Waiting in Faith.

I believe all of us do not like ‘waiting’ though waiting seems to be part of life. It is like we spend more than half our lives waiting. We have this culture that has slip into our way of life now; that is, we want everything instantly; we want quick answers to all questions and problems! This is why waiting is so hard. We can get annoyed with the long queue at the MRT/LRT stations, the lengthy checkout lines at the store. We get frustrated by long red traffic lights. Because waiting seems to be part of our life now, many of us spend a lot of time waiting. We wait for a baby to be born, and then we wait for them to be grown up and be steady in life. We wait for someone who is late and we wait for time to go by. Travelers wait for buses and planes, students wait for exam result and workers wait for 5pm to go back home or waiting for vacation time. We even have waiting rooms and waiting lines nowadays. But many a times, whatever we are waiting for shows up sooner or later. And when that happens, wow! such great satisfaction, relief and joy that we experience then.

In the Gospel today, we see two elderly people, Simeon and Anna who spent their whole life in and around the temple in Jerusalem and like us they too were waiting. What were they waiting for we ask? From our Gospel readings we see they were waiting for what Luke called ‘the consolation of Israel’. They teach us that there is something worth waiting for. Luke in his Gospel describes Simeon as just, pious and the Holy Spirit was upon him. As for Anna, a widow, she is a prophetess who was constantly in the temple, worshiping day and night in fasting and prayer. Now, they like the rest of the Jew prayed and hope that the Messiah would come and bring peace and comfort (‘consolation of Israel’). ‘The Consolation of Israel’ is a reference for Jesus and is a frequent theme found in Isaiah 40-66. Isaiah says the Messiah would come and so they were waiting for him. And this sometimes is what God is inviting us to do too, to wait. Yes, waiting for the Lord can be difficult, but it is not a passive activity like waiting for a dentist or waiting for a surgery where we feel so nervous or in anxiety. For us Christians, waiting on the Lord is an act of faith.

The Jews were waiting for the Messiah to deliver them from the Roman rule, and who would conquer the enemies of Israel. But Simeon and Anna who waited patiently on the Lord with prayer, fasting and in faith recognized that the Messiah has come and instead of coming to crush the gentiles as expected by the rest of the Jews, the child Jesus is the ‘light to the Gentiles’ and He is going to ‘deliver Israel’ and the rest of the world through His passion, death and resurrection. He is going to defeat sin and death. So how then was Simeon and Anna able to see it this way and not the rest of the Jews? This is because they waited on the Lord in faith.  All their lives they waited quietly and patiently upon God.

So what are we waiting for then? What are we looking forward to? Is it to settle in life and getting married? Maybe having a child? Is it that next vacation? Or getting that promotion at work? Maybe retirement? Or to pursue a higher degree or to finally completing studies?All of these things are good things to wait for. All of these things are good things to accomplish in life. All of these things are blessings from God. But real contentment in life comes from knowing what to look forward to, from knowing what to wait for. 

Simeon and Anna knew what to wait for. They waited for and looked forward to Christ’s first coming. And similarly, we are to wait for Christ’s Second Coming. The New Testament tells us over and over that we should eagerly wait and anxiously look for the blessed appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Living with this in mind, knowing that Jesus could come today, or tomorrow, causes us to live with the right priorities. It causes us to live with eternity in focus. It causes us to do things that will matter for eternity, rather than just for next week. We wait for the day we can finally be with the Lord eternally. Until we are finally together again with the Lord, let us, like Simeon and Anna, wait for the Lord in prayer and be ready to do His will when He calls.