Much of peoples focus this week is on the centennial of the
Gallipoli landings and ANZAC day. It’s important because it has been ingrained
into us as part of the forging of our national identity. It’s right to stop and
to remember people who served and suffered and died in wars and conflicts. We
need to constantly remember the price paid by those who battled in the wars
thrust upon them, so we may continually remember and be willing to pay the
price to build the peace we have been entrusted with.
As we’ve been looking at over the past two weeks James had
just finished talking in a more general way, a prophetic way, about injustice
and oppression. Speaking to the rich merchants and landowners about the way in
which they were oppressing the poor. Now he turns back to speak directly to his
fellow believers; his brothers and sisters; to tell them how they should behave
and live in the face of that injustice. He says they should be patient.
On a wider level, James had started his letter by telling
his readers to consider it all joy when they faced all kinds of trials because
as their faith was tested it was being refined. That testing built up
perseverance and that perseverance had its end result it them growing to
maturity lacking nothing. Now as he
draws his letter to a conclusion he comes back to calling his readers to
exercise that patience and perseverance.
So in the section we are looking at today James gives three
imperatives for his readers to be patient. In the first and last of the three
he gives examples for people to follow… The first is from everyday life; the farmer patiently going
about his work of growing a crop. The last is from
scripture; the prophets and Job are seen as people we should emulate. In the middle James tells his readers that
this patience is to be lived out in how
we treat each other; not grumbling against each other.
I want to look this morning at two things the reason James
gives for us to be patient and then what it means for us to be patient and wait
on the lord.
Firstly the reason James gives. In the arid conditions of
Palestine there were two reliable wet seasons.
Famers waited for, relied upon rain fall in late autumn and in early
spring. These were known as the early and later rains. They were needed to
insure a good crop. In the Old Testament they became a symbol to talk of God’s
faithfulness in fulfilling his promise to care for and provide for his people.
James is calling us to be patient in the time of trial because God can be
trusted to provide and care for his people.
In instructing us to be patient and not grumble, James is
reminding us about not judging and writing others off, something that has been
a theme all the way through the book. Grumbling has that idea of judging other
people. The reason he gives not to do it is that the judge is at the door. That
we don’t need to enact our own flawed justice because God is the one who brings
his justice into the world that we can be patient because we can trust that God
will judge rightly.
The prophets and job are given as examples of patience, and
we are told that they have seen what the Lord finally bought about. In the
story of Job, job is a man who is blessed with health and wealth and family and
his faith is put to the test when those things are tragically and brutally
taken away. He wrestles with God but he
keeps his faith and the story ends with Job being vindicated and his wealth and
health and family being restored, he see God mercy and justice while he is
alive. The end of verse 11 can also point to both the prophets and job longing
to see God greater salvation and that coming and being fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. The prophets had continued to proclaim God’s word and Job had continued
to be faithful both looking forward to what God would do and it points to
Christ. We should be patient because God is going to and is able to bring his
righteousness and mercy into the suffering and troubles we face. We can be
patient because we know that God is full of compassion and mercy. Compassion
and mercy ultimately shown In Jesus Christ.
You probably remember the many news reports leading up to
the visit of Kate and William to New Zealand last year and we are going through
them the same thing as Harry is about to come and spend some time here. There
were reports on all the preparations that were going on for the visit, reports of people’s excitement that we were
having a royal visit. When James talks of the coming of the Lord he uses the
Greek word Parousia which has the
everyday meaning of a royal visit, he uses it as the other New Testament
writers do, to say the ultimate reason we should be patient, is that Christ has
promised to come again. Jesus Christ came into this world as a servant. In his
life and death and resurrection he inaugurated the kingdom of God: the rule of
God has broken into the realm of humanity. Christ will come again as sovereign,
to consummate that kingdom. We live in the tension of the already and the not
yet. Waiting for that day. We may see God’s justice in this life, know God’s
provision, experience God’s compassion and mercy, but we live with the sure
knowledge that even if we do not that there will be a time when those things
will come because Christ is coming again. So be patient. Be patient be patient…
But what does it mean to be patient… something James
commands us to be three times.
People often equate patience and waiting with passive
things. But in the scriptures and in particular the gospels and here in James
Patience is as active thing. To wait
patiently is active.
I came across this sign while I was waiting for an eye test
at the hospital. I have to admit it didn’t give me much confidence. When I wait
it is in an active way … I look at my wrist every few minutes, to see how long
I’ve been waiting, then I realise I don’t wear a watch anymore. So I have to dig into my pocket for my phone,
to try and calm myself I’ll nervously
flick through a magazine, hopefully a blokey one, like a car mag or a boat mag,
but anything will do. Then I’ll look at my wrist again, and sigh and dig into
my pocket again. Now the health system is pretty good and getting better and
better at being on time. But I think that as an out patient I’m being actively impatient not
actively patient, it’s not just about filling in time hoping it won’t be to
long.
We are to follow the example of the farmer. Patience for the
farmer is going about his work every day, trusting that God will bring the
rains, preparing the soil, ploughing, sowing the seeds, getting the irrigation,
ditches ready, weeding, watching it grow, and harvesting the crops in
season. Being patient as Christians in
the face of difficulty and suffering is going about the things we know God has
called us to do. In the Olivette discourse, Jesus teaches about the end times
and he finishes with a series of four parables which sum up how we are expected
to wait on the Lord. They speak of not getting impatient and mistreating other
believers, keeping our lamps full of oil, working on our spiritual health,
investing our talents and resources in God’s kingdom and in showing love for
Christ by caring for the least amongst us. Which sounds a lot like what James
has been saying to the church? To be patient is to keep on doing what Christ
has called us to do and live how Christ has called us to live.
The imperative not to grumble against one another is an
outworking of that. It is easy as we face injustice and suffering and hardship
to turn on one another. To want to blame another person, to want to acknowledge
the hurts inflicted upon us, to talk each other down, to talk ourselves up. You
can imagine the rich in James church grumbling about having to pay such high
wages and the poor people in the church grumbling about the way they are
treated. But to be patient is to show patience is the community of Christ, to
be patient with each other. One of the things that Church does for the world is show the possibility of being a genuine vibrant community across racial boundaries, socio economic boundaries, gender boundaries... That we can be one in Christ, that we can work out difficulties and differences
Carl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses. It kept
them doped up so they would accept what was going on, in justice, and that
thing could not change. Sadly that has been true. But that not what James is
saying here… James calls us to be patient like the prophets. In Jewish thought
the prophets came to epitomise suffering and martyrdom. But the reason they
were persecuted was that they were willing to believe and to speak God’s word,
that they called their society to a new way to live that reflected God’s
justice and God’s compassion, they called Israel back to their covenant
responsibilities, that Israel were God’s people so they should act like it, and
through that show the rest of the world the goodness of God and the justice of
God, so that all the nations might come and worship and be transformed. In the face of injustice, suffering, on a
personal and societal and global scale, we are not to passively accept, we are called
like the prophets to speak and live in a different way. We await Christ return
but we model for the world around us what it is like to be in the Kingdom of
God. That we care for the poor, we treat
each other with equity, we love our neighbour, we see wealth as being a gift to
help alleviate suffering and need, we look for ways to speak and be peace to one another, not talk down or
talk up at the others expense… both of which sadly the church has done. But this kind of patience means that we are not
willing to give up till we see change, even if that means we keep going until
Christ returns.
Job is an interesting person to give as an example of
patience particularly right after James had told people not to grumble. Most of the book of Job is Job actually
grumbling to God, actually grumbling at his friends as they bring the
prevailing wisdom of the day in an effort to comfort him. But the patience of
Job shows us the patience of faith. That the suffering and hardship Job faces
and all the questions it brings up does not pull him away from God, but rather
moves him to want to know God more. Patience in the face of trial is not
passive acceptance it calls us to question and wrestle, but it calls us to turn to God, and only to
be satisfied in encountering the reality of Christ’s presence with us, as Job encounters
God.
I love the way bible
commentator David Noystrom sums up James teaching on facing all kinds of
trials. He says ‘ Our characters are forged on the anvil of difficulties’ he goes on to say that often when faced with
hardship the human response is to look for respite and a quick way out…
Historically the Christian belief in Christ’s coming has been viewed simply a
hope for respite. But instead of being a way out James says it is a call for us
to weigh in. to patiently trust and continue to hope in, proclaim and live out
God’s kingdom. WE see God's preferred future so we can patiently work towards that reality.
So be patient because of the providence of God, God cares for
and provides for his people.
Be patient because of the justice of God, god
sees and will right all injustice.
Be patient because of the compassion and
mercy of God, God sees, God hears and in Christ God has acted.
Be patient
because of the sovereignty of God, God is in Control, and will set all things right.
Be patient even in the
face of suffering violence war oppression inequality because the Kingdom of God
is near and we await its consummation when Christ returns.
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