Waiting for the Lord

​6th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 8)                                                     LSB #’s 684, 699, 809
Text – Lamentations 3:25
 
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
 
WAITING FOR THE LORD
 
 
“The sun rises, & the sun goes down, & hastens to the place where it rises.  The wind blows to the south & goes around to the north; around & around goes the wind,   & on its circuits the wind returns.   All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.    All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled  with hearing.   What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  
 
Even if you don’t know where those words are written,  you may recognize them by their tenor & tone.  King Solomon wrote them in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, verses 5-9.   His thoughts drone on with hopelessness, much like our world does. 
Human beings come up with slogans to counteract hopelessness.   America First entered the national discussion in 1915, when Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat,  used it in a speech arguing for neutrality in World War I. 
The American Dream became a national catch phrase in 1931 thanks to historian James Truslow Adams.  He tried to diagnose what went wrong in the depths of the Great Depression.  He felt that America had become too concerned with material well-being, forgetting the higher dreams of freedom & equality that the nation had been founded on. 
The 1960’s exploded with slogans – ‘Make Love, Not War’ – ‘Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30’ & ‘Black Power’ – each played a role in galvanizing the public to take action; to make the world a better place. 
The ‘golden years’ is a phrase coined in 1959 as part of an advertising campaign for America’s first large-scale retirement community.   Would people ‘55 & better’ embrace ‘an active new way of life,’ move away from their families, & buy one of the modest homes on a $2 million golf-resort in the middle of the Arizona desert?   The first weekend, 100,000 people showed up to tour the model homes of Sun City.  For many in the 1950s, retirement was a lonely time of decline.  They had the financial support of Social Security, but once they left the workforce, they had little purpose in their lives.  
Retirees saw themselves as “too old to work, too young to die.”   No wonder they grasped with both hands  the idea of retirement as essentially a 2nd childhood!   It seems to be part of human nature to take charge of our lives & do something with them. 
It began with Adam & Eve as they picked fruit from the forbidden tree.  It continues with us  whenever we are frustrated by waiting for the Lord:
“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it;   the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 ESV)     In a sinful world,  that is common to our experience  as we wait    for    the    Lord… 
Is that how our saintly nature experiences life?   The answer is a resounding, “No!”   It is our sinful nature that complains, “You load 16 tons & what do you get,  another day older & deeper in debt…”  Quite the opposite, our saintly nature sings, “Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, the place  where Your glory dwells.”  (Psalm 26:8 ESV) 
Our saintly nature finds rest  in waiting for the Lord.  Our sinful nature chaffs against such discipline.  Waiting is a mental & emotional challenge, but ultimately,  it is a matter of faith.  When we exercise the faith the Holy Spirit created in us  we wait for the Lord.   Waiting & hoping for God to act  is  what faith does. 
How well  do you do  at waiting?   I learned about it  at Navy boot camp as our company commanders instructed us to hurry up  & wait.   I learned about waiting while living on a submarine.  We had to wait for the boat to return to port.  We had to wait until our enlistment was over.  As Jeremiah was writing the book of Lamentations, God’s people were waiting to be released from exile.  They were waiting for the Lord to relent in His discipline for their failure to follow God’s wisdom. 
As king Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes of the despair of unbelief, so Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations chapter 2, of the despair of being under God’s discipline:
In the dust of the streets  lie the young & the old; my young women & my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity.  You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, & on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held & raised my enemy destroyed.
 
In our time, despair comes from incompetent & corrupt politicians who lead our government.  Our despair comes from our own sins & from the sins of others.  Our despair comes from battling disease & ignorance,  greed & selfishness.   In the Gospel reading we see a woman & a family, in both circumstances, dealing with despair from disease. 
The woman had been suffering for 12 years, but it wasn’t just from her disease.  Due to the Jewish laws, she was also completely ostracized from her family & friends.  Finally, Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee & arrives in her town.  With nowhere else to turn, she puts all of her trust in Him & she is healed.  She knew what it is to wait for the Lord. 
Meanwhile, one of the rulers of the local synagogue, had come & pleaded with Jesus because his daughter was at the point of death.  Jesus went with him, but then the woman who’d been suffering for 12 years interrupts & Jairus must wait for the Lord.  While he’s waiting, word arrives, from his home,  that his daughter has died.  Jesus was so close & yet, more despair. 
You & I have experienced that despair  in the death of family members,  & by suffering from disease that is not simply cured  with a pill.  Our people are not being hauled off into exile by a godless nation,  but our nation is turning into a godless one  all around us,  right where we are.  How well are you doing  at waiting for the Lord?  Satan tempts you to be impatient.  One of the fruits of faith that the Holy Spirit offers you is patience.   As a child of God that battle rages within you, between good & evil, between patience & impatience.  For some of you that battle has been going on for decades simply because you’ve been on earth far longer than others. 
With the lessons from Lamentations & from the Gospel of Mark, the Holy Spirit is teaching us: “The Lord is good to those  who wait for Him,  to the soul who seeks Him.”  (Lamentations 3:25 ESV)   Waiting is not often  a lot of fun.  How to wait patiently is not something that our culture teaches or encourages.   Sadly, even the church seldom teaches it anymore. 
God, however, has never stopped being good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It took thousands of years after The Fall,  but in the fullness of time the Father did send His Son.  Through the Holy Spirit & the virgin Mary, Jesus became a creature in His own creation.  He did so  in order to break the cycle of sin that Ecclesiastes describes so well:
“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it;   the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  What has been is what will be,  & what has been done is what will be done,   & there is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 ESV)   Do you know which words Jesus said that guarantees the end of that cycle of sin & hopelessness?
“It is finished!”  (John 19:30 ESV)   The eternal cycle of sin & hopelessness has been broken ever since.  There is no guarantee that you  or I  or those we love will be healed of disease in this life,  but we are guaranteed that we will be healed for all eternity on the day of the final resurrection.  And that freedom from the hopelessness of sin exists  already today – here & now. 
Believers are offered, by God Himself,  the patience to endure until the visible end of all the seemingly endless cycles of corruption, sin & hopelessness of this world.   The gifts of the Holy Spirit may appear weak & powerless, but they are far more eternal in their effect than all the slogans that human beings have ever dreamed up.  The American Dream & the Golden Years will prove to be failed slogans, but Jesus Christ is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  And means that we too shall rise one day,  & that day of glory, beauty & perfection  will never end.  Ultimately, that is what all God’s children are waiting for,  & the Lord is good to those who wait for Him. 
That is the essence of the Christian message & faith.  It is also the central theme of the book of Lamentations.   Chapter 3 holds up words of certain hope, even though surrounded on each side by two chapters of the deepest lament.  You know Christ’s lament from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  Then He waited in trust  until His resurrection. 
In the Gospel reading, Jairus’ faith took action, kneeling before Jesus & waiting for the Lord.  Meanwhile, his daughter died.  Jesus raised her from the dead that day  as proof that He has power over death, & to foreshadow what is to come for all who trust in Him.  God is good & the suffering He sends is good for His people.  
Even though God rejects us for a time, He will not reject us forever.  Sending affliction & punishment are God’s alien work, in which He finds no delight.  It is with eternal joy that God blesses those who wait for Him – who wait for Him & put their trust in Him no matter what they feel or see. 
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness.”  (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)  Amen.
 
 
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me & rest;  lay down, thou weary one, lay down  thy head upon my breast.”   I came to Jesus as I was,  so weary, worn & sad;  I found in Him a resting place,  & He has made me glad.     I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give  the living water;  thirsty one, stoop down & drink & live.”   I came to Jesus,  & I drank of that life-giving stream;  my thirst was quenched,  my soul revived,  & now I live in Him.  Amen.  LSB 699:1-2.