Patience and Endurance: Meditations on James 5

As with any season of repentance and preparation, Advent calls to mind this idea of patience and endurance.  Just like everyone else, I tend to leave November behind with an anxious anticipation of Christmas yet to come—the holiday time off from work, the fellowship with family and friends, and the hope that seems to spring up at the beginning of a new year.  But for me, as for many others, this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be very hectic and overwhelming, with more things to do than I think can reasonably be done.  There are extra church services, extra hours to work at the office, extra events the kids are chasing, and as seems to be the case this time of year, more people carrying heavier loads of suffering and loss.  It’s no wonder that so many people suffer holiday depression around these colder, darker, and shorter days, when the mounting weight of all their commitments and trials seem more than they can bear.

Despite the suffering or worry that the Church of Christ bears in her day, she is still called to endure patiently as her Lord comes.  This little season of preparation we call Advent, usually no longer than four weeks, is a good exercise for the Church in patience and endurance.  We are called to remember, in the words of St. James, that our Lord calls us to imitate the holy Prophets who came before us, who waited far longer for the revelation of Jesus Christ than our little four week season.  From however far back in the mists of time God gave His promise to Adam and Eve, that a Son would be born of the Woman who would save the world from the calamitous Fall into sin, the people of God waited.  For centuries, as the earth grew ever more violent and evil, they waited; until the Lord saved Noah and his family through the Flood that wiped out the world; until the Lord called Abraham out from his father’s house, to receive the promise; until the Lord sent Moses to bring His people out of slavery in Egypt; until the Lord established the throne of King David; until the return from the Babylonia captivity; until the coming of the Son of Man.  More than 2000 years the people of God waited, patiently enduring the trials and tribulations that etched the history of God with His people from Abraham to Jesus… and however many thousands more, before Abraham to Adam.  For at least 40 centuries God’s people waited for the Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent, and save the people from their sins.  For no less than 4000 years, the people who sat in darkness waited, until they saw the Great Light of Jesus Christ.

Now, 2000 years after Jesus’ first coming, we are sometimes tempted to impatience with whatever God has planned for His world.  And when we yield to impatience, it becomes ever more difficult to endure the trials and afflictions of our day, or to carry the cross we have been given in our own lives.  When we forget how the people of God waited to see their salvation come, we often lose perspective on our own time of waiting for the Lord’s return.  But He is coming.  The great Day of the Lord is coming, and His people will be saved from the hands of their enemies.  He has spoken His promise, and He is faithful.  He is the reward of our patience and our endurance, as He has been for every generation of His people.

And for us, who are so weak and selfish, given to impatience and quitting with the going gets tough, He has left us everything we need to wait for Him.  He has given us His Word to cling to, through which His Holy Spirit works to create and sustain faith… a living faith, that receives grace, forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting.  His Word endures among us, patiently calling us to repent and believe, absolving us, healing us, and strengthening us.  His Word, being more eternal than the mountains and the seas, the stars and the universe itself, calls, gathers, and enlightens all who will hear Him.

Here is the patience and the endurance of the saints, gathered and enlivened by grace through faith in the Eternal Word of Jesus Christ.  His everlasting Gospel of forgiveness and life enters our weak human frame, and gives us His life, His strength, and His power to endure all things.  With Him, in His Word, we wait for Him, to accomplish His Word.  Here we rest, here we work, here we cry, and here we rejoice.  Here we repent, and here we believe.  Here we live.  Forever.  Amen.