Why Wait?
In our world today, waiting and watching are seen as unproductive.
Our culture is result-driven, because results feed the economy.
Hence, Christmas decorations appear in stores long before Thanksgiving,
and Christmas carols are played and sung as soon as Thanksgiving
is over....

What would it be like if we were to change our attitude for a year
and experiment with a tradition of waiting and preparation?
It might be that we would find the party at the end much more
glorious. We might also find that waiting for God's coming helped
make it possible for us to wait more gracefully for other things
in our lives -- the order we placed on-line, the traffic that
threatens to make us late for an appointment, standing in line at
the grocery store behind someone with a full cart, the encounter
with a friend that has been delayed. In other words, we might find
that practicing waiting in Advent might help us be more patient the
rest of the year. But, even more surprising, we might find that the
practice of waiting helped us become more aware, more attentive to
the presence of God that is always coming into our lives. Yes,
practicing waiting might make us more aware, more attentive to the
reality that --- "He comes, comes, ever comes."

-- from the essay "The Joy of Waiting"
by The Rev. Canon Renee Miller

Read the sermon in its entirety.