James 5:1-20 and Mark 9:38-50
September 29, 2024
I would guess that there was a time in our lives when most of us were polite to telemarketers. This was a time when we all had landline phones in our homes and telemarketers did not call very often. But as time went on they started to call more and more to the point that we would get frustrated with them. Then things like caller ID and “Do Not Call” lists were created and we thought this would stop them from bothering us. But when the telemarketers found a way around those barriers, many of us dropped our landlines in favor of cell phones, thinking this would now solve the problem as unwanted calls would come across our phones as “Spam” and we could ignore them. However, the telemarketers found a way to call us on our cell phones with numbers that did not appear as “Spam.” So we’ve learned to block those numbers, thinking now they won’t call us anymore; but the telemarketers keep calling us, using different phone numbers each time they try to reach us. As a result, it’s hard to be patient or polite to them when they call, because we’re tired of them calling us.
In the same way we sometimes get tired of forgiving our spouses when they commit the same sins over and over. When our husband or wife promises they are not going to hurt us anymore, it can be very hard to forgive them when they break that promise and sometimes we say things like, “Sorry doesn’t cut it anymore,” because our patience has run out. It’s difficult to deal with the same sins of your spouse or your children every day. It’s difficult to live with the same weaknesses and failures of your coworkers and others around you.
In our second lesson for today apparently a group of wealthy people were taking advantage of those who were poor. It appears this had been going on for a while and the poor were getting tired of this abuse. But James encourages these people who were feeling abused to be patient
like a farmer. A farmer cannot make his crops grow. All he can do is plant the seed and work the soil. Only God can provide the rain to make the crops grow. So just as a farmer cannot control the rain to make his crops grow, so the poor could not control how they were being treated by the rich. They only thing they could do, says James, was to be patient.
I think if we could truly grasp this concept we would have a much easier time being patient. When we get frustrated with our spouses for not doing what we want them to do, it’s like we’re trying to control the rain to make our crops grow. When we get tired of our children not doing their homework, or our parents not being fair, it’s like were trying to control the rain to make our crops grow. When we get angry with God for not answering our prayers in the way we want, it’s like we’re trying to control the rain to make our crops grow. God is in control and we just have to be patient.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus stressed the importance of patience as He connected impatience with a lack of forgiveness. Jesus told the story of a man who owed a king over 10,000 talents, which was a number so great that it would be impossible for a person to pay that amount back in their lifetime. When the man begged the king to be patient with him, promising that he would pay it all back, the king had compassion on the man, cancelled his debt, and let him go. The forgiven man then found a guy who owed him 100 denarii, which was a very small amount – maybe equivalent to $1 in today’s world, and he demanded that the guy pay him back immediately. When the guy begged him to be patient and promised to pay it all back, the forgiven man refused and he had him thrown in jail until the guy could pay the debt. When the king heard about the unwillingness of the forgiven man to forgive another person, he had the forgiven man arrested and thrown into prison.
So James warns all of us that we need to be patient, because someday Jesus will return to this earth and the last thing we want is for Him to find us living with an unforgiving and impatient attitude of unbelief, and to be separated from God forever. So it’s almost like James is saying, “Hurry Up and Be Patient,” because Jesus is coming.
James then gives two examples of people who were patient in the midst of suffering. In verse 10 he says, “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” Many of the prophets in the Old Testament faithfully and patiently preached the word of God and urged people to turn from their evil ways, repent of their sins, and worship the God who created the heavens and the earth. And what was their reward for their service? Rejection and suffering by most of the people, but eternal life in heaven from God.
The second example of patience that James mentions is Job. Many of you know the story of how Satan was convinced that the only reason Job followed God was because God blessed him with a nice life, but if Job suffered then he would turn away from God. So God allowed Satan to test Job’s faith to show that Job would not turn away from Him. Satan then killed Job’s 10 children, wiped out his cattle, and made him suffer physically. As a result, Job got angry with God and wanted to die, but God wouldn’t let him die. He had to wait, and after he did without turning away from God, God blessed him tremendously with 10 new children, cattle, and the wisdom to understand that God knows more than we can comprehend.
So what does this show us? It shows us that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy, and if we hurry up and be patient, blessings will come. In the meantime, as we try to patiently live our lives in service to God and others, Jesus also tells us in our Gospel lesson to “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Now what does that mean? We know that salt is a preservative, and if we are to have salt in ourselves then obviously there is something or someone worth preserving. After all, Jesus did not say that we are to have pepper in ourselves. Why, because when we put pepper on our foods, the pepper calls attention to itself; whereas salt calls attention to the
food it is placed on, it enhances the flavor of the food. So when we give a cup of water to the thirsty, and help to clothe the poor and feed the hungry; as we care for the welfare of a neighbor or co-worker, even at the expense of our own interests and well-being; as we forgive the wrongdoer and love our enemy, we begin to embody the sacrificial love of Christ to the world. We become the salt of the world and the seasoning of the earth, and we begin to make a difference in this world.
But being patient is not easy and we will fail at it many times, just as Job did. But when we confess those failures to God, He will forgive us and will comfort us with the knowledge that you are valuable to Him and everything will work out for good. When we bring those failures to Him, He wants us to reason, “If God could work through Job’s suffering and doubt, and turn it into something good, then He can do the same for me.” He wants the parent to reason, “I may not like disciplining my children, and I may not always do it right, but I’m sure God will bless it in some way.” He wants the child to reason, “I may not like doing homework and I might complain, but maybe through studying God will bless me with happy parents and good grades.” He wants the spouse to reason, “Even though I may not enjoy my marriage right now, I know I’ve made mistakes and if I stick with it God will bless me in some way.” And God wants all of us as Christians to reason, “I may not like being persecuted and suffering for doing the right thing, but when I’m in heaven for eternity, it sure will be worth it.”
Patience is like a long term investment – like a mutual fund. When you invest in it, it isn’t worth a lot right way; you have to put a little into it at a time and let it grow over the years. We also need to be patient, because just as any long term investment has times when it does well and times when it appears to be failing, we will have those moments where we do well in honoring God with our lives, and other moments where we will fail and be tempted to give up. But Jesus decided that we were all worth preserving, so He invested in us by becoming one of us and He died for our sins, so
that our failures would not separate us from Him forever. Our God is patient with us, as He wants all people to be saved. So hurry up and be patient, it will be well worth the wait.
