Finding Peace in the Waiting
December 8, 2024
In our Advent book study, Jerusalem is called the City of Waiting, but one of its other titles is the City of Peace. Now last week, our two words for consideration were ‘Longing and Hope’, which seems like two sides of the same coin. But ‘waiting’ and ‘peace’ don’t seem like they belong in the same sentence let alone on the same coin. So, what I’d like to do this morning is to have us hear invitations, from two very different requests, for our attention and faithful response. First, I’d like to call on Tisha Robinson, who is a member of our environmental group here at the nest.
How did it feel to attend the Faith Climate Vigils on Friday nights in Waterloo
Square? I want to tell you how it felt to be there.
On Friday evenings, bundled up in our warmest clothes, we stood in a sacred
circle amidst the Hub-Bub of Waterloo Square. This must have been how the
early Christians felt, meeting after dark as passionate followers of Jesus. We
would greet each other warmly, then quiet down to hear the
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement. Then we would be enthralled by an
impassioned guest speaker, maybe an Indigenous Storyteller, a PHD student
specializing in Climate Justice, or an Affordable Housing Advocate fervent about
real solutions. Or maybe it would be an expert on Vegan Diets, and how they
restore the Environment, or a tireless activist for people who are unhoused, or a
small group of 2 Spirit Indigenous musicians.
Each speaker added to our heartbreak, compassion and comprehension of the
cruelty of Climate Change.
So, we held lit candles in holy silence. We stood together as ONE. God was in that place. We waited in the silence and the dark. We wait. We wait.
I’d like to invite Andrea from the One Roof Youth Services for a short overview of this outreach.
Like waiting and peace, climate justice, and helping one youth at a time seems to be so very far apart, and each requires a very different response. But as I reflected on these invitations, I came to realize that, what they shared in common, was a vision of how the world ought to be, for the good of all. A world where we live in harmony with creation and a world where no one of any age had to go without shelter, food, or relationships. But what are we going to do between the reality of today and the reality of what we want to see? Well as Tisha said, “We wait, and we wait.”
Maybe you have noticed that humanity is very bad at just waiting. Left to our own devices our minds race, filled with the worst case, scenarios, rabbit holes and dead ends, which just lead to more negative thinking. So, to help our frantic mind, we have created all manner of distractions for us when we wait. The latest one is the smart phone with what’s called doomscrolling, and that has become almost addictive in our waiting. The problem with this kind of waiting is that it not only doesn’t get us anywhere, what we’re waiting for, seems to get further and further away.
I happened upon a short clip from American astrophysicist and writer,
Neil deGrassy Tyson.
He starts by talking about Joyce Kilmer‘s most famous poem. Do you know who Joyce Kilmer was? No, well maybe you know his poem “Trees.”
I think that I shall never see “A poem as lovely as a tree”.
Degrassi asks, what’s the big deal about a tree? We chop them down. We drive by them without a second look. We don’t even see them most of the time. But he said, (and I think this is so beautiful) “That this poem causes us to stop. Art forces you to pause and reflect on the things you took for granted. Things that become ordinary in life.” This poem stops us, causes us to pause long enough to see the ordinary in a new and more appreciative way. And he’s right because that pause is filled with peace. I believe that when we allow our hearts and minds to be at peace even for a moment in the waiting time, then we, open up a connection between the heart and the mind. This allows us to give a focused and thoughtful response to that which is closest to our heart. And that the issues in life that we have stopped seeing or paying attention to become visible and solvable. It is this peace that gives an opportunity for the waiting to have a purpose beyond filling in time. As a people who want climate action and want to give a home to youth, peace helps us be wise in what we do, while we wait, and ultimately makes our waiting worthwhile. Amen