Expectant Waiting

 II Peter 3:8-15a, the Second Reading appointed for the 2nd Sunday of Advent in the Year of Mark, is a reading easily forgotten amidst the more well-known readings from Isaiah 40 (Comfort, O Comfort, my people), and Mark 1, where we hear John the Baptizer announcing the coming of the Christ.  This text belongs with those, however, as the writer exhorts us to "wait expectantly" for the coming day of God.  What that might look like will be the preacher's privilege to share.

(The following questions are part of a method developed to unearth the way the Word functions in the text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers.  These questions are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes.  For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com and amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The Word functions in this text in every way that it can.  Initially we hear words of comfort: "The Lord is not slow about his promise... but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance."  This is a Gospel function.  The next verse reminds us of our need for a Savior - a Law function:  "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief... and everything done on it will be disclosed."  Following that we have a rhetorical question functioning as a classic call to obedience:  "...what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?"  The passage ends with another call to obedience:  "...strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish."

2. With whom are you identifying in the text?  It is always important to identify with those to whom the Word is addressed, and so here we understand ourselves as those addressed by this Word.  We hear the words of comfort as to us, we hear the words of warning as to us as well, and we take the calls to obedience as calls to us.

3.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  We might look at that pattern of Law and Gospel pointed to above and conceive of couplets that reflect this pattern.  Some suggestions:  fear/faith; judged/forgiven; bound/free.

4.  Exegetical work:  Three times, in verses  12-14, the writer uses the word prosdokao, translated often as "waiting." What might be lost is the element of expectant waiting that goes with this term.  We are exhorted to wait in a specific way, looking forward to what is to come, expectantly, not fearing the coming day of God.  Pheme Perkins, in her commentary, reminds us that the writer is hearkening back to Hebrew scriptures where God is proclaimed to be "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." (Joel 2:12-13, Jonah 4:2, etc.)  (Interpretation series, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, p. 190).  The context of this passage is also important to recognize.  Not included in this text are the preceding verses which speak of the "scoffers," those who regard the Lord's delay as evidence of divine disinterest or neglect.  What we are presented with then, are two alternatives to interpreting the Lord's delay: disinterest or forbearance?  One comes from unbelief, and the other from faith.

5.  Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic?  Charles Rice was always insistent that the preacher seek to help listeners recognize their shared story in a text.  Perhaps that advice could be helpful here, as a preacher helps listeners recognize how they interpret the Lord's delay.

Blessings on your proclamation!