They also serve who only stand and wait. One of those quotes that everyone knows, but maybe without knowing who actually said it. It’s actually the last line of John Milton’s poem on his blindness; Milton is affirming the place he still has, despite his disability, in the service of the kingdom of God.
Most of us don't much like having to wait around, but sometimes it can be good. Some years ago I’d spent my day off walking in Warwickshire, not far from Stratford; and I arrived at the small country station I was due to travel back from just after my train had gone. I was quite cross, but there was nowhere else I could head for within walking distance, so all I could do was to wait another hour for the next train. Well, I'd got a bar of chocolate and an apple with me, and something to drink; so I found a bench seat of Great Western vintage under some rambling roses, planted maybe by some long gone station master. It was a warm and sunny afternoon with the air full of the buzzing of bees and the calling of birds. Rarely have I passed a more contented and peaceful hour, but it was only by accident I was granted it.
There’s a lesson there for me I know. I give in too easily to the temptation to spend my time rushing about making things happen. Sometimes it’s better to pause and allow things to happen to me. When things get slowed down there’s often blessing. It’s worth taking quiet time, quality time; if I don’t I’m missing out.
Doing nothing can be good therapy. But my theme today is really about purposeful waiting, which is something Jesus told several parables about. In today's Gospel he tells his disciples how they should wait. They should wait attentively and watchfully; they should be alert and expectant, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding feast. They mustn't sleep on the job, of course, but neither should they be so busy doing stuff that they’re not properly watchful. If they’ve too much stuff of their own to worry about they might miss their master's return.
Most Christians I guess are aware of a tension between doing and being. The Protestant work ethic persuades us to see church as mostly a place where people are doing things: so we run classes, have groups, engage in social projects, and draw up a calendar of events. And if we’re not doing all of this, we can be made to feel that we're not pulling our weight.
Well, of course churches do need to do things - churches need to be addressing human need, studying the Bible, learning about our faith and what it means to be disciples. And we need to have fun and n the process raise some cash: we’ve got buildings to look after, and ministry costs to meet too. But let’s not forget to be also a waiting church, and not to be so hooked on doing things we miss out on the vital task of simply being God’s people.
Churches have an awful lot of history, and that’s what mostly interests the people who come to visit them. It fascinates me too. Church buildings can be full of architectural clues that can help us trace the way communities and their worship have changed and developed over the centuries. I enjoy looking through old books and registers - or even reading old minutes of church meetings. We could even see the Church today as being mostly a band of folk keeping the flame burning, so that the work of past generations isn’t forgotten, and the faith of the ages is preserved.
And to some degree that is our role. Certainly when I enter an old church I’m quickly aware of it as a place made holy by generations of prayer and piety, so that I feel moved to thank God for the faith of generations past, and to pray that we may be worthy inheritors of their work. But it isn’t our job to wait for the past to come round again. It won't. If we’re waiting, we’re waiting prayerfully and expectantly for what Jesus will do next. So we need to direct our vision forward, not back. And remember that one of the things Jesus told his disciples was that the Son of Man would come at a time when he was least expected.
So they were to hold themselves in constant readiness for that day; and therefore, alongside all our activity as church we have an equally vital task of quiet and prayerful waiting on our Lord. The other day I had an interesting conversation with a parish priest I’ve known for many years. The smallness of congregations came up. So what, he said - big isn't always best. He wasn’t disillusioned by the smallness of his congregations, it just meant he had to work with them in an appropriate way. There’s a real and Biblical ministry of being the faithful remnant, he told me, that isn’t the same as just hanging on till you drop off the twig; perhaps small churches can’t grow in numbers, but they can grow in faith, and maybe that matters more. Being big and busy with lots of energetic projects isn’t everything; if you can do that, great! But what really counts is that we’re faithful to God.
And that’s a faithfulness we show by regularly attending Sunday worship, especially here at the table of Holy Communion; in the discipline of daily prayer, especially as we pray for one another; in the quality of our fellowship, in our use of time and talents and money, and in our study of scripture and our delight in the word of the Lord. These are all ways in which a faithful church offers itself to God, trusting his love and his promises.
That’s what it means to be children of Abraham: we are children of Abraham not through any bloodline, but because we are children of promise and faith. In Hebrews we read: "From one man, a man as good as dead, there sprang descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens or the grains of sand on the seashore." Abram (or Abraham as he became) put his faith in the Lord: even though he couldn’t have seen how God's promise could come true, he still believed it would. We need the same trusting, offering, 'yes to God' faith today. In our weakness, in our uncertainty, even the awareness we have of decline and age, we should look forward in faith and expect God’s blessing. He’s still working his purpose out: he keeps his promise to those who wait on him in faith.
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