Second Sunday in Lent (6)
Psalm 27: 13-14
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
When I was young adult in the late 1970s, my parents participated in a Faith Alive weekend which began a long relationship with the organization. There, my Mom learned the hymn 'Those who Wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength' to the tune by John L Bell. A simple melody, it was always included in any opportunity she (an organist) or my Dad (an Anglican minister) had to pick the hymns. I have sung it to myself when impatient, I have sung it to a dear friend while she was in palliative care, I have shared it with many.
It is not unusual to be frustrated while waiting for an appointment, for things to get better (especially if the setback is a result of our actions or inactions), for COVID restrictions to be over. Waiting for the Lord involves anticipating and welcoming the Lord's intervention in our lives, to renew, restore, repair, reveal, redeem. It involves knowing that doing it yourself rarely produces the best result and certainly doing anything in a rushed way is often ill-advised. Last week we celebrated the life of George Herbert (1593 – 1633), priest and poet. His poem 'Easter Wings' written in a style that represents 2 pairs of wings, speaks of how Man had everything and blew it 'Till he became/ Most poore', but wait, there's more. He struggles with sickness, sin and shame, but with God he can fly “That I became/ Most thinne”. He is willing to wait, he is willing to 'imp my wing (support himself) on thine (God's)'.
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,' in the Lord's time. Amen.