Be Patient Advent III - quick sermon
In the name of God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - May the word of the Lord be spoken and heard - Amen
You may have notice in the bulletin that the readings of the day have Isaiah and Matthew but this morning, we had all three readings
Call it an Advent Present - you deserved this special treat
Since we are so close to Christmas - only 6 days away
Our passage from James offers us exactly the treat we need:
Advice on patience
This time of year the shops are going crazy,
The other night for example - I spent nearly 30 minutes at the end of shopping just to go through the check-out
The traffic on the roads increases,
There is tension is in the air
And with this weekend’s snow storm to add to all of that
The gift needed for many this Christmas season is surely - patience
Few are born with it - it is not generally a characteristic of youth
Patience is something that develops over time
It is a trait connected with wisdom
I would say it is a trait, in a Christian context, which is closely connected to faith
What do I mean by that?
Consider some of the words used to describe patience -
Endurance - steadfastness - waiting - constancy - loyalty - sustaining - perseverance
In these words we have the a sense of holding to what is true, existing in the belief of something, not temporarily but for however long is needed
Sense of belief
Sense of hope
Sense of endurance
In some cases of enduring through good times and times of suffering
One can clearly see the connection of patience to faith, especially in one of the most popular definition of faith found at the beginning of Hebrews 11
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
Patience is both an attribute and an action
One can be patient
But at the same time one is acting patience
Patience is not merely ‘the lack of doing anything’
It is - the doing of ‘waiting’
Faithful - trustingly
In the face of distractions both good and bad
Actively, intentionally ‘waiting’
Have you ever noticed that patience mostly comes in the form of instruction?
Whether that be our own self talk - our wisdom in a situation to tell ourselves - to calm down, to wait for whatever, that waiting is the best solution - to not try and change the situation but become peaceful in the moment and be patient
Or when it comes from someone else, it comes with much the same focus
And if you were to do a word search in the Bible you would see in nearly every situation - the writer of whatever book is offering patience - as advice
It might interest you to know that in one concordance that I searched - Patience came up 35 times and 31 of those were in the New Testament
Each instance with a message deeply connected to faithful waiting ‘on’ or ‘for’ the Lord
That is precisely where we are today - this the last week of Advent
Actively waiting for the coming of Emmanuel - God with us
We are not at Christmas yet - it may seem close but it still requires waiting
Though we may fill our time with countless preparations - of shopping or baking or writing Christmas cards or visiting family and friends - or cleaning the house for visitors - and many, many other things
we still have time, which if we set aside distractions, requires waiting
Be assured of this, which James wants you to really get and in fact says in three different ways:
Until the coming of the Lord
For the coming of the Lord
The Judge is standing at the door
That Emmanuel will come
That the day will arrive
And as James advises:
“Be patient - strengthen your hearts”
In fact I will suggest that you block off some time latter today or the next, to quietly - be patient
Intentionally observe some time of patience
Don’t do anything else - live in the moment ‘that we are in’
Advent - waiting, not there yet
And trust - patiently
As we await the coming of the Lord, may our patient faith rest in the sure and certain promise that our Lord is God over everything - Amen