ADVENT WEEK TWO
December 8, 2020
Wait to Wait
Psalm 27
When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall. … I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:2, 13-14
I remember how the chapel smelled: of must and fabric softener, typical of a basement in an old house, but also the sweet beeswax smell of a lit votive candle. It sat burning next to the small box (called a tabernacle in Roman Catholic parlance) to indicate that some consecrated wafers were contained therein. The body of Christ. This was the small subterranean chapel of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington, D.C., where I once lived. We would gather there for morning prayer, and longtime community member Art Laffin loved to lead us in a sung call-and-response version of this Psalm.
And then we would go on about our business of distributing food and clothing to low-income neighbors and medium-term shelter to families… and protesting the violence inflicted on God’s image-bearers for the sake of the military might and prosperity of the United States.
I could have, and did, pray that Psalm through while believing every word of it. I was also young, privileged, and idealistic, with plenty of resources to fall back on if and when my experiment with radical Christian living didn’t pan out. Sometimes we got shouted at during our protests, which was terribly exciting. Sometimes friends got arrested on purpose. But today, 20 years later, the category of “adversaries and foes” seems at once broader and more concrete. The arrests are not protest theatre; our adversaries do much more than just shout at us. Begging the Psalmist’s pardon, I don’t see them doing a lot of stumbling and falling. Frankly, I’m not sure that I do believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait? Be strong? Seriously?
God who loves the bold and the discouraged, when we find we cannot even wait for you, help us to wait for a time when we can wait for you. Make good on your promises. Show us your goodness. Amen.
Dr. Sarah Morice-Brubaker
Associate Professor of Theology
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