Voices in the Wilderness by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles Nov. 29, 2009

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"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way …Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth…" - Isaiah

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the door sill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

--From Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks

Voices in the Wilderness

by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, Nov. 29, 2009

        Waiting can be a very hard thing to do. It makes me anxious!

         Much of our lives are actually spent waiting. Patiently, or anxiously, or expectantly, or fearfully. Waiting. It is an important state of being.

        Waiting may not be so difficult when we have learned what to expect - waiting for the seed to germinate, the yeast to rise, the planets to orbit, the tectonic plates to shift, the baby to grow in utero. We can learn to wait with patience – “Everything in its own time” or “The watched pot never boils.”

        Waiting is more challenging when there is uncertainty attached - when will the scheduled train make its way to the station? When will inspiration come to the writer who sits hoping for words to write? When will things get better? When will the pain go away? I know I can get very anxious with that kind of waiting, as many of us do, struggling with waiting impatiently, checking our watch or honking our car horn.

        Many people choose to forgetting the fact that in reality for most of our lives we are waiting. We distract ourselves, we get busy with things to do, we turn our attention to actions or to other events, we take our minds off the waiting.

        Here at the end of the calendar year, we are in a season that brings up many kinds of waiting.

        In your personal life, depending on where you are:

• this can be a lovely time, of thoughtful pondering of traditions, of putting up lights against the darkness, of sending annual greetings to friends and families.
• or it can be a time of despair, the longing for joy and light seeming to be too painful because the wait has seemed too long.
• Or it can be an exciting kind of waiting, like the kids who get excited thinking about Santa Claus and presents showing up, and secrets and special festive times.
• In our public life – depending on where you are
• this is a time of trying to survive really bummer times - as Time Magazine is saying
• we are trying to come out of one of the worst decades the US has ever endured.
• or we are waiting for what more bad news is coming with the continued unraveling of our politics and economies,
• or we are hopefully waiting for tipping towards a new era, for new perspective and understanding of how find our new way, maybe with new strategies to deal with global warming, economic crisis, wars, poverty, and injustice.

        We are in a season of hopeful yearning, longing. And we are in a season which award-winning economist and author Paul Krugman has called “The Great Unraveling.” The world is in a time of struggle and confusion, of missed opportunities and lost ways – a wilderness time. It seems like the world is definitely in a wintertime, a season of long nights, when we have to hunker down, and wait it out.

        No matter who you are, no matter what traditions of family, religion, or culture which you observe, no matter where you are in your journey, you are joined with all of us who are waiting – waiting, as November ends, as the first decade of this new century ends,

            for the coming of … something,

            for the opening of a door to… something,

            for the dawning of a day to welcome... something.

        How do you like this waiting business? Waiting can be a very hard thing to do.

        Religions take this “waiting” business on. Whether they are helping us to wait for enlightenment in the here and now, or salvation in a future time, waiting for the arrival of a messiah or waiting for the End Times. Religious teachings and practices are addressing the human dilemma of learning to deal with waiting.

        In the movable calendar of the annual Muslim religious observances, it turns out that this year this week is the week of The Hajj, when roughly 2 to 3 million Muslims from all over the world converge on Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, for the pilgrimage which is one of the five “pillars” of Islam. The Hajj is a profound spiritual experience for Muslims, taking them back to the origin of their faith, and is obligatory at least once in a Muslim's lifetime, if possible. The journey takes the pilgrims along a pathway, and includes several places along the way to gather, to pray, to remember the voices of the prophets. The Hajj offers a guided pathway through the faithful people’s waiting for fulfillment of the Holy.

        The calendar of the natural world is set in its cycles of sun and moon, and the Jewish and Christian have chosen to have “waiting” observances link to this season of solstice. The Jews observe the story of Hanukah in December – the story of the Maccabees holding out against oppressive enemies in the temple under siege, waiting for relief and for more oil for the holy lamp. It is a story of waiting faithfully, and hanging on for the miracle that gives us just enough light.

        Christians, observing Jesus’ birth near the time of the winter solstice in a few weeks, offer this time of waiting now – Advent – as an important time of spiritual preparation. They have centuries of prophecies and ancient tales to support this message: Hang on! Times might get tough! You might be oppressed by occupying armies. You might have drought and war. But if you can be faithful, and wait, and prepare, and get ready – then God will send you a messiah – someone whose presence, whose teachings, whose coming will be your salvation!

        That was what Isaiah was talking about!

           "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

           'Prepare the way; the rough ways shall be made smooth…'"

        A very important story in the Advent season is the story of John the Baptist, before he was known as “the Baptist”. At the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to the young woman Mary to inform her that she would have a baby boy Jesus, he also informed her that Elizabeth, her cousin, was already six months pregnant. Mary then journeyed to Elizabeth . Luke’s Gospel recounts that the baby - who was John - “leapt” in Elizabeth’s womb at the greeting of Mary. He already knew that her baby was something to be excited about.

        When those babies had grown, and her young men, but before Jesus started his ministry, John was out and about, preaching up a storm, and baptizing people, telling them to get ready, quoting the Hebrew prophets. He said – “Just wait! Someone much more powerful than me is coming. I’m just here to get you ready.” John was a prophet, in the tradition ofthe prophets, calling out for people to get their act together, to be ready for the coming of justice and restoration of rights for the poor and the afflicted. Now we might take it for granted that he would be out waking people up. But at the time, he didn’t really know that Jesus would arrive and be as important as he turned out to be. His voice calling out in the middle of a time of despair was quite amazing.

        In this time of unraveling, in the long night of the winter, I think the story of John, calling out in the wilderness, is so valuable to us. A voice of hope when our waiting time is filled with uncertainty. We need to remember the story - not just of Jesus, when the “good news” arrives, but also of John, who called on people to awaken and wait with anticipation and faith.

        In the springtime, the Hebrew scriptures offer us the Exodus story- and the figures of Moses (well known) and Joshua (not so famous). Moses took the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt , and led them as they waited and struggled – lost and sometimes in despair – waiting to get to the Promised Land. Joshua brought them into the promised land, and as they enjoyed being there, they had to figure out new things, had to build a new community.

        President Obama has spoken of Moses and Joshua in understanding his generation’s new role in our history, in this new era in the lineage of leaders for civil rights in the US . The Moses generation were those people like Martin Luther King Jr, Ralph Abernathy, Malcolm X, the generation of the civil rights activists who helped lead the struggle for Black rights. In contrast, the present-day Joshua generation reaped the benefits of the collective struggle without having gone through the Red Sea and the wilderness.

        Different roles, different stages on a cycle of changing seasons. At times we look to Moses; at times, to Joshua. And in this Advent time, before the return of the Sun, we have a story featuring the John the Baptist figure (not so famous) – who called the people suffering in their time to get ready, to prepare for the arrival of the next thing, the coming of the Messiah; and we have the Jesus figure (rock star) – who called people to live and act in love, to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth by feeding the poor, healing the sick, forgiving the enemy and living in peace.

        We need the John image, especially in our tough waiting times, when we don’t know what is coming next. In our lives, in our souls’ journeys, each of us struggles through those times– of being lost and confused, of waiting for the return of light, of waiting for the medication to work to end the pain, of waiting in anguish for justice to arrive, for the stress weighing down on us to be lifted. In those tough waiting times, we need the sense of John, who reminds us of the voices in the wilderness from ancient days – who call to us, who encourage us – who awaken us or comfort us or remind us – that the waiting will end. And that love and justice will come into the world, our world.

        What do the prophets and John tell us to do while we wait? First – listen for the voices calling to us. Listen – pray, meditate, or wake up! And Look for the signs, the doors opening, the people going back and forth, the breeze blowing. And - Prepare the way – make it smooth. Pave the way for the coming of whatever we wait for, long for.

        To bring about justice, the end of suffering, the coming of love to the world, we NEED this season of waiting, of listening, of preparation – just as much as we will need the activity of building and working. We NEED stop our own chattering and our day-to-day busywork that keeps us occupied throughout the year, to rediscover what we most need to hear, where we most need to go, so we won’t get led astray or suffer endlessly in directionless confusion. We NEED the voices calling to us in our wilderness.

        In many ways we are always in a season of waiting – for the next moment never comes. And in many ways we are always arriving – this moment has just come. And so we really need to figure this out, to find power in the waiting, in the Advent of each season, by greeting this waiting time as an arriving time. Open to each moment, open to the need in this moment that is awaiting fulfillment. Isaiah says, “Those who wait for the Lord’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.”

        We can choose to watch for the open doors, to listen for the voices, to wait until we see clearly the moment that is arriving. This power to choose is important, and makes all the difference in how we can be present to the uncertainty of the wilderness.

        John Mayer has written a song about his generation, coming of age in this world filled with so much pain and suffering, injustice and oppression, waiting its moment to have the power and take on the challenges:

           me and all my friends, we're all misunderstood

           they say we stand for nothing and there's no way we ever could

           now we see everything that's going wrong

              with the world and those who lead it

              we just feel like we don't have the means

   to rise above and beat it

           so we keep waiting

           waiting on the world to change

           we keep on waiting

           waiting on the world to change

           We are all waiting on the world to change.

           Waiting for the sun to return

           Waiting for the doors to open, and the voice calling to us to be heard.

        The past is unraveling, and the future is not yet clear, and always, in every moment – we are called to BE – be awake, be waiting, be open, be aware of the not-yet-ness of this life.

        This morning, as we pause on the edge of one of the craziest times of the year, let us wake up to the time, to the wait, to the possibilities. Because in the waiting, if we watch and listen carefully, we might hear the voice calling to us, see the door opening, that guides our next actions. We might truly discover what we are called to do, who we are called to be.

        May it be so. Welcome Advent!

Photos from the Service

I Believe statement by Alex Gibson

Carly Simon Sings "Anticipation"

Heinz 57 Ketchup: Anticipation

John Mayer - Waiting On The World To Change