealing with the global pandemic like that of the year 2020 and into 2021, human creature face multiple existential challenges. First, the typical Western individual and societies have not grown proficient in exercising cooperative behavior for the common good. If the human creature intends to live beyond the moment such for the sake of having the opportunity to fellowship and do God’s will, then their must be some consideration of the common good in the here and now. Second, historically churches have become so institutionalized, market-driven, and out-of-touch with the rapid pace of change whether for the better or for the worst. But the church has reached a moment of truth to either face reality and adjust accordingly or cease to exist.

Third, nations or at least some have been learning more into embracing isolationist tendencies with a disregard for the masses through the world, while on a quest for dominance and supremacy. The pandemic has forced nations to choose between global cooperation or a highway toward death and destruction. Do we realize that human strength and might has limits? From the narrative about the great fall of the human creature in Genesis 3, there lies a moral to the story of poor decisions with atrocious consequences from listening to the noise of the crowd while in a state of temptation. The serpent in such a case symbolizes the voices of which has a posture of favorability and goodwill, but an inner spirit of evil intentions.

Despite, the natural human inclination to grow weary and look for short cuts rather than exercise faith in God, the prophetic voice proclaims that ‘The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable’ (Isaiah 40:28, NRSV). The text implicitly raises that question of how to keep from descending into a state of weariness which could ultimately interfere with one’s relationship with each other and the all-powerful God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ‘In that all-powerful and redeeming God he called Israel to trust’. ¹ In the twenty-first century church and society, there lies evidence that a significant portion of the population has acknowledged the existence of God, but has grown weary and doubtful in the power of God when faced with harsh sobering realities that accompany the consequences of earthly existence.

From time to time, we must take an honest look at ourselves and ask if we likewise have the power of God underestimated? The prophet addresses the natural human inclination of embracing a belief in God as placing human suffering and pain as low priority. Within the context of exile, there lies a heightened since of uncertainty of from one moment to the next. Life as one knew it becomes challenged. In the modern system of corrections in much of the developed world, there at least lies some form of clarity of how long until parole eligibility, and the scheduled date of release. When doing time, simply knowing that a date exists in which one’s debt to society becomes ‘paid in full’, such awareness potentially functions as a means of hope.

There may lie misery in the incarcerated experience, where living conditions become substandard through less than humane sanitation practices, a stench in the air from bodies densely packed in dormitories, or the reality of potential subjection to violence; however, the thought of the possibility of life beyond the barbed wired fences, and the watchful eyes of armed officers, and returning home, reuniting with family on a forthcoming date functions as a means of hope during a prolonged period of hopelessness. Life in exile requires a different type of waiting. During the ancient world, those held in captive were subject to torment by their captors. Instead of living the human experience they became property as spoils of war. In some cases, women and children became subject to rape by their captors as gestures of defeat. For their bodies were abused while their minds had undergone warlike trauma. In the U.S., the Executive Order was signed during the 1860s and in the twentieth century, many in that same country still live in near slave conditions. The Great Depression ended in the 1940s, yet their children dying of starvation, families sleeping on sidewalks, and generations of families who have yet to recover from the effects of discrimination, exclusion, and deprivation.

Many of us have waited, our parents have waited, and grandparents have waited to the point that we have grown tired of having to wait. What do we do while enduring this period of prolonged waiting? Waiting on God, while suffering does get old and tiresome, but waiting during such times like now can also be productive, because waiting while suffering provides the context for acquiring the necessary perseverance to grow spiritually. Perseverance requires waiting but it builds strength. Perseverance requires waiting but it builds endurance. Perseverance requires waiting but it builds faith. Perseverance requires waiting but it makes us fit to live. Perseverance requires waiting but it becomes an opportune time for God to build us back up.

Our churches need those who are spiritually mature. Our communities need people equipped with God-given strength. For us to be productive in God’s kingdom, we need endurance just as Christ endured for the benefit of others. However, doubt has a way of sneaking up on us. How do we respond, who doubt knocks on our door? That is what matters most. ‘Doubt is not a denial but an integral part of faith. It keeps faith from being sure of itself. But doubt does not have the final word. The final word is faith giving rise to hope’. ²

If we recall that the root of the fall of the human being in Genesis three lies in the desire for the human creature to become like God. Since the early days of humanity, God has waiting on us extensively. We are beneficiaries of having a Triune God, that is currently actively waiting on a people that are steadily in a state of defiance, lawlessness, rebellion, and completely deranged.

As we embark on this journey of faith, through our triumphs and through our trials, we continuously have opportunities to experience God’s self-disclosure. ‘The revelation of God is always a disturbing, even shocking event. It disrupts the way we have previously understood God, the world, and ourselves’. ³ The widespread catastrophic devastation of the pandemic of 2020 and beyond has disturbed communities, churches, nations, and the world in more profound ways than previously imagined. Those us of who remain during this historic era have learned that waiting for a return to a pre-pandemic state provides a glimpse of what the people of the ancient world experienced as longing for a pre-exile state. While longing for the wait to be over functions as a much needed reminded for all human creatures that God is still God and humans are still humans. By accepting that God’s will is coming into fruition in God’s due season, through whatever means God chooses is for the greater good for each of us and beyond our perceived self-interest, then the wait is over. May we all go out in peace.