Sunday, December 17, 2023

“How long will you keep us in suspense?”

John 10:24

The second parish where I served as pastor was also my first solo pastor parish – St. Paul (Mt. Pleasant) Lutheran Church in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. I loved serving at that congregation for a lot of reasons, and most of those reasons had everything to do with the people who worshipped in that community. But I also loved serving at that parish due to the place where the building stood. It was located just a few miles north of the Maryland border on Winterstown Road. On the west side of the road stood the church and small parking lot. On the east side of the road stood a small cemetery. And beyond that cemetery you could see acres and acres of farmland. In the growing season, when you exited the sanctuary through the main doors, you could stop and stare at the incredible crops as they went through their various stages of growth.

Stop and stare is exactly what I did on numerous occasions. Most of the farmland was maintained by the Miller family who happened to be members of St. Paul. Charlotte, the daughter-in-law of the land owner, was also our part-time secretary at the church. The farm is still being maintained by the Miller family with the help of three generations working together to provide produce and plants as part of a business called the Miller Produce Farm. They have a website and Facebook page that keeps you updated with all that they are doing today. In the mid-1990s, when I served at that parish, the view from the church was amazing as I looked out over the farm. I am sure that it still is.

I think that one of the reasons I felt so at home in Pennsylvania was because what the Millers were doing was not so different from what we did on the Spies family farm. The crops varied. The time of the year when planting and cultivating the crops varied. But the routine of farm life, the challenges the Miller family faced over the years, and the gift of being able to enjoy the rewards of their hard work when the harvest was finally gathered were things that resonated with me in ways that were very real. From my office window, I witnessed the planting process, and sometimes the replanting process when the weather or seed did not cooperate fully the first time. I witnessed the slow but steady growth as the seeds started to mature. I witnessed the frantic process of trying to get the produce in before the first freeze could potentially reduce the annual yield. There was a lot of work at the beginning of the process, a lot of work at the end of the process, and a lot of sitting and waiting patiently between those two times. The same kind of thing happened on our farm as well.

There’s a saying that goes, “Patience is a virtue.” If that is true, if patience is a virtue, then perhaps I am not very virtuous. I am not always patient. And that seems to be especially true for me during the Advent season. I remember numerous years during the month of December where I could be heard saying things like this: “I can’t wait until this semester is over.” “I can’t wait until this year is over.” “What do you mean I have to wait until Christmas to open my presents? I can’t wait until Christmas.” And that is just to name a few.

Yet, Advent is a season of waiting. Each year, that is one of the big themes in the four or so weeks that we set aside for the countdown to Christmas as we begin a new church year. We wait for our celebration of the first coming of Jesus at Christmas. But we also use this season to help us remember and anticipate the second coming of Jesus at the end of all time when we are promised that we will forever be joined with those we love and forever live in the presence of God.

Good things come to those who wait – at least that is what we are told. And, indeed, what we find in scripture is that good things do come to those who wait. Generations had been waiting for the Messiah, for the one who would come to make all things new. And what those in the New Testament times found, what John the Baptist and those of his generation found, was that the wait was finally over. They could rejoice. They could move forward in gladness because, in Jesus, the promise had been fulfilled. The wait was over: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. The Lord had come.

And the Lord continues to come to us. In our gatherings where two or three meet in his name, the Lord is here. In our worship where the sacraments of baptism and communion are administered, the Lord is here. In our time of devotion where the word of the Lord is proclaimed, the Lord is here. Good things have already come to those who have waited. And the promise is that there are better things still to come.