LORD, GIVE ME PATIENCE -- RIGHT NOW!
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
II Peter 3: 8-15a
Luke 8: 4-15
As you may know, I have another life or at least another job. My Assistant to the Bishop job takes me weekly, two or three times, to White Plains, and in winter months one of those trips is to the Bronx. Round trip to White Plains is 165 miles; to the Bronx 185 miles. My 12 year old Volvo is pushing 155,000 miles and still gets 25 miles per gallon.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m obviously spending a lot of time on the road. Which means traffic. Which means I’m spending hours and hours in the zone that most plagues me as regards our sermon topic for today – patience. Aggressive drivers who seem to come form nowhere to tail gate. Or slow drivers who prefer the passing lane to drive in at 50 miles per hour. Or just finding oneself sitting still on I-84 right next to a speed limit sign saying 65 mph. I could blow a gasket. And sometimes I do. My prayer is, “Dear Lord, give me patience -- right now!”
Today we continue a series of sermons on the fruits of the spirit. That is, those characteristics of a Christian, according to St. Paul in the fifth chapter of Galatians, that differentiates a Christian from a merely secular, unspiritual being. The fruit today is the one I have a lot of growing into to do: patience. My research tells me that I'm not alone.
My generation and those younger have not had to do a lot of waiting in our lives. My generation discovered things like instant mashed potatoes, instant oatmeal, instant coffee, etc. My generation of baby boomers made McDonalds a household word.
I remember when Jeanne and I were first married fixing popcorn was a wonderful extravagance on a student's budget. You’d take a pan, pore in some Wesson oil, add enough kernals to just cover the bottom, put on a lid, and then put it on a red hot stove burner and shake yourself silly for what seemed an eternity. Now, we've got microwave popcorn. Isn't that the longest four minutes in the world!?
I also remember that my mother and father were the first people on our country road to have a telephone. A big old clunky black contraption. We were on a party line. Our number was 4024. Our ring was a long and two shorts. I discovered, if you picked up the receiver carefully you could listen in on conversations between the other people on the street. What fun!
Now telephones are not big and clunky, they fit in the palm of your hand. You can watch videos on it. You can check your e-mail. You can text and twitter. In some churches, texting even goes on during worship.
Instant communication. Instant everything. If we have to wait, we go nuts. We are not well schooled or practiced in patience.
Waiting has never been popular. Religiously speaking, though, waiting has been one of the most prominent themes in the Bible. Think about it.
For example, Noah had to wait 40 days for the rain to stop. You think we’ve had a lot of rain! And then the longest wait of all: for a Messiah to come to Israel.
But even Mary had a problem with waiting. Her pregnancy was surely a full term. Imagine: an angel has told you you're to give birth to the son of God and you've got to wait 9 months! That's got to be the longest 9 months in history!
And still we wait as the people of God – for the end of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; for peace in the middle east; for the end of racism; for cures for horrendous diseases and afflictions. Not to mention waiting for more personal needs like a job for those who have none; or love for those who feel unloved; or a correct diagnosis or to find a medication that really works. You can add your own needs that remain on your waiting list. So, whether we like it or not, we're destined to be a waiting people. And waiting people need patience.
St. Paul says that "Patience" will grow in those who live by faith in Christ. But, as I've already confessed, this growth doesn't come easily. And so we ask, aren't there a few things we can do or think about that will help us be more patient?
And the answer is yes: there are both biblical and practical helps for us. And they’re really quite simple, but effective.
First, even if you can hardly believe it, tell yourself that waiting can be good. Go ahead. Right now. Let’s say it together: "Waiting can be good."
I could give you many biblical examples of how waiting can be good. I could remind you again about what Peter said. He figured the reason that God wasn’t bringing history to an end with the return of Jesus to earth was because God was being patient, not wanting any to perish, wanting more and more people to come to faith.
I could give you many other biblical examples like the Parable of the Sower where the mature person of faith is said to have the quality of patient endurance. I could also quote you several secular sayings that you'd shake your head and agree with. Such as the Chinese proverb: “One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.”
But the best evidence for waiting often being good is your own. Surely you can think of times when your own patience won the day. Maybe it was with a child. Or with a spouse. Or a parent. Or maybe with your job. Maybe it was a decision that you almost made, but then decided to be patient, and wait. And now you're so glad you did! See? God has given you patience in the past.
Sure, you've had to wait, and it was hard. You've had to deal with that churning feeling inside that comes with wanting your way now. But you realized maybe, just maybe hanging on a little longer would be best in the end. And it was.
So, in truth, every time of waiting contains within it possibilities for good. Let’s remember that. It has in the past. Every time of patient waiting can be good.
To help you remember this, remind yourself also that forging ahead, being impatient can be bad.
You've surely had experiences to warrant this conclusion, also, right? Times when you knew it was risky, but you were impatient and you made a decision or spoke a word or took a short cut. And now, wiser, you wish you'd waited.
We all have stories to tell about our impatience I’m sure, though you probably would rather not.
One I’ll tell on myself was long ago – I hope you think I’m at least a little bit smarter now. The first house Jeanne and I lived in was in Fairfield in the early 70’s. It was a church parsonage, naturally.
I had never done anything more than mow grass when I was younger, but even to my unskilled eyes it was obvious that the parsonage lawn was in bad shape. I didn’t think I had to bother the Trustees with my problem. I figured I’d just go out and get some fertilizer and spread it around.
I didn’t have a machine to do this so I decided I’d just spread it around by hand. Well, I began and then after walking so slowly and trying so hard to make sure it was spread evenly, I had a great idea that would get the job done faster: What if I just scattered it, some here, some there. I don’t know what I was thinking – I guess I was thinking it was like salt in a soup or something – that it would all get together eventually.
Well, you can picture the result, all too obvious in a week or so: grass started growing high here, not at all there, just exactly in the pattern I was walking – here, there. Impatience gave me a very ugly lawn.
Time. We want what we want when we want it. And we always want it as soon as possible.
Faith, however, says that a thousand years are as one day with God. Says that time is God’s. Says that just maybe God is at work however slowly it may appear to us. Says that maybe God is working things out on a completely different time schedule than the one we have. Clearly, there's an eternal rhythm to life. Sometimes patience, waiting is sheer genius, even heroic.
A final insight to help us develop the patience we know we need is to learn to live fully in the moment. This is a teaching found in all the great religions: to live fully in the now.
Henri Nouwen put it this way: "God's idea of a waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, who believes that this moment is the moment.” That is so powerful. Every moment is THE moment!
Indeed, for the person who lives fully in the moment, who believes that this moment is the moment to be concerned with is not anxious about the future because all of his or her attention is devoted to the now. This person of faith by definition embodies patience.
In the last of Leo Tolstoy's TWENTY THREE TALES, he tells the story of a king who is searching for the answers to three questions: How can I do the right thing at the right time? Who are the people I most need and to whom should I therefore pay the most attention? And what things are most important and require my first attention?
His search took him to the hut of a wise old hermit. Dressed in simple clothes, the king visited the hermit who lived deep in the forest. As he approached the hermit, he saw that the hermit was on the verge of collapse. So the king took the spade the hermit had been working with and finished the job of digging his garden.
At sunset, a bearded man with a terrible stomach wound staggered to the hermit's yard. Unknown to the king, the man's wound had been caused by the king's own guards who were scattered throughout the forest to protect him. Gently, the king cleaned the wound, bandaged it, and kept changing the bandages until the flow of blood stopped and the man could be carried into the hut. Night fell, and the king slept on the threshold of the hut.
When he awoke, he tended to the bearded man's wound and checked on the hermit. The wounded man, overcome by guilt, made a confession to the king.
He had been lying in wait for the king to return from the hermit's hut so he could kill him. He was seeking revenge for a judgment the king had made against him some time in the past. He begged the king’s forgiveness and pledged to serve him. The king listened intently and then promised to send his own doctor to tend the man's wound. Then he prepared to leave.
Remembering his own mission, the king again asked the hermit the answers to the 3 questions.
The hermit explained that the king had received his answers on the previous day. When the king appeared on the previous afternoon, the hermit in his weakness did not see how he could finish digging his garden, and the king had relieved him. This was both the right thing at the right time and the most important to be done. For had the king chosen instead to leave, he would have been killed by his enemy in the forest.
Secondly, by saving the life of the wounded man, he not only did the right thing at the right time, but he also made a friend of an enemy.
The hermit continued, "Remember then, there is only one time that is important: Now." And then he added, "The most necessary person is the one with whom you are...and the most important thing is to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life."
Like the other fruits of the spirit, patience is a by-product of a healthy faith in God. For it’s really about trusting our agenda and our time to God. And to do this requires faith. And a crystal clear sign of good faith is patience.
Jesus said it first: be not anxious about tomorrow. Nouwen said for the person of faith, every moment is indeed the moment. And Tolstoy made it very specific: the most necessary person to you is the person you're with. And the most important thing for you to do is to do him or her good. Because for that reason are you alive.
Patience, my friends, patience.
