Look Ahead Episode 2 | Pastor Shawn Burgs

This year looks truly different for most of the world. In the midst of a pandemic, political upheaval, and social injustice many of us have seen that in many ways, our world remains consistent. Particularly, we find that as a people, we remain impatient. The pressure points of patience are constantly strained as we wait for a vaccines, economic relief, presidential inauguration and social reform.  We are inundated with media messaged everyday that inch us slowly towards hopeful resolve of these issues because we simply “can’t wait” to stroll into the next season; a different, new and better “season” of our lives.  Every year, Americans “couldn’t wait” for the holiday shopping season to begin so the remedy to this unwillingness to wait as been to double our average yearly spending with online shopping. The question is, why are we so anxious? What should we be doing in the season of waiting?

I could ask a consumer in the marketplace “ What’s the hurry?” and surely the answer will be “because I need this now! Or I have to do this before… X, Z or Z. Assuredly, there is someone I must or somewhere I need to be!

• The sick and afflicted are- waiting for to be healed.  
• The unemployed - are waiting for employment
• Entrepreneurs – are waiting for business to return to normalcy
• The single man/woman is - waiting on companionship, “I don’t want to live or die alone”
• Those grieving are - waiting for comfort
• The depressed - are waiting for mental health stability 
• The oppressed are - waiting for Justice 

But because Our seasons of waiting can tempt us to rely on quick fixes or short-term solutions, instead of waiting on God to work.

• The sick and afflicted – resolve that there is no hope
• The unemployed – pray for stimulus checks, search desperately for financial aid and passionately pursue profit because purpose isn’t really the point
• The single man/woman is - compromises and rushes into what “feels” right
• Those grieving and depressed  - fall in to addiction or take matters into their own hands
• The sick - give up
• The oppressed - fight back or suffer silently.

No matter the scenario, the cause is “waiting” and the effect is “because I hate waiting” I submit to you today that we are a people and a humanity that are waiting for far more than new products, great deals, or even remedies to life’s ailments.

We are a people who have deep-seated anticipations and longings for the world around us to be different. While we may participate in the race to nowhere, we want to be taken somewhere. While we may wait through suffering in silence, we long for a voice. We want to be delivered. We want the creation to be liberated. Then we turn to the first century, the very real context of today's passage, and we are invited to further reflect on what they we’re waiting for!