Waiting

Sermon preached at Morning Prayer (Friday, Feb. 18, 6 Epiphany, Year One) in the Chapel of the Apostles, the seminary chapel at Sewanee.

I assume that that concluding statement from 1 Timothy, “Do not ordain anyone hastily,” was especially poignant to this crowd of seminarians.

The Episcopal Church certainly seems to have gotten that one right! We don’t take anyone’s claim to a call from God at face value. No, we test it and investigate it and analyze it and then we make them wait... and wait ... and study ....and spend a summer dealing with the existential angst of patients in a hospital... and wait some more... and study... and take some tests... and wait... and go before various committees... and wait... and wait. No, it could not be said of us that we ordain anyone hastily!

And despite the frustrations and difficulties that this process can bring, it is a wise and good thing that our church has heeded the words of Scripture and does not ordain anyone hastily. There is wisdom in the church’s tradition and in the vetting process for the ordained ministry. In fact, a similar vetting process used to be required of anyone who wanted to join the church at all, not just those who wanted to be ordained. The ancient practice of catechizing adult converts to the faith, who would become “candidates for baptism” only after an extensive process (as we eventually become candidates for holy orders), ensured that those joining the church were seriously committed to Jesus Christ and to serving him in and with their lives. Perhaps we would be wise not to baptize hastily any more than we ordain hastily.

Waiting can be a good and holy spiritual discipline. Scripture is full of exhortations to “wait on the Lord,” for God’s deliverance and mercy in the midst of trouble. As Christians, while “we remember Jesus’s death” and “proclaim his resurrection,” we are also perpetually “awaiting his coming in glory,” as Eucharistic Prayer B says. Whole seasons of the church year, like Advent and Lent, are devoted to intentional waiting.

Waiting is a forgotten virtue in our modern culture, so focused on instant gratification. Why wait for months for a letter from a loved one when you can text message them and get a response within seconds? Why take the time to prepare a rich, wholesome meal for family and friends when you can get one at the push of a button at your local fast food restaurant? But even within our fast-paced culture, we still value most those things that come at the expense of a significant investment of our time and energy: that promotion that required that we work extra hard, the friendship that was built on years of shared experiences and hardships. Anthropologists have observed that across cultures, people value more what costs them more. Instead of catering to the quick-fix culture, we as the church should be about the business of stressing the value of waiting, of not getting what we want immediately, of putting things off for the sake of spiritual growth.

And we seminarians should be thankful for this opportunity to experience a holy waiting, as we muddle our way through the three years of “liminal” space in seminary. The good news about waiting is that it is something we can actually DO. Some of you might disagree – you might be more of a Tom Petty-ite, affirming that “the waiting is the hardest part.” But think about it. You don’t actually have to DO anything to wait. You can just sit there. Surely it’s easier to “wait for the Lord” than to “love your neighbor as yourself” or to “sell all you have and give it to the poor?” In any case, we have no choice about waiting – unlike the more action-oriented commandments, waiting is forced upon us. We can and do wait, whether we like it or not. It’s not actually hard to wait; the hard part is to wait with a good attitude, with a posture of faith and trust in God.

Some of you may have heard a saying that is popular with people of many faiths who have a meditation or silent prayer practice: “Don’t just do something, sit there!” This inversion of the traditional saying draws our attention to the importance of being over doing, and the value of waiting in stillness and silence before the Divine Mystery.

Oh, but I know, I know. There is so much to be done. You need to find a place to live this summer during CPE. And there’s so much paperwork to be done before scholarship applications are due and commissions on ministry meet this spring. And what if you haven’t found a job come graduation time?

Just remember – there’s a reason we don’t ordain anyone hastily. And the next time you find yourself feeling pressure to do, do, do... don’t just do something, sit there.