Waiting For A Miracle

The appointed lessons for Advent 3 have put this song in my head all week.

Waiting For A Miracle @ Yahoo! Video

Look at them working in the hot sun
The pilloried saints and the fallen ones
Working and waiting for the night to come
And waiting for a miracle

Somewhere out there is a place that's cool
Where peace and balance are the rule
Working toward a future like some kind of mystic jewel
And waiting for a miracle

You rub your palm
On the grimy pane
In the hope that you can see
You stand up proud
You pretend you're strong
In the hope that you can be
Like the ones who've cried
Like the ones who've died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they're waiting for a miracle

Struggle for a dollar, scuffle for a dime
Step out from the past and try to hold the line
So how come history takes such a long, long time
When you're waiting for a miracle

You rub your palm
On the grimy pane
In the hope that you can see
You stand up proud
You pretend you're strong
In the hope that you can be
Like the ones who've cried
Like the ones who've died
Trying to set the angel in us free
While they're waiting for a miracle
- Bruce Cockburn Waiting for a Miracle (Singles 1970-1987)


The season of Advent reminds us that we live between two miracles: The miracle of the Incarnation (with all the attendant miracles of Jesus' conception, life and teaching, atoning death on the cross and resurrection on Easter) and the miracle of the restoration of all things when "peace and balance are the rule."

Remembering and celebrating the penultimate miracle we now live waiting with anticipation for the ultimate miracle of restoration and transfiguration. In the meantime, it can seem "history takes such a long, long time." Though the brightness of those two miracles sheds light into our present darkness, we still only see as through opaque glass and "rub our palms on the grimy pane in the hope that we can see." We rub away at the recognition that the proud, the mighty, and the rich continue to have their way at the expense of the lowly. We rub away at the realization of our own weak hands, feeble knees, fearful hearts. Like, John, languishing in Herod's dungeon, we sometimes find ourselves uncertain.

And yet, in the light of the former miracle, we live trusting that the One who gave sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, cleansed lepers, enabled the deaf to hear, raised the dead, and brought good news to the poor has not abandoned us. He is present to us by his Spirit whose presence joins the two miracles, making them one. Thus, it is not so much that we live between two miracles as that we live in the midst of one great miracle. But, it is God's miracle, performed in God's time. In our smallness, we sometimes have a hard time seeing it and living into it. Which is why, I suppose, patience is understood to be the root of all the virtues. And we can be patient because we know we are living in the midst of an unfolding miracle.

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. We are waiting for a miracle.