Waiting seems to us a very passive activity. It seems like inertia. We easily become impatient and want to hurry God along. Scripture is full of the disastrous stories of people who were impatient for God’s promises: Abraham, listening to Sarah and deciding that he could have a son by her slave girl, Hagar, instead of waiting any longer for God to act… Jacob, not really seeing how he could get his father’s blessing except through guile and deceit… Moses, deciding to take matters of justice into his own hands by killing an Egyptian… Saul, not having the patience to wait for Samuel and going ahead with his own sacrifices… The human heart does not find it easy to wait.

The first disciples coped with waiting by praying, gathering together and dealing with practical matters. (Acts 1:12-26) Luke tells us, ‘they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.’ (Luke 24:53) He tells us, ‘They all joined together constantly in prayer.’ (Acts 1:14) The believers understood the prime importance of worship and prayer. They also dealt with practical matters, such as the appointment of another apostle to replace Judas. (Acts 1:15-26) This account shows us how decisions were made: by reference to the Scriptures and a confident belief that God would guide them in even the most practical ways (choosing by lot.) The practical and the prayerful are not opposite ends of the spectrum, but together form the best way to live. I often wish Scripture had more to say about the ‘how’ of decision-making in the early church (‘it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 15:28) seems frustratingly unclear to me!), but the truth is that God is able to use a variety of means. Here, we see that they used Scripture as a general guideline, used common sense (applying the same criteria to a new apostle as to the others), prayed and drew lots, by which they trusted Jesus to make his choice known (see Prov 16:33). It should be noted that after the Holy Spirit’s arrival (Acts 2), lots were not used again in the New Testament to appoint leaders.

While we wait for God to act in whatever ways He has promised us, we have a responsibility to pray and serve Him faithfully. Waiting is no excuse for inaction or inertia.

‘While I’m waiting

I will serve You.

While I’m waiting

I will worship.

While I’m waiting

I will not faint.

I’ll be running the race

Even while I wait.’ (‘While I’m Waiting’, John Waller)

In our Bible study this week, we have been looking at Acts 1:12-26. This is the only account we have of the ten days between the ascension of Jesus to heaven and the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the church on the Day of Pentecost, and whilst it is interesting to note that we now have a definite timescale for that period, for the disciples at the time, this was a waiting period full of anticipation but no definite knowledge of when the ‘promised gift’ would arrive (or what would happen subsequently.)

Waiting is, in the words of Michael Card, ‘the most bitter lesson a believing heart has to learn.’ (‘Maranatha’, Michael Card) Waiting is so very difficult precisely when we do not know when the thing we are waiting for will happen. It’s hard enough waiting for specific things like birthdays and Christmas, but at least there, we have a definite timescale! We know that with enough patience and God’s mercy, the birthday date will arrive, that Christmas will still be on 25^th December! When we are waiting for God to move or to fulfil His promises, however, there is no timescale necessarily to reassure us.

Waiting is closely linked to hoping, since we wait for the things we hope for, for the things God has promised to do. Paul says even the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. (Rom 8:19) He says, ‘we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.’ (Rom 8:23) The Christian life is full of this tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’. These first disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit, as commanded by Jesus (Acts 1:5, 8); we live in post-Pentecost days and yet there are still promises of God to be fulfilled in our lives, in our churches, in our communities, in our world. If we are to wait well, we must learn to hope well. Paul says, ‘hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.’ (Rom 8:24-25)

In this waiting game, when we feel perhaps frustrated and impotent, we learn that there is something we can do while we are waiting. What did the believers do in those ten long days? ‘They all joined together constantly in prayer.’ (Acts 1:14) Far from assuming the Holy Spirit’s arrival was a foregone conclusion (since Jesus had promised this), they joined together and prayed constantly – earnestly, devotedly, persistently. (see also Col 4:2, 1 Thess 5:17) They sought God fervently and there was unity in their gatherings and in their prayer requests. As John Stott puts it, “God’s promises do not render prayer superfluous. On the contrary, it is only His promises which give us the warrant to pray and the confidence that he will hear and answer.” (John Stott, ‘The Message of Acts’, P 54)

If we want to know what to do while we wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled, the first thing is to pray. Secondly, we must believe that God will hear and answer. His timing is not necessarily our timing, but we have to learn that waiting is not a waste of time. I’m always challenged by Eugene Peterson’s words on waiting: “Waiting does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying. And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion of fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what He has said He will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let Him do it His way and in His time.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’, P129)

While we’re waiting, we pray and we work, just as the early disciples did. Theirs was a ten-day wait. Ours may be much longer, but God is looking for those who will wait for the Lord, wait and be strong and take heart. (Ps 27:14) God’s answer will come. The definition of the phrase ‘a waiting game’ is ‘a tactic in which one refrains from action for a time in order to act more effectively at a later date or stage.’  The disciples were wise, for they were being obedient in waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Only He would give them the power to be more effective for their Lord. The same is true for us.

I first encountered The Ugly Duckling from a Danny Kaye record. It’s the only one of the stories that I recall hearing in this way, a combination of story and song. I can remember being utterly puzzled by the story, since even at this age I knew that ducklings grew up into ducks and cygnets grew up into swans. It was a long time before the morals of the story – don’t judge by appearances; things can change over time; the ugly can become beautiful – penetrated the haze of literalism which would make me argue the point every time I heard the story.

Literalism and legalism are enemies of the soul. They stop us entering into the wonder of imagination and leave us only with the realm of the material and tangible. Jesus warned that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). Sometimes we must be prepared to embrace incongruity and imagination in order to grasp truth.

Inauspicious beginnings, rejection and ostracism, a sense of being misunderstood and not fitting in are the backdrop to many of our lives. I always identified with the ugly duckling as a character. I knew all about feeling lonely and picked on as a child; ‘fitting in’ has never been my forte. I have always also admired the serenity of the swan in water, its regal calm and svelte shape holding a deep attraction to me.

This story reminds us that change is possible. The Christian life is all about change: not just the instantaneous change that comes from our transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light when we accept Christ as Saviour (1 Pet 2:9, 2 Cor 5:17) but the daily process of transformation which takes place as we gaze on God’s glory. (2 Cor 3:18)

Self-acceptance is a harder lesson to learn, perhaps. After years of scorn, the duckling did not even see the changes that had occurred in his life. It took others to point them out to him and for him to acknowledge he was no longer such an ugly duckling after all took time. If we are to learn to love ourselves, we have to hear the Father’s voice telling us we are truly loved and beautiful in His sight. Only then can we see ourselves as God sees us – beautiful swans, secure in His love.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a tale about a little girl who gets lost in a forest and ends up in the home of three bears (traditionally portrayed as Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear). She sits at the table (where the chairs are too large, too small and finally ‘just right’), eats the bears’ porridge (which is too hot, too cold and finally ‘just right’) before being found sleeping in their beds (which are too hard, too soft and finally ‘just right.’)

The conclusion of the story (how the bears deal with this invasion of privacy) varies, with some versions showing Goldilocks running away, vowing to be a good child in future, and in others being rescued by her mother from the wrath of the bears. The story seems to be a useful vehicle for teaching through repetition, but the ‘moral’ is less clearcut than in some other stories. Are we meant to sympathise with Goldilocks (who can appear quite selfish) or with the bears? Is the story a cautionary tale about the importance of respecting property or an encouragement to try out new things? It seems interesting to me that in a tale where repetition is clearly a teaching aid for young children, the ending is quite vague. I suspect children deal better with ambiguity than adults.

As a child, we are very aware that we do not know everything and that life is full of mystery. We accept implausible scenarios (talking bears, little girls alone in a forest) without question and are content to live in the ‘now’ of a story, secure in its structure and confident the author knows best. Perhaps this is something as adults we need to regain: the acceptance that we don’t have answers to all of life’s dilemmas but can trust in the love and care of a God who is both the author and finisher of our faith. (Heb 12:2)

As a child, I always loved the story of Rapunzel. I read it at an age when I still had long hair, and this story of an imprisoned princess who lets down her hair to allow access to her presence captivated me. Maybe it was the realisation that my hair would never be as long and luxuriant as Rapunzel’s which led to my decision to have it cut short as I grew older! (I suspect convenience had more to do with the decision, though it’s interesting that the modern version of the tale has been named ‘Tangled‘!)

Rapunzel has the classic fairytale elements of punishment, retribution, rescue and true love overcoming in the face of adversity. It also reminds us that love is found in the most inauspicious circumstances (the prince is drawn to Rapunzel when he hears her beautiful singing; she is locked away in a high tower, so there is no way he is initially drawn by mere looks alone.)

Rapunzel also shows us the folly of giviing in to short-term cravings, for in the original story, Rapunzel’s mother craves rampion (or rapunzel) to eat and her husband’s theft of this from a garden leads to Dame Gothel gaining the life of this child in a most unholy bargain. We see how one sin easily leads to another and how Rapunzel must bear the consequences of actions which had nothing to do with her.

This is a profound message wrapped in a children’s story, for all humanity bears the consequences of that first sin in the Garden of Eden and the challenge to grow to be beautiful and good is one we all face.

Fairytales often emphasise beauty in ways that many feel have led to shallowness and a fixation on ‘being a princess’ concerned only with appearance. In truth, these stories often delve far beyond outward beauty to bring us into an awareness of more fundamental values – love, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness and mercy. Rapunzel is not the easiest fairytale to unravel, but it too contains truth provoke us and lead us to ponder.

We had two more birthdays to celebrate tonight!