Every now and then, I have a conversation with someone about the importance of engaging in a faith community of some kind. Sometimes the sense is that folks want to get ‘other things sorted out first’ before focusing on things like spiritual development or faith community. I hear things like, “I need to get organized with school,” or “I need to first find a job and get my finances a bit more stable.”
With those conversations in my mind, I finally got around to finishing the book I was reading during Advent. I was struck by this quote:
“Pentecost would have been very much less dramatic if the disciples and those waiting with them had scattered back to their homes rather than staying in the same room. It was this act of waiting together that allowed the experience of Pentecost to be as it was. Through waiting, the disciples and others accepted God’s promise to them; in prayer they were ready and prepared for the moment when it came” (Gooder, p. 135)
I’m struck by this observation that the power of waiting together…that Pentecost would not have been what it was if everyone had scattered and waited separately. How often do we, when we find ourselves in a season of uncertainty or waiting, isolate ourselves and do the waiting on our own. What if we gave ourselves over to community even while we wait for things like school, work, money…life…to sort itself out? Would we be more able to be caught up in the activity of the Spirit when we are together?
So the season of Advent leads into the season of Epiphany, just as 2015 leads into 2016. The waiting leads to surprising inspiration and new incarnations of the Divine.