Be Patient Until the Coming of the Lord!

James 5:7-11 Advent, this season before Christmas, is a waiting time.  All of us, and especially our children, are counting down the days to Christmas.  And because Christmas is still about a week away, there is a lot of waiting to be done.  We wait in line at the store.  We wait for our turn to get into the mall.  We wait for our family and friends from out of town to arrive. 

None of us likes to wait very much.  We hope and pray that the people in line in front of us have picked up an item with a price tag.  We’re outraged when someone cuts in front of us in the line of cars turning into Best Buy.  We beg and plead with mom and dad to open just one present before Christmas.  

We want to be first—first in line, first to check out, first to open presents.  But what is required in these days is patience.  Patience with others in line before us.  Patience with Mom and Dad’s plan to open presents after church on Christmas morning.  Patience as we count down the days to Christmas.

Advent, because it comes before Christmas, is a waiting time in our culture but more importantly Advent is a waiting spiritually.  The focus in Advent is not so much Christmas but the day of our Lord’s return in glory and the blessings he will bring.  That is what Advent looks forward to but still we have to wait for that too.

We have to wait for the end of death.  We have to wait for the judgment of evil.  We have to wait for a new creation.  And we don’t like to wait for those blessings any more than we do Christmas.  We don’t want to say goodbye to loved ones or face our own passing.  We’re grieved that evil seems to flourish.  We know that in the year to come many people will be burdened and broken by the forces of nature hurricanes and tornadoes and floods. 

We’re ready for things to be different-- but what we need is patience to wait for that day.  That is what we hear tonight in God’s Word, a call for patience as we wait for the Lord.  The Bible says:  Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

None of us are patient by nature because we are sinful by nature and our impatience reveals the truth about the fundamental self-centeredness that all of us are born with.  We want—not only what we want—but when we want it.  Our prayer life is filled with all our wants but also the timetable we expect God to adhere to. 

But God has not only a will for our lives—he has his own time table to accomplish that will.  He will destroy death.  He will wipe every tear from our eye.  He will bless us with every blessing.  But those blessings will be accomplished on his own time table—many of them when Jesus comes again.

The word that is used there for “coming of the Lord’ is the word:  Parousia—and it is always used to describe Christ’s return as King and Judge.  The point is this:  many of the things that we hope for and yearn for in our lives of faith (an end to our sinful flesh and the destruction of evil and the end of the grave) are things we will have to wait for—blessings that will come only when our Lord returns.  And that requires patience.  The Bible says:

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.

            Farmers can do a lot to make for a successful, abundant harvest.  They can plant, and cultivate, and fertilize.  They can spray weeds and choose the right seeds.  But there are some things that they simply cannot do:  they cannot cause the rain to fall or the sun to shine.  These are things that only the Creator can do and the farmer knows that and simply has to wait.

So it is for us in this waiting time before our Lord returns.  These words about patient farmers were penned by James, Jesus’ brother but they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and there is a reason why the Spirit chose this example. 

Not only was it familiar to the people of that day who lived in an agrarian society, it perfectly describes what is actually going on as we wait for our Lord’s return:  the living water of the Spirit is falling upon the earth and a harvest is being gathered in. 

We long for and are impatient for the blessings of the Lord’s return-- but the Lord’s saving will extends beyond us and he wants every possible person to be saved. 

And so patience is not only a virtue required of us and spiritual gift given us, it is an attribute of our heavenly Father.  The Bible says that:  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  We wonder why the Lord delays—thinking only of ourselves and what we want—but God lovingly looks at a world full of people who need his blessings just as much as we do.

This helps us to be patient as we wait for the blessings of the Last Day because we know that God is busily accomplishing his saving will so that every possible person can be saved and our Lord’s patient love changes our attitude towards those around us.  The Bible says:

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

            Much of the time that we spend impatiently waiting, we are stewing about it on the inside.  But there are times when that impatience it spills out onto others:  the checker at Walmart, the car in front of us, our kids or spouse.  God wants us to remember that Jesus can come again at any time and indeed will come at a time when we do not expect him.

The question is this:  Do we want to face the Judge while we are berating the girl at Walmart or yelling at our kids or making a rude gesture to the driver ahead of us?  Of course not!  Do we want Jesus to be impatient with us when we fail him again and again?  No! 

And so rather than being impatient with others during this waiting time we can use this same time to establish our hearts.  The words that are used there mean to strengthen our hearts and learn to stand firm. 

I used to jokingly say that I never prayed for patience because what the Lord gives instead are opportunities to practice patience and that is exactly what I do not want. 

But I do need the practice and you do too.  We are not yet the people that we ought to be and so rather than being impatient with those around us we can consider this waiting time as a day of grace to become better Christians like the faithful who have come before.  The Bible says:

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job,

            I know that this will come as a surprise to all of you but patience does not come easily or naturally to me.  It is a constant struggle and an ongoing source of frustration and spiritual failure and I almost despair of making progress in this part of my faith.

But progress is possible—for me and for you.  The faithful saints of old and many faithful saints of our own day learned patience.  They were born with the same fallen flesh as we have.  They had the same or even greater challenges that we face.  The prophets saw many if not most of their people reject the Lord.  Job lost every earthly blessing.  And yet they remained steadfast and patient in waiting times. 

Patience is not an impossibility or a virtue that others have or a spiritual gift that I have not been given.  All of us can gain and grow in patience.  The Bible says: you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.  Here then is the secret to patience:  a living faith in the Lord who is compassionate and merciful.

Jesus didn’t keep our sins and failures at arm’s length.  He looked upon our lives broken by sin—including that selfish sin of impatience—and was moved with love at our sad condition and had compassion on us.  He took upon himself the frailty of our flesh and became one of us to save us.  The Bible says Jesus:

did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

  For all of those times we have been impatient, for all of the times we have lost our temper with others, for all those times we have demanded God’s blessings on our own time table—Christ laid down his life on the cross and paid the penalty for those sins with his own blood.

And then he rose again to give us the power to live a life like his.  A life that puts others first.  A life that bears the burdens of others.  A life that trusts God’s will AND God’s timing.  He is the living source of the power to live a life like his.  The Bible says:  Consider Jesus who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

During these waiting times—whether it is waiting in line at the store or counting down the days to Christmas or waiting for the blessings that will be ours at our Lord’s return, look to Jesus Christ in faith; hear his voice in the Word; learn from the life lessons of the saints; and rejoice that the Lord’s patience means the salvation of others and an opportunity to grow in your own faith.  Amen.