"PATIENCE"
Third Sunday in Advent
December 11, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
James 5:7, 8 (ESV)
If there is one character flaw we all have in common, it would probably be a lack of patience. Whatever it is that we are anticipating, we just can't wait. In fact, we use that very expression so often, especially at this time of the year: "I just can't wait until Christmas comes." "I just can't wait until school's out for the holidays." "I just can't wait until I'm over this cold." The strange thing is that it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference whether the approaching event is a joyful one or a sad one, a welcome one or a dreaded one, a peaceful one or a stressful one. We are impatient about it just the same--either for the event in question to arrive or for it to be over with. We anticipate coming joys with impatience, longing for those joys to be here, and in crisis we are impatient for our time of trial to be over. It seems that we are never content to simply celebrate present joys or to use the strength that we have to endure present difficulties. We always seem to want to get the present over with and get on with whatever is next to come. I suppose this impatient attitude on our part is no more than can be expected in this "hurry up and wait" world in which we live.
There are some religious people who have become impatient about the matter of our Savior's return to the earth in glory. Many of these people aren't quite sure if the Lord's second coming is for them an approaching joy or an approaching crisis, but they are impatient about it regardless. A lot of people have become so impatient about this that they have altogether rejected the teaching that Jesus will return to the earth in glory one day, judge both the living and the dead, and take home to heaven with Him those who are His through faith in Him. A number of years ago I saw a very irreverent comedian on television who was merciless in his mockery of the Christian faith, insisting that if Jesus really was going to come back, He certainly would have done it by now. "After all," the man explained with a blasphemous smirk, "He's had over two thousand years!" When we think about the Lord's delay in returning to the earth in judgment, there are two undeniable facts that we need to take into consideration: (1) He knows what He's doing and (2) we don't know what we're doing.
God certainly does know what He's doing in everything, including the matter of when and under what circumstances He will bring human history to a conclusion. No matter how impatient we are about any coming event, we have to admit that the longer it takes for that event to arrive, the more time we have to prepare for it. Another thing that we can't deny is the fact that the longer we have to wait for something, the more we long for it, the more eagerly we desire it, and the more we appreciate it once it is here. So in delaying His return in judgment our Savior is in fact giving you and me more time for our personal preparation as we await Him, making it possible for us to be ready to embrace Him with joy and faith and enthusiasm when He does come.
But there is more preparation that needs to be done besides our own personal preparation. There is also the entire world that needs to be prepared--the world for which Christ lived and died. In the passage before us James uses the imagery of farming in speaking of this preparation. You know, a farmer doesn't just walk through his fields looking for a harvest without first doing many different things to make ready for a harvest. He has to plow and prepare the soil before he can even plant the seed. After he plants the seed he has to care for it, watering and fertilizing it to ensure its proper growth. But even after the seed is planted and cared for with the greatest concern, there is still one remaining thing that the farmer has to do before he can gather in his harvest: He has to wait until the harvest is ready. By the power of His Holy Spirit, working through the preaching of the Gospel, Jesus has planted the seed of His Word in the world. Through the means of grace He has nourished and cared for it. And now He's waiting--waiting for as many to receive it in faith as will receive it in faith, so that when He returns He can gather to himself as great a harvest of the company of the redeemed as possible.
It is clear, then, that our God does what He does when He does it for a very good reason. Contrast this with our thoughts and actions. There really is no comparison, because, if the truth be told, we really don't know what we're doing. This is especially true if you examine our thoughts and feelings about the second coming of Christ. We are a multitude of contradictions. As Christians we are to long for the Savior's reappearance, but many of us in fact dread the very thought of it. We claim that we expect Him to come at any moment, but we plan out our entire lives so far in advance and with so much precision and certainty that it is clear that we fully expect to be dead and buried and resting comfortably in our graves for a long time before He actually does arrive. We pray so often and with such feeling: "Thy kingdom come," but do we really understand that the kingdom of glory for which we are praying can come to us only through either our death or the judgment of the world?
The answer to our apparent dilemma--our confusion--our inconsistency, is, of course, a complete trust in our Lord's promises. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we need to discover anew the childlike faith that simply takes the Lord at His Word. One of the most common ways in which we get ourselves caught in the rut of impatience is when we try to hold God to things that He has never promised: things like material prosperity, perpetual good health, a carefree life. This kind of impatience with the Lord is so unnecessary because the things that He has promised are so much more desirable: the forgiveness of our sins, peace with God, and everlasting life in the glory of heaven. These gifts of God, which He has given to us freely in His Son Jesus Christ, are beyond comparing with the relatively trivial things we tend to get so impatient about.
It's been said by many that patience is a virtue. If that is true, it is obviously a virtue that not too many of us have developed. There is real value in patience, whether we appreciate it or not. A patience that is based on a firm faith in the Savior Jesus Christ is especially valuable as we await His coming in glory. It is anything but a carefree world that we live in. Especially for the Christian there are many challenges to being the people that we have been called to be--many obstacles that the devil places before us as we seek to live a life that bears witness to the Savior. But in His Gospel, which comes to us in Word and Sacrament, Jesus gives us all the patience that we need to overcome all of these obstacles and to endure, all for our benefit and to the praise and glory of His name.
Amen.
May the One who once came as an Infant in Bethlehem prepare you for His coming again in glory by His Means of Grace, through which He comes to you even now. May He equip you to be His witnesses so that you, like the Baptist in the wilderness, may prepare the way of the Lord. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.