Waiting Patiently James 5:7-11 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh December 15, 2013 There are certain biblical passages which are easy for a preacher to overlook or avoid. Consider today s reading from James 5. I have been in ministry for over thirty-one years, but I have never preached on this text. I have been following the lectionary, a three-year cycle of readings, for twenty-four years, and since James 5 is included the Third Sunday of Advent in Year A, this text has been on the table eight times, but I have never chosen to preach on it. To be fair, I might have stepped aside a time or two for a guest preacher or a special musical program; so, let s say I have avoided the text only six times. But I have avoided it. Why? Well, read the text. Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord, James begins, and there is more to challenge us, but this is all I need to hear. Be patient until the coming of the Lord?! I try not to ask other people to do things I have no intention of doing or little success at. Patience is a lovely word; it s included in many lists of virtues; it s even named as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5; but it s a word that has almost completely lost meaning in our culture. I mean, how many of us would describe ourselves as patient people? Since it is so much easier to see the struggles in someone else s life, let me offer an illustration from my family. As some of you know, my beloved is having knee surgery this Wednesday. One day last week, over a week before the surgery, she said she wanted us to move a lounge chair from the bonus room upstairs down to the den on our first floor. She said we didn t have to do it that moment, but she wanted to move it soon, even though, as I have said, the surgery was over a week away. Given that her knee is hurting, and that my knee is still not right after two operations, I suggested that we wait until Ian was home from college when he and I could move the chair quite easily. I should have known better. I came home from work that evening to find the chair already in our downstairs den. How did you move the 1
chair? I asked, wondering whether Dana s father was in the hospital with a back injury after helping. I put a bedspread underneath the chair, Dana replied, and pulled it downstairs. As I say, I should have known better... Patience with the practical details of everyday life was not in our marital vows! But lest I damage my marriage any further, and lest you think I am claiming some high holy ground of sanctified patience, I have to confess that the older I get, it seems the less patient I become. I started out in life as a very patient young person. I thought I would grow more so with age, but it hasn t worked out that way. As but one of many possible illustrations, I will beat my family to note my impatience with stoplights in Raleigh. Neither authentic disciplines of Christian faith nor cheap imitations of Zen Buddhism have helped me with this problem. What has diffused some of the frustration is that I have started timing all the intersections. This coping mechanism is probably a function of my track background. For example, the light at the intersection of Creedmoor and Glenwood, which I go through at least twice a day, is two minutes and twenty seconds for the full cycle. I don t know whether or not it helps to know this, but I know it and now so do you. I can calm down a little, read an article while I watch the sands of time just keep falling But in truth, I am not very patient. Not many of us are and our struggle with this aspect of life concerns not just mundane things but significant things, like waiting for the results of a medical test that will change our life one way or another; waiting for word from an institution of higher learning as to whether we have been admitted, given a scholarship or received the grades we hope to receive; waiting to hear back from a potential employer who may fulfill our dreams or enable us to put food on the table. Waiting is never easy and few of us in this culture of instant gratification are very patient. So, what do we do with these words from James? Be patient until the coming of the Lord. Like a farmer waits to harvest a crop, waits for the early and late rains, wait patiently. Don t grumble but learn from the example of the prophets who endured suffering patiently. It s very easy to read these words, nod our heads and say, Yes, we need to be more patient, especially this season, but how in the world do we do it? 2
It might help to examine the context of James words so that we are clear about exactly what he is saying and why. We don t know for sure who the author is, there is the possibility of some unknown James, but many scholars think he is James, the brother of Jesus. In the Greek, the name is actually Jacob, not James, but English translators reserve this name for the patriarch. It s like retiring a number on a sports team. Anyway, let s call him James and assume he is the brother of Jesus. He is probably writing in the 60 s, a time of persecution for the church. So, his first hearers, probably in Jerusalem, are suffering because they follow Jesus, they long for deliverance like any rational people would, and they believe that deliverance will come in the form of a dramatic intervention of God, Jesus triumphal return, in their time. James believes this, too. He says the time is at hand, so be patient, Christ is on the way; wait like a farmer waiting for the rains to come so that the harvest will be bountiful. This is James counsel for the early church. He is not simply underscoring the value of patience for everyday concerns. He is urging people in desperate need of help to be patient as they wait on God s intervention. So, what does this mean for us? Are we still waiting for a dramatic Second Coming of Christ, literally on the clouds, to set all things right? Perhaps some of us are still waiting. But others may wonder whether the early church misunderstood how Christ would come again. The first coming is pretty clear, if utterly astonishing. God enters this world in the form of a fragile child, born in a Bethlehem stable, to an unwed couple, surrounded by animals. Perhaps the Second Coming is just as astonishing. Perhaps it is ongoing, perhaps God comes in the midst of our everyday lives, in ordinary places, among unexpected people. Perhaps; in fact, I think indeed, Christ does come again in these ways, whether we believe there will be a great triumphal coming at the end of this age or not. Thus, the focus of our waiting is upon the coming of Christ more fully in our lives and through us into this world of much brokenness and need. What we are waiting for is God to show up again, like God has in the past, like some moment of wonder with children, as some of us had yesterday at Toy Joy. What we are waiting for is God to answer our 3
prayer in some way, whether we get the good news we want or the strength to greet other news with faith. What we are waiting for is to sense God s presence more fully, as some of us did at Hanging of the Greens and some of us will during our presentation of the Nativity. Be patient as you wait for coming of the Lord in your life, James would say to us, and it is a good word. But still, how do we do it? In part, I think, by understanding what it means to wait. We are not talking about simply allowing time to pass, doing nothing while we wait for God to act, a passive enterprise. We are talking about trusting in the character of God, believing that the One who has taken care of us in the past will take care of us in the future, and thus living in ways that demonstrate the authenticity of our faith. James compares our task to that of a farmer. In ancient Palestine, farmers depended on two rains. The light rains would soften the soil to allow seeds to germinate. The heavy rains would produce growth and a bountiful harvest. The farmer had to wait for the rains because without them, there would be no harvest. But the farmer worked while he waited and he waited patiently because he knew from past experience that the rains would come. We know from past experience that in some matters we depend utterly on God but we also know from past experience that God is reliable. Thus, even when we may think it is long past time for some good to come our way, we continue our work and wait patiently. There are some things in this life that simply cannot be rushed. In regard to the object of the early church s hope, many have wondered why God has delayed in returning. No one really knows why but some have suggested that God has delayed the close of the age in order to give the world more time to get things right. Do we not need a bit more time? Sometimes rushing things is simply not a good idea. A friend in another setting suffered with end-stage leukemia and thus spent long stretches in the hospital. During one stay, he became impatient and was upset by the number of people in the oncology unit who had been discharged. Why haven t I been discharged like so-andso and so-and-so? he asked a nurse. Well, she replied, The first man 4
went to hospice care and the second died. Oh, my friend said, On second thought, I am in no hurry to be discharged! We never know all there is to know about any situation. We never know what the best outcome is or why our preferred sense of timing may be less than ideal. Only God does and thus, we need to trust God with the details of our lives and the how and when of holy intervention. We have to wait for God in faithful trust that God knows best, even when we may think our timetable is better. Catherine of Sienna once said that patience is the very marrow of love (July/August, 2003,Weavings, p. 3). Indeed, it is. Patience forms the substance of how God reaches out to us and stays with us through good and bad, ever waiting for us to become the people God knows we really are. Patience shapes the way in which we respond to God in love. Still, even if we understand that the primary kind of patience James is talking about involves waiting for Christ to come, and even if we know that waiting involves a deep and abiding trust in the goodness of God, how do we develop trust? James offers a couple of suggestions. First, he encourages us to strengthen our hearts. He is talking about growing in faith, and to do this we have to be intentional, practice some form of spiritual discipline in order to develop a deeper sense of trust. The prophet Isaiah says that those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength (40:31). A part of how we strengthen our hearts and grow in trust is by spending time in quiet devotion, waiting, listening for God s voice and sensing God s presence. There are many different ways in which we can do this. There is no single habit of prayer that works for all. There is no magic formula which conjures up God like a genie out of a bottle. The key is that we find some discipline that works for us quiet devotion, silent prayer, walking a labyrinth, lection divina there are many ways. Nineteenthcentury Danish thinker Soren Kirekegarrd said purity of heart is to will one thing. That is our goal, to will one thing, to focus wholly on God, to wait and listen and find the strength of heart that we need to trust more. But another part of how we strengthen our hearts and grow in trust is by acting in ways that require trust, not putting God to a test, but 5
putting our faith to a test. I think of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy has to cross a deep cavern. Only by faith can he cross but the distance is too great for him to jump and there is no bridge to walk over. He gets clammy hands and feet just looking down. But he comes back to the word of guidance for this part of his journey only by faith may he cross. Faith, trust, belief in the unseen So, he steps out seemingly into thin air and certain death, but as he does, a bridge appears beneath his feet and he is able to walk across to the other side and find the Holy Grail, eventually Sometimes the only way to grow in faith is to exercise faith. Sometimes the only way to deepen our trust in God is to trust God with something significant. I don t recommend stepping off cliffs, but we have to step off somewhere. James says that if we want to deepen our trust in God, we need to strengthen our hearts. Then, he points to the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. We recall that he is writing in a context of suffering and persecution. The people are suffering for their faith and waiting for God s intervention. They may be wondering what they got wrong or why God is taking so long. Some of us have been there. Though we have not known persecution, we have suffered at times and wondered why God isn t doing more to help. James answer is to point to the prophets, faithful spokespersons of God, people like Jeremiah and Jesus, who did what they were called to do and yet still suffered, waited for God to intervene, and sometimes never experienced intervention in this life. James is suggesting that early believers find encouragement in the example of the prophets who endured suffering patiently, but he is also challenging the idea that life will go smoothly for the faithful. He is confronting the assumption that something must have gone wrong for God not to have fixed things. Suffering is a part of the deal, it s the nature of this life and how the world responds to Truth, and sometimes for reasons we cannot understand God does not intervene. Thus, our faithful waiting in deep and abiding trust in the goodness of God must allow for the possibility that what we want may not happen in our lifetime. But the good news is God always has more time to work. 6
So, perhaps we might view faithful waiting as more of an expression of gratitude for blessings received than a kind of demand for something more, a way of expressing love to the God who already has loved us with an everlasting love by entering this world in the first place. There is a pub in Edinburgh named Greyfriars Bobby s Pub. The story behind the pub is of a nineteenth-century policeman named John Gray whose Bobby or dog, a Skye Terrier, was very close to him. When John Gray died, he was buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard and, as legend has it, his Bobby spent every day until his death, some fourteen years, at the gravesite of his beloved master. Those of us who know the true character of dogs do not doubt this story for a moment. Their loyalty and devotion are far beyond human capabilities. This Bobby waited at the grave not in the hope of his master coming back, but in gratitude for what he had already experienced. He waited in love and devotion. Perhaps that s how we ought to wait for the coming of the Christ into our lives this Advent and Christmas. There are things we still want and some we actually need. And God may yet show up again. But have we not already received more love and mercy than we are due? How much love will be enough to convince us that we can trust God and thus wait patiently for whatever comes next? 7