James 5
7 Be
patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the
farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the
autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm,
because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one
another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at
the door!
10 Brothers and
sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets
who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as
blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and
have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion
and mercy.
12 Above all, my
brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything
else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be
condemned.
13 Is
anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing
songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the
elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of
the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick
person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be
forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for
each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is
powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a human
being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did
not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed,
and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
I have
my great grandfather’s diary, and he writes about the first time he voted. He came to this country from Scotland,
became a citizen, and was very active in local politics, and he prized the
right to vote. The first time he voted
was shortly after the Civil War. After
voting, he went home and went to bed. No
television to watch. No Internet sites
to download. Nothing but the next day’s
newspapers, which of course had nothing but the local election results. Gathering information back then was very slow
– but they were used to it.
On the
other hand, we live in a world of immediacy.
We want something, we want it right then and there.
We call for a pizza delivery, and
30 minutes is too long to wait. Gotta
have it now.
We graduate college and we don’t
want to work our way slowly up the ladder, we want to jump into the highest
paying jobs right then and there.
We want to lose weight, so do we
exercise and eat right? Well – not
me. Takes too log.
We are an impatient people.
When
James wrote his fifth chapter of his letter, his closing remarks, he was
addressing us.
James
says to us in verse seven of chapter 5, “Be patient.”
Now that is the last thing
impatient people want to hear.
You’ve all heard the old joke about the man who
prayed, “Lord give me patience and give it to me RIGHT NOW.
The book of James has a sense of
urgency throughout most of the document, so it is a wonderful contrast that
James would end his book with a calming voice.
“Be patient.”
”Be
patient brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits
for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn
and spring rains. You too, be patient
and stand firm,”
I’m not
sure how many of you plant gardens every year. It is a wonderful process. You plow the field and then you plant the
seeds. That sounds simple but it is a
lot of hard work. And as you would do
with any time that you finished a long, hard job, after plowing the field and
planting the last seed, you look back to admire your handiwork.
And what
do you see?
Nothing! Just dirt.
The next
day you go out and water your garden and what do you see? Nothing.
Just dirt.
The next
day and the day after that and the day after that you go out and you water and
what do you see? Nothing. Just dirt.
Then one
day you see something. It’s small and
tiny but it is something. At that point
you’re not sure if that is corn, or poison ivy.
But it’s something. So you keep
your eye on it day after day until finally you see that there is a whole row of
these “somethings” coming up out of the ground.
Corn!
Well,
almost. It’s only a half inch tall. Every day you go out and pamper the
plants. You water and pull up weeds and
wait. Day after day you see how much the
corn stalk has grown until one day – an ear appears.
But it’s
not ready yet. You let it keep growing,
larger and larger until you begin to think – “Maybe I should pick it
today? Or maybe one more day?”
And then
it is on your table. Fresh from the
field and right off the stove.
It doesn’t
take a few minutes or a few days. It
takes a season in time.
James tells us that we should “be
patient brothers and sisters. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield
its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm,”
Why is patience so important? It is not just that being patient is
healthier and a more stress-free lifestyle than being impatient.
Impatience destroys our faith and
hinders our personal lives, our social lives and our spiritual lives.
Impatience even has an impact on
our personal economy.
Now these are tough economic times,
but James has some good economic advice.
Let’s take another look at how
James opens up this 5th chapter, beginning with verse one.
1 Now
listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming
upon you.
2 Your
wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
3 Your gold
and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your
flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
James
goes onto say several things about money and wealth – all of it negative – and
then he says this in verse seven:
“Therefore, be patient.”
What do we want in life? Happiness, security, friendship, and
love. And these are things that we think
a good economy will bring – but is that really true?
These are things that take years to
achieve and to cultivate and to nurture.
We are too impatient for these things.
So instead of spending years to create and find happiness, security,
friendship and love – we become impatient.
And money becomes our main goal because we think that money will buy
happiness, security, friendship and love.
Money doesn’t provide those things,
but it does provide us with the illusion of those things. Let’s face it – put a wad of money into your
pocket and take people out on the town.
Buy them a steak and lobster meal.
Buy them an expensive gift. Pick
up the tab wherever you go, and you have an instant friend. No waiting required. The problem with that is that when the money
is gone, the friendship disappears.
James wrote about how moths eat
through the clothing you buy, and how the wealth itself rots away. It’s almost as if James is writing about the
21st Century economy.
We have wonderful goals for our
lives – security and friendship and love.
But impatience gets in the way.
You want these things in your
life? You must be willing to spend a
lifetime seeking them.
James also talks about how
impatience can interfere with our relationship with others.
6 You have
condemned and murdered innocent people, who were not opposing you.
7 Therefore,
be patient brothers and sisters. See how
the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is
for the autumn and spring rains.
8 You too,
be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near.
9 Don't
grumble against each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The
Judge is standing at the door!
Impatience
makes us judgmental. We don’t want to
wait to get all of the facts about an issue. we don’t want to get to know
someone. We are an impatient people, so
we rush to judgment. As James put it in
verse 6, we condemn the innocent person.
We grumble against each other.
Even in the church, this sometimes
happens.
People sit in ConwayHall and they
grumble about other church members, or about the pastor or the church staff,
and they don’t build each other up.
Even in the families, this happens.
We grumble about our spouse, or
children, or parents, and we forget to speak lovingly about them.
James also speaks of how impatience
can interfere with our relationship with God.
James
said this:
10 Brothers
and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering…
13 Is any one
of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of
praise.
In our
impatience, we do not pray.
In our
impatience, we do not give thanks.
In our
impatience, we leave God out of our lives.
Advent
is a season that should teach us patience.
Christmas
is not until December 25th, and yet we allow this holiday – this
holy day – to become a burden. We have
to rush around. We rush to do our
shopping. We rush to the post office to
mail cards. We rush from party to party. It is so easy to be so rushed that there is
no time for Christ left in Christmas.
But the
Bible calls us to be patient. To stop
grumbling and to start building one another up.
To be quiet. To be still and to
savor life – because life takes time.
Copyright
2013, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
