1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 3rd
Sunday in Advent is taken from James 5:7-11, it’s entitled, “Be Patient,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
“Lord, grant me patience, and please
hurry!” I’m sure many of you
have heard that one-liner of a prayer. It’s funny because it’s true. We are by
nature impatient people. Our impatience shows up in a wide variety of
situations. Our impatience will lead us into a wide variety of sin. James says
to us in our text, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the
Lord.” In this Epistle, we will also see that James tells us where to turn to
find that patience we need. The Lord
Himself Provides What We Need to Obey His Call for Patience as We Await His
Return.
3.
Throughout Advent, John the Baptist
points us to Jesus Christ, “the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world” (Proper Preface). United to that Lamb by
faith, we are ready and patiently waiting for him to come again in glory. Isaiah
in our Old Testament Reading would have us wait for our coming Lord with great
anticipation and hope: “Behold, your God will come . . . and save you”
(Is 35:4). But even John, in Herod’s prison, seems to lack patience for a
moment, as he waits for the promise to be fulfilled. “Are you the one who is
to come, or shall we look for another?” is the question he sends to Jesus
(Gospel, Mt 11:3). By Jesus’ works and teaching, he does show himself to be the
fulfillment of all the promises. He is God who comes to save. Waiting patiently
for his return, we come with hope and joy to the liturgy of this Sunday,
traditionally known as Gaudete, which is Latin for “rejoice.” In
Christ, we sing, “Rejoice in the Lord always” and “hope continually”
(Introit).
4.
“Patience is a virtue,” you
might tell a mischievous child who’s snooping around for clues about what he’s
getting for Christmas. If patience is a virtue, then we must also recognize
that our impatience is a sin. It may take some critical self-examination before
we’re ready to admit that. Do you get impatient with others? James says this about
such minor transgressions: “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so
that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door” (v
9).
5.
Some may remark about how nostalgia
and warmth in this joyous holiday season bring out the best in humanity. But
don’t we also notice how the stress of these hectic days brings out the worst
in human nature? People embarrass themselves and the rest of us by drinking to
excess at holiday parties. They push and shove through the stores. And when you
get behind these people in the checkout line, they take forever, don’t they?
Fumbling with their wallets, talking with the cashier about things unrelated to
the business at hand, completely unconcerned about the rest of us who are held
up behind them.
6.
Now, at each point we must stop and
examine ourselves. Which is the bigger problem? The annoying behavior of those
people or your impatience with them and your grumbling about them, and which
problem can you, ought you, do something about?
7.
Throughout James’s Epistle, he urges
Christians to live out their faith by caring for others. Here, in this passage
today, he continues that lesson. We are to do good works particularly by having
an attitude of forgiveness, patience, and long-suffering with those whom God has
given us.
8.
Patience ought to be our way of
life. God has made us great promises. Trust them. He has promised the
resurrection of the body. Jesus says, “I will raise [you] up on the last
day” (Jn 6:40). He has promised you heaven—life in the face-to-face
presence of God Almighty, our loving Father. That’s our great hope. Sure, and
certainly coming. But it is not yet
here, so you must hear and trust in these promises, while patiently waiting “until
the coming of the Lord.”
9.
Jesus has not left you on your own
to come up with all the virtues he requires. You don’t have to try to dig down
deep somewhere inside yourself to come up with the stoic strength and peaceful
composure needed to live a life of patience. In fact, when you do dig down
deep, you’ll likely find more troubles, more annoyances, more grievances, and
more cause to be impatient.
10.
Patience is a fruit of the Holy
Spirit. You who have been baptized have had the Spirit of God given to dwell
within you. He gives you gifts. You who have been brought into God’s eternal
kingdom of grace have been given grace and forgiveness to spare, enough to
spread around to others.
11.
James encourages us this way: “As
an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in
the name of the Lord” (v 10). Events in the lives of the believers of old
are recorded carefully in Scripture that we might learn from them. They had
much that they could have been stressed out about; they had much that they
could have grumbled about. They were rejected, chased out, beaten, and killed.
They remained patient and steadfast. Moses, after he was driven out of Egypt,
spent forty years tending sheep in Sinai before being called to his life’s
work. He was patient.
12.
Hearing stories like these gives us
a better perspective on the little things that try our patience, such as
waiting in a slow checkout line. Job, as another example, trusted God, even
when everything in his life fell apart. His riches, his livelihood, and his
children were all lost to him. But, he remained patient, steadfast, and
unshaken. So, listen to what James says: “You also, be patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (v 8).
13.
Beyond being something for us to
mimic, God has a higher purpose for these examples of the Old Testament
believers. In James 5:11, we read, “You have heard of the steadfastness of
Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate
and merciful.” By pointing us to
these good examples, God is not like a school teacher scolding you, saying, “Why
can’t you straighten up and be more like Job here?” We have been given the careful record of the
lives of these people of faith so that we can see the Lord. All along, he is
there, with his people. In his mercy he never allows us to suffer more than we
can bear. In his compassion he provides us complete salvation. And it’s all by
the plan, laid out and carried out so patiently over thousands of years, to
come into our world and patiently take our place.
14.
Christ Jesus was patient for us.
Patient with our faithless questions. Patient with the ridiculous false
accusations against him. Patiently bearing his cross to the hill, where he
agonized for hours before he died. Now your impatience is forgiven—and you have
something worth waiting for, however long it takes.
15.
The Lord’s purpose in all this, in
all that he’s been doing, is to get you to know his compassion and mercy. His
purpose is that you would look to him constantly, that you would look away from
all those annoyances, all those grievances you have, all that taxes your
patience, and look to his cross, where his mercy forgives you and his
compassion saves you for eternity in heaven.
16.
Jesus used a parable to teach us
that God is a Father who patiently waits for his child to return home. He looks
down the road to the horizon and waits. In Jesus’ parable, the Prodigal Son
finds himself wallowing in the mud of a pigsty, longing for a return to his
father’s home and good graces. His patient father is ready for that. Your
patient Father waits for you, longs for you, and desires nothing more than that
you leave the wallowing of your impatience and come into his welcoming,
peaceful embrace. Amen. Now the peace
of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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