you take it on faith, you take it to the heart

the waiting is the hardest part

The holy scripture according to the book of Acts (1:1-14)

Way back in 1981 Tom Petty crooned, “The waiting is the hardest part.” 

And he’s right, isn’t he? Waiting is the hardest part.

Which is odd if you think about it. 

After all, waiting shouldn’t be all that hard. I mean, you don’t have to do anything. In fact, that’s the only precondition of waiting, that you don’t DO anything!

Yet, for some reason, that’s the hardest part; waiting, not doing anything.

Tom Petty said he thought this song held up so well because it’s so adaptable to so many situations. And he’s right, isn’t he? It doesn’t matter what it is, waiting is the hardest part.

…That’s what the disciples are facing down in today’s scripture, too.

After his suffering, Jesus presented himself alive to them. And now that he’s done what no one else ever has, the disciples are ready to do anything, too! 

In fact, they’re even ready for the moment everything will finally come together once and for all. “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel,” they ask. 

But Jesus just tells them not to try and peek over God’s shoulder. 

Then, he points them right back to where they already are; “he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.”

Wait. Don’t leave. Sound familiar?

One of the things that getting to serve in the church has taught me, is that it doesn’t take much to find yourself in the biblical story. 

Only, it usually happens in the last way you expect.

If you’re anything like me, you figured your life would take on religious dimensions by taking on some dramatic action for Jesus. But, as it turns out, all it’s taken is some orders not to leave your house, to wait until all this has passed.

…True faith takes place in real life, real life as it actually is. 

You don’t need to go on some far-flung pilgrimage and you don’t need a discipline to add or subtract from your life. The ingredients for faith are already present in your life as it is.

So often faith is sold as a tool to get the world, or at least your in gear. But Jesus’ final, earthly instructions couldn’t be more opposed to that!

Jesus doesn’t give the disciples a sneak-peek at the divine timeline, he tells them that’s none of their business. He doesn’t give them marching orders, he tells them to go back to home base. And he doesn’t give them a training regimen! No, he just tells them to do nothing more than nothing at all, to wait.

And waiting is the hardest part.

…We are inveterate doers. It’s how we see ourselves, and it’s how we want the world to see us, too. Not doing, waiting, is not only hard; it’s contrary to how we fashion our lives.

But Jesus, before he ascends to the right hand of the father, tells us to do just that. To do nothing at all. To wait.

And it must have been hard for the disciples. Huh?

If life is teaching us anything right now it’s how difficult it is to wait. How we don’t come to terms with it easily, if at all. 

I know I spend most days trying to come to grips with the waiting I have to do, and my inability to change that. Most of the time all I can do is repress that itchy feeling I get to stand up and scream. Some days I think I’ve made some peace with the way things are. But then, the next day, it’s the same old thing all over again; fighting my deep aversion to waiting.

Unlike the disciples, though, our waiting is infinitely easier. We at least have some markers we can look to, to know when it’s safe to get going again. The disciples, though, have just had the one they looked to, taken from their sight.

So they waited. 

And what else could they do? There’s no way they had any inkling about what to do next. So they went back to Jerusalem and waited. And since they had nothing to do with their hands, they folded them. They prayed. 

…True prayer is a lot like true faith. It’s not some project we undertake. Something we do to get a little closer to God. No, true prayer is what happens, when you can’t do anything else. 

True prayer happens in the same place faith does. In the place Jesus points us to every time; the hard place where all our plans come to nothing and there isn’t anything we can do to change it. When all we can do is wait.

Which, if you’re anything like anyone else in the world right now, that’s right where you are. Isn’t it?

Life itself has brought you to the hard place where you find your life in the biblical story! Where true faith happens! Where real prayers are uttered.

Only, it happened in the last place, the last way we expected!

And the truth is, even if there weren’t a global pandemic going on right now, this would still be true. Only, it’d be a lot easier to ignore.

But right now, you can’t. Can you? Neither can I.

We’re in the thick of it right now. There’s no point in trying to pretend otherwise. We can’t make heads or tails of this at the moment.

In fact, if you’re anything like me, it might even feel like your faith is fraying at the seams. 

And the hard truth is, it is. But, the capital-T truth is, it’s not true faith that’s coming apart. It’s a flimsy faith. A faith that’s built on you, and your efforts. 

I know, because it’s what I’m going through right now, too!

And it’s hard. It’s why we have to return to this over and over again. It’s why Jesus leaves us no other instruction before the ascension than to stay where we are and wait.

But, as Luther recognized over five-hundred years ago, this hard lesson is no cause for despair. On the contrary, it’s the best thing that could happen to you! 

Once you lose faith in yourself, you’re ready to place it in the pierced hands of the one whose promised to hold it all along, Jesus Christ! 

True faith isn’t going out there and making a difference for Christ, that’s faith in yourself. True faith is the hard, yet wonderful experience of Christ making a difference in your messy life, right now! Right where you already are! 

Christ doing for you, what you cannot do for yourself! Taking your powerlessness, and giving you the power of the Holy Spirit in the thick of it!

This is what the gift of the Holy Spirit looks like, the power to trust God when you can’t do anything else!

And that’s the hard place we’re caught in daily these days, isn’t it? Being unable to do anything, and wanting to do anything but. And right there, in the thick of it, the Holy Spirit refuses to stop creating faith in us. Jesus telling us, not to leave this place, but stay there.

And it’s a hard place to be. It grinds you down to nothing. 

But, once you’re NOTHING the Holy Spirit will give you EVERYTHING!

This is how you find your life in the Bible! Not by doing great deeds for God, but by God doing God’s greatest deed upon you, death and life! In that order!

True prayer, true faith isn’t drumming up some action. It’s what happens when Jesus himself makes you stay in the one place where you can’t do anything. When you find yourself at the last place you expected, and unexpectedly the Holy Spirit fills you with a faith you never could have conjured up on your own. Right there!

True faith is what happens when, for maybe the first time in your life, you pray. Actually pray. Not tell God your plans, but let them go, and instead pray what Jesus taught you all along, “THY will be done.”

This is hard place to be. It’s nothing less than a death. But, Jesus does his best work in cemeteries! In fact, Jesus takes this hardest part, waiting, and transforms it into the stony ground of Golgotha!
Where he himself becomes the very anguish you’re suffering, right now! Where he himself becomes the very powerlessness you’re experiencing, right now! And there, in the last place you expect, you experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding! You receive the power of the Holy Spirit to commend your powerlessness to the All Powerful!

This is where Jesus sends you every time! Where you’re weakest, and he’s strongest! When all your plans come to nothing, and he becomes your everything!

This crisis that’s got you feeling so helpless, it’s just the kind of place Jesus is dying to meet you! To save you, right here! To deliver you, right here! To create faith, right here! To teach you prayer, right here! 

…You are right where God wants you. 

This is hard to hear, I know. I wish it weren’t the blessing your savior has in store for you. I wish you were here. Free to do as you will. But, cooped up as you are, you are right where Jesus wants you. Stay put. You’re already doing everything Jesus wants you to, nothing. Waiting. 

If you have to do something; pray.