Pause for thought: Learning to wait
“The celebration of advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”
These are the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident in the second World War. His vocal opposition to Hitler led to him being arrested by the Gestapo and sent to prison for one and half years, then transferred to a Nazi concentration camp where he was later executed in April 1945, just two weeks before the American troops liberated the camp. As he waited in prison this pastor wrote reflections on Advent.
“Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait,” he wrote. “Those who learn to wait are uneasy about their way of life, but yet have seen a vision of greatness in the world of the future and are patiently expecting its fulfilment”
This world is a place where many face a poor and imperfect existence, where many are uneasy about their way of life. Are we noticing them? Are we helping them either by giving or by volunteering? And what about us? It can be so easy for us to celebrate, relax, perhaps overindulge and to not realise that we too are waiting.
But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, learning to wait only happens when we both know ourselves to be poor and imperfect now and when we have seen a vision of greatness in the world of the future. Advent offers us time to recognise a vision of our poverty and a vision of greatness to come. Those who already have everything they want here will find it difficult to look forward to anything else. But in contrast, those who are aware of suffering, of sickness, of an inner void that we try to ignore, of a poverty of spirit that we try to hide – those people, along with the starving in other parts of the world, will be ready to wait in hope for something better to come.
Is there something better to come? Is there anything worth waiting for? That is the question at the heart of our attitude to human existence, and the answer of the season of Advent is “YES.” Not only do we engage with the poverty of our present existence but at advent we see a glimpse of the greater future that is still to arrive. The birth of Jesus was the breaking in of a gleam of light to our darkness, but when he grew to be a man Jesus died on behalf of the whole human race, was raised again in victory over death, and promised himself that he would come back again as King and Judge over all.
Is there something better to come? Yes. Not just someTHING to come but someONE to come - the arrival of a Saviour:
Jesus the liberator who will truly set the oppressed free; Jesus the judge who will hold evil to account; Jesus the peacemaker who will end all conflict; Jesus the bread of life who will end all hunger; Jesus the good shepherd who will end all loneliness.
“The celebration of advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”
Revd John-Daniel Laurence