Be Patient: A Sermon for the third week of Advent

This is the second week in a row- where I have had a really hard time putting my thoughts down on paper and wrestling a sermon out of these texts. On the one hand,  as I read them over and over I found they are beautiful and hopeful  Matthew speaks about the lame walking and the deaf hearing --the lepers are cleansed —Isaiah writes about a Holy Highway—he says,  “A highway shall be there and it shall be called the Holy Way- the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people. “  On the other hand,  I have found these texts- their words arid and dry- lifeless and - hollow and devoid of any movement of God’s Spirit. 

I guess is some ways I have been suffering from writer’s block.   Being in this zone is extremely frustrating place to be- knowing that God’s spirit is out there, but not having eyes to see it or ears to hear it or even words to get it to emerge.  Often our life of faith is often about grappling and wrestling-- surrendering and most importantly being patient—sometimes there are moments of great beauty and clarity where the love of God breaks and pours over us- infiltrates our lives while at other times we have to wrestle with life and with God’s spirit and then wait for something to emerge, wait for God to work, for something to happen. So often though that holy patience is the hardest.

I have found it hard because I guess I often don’t trust that God is going to show up, that God is going to see me through whatever is going on.  

One of the tough things about living with a pastor’s kid is that they remind you of things they learned about at church in the middle of an argument.

This week my daughter smugly reminded me with her arms crossed that we were in the season of  Advent and  Advent is about being patient and I should be patient with her behavior- I then reminded her that she could practice her Advent patience by waiting patiently in her room during her timeout.

One of the themes of advent is about patience- patient endurance. Advent is about waiting for God, waiting for God to break into our lives and into our world.  

As Americans we are not very good at waiting or at being patient—we are people that want life to happen at a moment’s notice- we want things to happen yesterday. I can remember being told by a friend from Myanmar how he had to wait in line all day to receive a visa to come to the United States to study.   I was flabbergasted-I complain when I have to wait in line at the grocery store. 

The more we move into the future, the less we have to wait.   One of the things that I really like is my Kindle Fire- the Kindle  Fire is a device that I  can download books or movies onto almost instantly- it’s amazing that I can get just about anything book, movie, television onto my device  without having to wait.  No longer do I have to wait for the book to come in the mail or for the book to be available at the library.  Instant access to just about any publication, movie or tv show is at my fingertips- no more waiting. 

I guess I have found that like a young child-- God and his movement sometimes require great patience on our part. You just can’t download God at a moment’s notice. Jesus told people of his day  he was coming back real soon- but what is it now two thousand years later- we are still waiting.-- Faith is about again and again returning to God and then sometimes waiting for God to move, waiting for God to act- prayerfully enduring.

I have wondered quite a bit this week with the news of Nelson Mandela’s death if what happened in South Africa could have happened if Mandela hadn’t spent 27 years in prison. Would the fire in his belly have been big enough to spurn him on to help that nation change if he hadn’t patiently endured all those years on Robbins Island?

May we in this holy season of advent return our lives to God and then wait as best we can for God to again break into our lives and break into this world.  The prophets and Jesus himself tells us about the wonderful ways God   May we live the words of James today to be patient- to wait on God. Holy patience and waiting though doesn’t mean we can speak our frustration, it doesn’t mean we can’t shake our fist at God a little bit, ask him to hurry up already-. I did that a few times yesterday as I waited for this sermon to emerge. 

You know what though- patience saw me through--Eventually God’s spirit moved and this sermon emerged. God always seems to show up just never on our time- be patient my friends and wait on the Lord.  God is moving and when he moves it is good but it is never at our beck and call. 

 AMEN