I can hardly wait

by Marvin Bublitz

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend waiting? You wait in line at one store or another. You wait at the stop light. You wait for a parking spot. You wait to be seated. You wait to pay the cashier. You wait for the service to be over. You wait for me to get to my point here.

The point is that we do spend a lot of time waiting and usually don’t like it very much. How long will you remain on hold before you hang up the phone and try later? How long after you press the elevator button will you wait before pressing it again? No, we are not patient creatures.

Right now, there are children saying something like, “I can hardly wait to see my gifts.” We don’t like to wait even for something good. We want that apple pie, but the time to make it from scratch is almost too much to wait.

Well, how would you like to wait for generations for something? God had promised that He would send a Saviour—and people waited. They waited their entire lives and still the Saviour was not yet born. Their children and children’s children and children’s children’s children waited. Then it happened. When the time had fully come, God sent His Son to be born in a stable in Bethlehem. The waiting was over.

And yet, even today we wait for Christmas. During Advent, we wait and prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. During Advent, we focus on Jesus’ coming to us. He came as the babe in the manger, He daily comes to us through His Holy Word, He comes to us through washing in Holy Baptism and with His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and He will come again to judge all.

We are waiting for His return. He will come again to take all believers to heaven forever. That celebration will make all our celebrations over the next few weeks pale by comparison. Everlasting life is His gift to us.

As we wait to celebrate Christmas, we prepare. Sadly, we spend most of the time preparing by decorating the house, cooking the food, and inviting the guests. But there is more coming than Christmas. We wait and prepare also for the Day of His return.

Jesus told us, in Mark 13:32- 33: “Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”

Like Martha, we get bogged down with what we are doing and lose focus on what has been done for us. We can be prepared for His return. We can be prepared for His coming by His coming.

We can be prepared for His second coming because He first came as a little babe in a manger in Bethlehem. The Son of God left His throne on high to be born of the Virgin Mary in a lowly manger. The King of earth and heaven came as a little babe. He came to this earth with one purpose: to go to the cross of Calvary, to suffer and die for the sins of all people. He came to Calvary so that we could be prepared to meet Him when He comes again.

You can be prepared for His return, waiting with joy, because He went to that cross for you— because He laid down His life so that everlasting life in our Father’s heavenly mansion would be yours. You can be prepared to stand before Him because He planted faith in you to trust in Him as your Lord and Saviour—to trust that after confessing your sins and shortcomings to Him He bestows His Holy Absolution upon you.

He prepares you, washing you in His Baptism, proclaiming His Word in your hearing, and feeding you His very Body and Blood. Thus, cleansed and forgiven of all your sin, you may stand confident before His judgement, trusting in the Lamb of God and all He has done for you.

He works through Word and Sacrament to prepare you for His return when all waiting will end. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Rev. Marvin Bublitz is Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC)'s East Regional Pastor.