What Are We Waiting For?
All Earth is waiting to see the Promised One,
and open furrows await the seed of God.
All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty;
it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.
(Hymn #109 in the Book of Praise)
We don’t like to wait.
We want instant solutions and next hour deliveries at our doors.
Waiting seems somehow to be an insult
we are not important enough if we have to wait.
We say we love Advent but do we really?
Advent is all about waiting. And not knowing.
Perhaps because we think we know what we are waiting for
we think we are really not waiting.
Christmas appears all around us
just after Thanksgiving.
Advent becomes superfluous,
a forgotten season except for overpriced calendars.
But in our churches
we still light the candles:
Hope, joy, peace, love.
Our certainty has some cracks, we wonder
Is there something more?
Is there something more than what we have come to expect?
Why do those ancient words from Isaiah continue to stir us?
What could we be waiting for?
You are invited to join a conversation about what we are waiting for, with me, the Rev. Dr. Bob Faris, together with the Primate of The Anglican Church of Canada, the Most Rev. Linda Nicholls, the National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, the Rev. Susan Johnson, and the Moderator of the United Church of Canada, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne. Don’t let the titles put you off. We are waiting, with all of you, to know where the Spirit is leading the Canadian churches in these changing and challenging times. For more, view the first of the meditation videos.
—The Rev. Dr. Bob Faris
Moderator of the 2022 General Assembly