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What are you waiting for?
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 28th November 2004
Revd. Matthew Vernon
(pause) What are you waiting for?
The taxis would be blaring their horns by now.
• Before the traffic lights even turn green the horns start going.
• They don't like to wait for a millisecond.
People queuing at the supermarket would be grumbling and complaining …
• "how dare they keep us waiting".
• We need to get on.
• People on the check out aren't allowed to be slow.
• We're so important!
I don't know how long you'd wait for a sermon to begin before complaining...
Waiting (pause).
We're not very good at it, are we?
Here in Hong Kong, we are particularly bad at it.
Sometimes I catch myself.
Walking along the street or waiting to cross the street
• I get impatient at how slowly people seemed to be moving –
• I have somewhere to get to.
• The people in front of me were in my way.
• In my misplaced sense of importance I forgot that they have as much right to be there as I do!
Its worse when I'm driving…
There was an advert on TV a while ago - the one about Central for Hong Kong Land.
Perhaps you remember.
The image jumps from someone shopping,
• to someone rushing down the street,
• to some looking beautiful,
• to a couple in a restaurant.
• to a man running to keep in the same place.
• At one point a woman jumps out of a taxi and says "I'm in a rush",
• before the next image flashes celebrating the rush, the frantic pace, the busyness.
Advent helps with our addiction to hurrying;
• our impatience and our sense of importance;
• many of us are forced to be busy:
• by our employers; in the office
• and by ourselves.
A friend recently invited me to a meal.
It was actually a Ramadan breakfast.
I couldn't go.
The friend said, "You have lots to worry about."
One of those comments that strike a chord.
We have too much to worry about.
But in Advent we wait.
We are passive.
• We wait for the coming of Christ.
• We look forward to Jesus' birthday.
• We watch expectantly for God's kingdom.
God does the acting.
What are you waiting for?
Lights on many buildings say "Seasons greetings".
Starbucks are serving in red Christmas cups.
The lights are on on the Christmas Tree in Statue Square.
• all 270,00 of them.
In shopping malls the Christmas decoration are going up.
And sometimes in the middle of the shop display is the perfect Christmas scene:
• the stable with Mary and Joseph and the animals and tiny, sweet baby Jesus.
If you're waiting for all that you're going to be disappointed.
There is no baby in the manger.
• You won't find Jesus there.
The wrapping paper and turkey bones get thrown away.
• You won't find Jesus in them either.
We can wait as long as we like;
• we can collect as many Christmas presents as possible,
• we can judge people by possessions and wealth;
• we can pretend that we don't we in fact do;
• but in the end we will be disappointed with that.
Some people know this and do their Christmas presents differently.
They have inspiring plans.
A friend was telling me the other evening of a friend who gives presents to her children.
He gives presents for the many children of other friends too.
The presents are a donation to charity in the name of each child.
We've spoken about Heifer International before
This is there Christmas Gift Catalogue.
An opportunity to support poor communities in China by buying livestock:
• ducks; a goat; a yak.
These animals make a radical different to the people's lives.
They help them survive and make a livelihood.
People who don't have plenty
People who aren't us fortunate as we are.
They are the people Jesus will be with this Christmas.
They are people who know about waiting.
• Waiting for their next meal.
• Waiting for a relative to die from lack of medical care.
• Waiting for their government to stop wasting money on military arms.
• Waiting for the international community to build a fairer, more just world. A world in which they get a fair price for the coffee, or the cotton, or the cocoa they grow.
• Waiting for us to build God's kingdom here on earth.
What are you waiting for?
Waiting is not easy.
You become aware of yourself and your surroundings.
You can hear the clock ticking.
If you listening carefully enough and wait still enough, you can even hear the silence.
When the rush stops,
• the roar dims,
• the beat falls quiet,
• you can hear the silence of eternity.
What are you waiting for?
The truth is, most of us aren't waiting.
• It's too frightening.
• It's too risky.
We might bump into God.
• We might be able to hear is soft voice, whispering, "I love you".
Without the noise of life we might hear Jesus calling us, "Follow me".
We might even hear our own heart beating.
If you've been waiting for a story here's one.
One I told last Advent.
"Babushka is a person, who like many of us, is oh-so busy.
A tidy housekeeper,
• always occupied with the myriad chores that seem to need doing,
• she is too busy one evening to find out about the commotion in the village.
All her neighbours are out,
• gossiping about the bright star overhead
• and a nearing caravan of royalty.
Babushka is soon startled to hear a knock at her door.
Three richly dressed kings ask her if they can lodge overnight,
• since she has the finest house in the village.
The foreigners stay and tell her they are following the bright star.
Why doesn't she come too?
They are bringing gifts to a prophesied newborn king.
His star is leading them on their way.
But Babushka doesn't feel as though she has a proper gift.
• And my, what a mess these visitors have made.
She simply must stay and clean up.
She will come the next day.
So the kings leave without her.
But when her cleaning work is done and after she has prepared a proper gift,
• Babushka feels the urgent need to catch up with the dignitaries.
They are a full day's journey ahead of her,
• but she sets out.
Everywhere she asks for the kings
• until she tracks them to the village of Bethlehem,
• where she is told they have come and gone.
And so has the baby.
The child is the Saviour of the world,
• and Babushka has missed him!
So she continues her search year after year,
• for time means nothing in the search for things that are real.
Legend relates that she can still be seen in villages at Christmas time,
• looking for the Christ child.
• "Is he here? Is he here?"
Babushka is all of us,
• busy,
• preoccupied.
Yet something inside us reminds us we have been called
• and that we must follow.
In Advent we are search for the deepest meaning of our lives.
What are you waiting for?
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