It’s hard to wait.
It’s always been difficult for us,
us whose lives are like the grass,
to wait –
especially to wait for the Lord.
Throughout Scripture
we have stories of people
who got impatient.
In frustration
Moses strikes a rock twice
instead of speaking to it
because he’s grown impatient
with God and the Israelites.
Abraham doesn’t wait for God
and has a child with Hagar.
Sarah laughs when the angels tell Abraham
that she will conceive
because she’s been waiting so long.
As James writes to primarily Jewish Christians,
they know very well how much of following God
is waiting.
They know the history
of having to wait for God’s redemption.
They’ve waited for the Messiah
whom they’re now recognizing as Jesus.
As one of the earlier writings in the New Testament
the people receive this letter
would be growing impatient
with Jesus’ return.
When he was alive
Jesus talked about his imminent return.
Closing our service today
we’ll be singing “Soon and Very Soon.”
Thirty-ish years after Jesus’ ascension
he hasn’t come back.
Furthermore,
the Jewish Christians
to whom James is writing
are still living under persecution.
The Roman Empire
does not care about the
internal conflicts of various Jewish sects
so long as they aren’t killing one another.
Following Jesus eventually
meant expulsion from the temple
and their local synagogues
which totally upended their lives.
Just before this passage
James offers a full-throated,
unmistakable rebuke and warning
to the rich.
“Come now, you rich people,
weep and wail for the miseries
that are coming to you.”
That’s the context in which James says,
“Be patient, therefore, beloved,
until the coming of the Lord.”
But it’s hard to wait.
The challenges of waiting
are ones we know all too well.
The group Rain for Roots
makes children’s music
and they have a great
Advent album
With their refrain
“It’s hard to wait”
they reminds us of ithe mundane times
that we have to wait –
but that’s all we can do.
When you write a letter
and are waiting for a response.
When someone you love
leaves on a plane,
and you wait for their return.
They and James have an overlap:
the work of farmers, gardeners, and first graders
planting seeds and waiting
for the first shoots
then the growth
and finally, hopefully
a crop.
We also know waiting times:
waiting for a test result
or if a bid on a house
has been accepted.
Waiting to hear if those electrical snaps
we call a fetal heartbeat
will still be going strong
at this appointment.
Waiting to see if we got in to that college program
or if we got that job
we’re sure we’re a perfect fit for.
The thing about waiting
at any age
is that there’s a possibility
of being let down.
Waiting carries with it
the possibility of disappointment
even as we hope and pray for the best.
This is not new to us as Christians.
The church in diaspora to which James writes
knows the sorrows of every day disappointments
and knows the tyranny of the empire.
They know what it’s like to live
under rich folks.
James says to the rich,
“The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields,
which you kept back by fraud,
cry out,
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached
the ears of the Lord of hosts…
“You have condemned and murdered the righteous one,
who does not resist you.”
When the reading from James today
starts with “Be patient, therefore,”
that’s what the therefore
is specifically about.
The rich will not always prosper
and God is always listening.
“Be patient” James implores
and remember the promises God has made
and the promises God has kept.
Jesus has come to them
and taught them how to live.
Like the disciples say to Jesus
at the end of John 6,
“Lord, to whom can we go?
You have the words of eternal life.”
Isaiah has prophesied,
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”
It’s not an accident that we hear that passage today
before we hear John the Baptizer’s disciples
come to Jesus
and ask if he’s the one
for whom they’ve been waiting.
Jesus tells them to go back to John –
who has been imprisoned at this point –
and tell him what they see and hear:
“The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor
have good news brought to them.”
James tells the church throughout time
to be patient
because salvation has come to creation
and Jesus will return.
I still love Advent,
but used to love it
from a more Christmas-oriented
matrix.
Advent is a time of waiting and hoping,
but come Dececmber 25,
that baby always gets born.
The story doesn’t change,
and God’s peace through Jesus comes to earth
not in great power or might
but in the tender vulnerability
of a sleeping, crying, pooping
baby.
We see, hear, and know,
every year,
the reality of God’s promises.
That baby always gets born.
The cycle of hope
and waiting for Christmas
gives us strength
to wait for the Lord
whose day is near.
When we get discouraged
at governmental lawlessness
we’re invited to remember
that this is not the end.
We just have to be patient.
When we feel heartbroken
that society’s ills could be fixed –
except the billionaires hoard their wealth –
we should know
this isn’t new!
Those who worked for the abolition of slavery
and for civil rights;
every wave of feminist movements;
those who ACTed UP;
and those keep demonstrating against war
knew and know that their goals
may not be reached in the lifetimes.
But they’re goals worth working –
and waiting –
for.
This isn’t the end,
and when the end comes
it will be beginning
of God’s ultimate reign of peace.
Be patient, therefore,
beloved, until the coming of the Lord.
Amen.