Waiting Together
December 1, 2024 First Sunday of Advent
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
John 1:1-142 Corinthians 5:16-21
“Waiting Together”
Melissa K. Smith
Advent means “to come” – we know and celebrate it as the celebration of the coming of Christ incarnate. It is the four weeks of time before Christmas when we prepare our hearts for the celebration we read of in Luke 2, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
The word “advent” comes from the Latin word adventus which means “to come” or “coming to”. This is a translation of the Greek word παρουσία which means “to come, the presence of, or arrival.”
Advent is a season of anticipation, a season of waiting, a season of preparing our hearts. It can be a difficult season. Waiting is not in our nature. Society is well aware of this – Black Friday sales now extend to the week before thanksgiving all the way to the week after.
Many of us have decorated for Christmas far before Thanksgiving started, the radio stations have been playing Christmas music for weeks and we are not in the season of Christmas – we are, as of today, in the season of advent.
But how do we exist in a season of waiting? What are we supposed to do?
The world was in a season of waiting for centuries. The Bible tells us of the one who is to come – and the anticipation was building. Isaiah 7 says, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”
The virgin will give birth to the one who will be and is “God with us.” To a world that was in desperate need of God’s incarnate intervention, they waited in anticipation. The years were long, the people persisted in sin and lived in the midst of turmoil and unrest – it was not easy. But this season helped them to continue to grow in anticipation, knowing that incarnational intervention was needed.
We too are waiting. Yes, Jesus Christ came into this world centuries ago and in many ways this season is a memory of the waiting because Jesus Christ has come. But we are living in a season of already and not yet – Christ has already come but he has not come again. The kingdom of God has already entered our world and yet it is not fully realized. Creation has already been made good and yet it has not been fully restored.
Jesus Christ has already defeated sin and yet we still sin. Jesus Christ has already defeated death and yet we still experience death. We are waiting, we are anticipating. And it is in this waiting that we should become all the more aware of how much we need Christ, of how much his ministry, his incarnation, his death, and his resurrection changed the world and changes us.
In one of his Christmas sermons, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian from the 20th century who navigated developing incredible theology in the midst of the third Reich and the persecution of Jews and the Christian Church as he knew it said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come.
For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!”
As a society we are not used to waiting, and sitting in anticipation is uncomfortable. If we heed Bonhoeffer’s words, then we experience more discomfort: what does he mean we have to be troubled in soul? We have to know ourselves as poor and imperfect? He is asking for us to take the time in Advent to posture ourselves in such a way that we take humble steps towards the manger. We aren’t the adults walking toward just any crib of a vulnerable baby. We are the meek who are unworthy to look upon this baby who lays in a food trough and yet this is exactly what we have been waiting for.
We need to spend Advent in this posture, ready to humbly approach the manger so we can remember what we have been waiting for and identify how our lives have been changed.
Advent, the season of growing anticipation, can be summarized by John 1:9, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Unresolved hope can be exhausting. Growing anticipation without being satiated is draining. But the Light – the Light is coming.
In the midst of the growing anticipation, this season is also difficult because it’s supposed to be one that anticipates joy and love, and it can be difficult if our loved ones aren’t around the table. Perhaps they passed away this year or in recent years, perhaps they are hospitalized and won’t be home for Christmas.
Perhaps there are severe family dynamics that prevent us from gathering with our family. This season only seems to increase the gaping hole of grief and sorrow.
This season can be difficult for those who are struggling to make ends meet, who are unable to provide the presents they want for their families, who are unable to travel. This season can be difficult for straining marriages or complicated parent-child relationships. Honestly, this list can go on and on. It’s a tough season. As we anticipate the Light coming into the world it can seem as though we are cast in darkness and the Christmas décor and songs are masking the reality of our souls.
John 1:14 reminds us that the Light is here. It says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Jesus came into this world, lived among us, and knows what it is like to be plunged into darkness, to experience unrest, and to experience uncomfortable anticipation.
At Ladue Chapel we are incredibly aware that we are invited to not wait alone – we are called to be reconciled to one another, imaging God’s incarnation as we walk together on the path of anticipation. Stephen Ministry is a representation of this. Stephen Ministry has been part of Ladue Chapel’s identity for 40 years. Stephen Ministers at Ladue Chapel are laypersons of our congregation who provide one-on-one Christ-centered care to people experiencing a difficult time in their lives.
The Stephen Minister walks alongside the Care Receiver in a covenant relationship as a caring Christian companion, listening, sharing challenges and pain, and praying for them. A Stephen Minister does not try to solve the Care Receiver’s problems or tell them what to do, since Stephen Ministers believe that God will care for and guide the Care Receiver. If this Advent season is difficult because of grief, transitions, or other challenges, know that you don’t have to navigate it alone.
At this time, I would like to invite John Hensley and Bob Cranston to share a couple of stories that speak to the ways Stephen Ministers walk with Ladue Chapel members through difficult seasons.
John Hensley:
It’s important to know that during the past 39 years our Stephen Ministry group has been quietly working in the background. You don’t see them on Sunday like you see the ushers and the choir, but they continued to minister to their care receivers for all those years even through the pandemic.
I have two short stories I would like to share. Most of you know that Stephen Ministers care for people having a hard time in their lives and they do it in confidence, never letting anyone know who they are assigned to. The person they are assigned to can tell anyone they want but most obviously don’t. One of those Stephen Ministers was a man named Floyd Sweeney who was in the first class of Stephen Ministers that were trained here. Floyd was a large, strong, imposing kind of person and a bit gruff. Most people would quickly comply with a request from Floyd and few resisted anything he asked. He was assigned to a man who was very depressed. One day Floyd got a call from his care receiver who said that he was calling to say goodbye. Floyd asked what he meant by that and he was told that he was going to end his suffering. Floyd said, “Don’t you do anything until you talk to me, I’m 10 minutes away and leaving right now.” The person said he would wait. Floyd arrived and spoke to the man and listened to the man and left a long time later but only after the man agreed he would not do that. Floyd has passed away and possibly the care receiver has also, I don’t know because I don’t know who he was assigned to.
The other story is about a Sunday when I was recruiting for new Stephen Ministers. I stood before the congregation and said a little about Stephen Ministry, then asked for those interested in becoming one to contact one of the Stephen Leaders and then I sat down. Immediately after me was the lector, who that day happened to be Rich Meckfessel, a retired basketball coach who was nationally known and respected because he took a team from a small college in West Virginia to the national tournament. Rich was loved by all his players and his many fans. I didn’t know him before I was assigned to be his Stephen Minister. At first we met about once a week. He told me that his wife had left him and he was completely devastated by that; so much so that the first couple of times we met he sat and cried for 10 to 15 minutes. I sat with him and waited until he could talk and then I listened. We met weekly for many months. It was now years later and he got to the lectern after me and I was very surprised when he said “What you all don’t know is that John Hensley was my Stephen Minister at a very difficult time in my life and I’m not sure where I would be now if I had not gotten that help”. Rich has passed away but he told me I could tell everyone this story. The result was not because of John Hensley, it was a Stephen Minister who followed the training and cared for the person and helped the person get through that hard time.
Bob Cranston:
The lead judge from the juvenile courts of downtown St. Louis was the first “lay” Stephen Ministry trainer at Ladue Chapel. He was the trainer for my class, one of the very early Stephen Ministry training classes here. He opened his first training session by relating the following – he said, “when I first came out of Stephen Ministry training, a year ago, as a brand-new Stephen Minister, I met with my first care receiver on two successive Fridays. I right away had a DARN good idea what his problems were - and how to solve them. After all, I had helped hundreds of youths who were in trouble get their lives straightened out. I told my care receiver that I had a very good handle on the situation and told him what baby steps he should take over the next week to start moving in the right direction. I told him I would see him next Friday to see how those baby steps had worked out …………and on Tuesday he committed suicide. The judge then said – “so now you know, firsthand from me, what Stephen Ministry is NOT all about.” That woke our class up big time.
Then, when I came out of training, I got a call soon from Dr. Howland, our Chief of Staff, giving me the background of someone who had asked for a Stephen Minister. He said he was a Marine, who had served in Vietnam years ago, and was recently a senior executive at a well-known national accounting firm. He left the firm with another senior executive to acquire a company. Things didn’t work out at the company, it went bankrupt, and the banks were in the process of pushing him into personal bankruptcy as well as foreclosing on his Ladue home. He had a wife, twin daughters in college, and an 18-month-old son at home. His “stay at home” wife had turned to drinking heavily and had all the signs of being an alcoholic. He had been admitted to St, Luke’s under tremendous stress, and I drove right away to the hospital to sit by his bedside. After explaining what Stephen Ministry was all about for several minutes, I asked him to please fill me in. He proceeded to talk steadily for a solid hour about the situation, and the feelings he was going through. I said very little. After that hour, I told him to get some rest, and I would look forward to hearing more when we would get together in a week. He looked at me, smiled, and said “Bob, I can’t tell you how much you have helped me.” All I did was sit with him, listen to him talk about his fears and his feelings, and let the Holy Spirit take over. In a capsule, I learned very quickly what Stephen Ministry IS all about. It’s very simply not only listening and caring, it’s sharing the love of Christ with someone who’s going through a very difficult time. The power of our Lord at work.
Thank you, John and Bob.
Stephen Ministers meet congregants like you and me where they are, stepping into the darkness and bringing the light of Christ with them. It can be difficult to ask for help when surrounded by a cloud of darkness – especially if you can't see through the darkness so you aren’t sure if you really need assistance. We are fiercely independent, perhaps private, perhaps guarded. But know that in this Advent season there are people in this church who have gone through 50+ hours of training to listen, to be present, to pray, and to care for you.
Stephen Ministers are brothers and sisters in Christ who have dedicated time, energy, and passion to be equipped to walk alongside you in the groanings of anticipation, in the sorrow of grief, and in the stillness of the darkness.
Paul reminds us that our waiting isn’t for naught – as we wait together, walking on the narrow path together, journeying in the stillness and silence together, we have hope that a new creation is coming. Just as we remember the waiting for the arrival of God incarnate, so too do we wait for Christ to come again and for the world to be made new.
Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, “17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
As we wait for the new creation, as we wait for sin and death to truly be no more, God is reconciling us to himself – God is restoring the world he so loves. God calls us to be ambassadors for Christ – to bring this reconciliation into the world.
By waiting together, by not navigating through the difficulty of this season alone, we are participating in God’s reconciling actions and we are helping to restore this world.
You do not have to wait alone and you should not wait alone. On this first Sunday of Advent let us hear the call to wait together.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
John 1:1-142 Corinthians 5:16-21
“Waiting Together”
Melissa K. Smith
Advent means “to come” – we know and celebrate it as the celebration of the coming of Christ incarnate. It is the four weeks of time before Christmas when we prepare our hearts for the celebration we read of in Luke 2, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
The word “advent” comes from the Latin word adventus which means “to come” or “coming to”. This is a translation of the Greek word παρουσία which means “to come, the presence of, or arrival.”
Advent is a season of anticipation, a season of waiting, a season of preparing our hearts. It can be a difficult season. Waiting is not in our nature. Society is well aware of this – Black Friday sales now extend to the week before thanksgiving all the way to the week after.
Many of us have decorated for Christmas far before Thanksgiving started, the radio stations have been playing Christmas music for weeks and we are not in the season of Christmas – we are, as of today, in the season of advent.
But how do we exist in a season of waiting? What are we supposed to do?
The world was in a season of waiting for centuries. The Bible tells us of the one who is to come – and the anticipation was building. Isaiah 7 says, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”
The virgin will give birth to the one who will be and is “God with us.” To a world that was in desperate need of God’s incarnate intervention, they waited in anticipation. The years were long, the people persisted in sin and lived in the midst of turmoil and unrest – it was not easy. But this season helped them to continue to grow in anticipation, knowing that incarnational intervention was needed.
We too are waiting. Yes, Jesus Christ came into this world centuries ago and in many ways this season is a memory of the waiting because Jesus Christ has come. But we are living in a season of already and not yet – Christ has already come but he has not come again. The kingdom of God has already entered our world and yet it is not fully realized. Creation has already been made good and yet it has not been fully restored.
Jesus Christ has already defeated sin and yet we still sin. Jesus Christ has already defeated death and yet we still experience death. We are waiting, we are anticipating. And it is in this waiting that we should become all the more aware of how much we need Christ, of how much his ministry, his incarnation, his death, and his resurrection changed the world and changes us.
In one of his Christmas sermons, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian from the 20th century who navigated developing incredible theology in the midst of the third Reich and the persecution of Jews and the Christian Church as he knew it said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come.
For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!”
As a society we are not used to waiting, and sitting in anticipation is uncomfortable. If we heed Bonhoeffer’s words, then we experience more discomfort: what does he mean we have to be troubled in soul? We have to know ourselves as poor and imperfect? He is asking for us to take the time in Advent to posture ourselves in such a way that we take humble steps towards the manger. We aren’t the adults walking toward just any crib of a vulnerable baby. We are the meek who are unworthy to look upon this baby who lays in a food trough and yet this is exactly what we have been waiting for.
We need to spend Advent in this posture, ready to humbly approach the manger so we can remember what we have been waiting for and identify how our lives have been changed.
Advent, the season of growing anticipation, can be summarized by John 1:9, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Unresolved hope can be exhausting. Growing anticipation without being satiated is draining. But the Light – the Light is coming.
In the midst of the growing anticipation, this season is also difficult because it’s supposed to be one that anticipates joy and love, and it can be difficult if our loved ones aren’t around the table. Perhaps they passed away this year or in recent years, perhaps they are hospitalized and won’t be home for Christmas.
Perhaps there are severe family dynamics that prevent us from gathering with our family. This season only seems to increase the gaping hole of grief and sorrow.
This season can be difficult for those who are struggling to make ends meet, who are unable to provide the presents they want for their families, who are unable to travel. This season can be difficult for straining marriages or complicated parent-child relationships. Honestly, this list can go on and on. It’s a tough season. As we anticipate the Light coming into the world it can seem as though we are cast in darkness and the Christmas décor and songs are masking the reality of our souls.
John 1:14 reminds us that the Light is here. It says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Jesus came into this world, lived among us, and knows what it is like to be plunged into darkness, to experience unrest, and to experience uncomfortable anticipation.
At Ladue Chapel we are incredibly aware that we are invited to not wait alone – we are called to be reconciled to one another, imaging God’s incarnation as we walk together on the path of anticipation. Stephen Ministry is a representation of this. Stephen Ministry has been part of Ladue Chapel’s identity for 40 years. Stephen Ministers at Ladue Chapel are laypersons of our congregation who provide one-on-one Christ-centered care to people experiencing a difficult time in their lives.
The Stephen Minister walks alongside the Care Receiver in a covenant relationship as a caring Christian companion, listening, sharing challenges and pain, and praying for them. A Stephen Minister does not try to solve the Care Receiver’s problems or tell them what to do, since Stephen Ministers believe that God will care for and guide the Care Receiver. If this Advent season is difficult because of grief, transitions, or other challenges, know that you don’t have to navigate it alone.
At this time, I would like to invite John Hensley and Bob Cranston to share a couple of stories that speak to the ways Stephen Ministers walk with Ladue Chapel members through difficult seasons.
John Hensley:
It’s important to know that during the past 39 years our Stephen Ministry group has been quietly working in the background. You don’t see them on Sunday like you see the ushers and the choir, but they continued to minister to their care receivers for all those years even through the pandemic.
I have two short stories I would like to share. Most of you know that Stephen Ministers care for people having a hard time in their lives and they do it in confidence, never letting anyone know who they are assigned to. The person they are assigned to can tell anyone they want but most obviously don’t. One of those Stephen Ministers was a man named Floyd Sweeney who was in the first class of Stephen Ministers that were trained here. Floyd was a large, strong, imposing kind of person and a bit gruff. Most people would quickly comply with a request from Floyd and few resisted anything he asked. He was assigned to a man who was very depressed. One day Floyd got a call from his care receiver who said that he was calling to say goodbye. Floyd asked what he meant by that and he was told that he was going to end his suffering. Floyd said, “Don’t you do anything until you talk to me, I’m 10 minutes away and leaving right now.” The person said he would wait. Floyd arrived and spoke to the man and listened to the man and left a long time later but only after the man agreed he would not do that. Floyd has passed away and possibly the care receiver has also, I don’t know because I don’t know who he was assigned to.
The other story is about a Sunday when I was recruiting for new Stephen Ministers. I stood before the congregation and said a little about Stephen Ministry, then asked for those interested in becoming one to contact one of the Stephen Leaders and then I sat down. Immediately after me was the lector, who that day happened to be Rich Meckfessel, a retired basketball coach who was nationally known and respected because he took a team from a small college in West Virginia to the national tournament. Rich was loved by all his players and his many fans. I didn’t know him before I was assigned to be his Stephen Minister. At first we met about once a week. He told me that his wife had left him and he was completely devastated by that; so much so that the first couple of times we met he sat and cried for 10 to 15 minutes. I sat with him and waited until he could talk and then I listened. We met weekly for many months. It was now years later and he got to the lectern after me and I was very surprised when he said “What you all don’t know is that John Hensley was my Stephen Minister at a very difficult time in my life and I’m not sure where I would be now if I had not gotten that help”. Rich has passed away but he told me I could tell everyone this story. The result was not because of John Hensley, it was a Stephen Minister who followed the training and cared for the person and helped the person get through that hard time.
Bob Cranston:
The lead judge from the juvenile courts of downtown St. Louis was the first “lay” Stephen Ministry trainer at Ladue Chapel. He was the trainer for my class, one of the very early Stephen Ministry training classes here. He opened his first training session by relating the following – he said, “when I first came out of Stephen Ministry training, a year ago, as a brand-new Stephen Minister, I met with my first care receiver on two successive Fridays. I right away had a DARN good idea what his problems were - and how to solve them. After all, I had helped hundreds of youths who were in trouble get their lives straightened out. I told my care receiver that I had a very good handle on the situation and told him what baby steps he should take over the next week to start moving in the right direction. I told him I would see him next Friday to see how those baby steps had worked out …………and on Tuesday he committed suicide. The judge then said – “so now you know, firsthand from me, what Stephen Ministry is NOT all about.” That woke our class up big time.
Then, when I came out of training, I got a call soon from Dr. Howland, our Chief of Staff, giving me the background of someone who had asked for a Stephen Minister. He said he was a Marine, who had served in Vietnam years ago, and was recently a senior executive at a well-known national accounting firm. He left the firm with another senior executive to acquire a company. Things didn’t work out at the company, it went bankrupt, and the banks were in the process of pushing him into personal bankruptcy as well as foreclosing on his Ladue home. He had a wife, twin daughters in college, and an 18-month-old son at home. His “stay at home” wife had turned to drinking heavily and had all the signs of being an alcoholic. He had been admitted to St, Luke’s under tremendous stress, and I drove right away to the hospital to sit by his bedside. After explaining what Stephen Ministry was all about for several minutes, I asked him to please fill me in. He proceeded to talk steadily for a solid hour about the situation, and the feelings he was going through. I said very little. After that hour, I told him to get some rest, and I would look forward to hearing more when we would get together in a week. He looked at me, smiled, and said “Bob, I can’t tell you how much you have helped me.” All I did was sit with him, listen to him talk about his fears and his feelings, and let the Holy Spirit take over. In a capsule, I learned very quickly what Stephen Ministry IS all about. It’s very simply not only listening and caring, it’s sharing the love of Christ with someone who’s going through a very difficult time. The power of our Lord at work.
Thank you, John and Bob.
Stephen Ministers meet congregants like you and me where they are, stepping into the darkness and bringing the light of Christ with them. It can be difficult to ask for help when surrounded by a cloud of darkness – especially if you can't see through the darkness so you aren’t sure if you really need assistance. We are fiercely independent, perhaps private, perhaps guarded. But know that in this Advent season there are people in this church who have gone through 50+ hours of training to listen, to be present, to pray, and to care for you.
Stephen Ministers are brothers and sisters in Christ who have dedicated time, energy, and passion to be equipped to walk alongside you in the groanings of anticipation, in the sorrow of grief, and in the stillness of the darkness.
Paul reminds us that our waiting isn’t for naught – as we wait together, walking on the narrow path together, journeying in the stillness and silence together, we have hope that a new creation is coming. Just as we remember the waiting for the arrival of God incarnate, so too do we wait for Christ to come again and for the world to be made new.
Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, “17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
As we wait for the new creation, as we wait for sin and death to truly be no more, God is reconciling us to himself – God is restoring the world he so loves. God calls us to be ambassadors for Christ – to bring this reconciliation into the world.
By waiting together, by not navigating through the difficulty of this season alone, we are participating in God’s reconciling actions and we are helping to restore this world.
You do not have to wait alone and you should not wait alone. On this first Sunday of Advent let us hear the call to wait together.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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