Suggested Readings: Psalm 27; Malachi 2:10-3:1; Luke 1:5-17
I love President Greg Jones’ theme of hope. Granted, humans can be physically alive without hope, but I do not think humans can truly thrive without hope. It’s a fair question, however, to ask how we can have hope in a world that seems so devoid of it, given the war in Ukraine (now approaching two years), the endless wars in Iraq and Syria, famine knocking at the door of forty-one million people worldwide, the hostage crisis in Israel, the painful delay of peace with justice for the Palestinians – to mention only a few seemingly hopeless situations. The misery in our world goes on and on! How can humanity have hope amid such intractable problems?
Nevertheless, Christians are called to hope that God will work in the hearts and minds of his people to bring about miraculous transformation. To be sure, we are partners with God in transforming the world. As Paul asserts in I Corinthians 15:58, My beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
And so, we are waiting, which is what Advent means. The theme of hopeful waiting is rich in Biblical literature as well as in world literature, which brings to mind Samuel Becket’s play, Waiting for Godot. As a college student, I saw Becket’s play in the early sixties and was mesmerized by its thought-provoking dialogue. As a religion major, I interpreted the play against the backdrop of the Christian faith – and I still do. Some interpreters see Godot as God, and Beckett acknowledged the plausibility of this interpretation. For me, there are inescapable parallels between the unseen Godot and the invisible God of the Judeo-Christian faith. There is great expectation in Waiting for Godot, and there is a joyous, imaginative waiting for God in the Christian faith. While Godot never ostensibly arrives in Becket’s play, in our faith God arrives in the person of the Christ child. The operative word in Becket’s work and in our faith is anticipation.
Over the years, the more I have pondered it, the more I am convinced that Godot is actually present all along in the play – as the unseen presence in the shadows. Poet James Russell Lowell expressed this idea in his well-known poem that was later made into a hymn – Once to Every Man and Nation – the final stanza of which declares, And behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. In a myriad of ways, we as Christians proclaim that God comes in the Christ event as Emmanuel – God with us! We know Jesus has already come, but we celebrate with anticipation Jesus’s birthday at Christmas. As Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all peoples of faith, our role as partners with God is to pray deeply and sincerely, work diligently and resolutely, and wait expectantly and faithfully for the coming time when, as the author of Revelation wrote in 21:3-4, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
Love and Peace,
Ernest Heard
