Jesus Fruit: I Want It...Whenever - James 5:7-11 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
A
child psychoanalyst relates the story of a young girl. The little girl was banging her teaspoon
while ceaselessly and shrilly demanding dessert. Annoyed by the noise, her
mother, on her way into the basement to get her some ice cream from the freezer,
said irritably, "Have a little patience."
On
her return from the basement, the child’s mother found her little girl in what
seemed to be the middle of a convulsion. Her face was bright red, her body was
rigid, her fists were clenched, her eyes were fixed in a stare, in addition to
which she didn't appear to be breathing. Letting the ice cream drop from her
hands and screaming, "What's the matter?" the mother ran to her
daughter's side; whereupon, the little girl unclenched her fists, stopped
holding her breath, and replied, "I'm having patience."
In a
different community, a man observed a woman in the grocery store with trying to
shop with her children. As they passed the cookie section, her daughter asked
for cookies and her mother told her "no." The little girl immediately
began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Ellen, we just
have half of the aisles left to go through; don't be upset. It won't be
long."
He
passed the Mother again in the candy aisle. Of course, the little girl began to
shout for candy. When she was told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The
mother said, "There, there, Ellen, don't cry. Only two more aisles to go,
and then we'll be checking out."
The
man again happened to be behind the pair at the check-out, where the little
girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon
discovering there would be no gum purchased today. The mother patiently said,
"Ellen, we'll be through this checkout stand in five minutes, and then you
can go home and have a nice nap."
The
man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment
her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little
Ellen..."
The
mother broke in, "My little girl's name is Tammy... I'm Ellen."
If
we abide in Christ, then Christ will abide in us and we will bear Jesus Fruit. Jesus Fruit, or the Fruit of the Spirit, is
composed of many different parts. Galatians
tells us Jesus Fruit is: “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control….”[i]
We
began by considering the part of the fruit known as “Love” because 1) God is
love, and 2) without love, as Paul relates to the Corinthians, anything else we
do is worthless.
Following
love, we moved to Joy. We are reminded
that because of God’s love for us, because we know that nothing can separates
us from the love of God, then folks should be able to look at us as Christians
and see that we are full of joy…we ought to be doing the “Happy Dance.”
Last
week we considered “Peace.” We came to
understand that as far as we are concerned, that we are to be a people of
peace.
Tonight,
we visit that part of the Jesus Fruit known as “patience.” Patience is a is
essential to the Christian life but is a quality that is missing in most of the
world, including most of our own lives.
We have been brought up in a “I Want It Now!” world. We don’t like to wait. We don’t want to have to wait until we get
home to make a phone call, we use our cell phones. We don’t want to have to wait until 6 pm to
see the news, we can turn on a 24 hour news channel or scan the headlines with our
smartphones. We don’t want to wait until
someone can talk, so we send a text message.
We think that five minutes to
microwave something that would take 25-30 minutes on the stovetop is still too
long. If the mail is not in our mailbox
when we go to check it, we grow frustrated.
If we are told to be patient, we become like the little girl, the longer
we have to wait the redder our face becomes, the more we may clench and
unclench our fists, and we may even hold our breath to keep from
screaming. We are not a patient
people…the world has taught us to not be a patient people. A clear example…if
you type—I want it now—into Google’s web search form, in less than a second you
are suggested 5 trillion, 650 million web links…including this familiar video:
Show video
God,
however, wants us to be a patient people.
James offers us that in the reading from his letter tonight. In the brief five verses, patience is
mentioned four times…and in one of the verses that does not mention patience,
endurance is mentioned twice. God
expects us to be patient, to endure, and to persevere.
Who
are we to have patience with? According
to James, our patience is to be with both God and one another.
“Be
patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from
the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and late
rains. You must also be patient.”
The
people were waiting for Christ to return.
They were expecting it to come soon…they were expecting it to have
already come. When was God going to act? When was Christ going to return? James says, “Just like the farmer who plants
his crops and has to wait for them to ripen before harvesting, you need to be
patient on waiting for Christ to return.”
The illustration makes perfect sense considering Jesus, as he taught the
disciples, referred to the gathering in of God’s children, those who had been
saved, as a gathering of the harvest.
James was telling the people, and telling us, to be patient, God will
return when it is time. What could God be
waiting for? Peter writes in his second
letter about God’s patience: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of
slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any
to perish, but all to come to repentance.”[ii] We are to be patient with God because God is
patient with us, wanting all to come to a relationship with Him…God does not
want to lose any when that day of Christ’s return comes.
That, then leads us to who else we
are supposed to be patient with. We are
supposed to be patient with one another and with everyone that we might have
contact with. James says, “Beloved, do
not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged.” James knew exactly what he was talking
about. James knows that when we grow
impatient with someone…when they are not doing like we want them to do, when
they seem to keep going on their own way, or when they seem to reject whatever
help we offer, we get frustrated and we start grumbling. We get agitated and angry…we want them to do
things our way and we want them to do it now.
When they don’t do what we want, or they don’t do it when we want it
done, we begin grumbling…either to ourselves or to the individual or to others.
Why should we be patient with one
another? Why should we avoid grumbling
against one another? James tells us to
avoid that grumbling because it is an act of judging that person and if we
judge that person, then we are placing ourselves at the risk of being judged
the same way by God…and considering we have all fallen short of the glory of
God, we have all sinned…then we place ourselves in serious jeopardy, we ask God
to hold us to the same standards that we are holding others to. We also should be patient with one another
because God is patient with us. If we
grow impatient with someone while God is being patient with them, then we are
setting ourselves up with higher expectations than God…making gods of ourselves
and once again placing ourselves in jeopardy with that Judge who stands at the
doors! If we are impatient, we may find
ourselves on the scales and ruled a bad egg…
How do we have patience with
others…it goes back to love…we are to love them. If we love them, then we will desire good for
them. If we love them, we will want to
see them succeed. If we love them, then
we will be as patient with them as God is with us out of His love for us. If we find ourselves growing impatient with
someone, then maybe we need to do like Ellen in the grocery store…however,
rather than reminding ourselves how many aisles or how much time is left, we
simply say, “Be patient self, God
loves you and has been patient with you and God loves them and desires good for
them, too.”
For when we have patience, we find
that we have been abiding in the vine and are beginning to bear Jesus Fruit!
In the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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