Be Patient Until...

​19th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 21)                                                 LSB #’s 906, 839, 850
Text – James 5:7a
 
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. 
 
BE PATIENT UNTIL…
 
 
Being patient, while waiting for someone, is actually quite easy – if you have wait 10 to 15 seconds.   Any longer than that & things start to get dicey.   The problem with having to be patient occurs when you don’t know how long that virtuous attitude will be required.   How well developed is your ability to practice patience? 
How you would answer that question, if you really had to, would depend upon the context you’re thinking of where patience is required.  One such context is the research done with children to determine if they’re willing to delay gratification.  At Stanford University, children were given a choice.  Eat one marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes & get two. 
Without eating the first marshmallow, only 30% of the children were willing to wait patiently for the 15 minutes.   However, tracking those 30% as they grew older showed that generally they fared better in dealing with all the challenges of life.  An old saying describes the reality of that research: “Good things come to those who wait.” 
The suffering involved in waiting 15 minutes before you eat your marshmallow, is quite different though, from the suffering James is writing of.   In his day, there was no middle class.  A small minority of people were wealthy & controlled all the important aspects of the economy & of society.   The masses of people were poor & they were trampled upon by the rich. 
James summarizes the way in which wealthy people ruled, “You have lived on the earth in luxury & in self-indulgence.  You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.   You have condemned & murdered the righteous person.   He does not resist you.”  (James 5:5-6 ESV)   It’s then that James writes to Christians, most of whom were in the lower class of people whom the wealthy were oppressing, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.”  (James 5:7a ESV)    The patience that James was preaching was on a whole other level than waiting for a 2nd marshmallow.  He was encouraging the poor, huddled masses following Jesus not to put their faith in solutions to the problems of this world.  Those will always bring disappointment. 
Instead, the children of God should put their hopes in the return of Jesus.  Then, & only then, will all things be made right.   It’s not that James is against being kind to each other or trying to bring justice to the circumstances of this life.   It’s that James knows human beings too easily fall into the trap of worshipping their cause rather than their Creator & Savior. 
Historians rightly note that people devoted to their religion have done tremendous harm throughout history.   And that harm is often done in ‘the name of god’ with the stated aim of saving the world.   The trouble is, there’s only one human being in all of history capable of saving the world, & even church leaders frequently lose sight of Jesus. 
The root of that “losing sight” is often the fact that we are not willing to wait patiently until Jesus returns.   Most of us know someone we’d like to save right now!   Again, James is not telling us to sit idly by while people around us are suffering, but He is telling us to not lose sight of who is truly doing the saving. 
We struggle because the saving work of God often looks like anything but saving to our eyes.  Our impatience with God’s work is a sign that our own faith is wavering & built upon sand.  Suffering is not just having physical aches & pains.  We also suffer spiritually.  When we are suffering from a wavering faith, we’re tempted to give up or to work twice as hard. 
What did James tell us to do when we are suffering?   He wrote, “Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray…”  (5:13 ESV)   Prayer is an act of patience because it is an act of reliance upon God.  Prayer is a recognition that I can’t fix this, but I know who can if He’s willing.  How well developed is your ability to practice patience?   Do you get frustrated if God doesn’t immediately answer your prayers?  The counsel of James tells us, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.”  (5:7a ESV)  Waiting for the coming of the Lord is a classic example of not knowing how long the virtuous attitude of patience will be required.  
One of the sayings I have pinned to the bulletin board in my office is this: Impatience is a lack of a proper sense of eternity.   We see that in becoming impatient at having to wait 10 or 20 minutes for something.  Mere minutes in light of eternity are absolutely nothing at all.  Even a thousand years is nothing compared to eternity. 
Now, as sinful human beings, confined to time, it is laughably impossible for us to have any proper sense of eternity without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts & minds & souls.  It’s not our task to create that proper sense of eternity, but God does allow us to reject the work of the Holy Spirit.  That’s where we need to be still & know that He is God.  (Psalm 46:10) 
When the word patience is used of God it’s often translated with the thought of being long-suffering.  In God’s context it describes the prolonged & repeated restraint of anger.  Patience is used throughout Scripture to describe both an attribute of God & the expected behavior of His children.   It is one of the items listed in Galatians 5 as a fruit of the Spirit. 
Proverbs 14:29 tells us that a person who is long-tempered has great understanding.  But a person who is short-tempered exalts folly.    The unbelieving world revels in folly & is constantly trying to convince us to join them in it.   They do believe that we are fools for suffering patiently, because they do not believe that God will bring good out of it. 
St. Peter wrote, “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.”  (2 Peter 3:9 EV)  Whenever God is patient, or long-tempered with us & with our sin, it is always with the purpose of bringing people into His heavenly kingdom.  Specifically in James, the appeal is made for patience from Christians who are being afflicted by those who are wealthy & self-important.  James makes that appeal in light of the fact that Christ’s return, & the glory that accompanies it, is near. 
In God’s time, the redeemed will soon be with the Lord.  This perspective helps to calm any feelings of anger against opponents & end murmurings against brothers & sisters in Christ.  It is a patience that can come only with the perspective that the Lord is coming soon. 
Though many things go wrong during the day, it doesn’t bother us so much because we have that perspective the world can never have – it won’t be long until our Savior arrives.  God reminds us, through James, that we are to be patient until the coming of the Lord. 
Since God is guiding & directing each moment of our lives, by faith we can embrace the daily, cumbersome, inefficient crosses that we endure in this life.  With a patient heart we can celebrate those inconvenient & time consuming delays in “getting things done,” because we know the harvest of souls that will come on the Last Day. 
The cure for impatience is not more striving, not more practical human wisdom.   The cure for sin of any kind is confession & absolution.  It is turning back to the heavenly Father for whatever we lack.  How well developed is your ability to practice patience?  Not well enough, but that’s why Jesus died & rose from the dead.  He is patient in forgiving our sins.  Amen. 
 
 
 
 
Fill with the radiance of Your grace  the souls now lost in error’s maze;  enlighten those whose inmost minds  some dark delusion haunts & blinds.    O gently call those gone astray that they may find the saving way!  Let every conscience sore oppressed in You find peace & heavenly rest.    Shine on the darkened & the cold; recall the wanderers to Your fold.   Unite all those who walk apart; confirm the weak & doubting heart.  Amen.  LSB 839:2-4.