Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "While You Wait …"

Text: Acts 1:6-14

how many of us actually enjoy …

waiting … ?

Waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office

because he or she is running late?

Waiting for a green light

when there is no traffic coming the other way?

Waiting in the airport

because your flight has been delayed?

Or maybe even worse,

waiting for a gate to open up

after you’ve already landed and taxied?

In situations like that,

I can almost feel my blood pressure rising.

Now most people –

fortunately for them –

are at least a tad more patient than I …

but I think there are few people, if any,

who honestly enjoy having to wait for someone or something.

At least, not in our culture.

We learn to make it tolerable

by taking along a book to read,

or a crossword puzzle to solve,

or maybe by striking up a conversation with

another wait-er nearby …

But there’s still that nagging feeling that

we could be someplace else –

someplace better –

doing something more constructive

than just … waiting.

It seems like such a colossal waste of valuable time.

And yet, that’s precisely the position

that the disciples find themselves in,

in our story today from Acts.

Jesus has told them that

when the Holy Spirit comes upon them,

they will receive power,

and be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

And then he is gone;

he is taken up into heaven.

And the disciples are left, to wait.

Tradition has it that there were ten days

in between Christ’s ascension into heaven

and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Ten days in which the disciples had to wait.

They knew what their task was going to be,

but they hadn’t yet been given

the power and the authority to carry out that task.

Now I realize that

what the disciples were waiting for in those ten days

is a lot more important

than waiting for the light to turn green,

or some of those other things I mentioned.

But sometimes we, too,

have to wait for the important stuff.

Over the years,

you have heard me preach, and no doubt will hear me preach,

many sermons about our responsibilities as Christian people

to go out and tell the good news,

and to be the good news.

Sometimes, though,

as we seek to fulfill those responsibilities in ways that are faithful,

we too must take time out

to sit back and wait.

Perhaps we know what we must do,

but the time isn’t right.

Or perhaps the time is right,

but we ourselves need more preparation.

Or perhaps we, like the disciples,

are waiting for a clear word from the Holy Spirit.

Several years ago now,

I went on what’s called a Walk to Emmaus,

which is kind of a retreat

and kind of not a retreat.

Anyhow, the young woman who was my roommate for the weekend

made a decision for Christ.

Now she had grown up in the church,

but this was the first time she had ever felt

Christ’s call and Christ’s love

directed at her as an individual.

And she was filled with joy …

and it was a joy to see her, and the change in her.

And we talked about it, late into the night

when we should have been sleeping …

One of the things she was wondering the most about,

was how to share this wonderful experience with other people.

How to tell them about Christ.

She was bubbling over with the good news,

and she wanted to share it with everybody.

But at the same time, she knew

that it would be easy to go overboard with it,

and end up seeming pushy or obnoxious,

and turning people away from Christ,

and she certainly didn’t want to do that!

So we stayed up and talked a while longer …!

And what the conversation boiled down to was this:

sometimes we have to wait.

Sometimes, you’re waiting for that other person

to be ready to hear your words.

Sometimes a person is ready, but you’re waiting for the Holy Spirit

to give you the right words to say.

This kind of waiting is not easy.

It is hard to be patient, and to hold back,

when you’re rarin’ to go.

Kind of like waiting for the light to turn green,

but different, also.

It helps if we can think of our waiting time

as creative time, instead of wasted time.

And the closest analogy that I can think of

is that it must be something like waiting to give birth.

When you know that there’s something wonderful

just about to happen,

and you know it’s going to burst forth eventually,

but there’s just not a whole lot you can do to hurry it along.

What you can do is to be prepared;

you can protect and nurture that thing which is going to happen;

you can wait with a spirit of joy and anticipation

instead of being frustrated and aggravated.

Sooner or later,

what you’re waiting for will come to pass.

With giving birth,

you simply have to wait for nature to take its course.

With doing God’s work,

you must wait for the Holy Spirit to take its course.

And that, of course, is what the disciples are waiting for.

But notice what they do while they are waiting …

They don’t just twiddle their thumbs,

or do lots of crossword puzzles,

or take a long nap.

They don’t even start writing their memoirs … yet.

They do two things:

first, they go to be with other believers

in the community of faith;

second, they "devote themselves to prayer."

And those also are important things for us to be about

when we must wait,

while we wait.

We need to spend some time with other Christians …

maybe from our church family,

maybe from somewhere else.

They provide us with three – at least – very important things:

First, encouragement.

Support, to keep waiting without losing hope.

And we need that, because sometimes

we must wait a long time.

Much longer than ten days.

I know that for me,

three years of seminary seemed an awfully long wait

before I could go out and do

what I had known for years I was supposed to do.

Even though I mostly enjoyed those three years,

still, it took a lot of encouragement from friends back home,

and support from friends up there,

to keep me from getting awfully discouraged at times.

Waiting is hard.

Companionship makes it easier.

The second thing the community of faith offers us

is a chance to test the spirits.

To share our ideas with other people,

and to be sure that the message we want to share

is truly God’s word, and not just our own.

We’ve seen the kind of damage that can happen

when an individual claims that he or she has a word from God,

and no one else is to be allowed to question it.

And the third thing other Christians can give us

is guidance, or advice.

Surely there is someone in our community of faith

who has previously been through the situation we now find ourselves in,

and can help us find the words we need to say,

and the actions we need to take.

We can nearly always benefit

from one another’s experiences,

whether those were joyful, or painful.

And, like the disciples, we also need to pray.

To spend time alone with God,

and to determine what Jesus Christ means in our lives,

and why it matters.

Like my roommate on the Walk to Emmaus,

we need a relationship with God that is very personal,

in addition to our corporate call from God.

Before we can make the story come alive for others,

it has to live in us.

We cannot tell God’s good news

until and unless God has given us the words.

We cannot act on God’s behalf

until and unless God has shown us what to do.

And it’s only through prayer,

through conversation with God,

both talking and listening,

that we discover what we are called to do,

and how and when we are to do it.

Of course, we can’t wait forever …

sooner or later, we must act.

But it is just as unfaithful to jump the gun

as it is to procrastinate and never get around to doing anything at all.

Sometimes we, like the disciples,

must wait,

though it generally goes against our grain to do so.

But we must wait creatively.

Wait for the right time, and the right place …

Wait for the Holy Spirit.

Together.

Amen.

© 2005 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)