It's part of the human condition; but we're not always very good at it.
Whether it's queueing to get through airport security or the tendency to crowd round a train door when the platform is barely in sight, we want to be on the move.
Seeing Bond on opening night; ordering books for next day delivery; take-aways, ready meals, Jamie's 30 minute suppers.
Waiting in; waiting up; waiting around; waiting your turn.
A minute - a moment – a second... Even longer.
Perhaps the sign of joyless impatient waiting is the mesmerising whirl of the digital circle of doom on our screens. Our lives are lived at such a pace, with an intensity driven by technology. And we're waiting for something to download, we get impatient. The faster our broadband speed, the more impatient we get when it buffers.
Waiting....
Waiting until something happens; until you can do something. Waiting for the expected; for an event, a meeting, something longed for or something that will change us.
Allowing time to go by; staying in one place; not doing very much.
Perhaps this morning we will be able to practice the sort of waiting that that is about attention to God; the sort of waiting that is about paying deep attention to what is going on around us… within us.
Perhaps it'll be an exercise in non-anxious waiting to take us into Advent with a deeper sense of expectation.
Perhaps we'll cultivate the right sort of patient impatience of longing for God; for his Kingdom to come.
Perhaps we'll be renewed in witnessing to the good news of God with us in our own generation.
The advent of Christmas ads appear well before we've hosted our first carol service, but long after mince pies appeared in my local Co-op. John Lewis with its science defying man on the moon invites us to show someone they're loved; Sainsbury's shares Mog's calamitous story ending with the message that Christmas is for sharing.
Such ads have tremendous power to shape our waiting. They shape the expectations of those we'll encounter. Paying attention to them reminds us of human longings - for companionship; but they should also disrupt us. As the debate about the Lord's Pray ad has illustrated, advertisers have a vested interest igniting desires and making us want things now; encouraging us to spend rather than wait; to consume rather than conserve.
In #MulberryMiracle, the brand presents a tongue in cheek nativity: a host of visitors arrive to share in the excitement of an unexpected present. They 'oooh' and 'aaah' over a most beautiful thing; something amazing. A thing of wonder; something quite stupendous.
We too are called to subvert the culture in which we wait: we do that by attending to the narrative of our world; by accurately describing its fears, longings, hopes and anxieties.
Our calling is to be with people as they grapple with the challenges, pressures and delights of life. To do that we have to wait upon, pay deep attention to, the one who is God with us.
The poetry of John's prologue has become iconic: In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.
There's an intensity to this divine communion and creativity: the fullness of life and in the words of John Donne, one equal light.
Darkness did not overcome. We, like John, are to testify to this light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
In expressing this hope, a vision for the healing of humanity, John distils the history of salvation into but a few verses. The depth of his attention to the way in which God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself is spine tingling.
Yet, he also pays deep attention to the gritty reality of the world: a world filled with violence, division, rejection, ignorance, greed and loneliness. Yet he also pays attention to how wisdom, meaning and hope was expressed in Hebraic and Greek thought.
Logos.
This Word was coming.
This Word is the summation of all ideas, thoughts, wisdom, reason and knowledge.
This Word has the power to create, change and transform
This Word was coming.
Coming to what is his own; becoming flesh; living among us.
Here is the heart of the Gospel.
The one who abided close to the Father's heart comes to us: there is communion, glory, light and love.
We have received from this fullness and are called to make it known.
For all the magnificence, grandeur and power of this Prologue, John's words point to an intimate, human and disruptive reality.
For this Word came, comes and will come like child.
He abides close to Mary's heart: conceived in her flesh, sustained at her breast, needing her to respond to every physical need. The Word as wordless infant cries and abides in the stability of Joseph's loving presence.
He knew the stability of a home and the skill of a craft; as an adult he had no fixed abode and walked with us in the world.
At this time of year, we are away of the frailty and changeability of the world. Rowan's poem 'Advent Calendar' captures the sharp edged beauty of the seasons; the resistance and self-absorption of human condition.
And that is our hope.
When loss flays us to the bone; when we feel chocked by grief. He comes to us.
When we are with those in our communities who feel that life and opportunities are shrinking; when we delight with them in the surprising beauty or gentle radiance of transformation. He comes to us.
We wait on him and with him today: to pay deep attention to the story of how the Eternal Word became flesh; of how he comes like crying in the night to break down barriers of fear.
For the one who comes to us is amazing, wonderful and beautiful: we worship him.
For the one who comes to us invites us to share our lives in loving mercy and generous hospitality in calamity and ordinary; he invites us to reach out to the lonely and despairing with the oxygen of companionship and the gift of our lives.
May we be drawn afresh into the peace, truth, light and glory today.
As we wait and abide in God's love, may we be refreshed and recalled.
Be drawn into the love of God. He will come like child.
A child drawing us into relationship; demanding our attention.
Wait.
He will come.
© Julie Gittoes 2015
The text of Rowan Williams' poem Advent Calendar can be found here: http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2280/advent-calendar-a-poem-by-dr-rowan-williams
