I think the theme of our readings today, and the theme actually of this third Sunday before we reach Christmas, is about waiting. And so, I would like to tell you a little story to begin my homily.

Once upon a time there was a man who really wanted to be rich, and he didn't have the patience to wait and earn it slowly. So, every week, what he would do was he would spend his whole paycheck and buy nothing but lottery tickets. To increase the odds, he would even dip into his savings, week after week.... And he never was really able to get those numbers! It wasn't too long before he found that he was penny-less. He was dead-broke! And so, in his despair, he dropped to his knees and said, "Oh, God! Please help me." And, the Lord suddenly appeared in front of him. The man was dumbstruck. He couldn't believe it! "God, is that You?" The Lord said, "Yes it is, My son. What can I do to help you?" The man still couldn't believe it, so he posed some questions. "God, what are a million years to You?" The Lord said, "A million years to Me are like a second." "God, what is a million dollars to You?" "A million dollars to Me is like a penny." And the man, remembering that passage in Scripture that says, "Ask and you shall receive," said, "God, give me a million dollars." And the Lord said, "Yes, My son.... in a second."

Waiting... How many people here, by a show of hands, like to wait? Raise your hands..... Oh, I don't see too many hands raised. You know, I don't think we like to wait! As young children even, we manifest that inability to really wait. You can imagine your parents getting ready to drive you on down to Disneyland in the car, down Highway 5. It's probably not more than twenty minutes into the trip that Mom and Dad in the front seat begin to hear that mantra in the back, "Are we there yet?.... Are we there yet?.... Are we there yet?...."

Even as adults we don't really care to wait too much. If we are on our way to work or we are going to run some errands, we drive off and, no sooner do we hit a long line of cars at a stop light or we encounter the toll plaza trying to cross the bridge and there is a long wait there, than our fingers start drumming impatiently on the steering wheel or our feet start tapping furiously, waiting for our chance to cross the intersection or to get to the toll booth.

We seem to be a country that actually manufactures its economy by developing devices that help us minimize the time we waste. How many people here have a microwave oven at home?.... All Right! Makes a lot of sense, I suppose. Why bake a potato for two hours when you can nuke it in ten (minutes)? How many people have a computer at home? Raise your hands... OK! Why lick a stamp and put the letter in the envelope and run down to the post office or the mailbox when you can just e-mail or fax something instantaneously to the recipient? We are always looking for ways to save time, to be more efficient, do more things in less time. We think it is our God-given right, to be that efficient.

But, there are other times in our lives when waiting probably isn't so onerous. Think for a moment, when you were a child, perhaps, and you came home from school and opened the door and you'd be assailed by this wonderful aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven or fresh bread. And you just knew what was going to come out of the oven, and you didn't mind waiting because the eating was all the better because you waited for that wonderful product to be produced from your mom's oven. Or, for those of us who are married, remember that time of waiting for six months or nine months or a year before the wedding date. What did you do? Well, you got real busy. You went to the priest to arrange for the wedding date. You looked around for a place for the reception. You scoured the bridal magazines for the kind of wedding dress or tuxedo. You wanted to find just the right kind of invitations. Then you had to pare down the invitation list. You had to do all these things to make sure that, when your wedding day came, everything would be just right. When it came, it was glorious because of all the waiting, all the activities that happened beforehand.

And so, as we face Christmas next week, we are filled with that same sense of waiting. And it is actually a joyous, joyous kind of waiting. It's a time when, perhaps around Thanksgiving, we opened up the drawer to find that old Christmas card list and wanted to see, "OK Who do we need to add onto the list?" And we started making or buying our cards, sending off those letters, decorating our houses, started buying the food that we would need for our Christmas dinners. And when Christmas Day comes, sometimes it is almost anti-climactic because of all the things that have happened beforehand. It's all the waiting, all the preparation beforehand that gives flavor to the blessed day when it comes. Waiting!

Waiting, I think, is also beneficial in a spiritual way. I think waiting builds character. It builds character, not of grit and hardness, but character in the sense of being a more hopeful, a more faithful, a more trusting people. As we look at the readings from Isaiah today, Isaiah, the prophet, is writing to the exiled Hebrew people, who have been taken out of their homeland and they are wondering when they are ever going to make it back home. And Isaiah is telling them, "Wait on the Lord. Be patient on His goodness for He truly loves you and cares about you." He says when the blessed day comes that everything is restored back to the people of Israel, then "It will be just like the deserts are blooming, the lame are leaping, the blind are able to see and the deaf and the mute are able to proclaim God's words in praise and song."

In our Gospel reading today, we hear that story of John the Baptist. He was a mighty prophet, one who never hesitated to tell the truth. That got him in a lot of trouble one day when he told Herod that he was committing adultery by stealing his brother's wife. And so Herod, king that he was, consigned John the Baptist to solitary confinement, put him on Death Row actually. And John, who had devoted his whole life to proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, was probably filled with a little bit of doubt, maybe a lot of doubt, wondering if his life's work was worth it at all. Did he really identify the Messiah, his cousin Jesus, when he said, "THERE is the Anointed One.... THERE is the Lamb of God?" John had expected the Messiah would come with a lot of fanfare, you know bring a lot of hell, fire and brimstone down on the evil people and restore the people of Israel to goodness and justice with a lot of pomp and circumstance. But he wasn't catching that in his own life. He was in jail. So he sent his disciples over to Jesus to ask that big question, "Are you the one who is to come... or are we supposed to wait for another?" And Jesus, good teacher that He is, doesn't give a simple yes or no answer. He says, "Go tell John what you see. The blind can see, the lame can walk, the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." We can only hope that, when John heard of that testimony, of that evidence, that he was consoled in his imprisonment, even until the day that he died, and knew, that even though he might have expected God to come in a certain way, there was yet the Messiah. The calling had been authentic, and the Messiah, Jesus, had come with forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and understanding... and love.

In our own lives, we probably face situations, at times, when we feel like John the Baptist, when we feel that the things that we really wanted, and worked hard for and long for, suddenly seem snatched away from us. Sometimes it comes in the form of maybe our health, or the health of somebody that we really love and care about. And suddenly they seem to be a little bit unwell, and we are waiting for the diagnosis. What really is going on here? Why is my loved one, why am I, not feeling well? And, even when the diagnosis comes and the treatment begins, there is that waiting to try to find out, "Will the person respond to the therapy?.... Will the person get better?"... We don't know. So all we can do is wait. And in these troubled international times, we wonder about the security and the safety of people in our country and all over the world. As the war goes on in Afghanistan, we wonder and wait, "How is that all going to turn out? Will we ever be restored to a sense of normalcy again in our country and in the world?" And now, as we face an economic recession, there are people who are worried about their livelihood, worried about their jobs. There are people who are laid off already and they are wondering, "Will I ever find work again? Will I be able to continue in my profession? Lord, what is in store for me? You know what I want. I don't know what to expect." And so, we have to wait. We wait. And we trust. And we hope.

During this Christmas season, it is always supposed to be one of good cheer where families come together and families are reunited and everything is happy... happy... happy. But in some families, that is not always the case. Sometimes spouses are alienated from each other. Sometimes children aren't speaking to their parents or vice versa, or friends or neighbors or co-workers seem to have a lot of friction between them and we don't really know what to expect there. Will there ever be a reconciliation? Will there ever be a meeting of the minds, so that they truly can be happy, truly live in harmony with one another? All that we can do in situations like this is, often, wait, because we don't have control.

Yesterday, I spent the morning visiting people in homeless shelters in Contra Costa County, in Martinez. And, when I listened to their stories, Oh! it made my little woes and problems seem so small. There was this one couple with two kids in the homeless shelter, and the man had been hit by a car three years ago, lost his job, lost his house, lost his insurance. And now all they can wait for and wonder about is will they ever find insurance to pay for the back surgery that is necessary for him to be restored to health again so he can go back to work.

In another shelter, I met a young woman who had been addicted to alcohol and drugs for many years. And she had gone through rehabilitation programs time and time again. And again, she is in yet another one hundred-twenty-day rehab program and she is wondering and waiting, "Will I be able this time to kick the demon? Will I be able to once again be restored to fullness of life so I can get my family, my children, back again?" These are the kinds of questions that can only be resolved with time, time and our best efforts to try to cooperate with God, work with God, to let His healing, His restoration of spirit and life come into our hearts. Waiting is a time when we can truly begin to recognize and reaffirm our relationship with God, our utter dependency on God. It is a time when we are brought smack-dab in the face of our mortality, in the face of our powerlessness in many areas of our lives. There are many areas where we can control things, but a whole lot where things can just happen.

The Good News is that all of us who have lived any length of time can look back on our lives and say, "Well it hasn't always been smooth; has it? It's been sometimes a little bit like that. And thank God I am here today. I have made it through the grace of God. And, although I might have had to suffer a little bit, although I might have had to go through a lot of anxiety and doubt, I am probably a stronger, wiser, more compassionate person because of those times when I truly had to wait."

This day, as we come to receive the Eucharist, on this third Sunday of Advent, as we look forward to the coming of Christ into the world on Christmas Day, a week and a half from now, we give thanks to God. We thank God for always being present to us, especially during the time of our waiting. And we pray that God's spirit may come into our hearts, into our lives, that we may accept the waiting period graciously, with a greater sense of hope, faith and trust. As we do this, we grow in holiness and we also become more capable, better equipped, to bring this Good News to others, who are even poorer than we. May we continue to strive, to grow in the peace of Christ, as we wait for the Lord to come into our lives. Amen.