Advent

December 12, 2019

Scripture Reading: James 5:7-10
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 the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Being patient does not mean resting on your laurals. Yes, farmers do wait on the precious crops from the earth but they do a whole lot of positive, productive work as they wait. I sometimes hear people say they are waiting on the Lord to return to fix everything. I have even heard some suggest that we need to bring on a war in the Middle East to hasten Christ return. Neither is positive nor productive waiting.

Farmers plan carefully what they plant and when. They prepare the ground by nurturing it with fertilizer and turning it over with a plow. I spent much of my childhood pulling weeds out of our vegetable garden. Some plant flowers like Marigolds, Chrysanthemums, mint, and Basil around and within a vegetable garden that are known to deter bugs. Vegetable gardens are often fenced to keep rabbits and other animals from beating the gardener to the produce. Then there is the harvesting with the canning or freezing or otherwise preparing the vegetables and fruit for future use.

We, too, need to understand the concept of waiting on the Lord as we do those things that he commanded as we initiate the Kingdom of God in the world. Loving God first is most often exemplified in the way we love one another. Some people are harder to love than others but Jesus never suggested that we love only those we like. He even commanded us to love our enemies.  Love is a 24/7 job sometimes including oncall work and sometimes routine work that seems tedious and non-productive. No where does Jesus say how long we are to feed the hungry, or clothe the naked or care for the sick nor does he ever say the hungry and the naked and the sick must meet some pre-ordained qualifications to receive food or clothing. Paul said it in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 ‘for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: if a man will not work, he shall not eat but Jesus never did.

Now I think that God wants all God’s children to become fully the people God created them to be and I think for most that means in some form or fashion to be self-supporting and self-sustaining. Feeding the hungry  is a subtasks to creating a world where all can be self-supporting and self-sustaining and enabling all people to fulfill those roles.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the gift of patience that we may further the development of your Kingdom on Earth. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.