Waiting

Sermon for Sunday, May 11, 2025

The Rev. Megan Collins

Watch | Listen

Let’s start with a statistic. Industry estimates suggest that only 1 out of every 100,000 elevator rides gets stuck. One out of every 100,000. 

Those are pretty good odds, right? 99,000 elevator rides will go just fine. But . . .someone has to be the one. The 1/100,000 who gets stuck. 

I didn’t realize I was that special.

This week Dave and I got onto the elevator with our dog Stella on the first floor. We pushed the button for the 6th floor, the doors shut, the elevator started to move. Everything seemed normal. But after just a second, it came to a quick stop. Then it made this loud clunk sound, and then, nothing. 

We checked our cell phones, but we didn’t have service in the metal box between two concrete columns. 

We pushed the button again for our floor. Nothing.

We pushed the door open button. Nothing. 

We pushed that little alarm button, which did make a loud and annoying sound. Nothing.

Then we pushed the call button, that one with the little phone on it, and a very nice lady began to talk to us through the loudspeaker. 

Hello?

HELLOYESWEARESTUCKINTHELEVATOR

Her first suggestion: Had we tried pushing the button to open the doors? 

Sigh. 

She then told us she would try to get in touch with the elevator repair company and would call us back soon. 

Then it was silent, just Dave and I and our dog in the elevator. We had all this adrenaline and energy to try and get out, to get the elevator to work again. But all we could do was wait. So we did. We sat there, listening for voices or any indication that someone was there. Every once in a while the elevator would make another loud thump. 

After about 15 minutes, Dave said “You know, if we had to get stuck, at least we are near the bottom floor, not all the way up at the top.” Truly almost as soon as the words left his mouth, the little screen in the elevator went entirely dark, and we started moving quickly up. 

I’d like to say I was really relaxed about this sudden change. But in my head we were about to go full Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that scene where the elevator speeds up faster and faster toward the roof and then just breaks through the ceiling. We did not break through the ceiling. The elevator came to a quick stop at the roof, and (thanks be to God) the doors opened. Our amazing maintenance team was just outside the doors and had done something to reboot the elevator so that we could get out. We are so thankful to them, especially because we found out later that the elevator technician was over an hour away. 

So, here is what I learned this week:

I am 1 in 100,000?

Make sure you don’t get into an elevator if you are hungry or thirsty or need to use the bathroom.

I also learned a lot about waiting. 

I’m a person who likes to do things, fix things, be on the move. When I was trapped in the elevator, there was nothing I could do, but wait. 

We don’t like to wait. (Some of you like to procrastinate, which is different than waiting, and we’ll talk about that later). But we don’t like to just wait.  We wait because we have to.  

We wait in traffic for the light to change.

We wait in line at the grocery store and the DMV and the airport and Disney World. 

We wait at the doctor’s office.

We wait for the next episode of our TV show. 

Time when you are waiting slows way down, a few minutes feel like it’s taking forever. Rhen there are the times when we have to wait for days, or weeks, or even years. We wait for long periods of time for these things that are really important.  It’s amazing that we survive it. 

We wait for the test results from the doctor.

We wait for the response from the college we applied to. 

We wait for our kids to get through the phase that they’re in. 

We wait for the grief to ease.

We wait for there to be change in the world. 

We wait to feel God’s presence again. 

We have days and whole seasons in our lives when things are moving forward and we see all this progress and know exactly what we need to do.  Then we have days and even seasons where all we can do is wait. We listen for anything—anything—that might mean things are about to move. We strain to hear God's voice. We wonder where God is.

This is exactly what happens in our Scripture today. Just before our passage begins is the story we looked at last week, the road to Emmaus. These two followers experienced the risen Jesus while they are out on a walk, and they don’t realize it’s him at first. Then they invite him back to their home, and as soon as he breaks the bread their eyes are opened, and they know: Jesus is alive. They go back to Jerusalem and find the 11 disciples to tell them what had happened. As they are all huddled together talking about it, Jesus appears in the middle of the room: 

Luke 24:36-49

While they were talking about this, Jesus  himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

The disciples have been gathered together after Jesus’ death, waiting. When Jesus was alive things had been happening so quickly. He was always on the move, healing someone who was sick and teaching crowds of people who gathered wherever he was, challenging the political and religious authorities that were keeping the people down. It had been exciting and felt like they were really making progress. But then they arrested him, and put him on a cross, and he died. Now they are just waiting, and they aren’t even sure what they are waiting for. They had heard the stories, some of them had even seen the empty tomb, but it seemed like it had been years since they had last seen him. They had no idea what to do next. Then Jesus appears in the middle of the room. They are terrified, but he responds, as he almost always does, with patience, and starts by showing them his hands and his feet, the scars from his death still present in his resurrection. It’s this huge powerful moment. They begin to see that their waiting had not been for nothing. If it was a movie, the music would start to swell right about now as they gather around him. Then Jesus does this, and it’s honestly one of my favorite moments:

41 Yet for all their joy they were still disbelieving and wondering, and he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,43 and he took it and ate in their presence.

After all this spiritual and miraculous work, dying and rising from the dead and opening hearts after the walk to Emmaus and now appearing in the middle of a room, Jesus says “Do you guys have any food?” They give him a piece of fish, and he sits in the middle of the room and they watch him eat it.

Can you imagine being one of these disciples? They had heard all these miraculous stories of angels in the empty tomb, and the breaking of bread at a table and eyes being opened. The one they have been waiting for is here - the one who turned water into wine, who rose from the dead - and now he is just sitting there, eating a smelly, boney piece of fish. 

Now maybe Jesus did this to really show them who he was, that he was really here, in a physical resurrection body, that he wasn’t just a ghost. Maybe he also had a pretty good sense of humor. Either way, they can feel the energy rising in the room. Even though he was just eating fish, it meant it had really happened. Jesus had come back. They could leave this space they had been camped out in and get back to work. There was so much to do, so many people to tell. The waiting was finally over. 

 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, 

Fantastic! It was time! Let’s go! They finally understood everything that was in the scriptures. Jesus tells them they are his witnesses. He would be sending upon them what had been promised, the Holy Spirit. You can almost see them starting to move, to gather up their things and get ready to go. Then Jesus says this:

so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Stay here, Jesus says, and wait. 

Just when it feels like their waiting is finally over, when the story is finally making sense, when Jesus is right there eating fish which is unbelievable and they have so much work to do, so many people to tell, a whole world to fix  . . He says something they never expected. 

Stay here. Wait. Again. Jesus tells them to wait, not because they were being punished, and not because they weren’t chosen. Jesus said wait because they weren’t ready, not yet. 

Sometimes your waiting is just waiting. 

But sometimes, God is making you wait, not to hold you back, but to build you up, because you aren’t ready yet. 

You’re waiting to meet the right person, but God is working on you first, so you’ll be ready when you meet them and you won’t mess it up. 

You’re waiting for a job to come through, but God is preparing you to be ready for the leadership and responsibilities of this next position. 

You’re waiting for clarity about the future, for what you should do, but God is using this time to teach you to trust Him, to take one step at a time instead of needing the full picture.

You’re waiting to feel close to God again, but God is helping you learn a faith that is obedient and consistent even when the feelings aren’t there 

You’re waiting for what you can do to fight the injustice and the evil in our country and in the world, but God is preparing you to do the work you have will need to do.

God might make you wait, but it’s not to hold you back.

God might make you wait to build you up.

You might not be ready yet. That’s good news because it means even in the stillness, something is happening. You are making progress. 

There is faithfulness and holiness in this kind of waiting, even if you are feeling impatient.  But let’s talk for a minute to some of the rest of you. Because sometimes we are waiting with God. Sometimes we say we’re waiting on God, but really, we’re just avoiding what we know we’re supposed to do.

That’s not waiting—that’s procrastination.

Not all stillness is spiritual. 

You say you’re waiting for the “right time” to reach out, but really, you just don’t want to. You say you’re waiting for confirmation before taking the next step, but you actually know what you need to do, and you’re afraid. You say you’re waiting on the right job or the right person but that job or person would have to break in to your home and pick you up off the couch because you aren’t doing anything to find it. You’re waiting for justice in the world but somebody else is going to have to be the one to do it.  God has already shown you that it’s time to act but you aren’t doing anything. 

That’s not waiting. That’s procrastination. Here’s how you can tell the difference.If you are in a waiting season with God, you will be listening and looking and straining to see where God might be at work. When Dave and I were stuck in the elevator, there was nothing to do, but we weren’t just sitting there. We weren’t procrastinating getting out of the elevator. We were  listening to every sound, noticing every change, waiting with an expectation that something would happen soon.  Waiting with God is watchful. It’s expectant. It is chomping at the bit, looking for any indication that it’s time to move. 

Colossians 4:2 2 "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful"

Psalm 5:3  "In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly."

Waiting with God is staring right at whatever it is we are waiting on, watching for any sign of change. But procrastination? Procrastination looks away. If you are procrastinating you are avoiding eye contact with whatever or whoever that hard things is. You fill the silence with distractions and you do things to numb your discomfort.You pretend things aren’t happening. You claim you are waiting  . . . but you are hiding. So are you really looking for God in this time of waiting? Or are you putting something off until you find a way out of what you are being called to do? 

These are important questions for us not only as individuals, but as a church, here together. 

Sometimes as a church we are in a season where everything is moving forward. We are making progress and have a clear sense of direction and next steps. We as a church we will need to move, even when we don’t feel ready, even if we would rather avoid it, because God is calling us forward. 

Sometimes we are in a season of waiting, not because we don’t want to move, but because we are being prepared. God is getting us ready for what we will do next, as a community of faith. 

Most of the time, it’s a bit of both.  As a church, we will often have to both move boldly when we feel God say “go” and wait faithfully when God says not yet. So what if we didn’t rush just to because we are getting impatient, and we also didn’t stall just to stay safe? What if we trusted that God is working in us and that when it’s time, we’ll be ready?

The world needs a church like this one - one that isn’t afraid to do what it takes, that is also willing to be patient while God prepares us, so that we can love without hesitation, and speak truth with courage and  follow wherever He leads.