Mark's Blog

Reading:  James 5:7-11

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.

One of the Christmas traditions in our family is that on Christmas morning, the children must wait at the top of the stairs until they hear Grandma Johnson’s bell ring. When the bell rings, then they are free to fly down the stairs and see what is in their stockings and under the tree.

Grandma Johnson’s bell is a very plain and simple handheld bell that Sherrylee’s grandmother used when she taught rural school back in the early 1900s, so it is well over one hundred years old. Whereas it once brought order into the lives of schoolchildren, in its retirement it only serves one day a year to bring a little order to Christmas morning at the Woodwards.

Demanding immediate gratification is a mark of our culture; patience is not. Even with The Coming, some of the most religious of Christians are so impatient as to interpret every earthquake or political change in Israel as a herald of the imminence of The Coming!

James, the brother of the Lord, holds Grandma Johnson’s bell and says,“Be patient!” But more than just a reminder, James then gives us two very practical ways to prepare for The Coming while we wait.

First, he says don’t complain about each other. Our grandchildren ages 4-6 delight in telling their parents what the other grandkids have done wrong. The older grandchildren have learned already that this tactic doesn’t really work because first, their idea of what should get their cousin into trouble is not what the parents always think is so bad, and secondly, they almost always implicate themselves somehow in their tattling.  We can learn something about judging others here, can’t we?

Second, James says to perservere. We use newer phrases: keep at it, keep trying, stick with it. Then there are other related words like resolve, determination, and firmness that help us understand the word perservere.

Our American military friends in Germany used to describe themselves as short if they had six months or less in their tour and were going to be returning to the States then.  Being short often meant they began to withdraw from friends, disengage from church—just starting the separation process well before they left.

Some early Christians were apparently doing the same thing. The Coming was near, so they began pulling back. James says, no, no!  Be patient and stay connected!

Wait for the bell.  Wait for the trumpet!  Wait for the chorus!

Don’t grumble; don’t give up and go back to sleep. Wait!

But wait with the excitement and the involvement of the grandkids at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning!

Wait until He comes!