Rooted in the Spirit: Patience

Friends, we are continuing today our summer sermon

series on the fruit of the Spirit. We'll hear

those fruit in just a moment from Galatians.

Today we sit with the fruit of patience. So let

us listen first for a word from God, hearing

those verses from that letter, and then we'll

turn to a different letter, the letter of James,

where we will be invited to consider where and

how it is God is leading us to bear that fruit

of patience. not only for our own hearts, our

own lives, but also for our world. So let us

listen now for a word from God, hearing first

from the fifth chapter of Galatians, beginning

with the 22nd verse. The fruit of the Spirit

is this, the writer says, love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness. generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self -control. There is no law against such

things. And then these verses from the fifth

chapter of the letter of James, beginning with

the seventh verse. The author writes, Be patient,

therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.

The farmer, whether of corn or jiffy pop, 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. Indeed, we call blessed those who

showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance

of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord,

how the Lord is compassionate and how the Lord

is merciful. Friends, this is the word of God

for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Will

you join me in prayer? Let us pray. Gracious

and loving God, how hard it is to be patient

in these days. Things move so fast. Things change

so quickly. Sometimes we struggle to know which

way is even up. And so we pray once more that

you would quiet our hearts. that you would still

our minds, and that you would invite us into

a space of patient waiting. Indeed, O God, we

pray that your Spirit would draw near to us once

more, and that through its work, not only the

words of my mouth, but the meditations of all

of our hearts, all of our hearts, gathered together

in this place would be pleasing and glorifying

to you. For you and you alone, O God, are our

rock and our redeemer. Amen. There's a great

children's book published just a few years ago.

It's called Preaching to the Chickens. It is

the story of the civil rights leader turned congressman

John Lewis and his time growing up on a small

farm with his family in South Alabama. As a young

boy, John Lewis, as the book tells us, was put

in charge of the chicken coop on the farm. And

these chickens quickly became more than just

a chore for young John. They became his actual

living, breathing congregation. They were his

literal flock. Every day, as a young seven, eight

-year -old boy, John Lewis would rise early and

he would go out and not just feed them, he gave

them names. He taught them verses of scripture.

He even baptized one or two of them. But always,

every single day, John Lewis would preach to

his congregation of chickens. When someone came

along and offered a good price for the prize

hen or another of his congregation fell down

the well there on his property, John was there

to protect them and to save them. Now, if you

were to preach to a flock of chickens, chickens

who don't sit still, who don't stay quiet, who

do not heed any of your instructions, what is

the one thing you think you might need. I'll

give you a clue. It's a fruit of the Spirit.

Patience. You need some serious patience, don't

you? You know, the more I read this letter to

James, the more I start to think to myself that,

in a way, it's kind of a user's manual, if you

will, for preaching to chickens. James, unlike

other of the epistle writers, doesn't go into

this high, affluent, lofty theological discourse

like Paul especially is prone to. James offers

practical wisdom to his readers and to his audience

on living out the faith. He talks about practical

ways that we as disciples of Jesus are called

to live out our faith in ordinary places. amongst

unpredictable people in a world that can be infuriatingly

slow to change. And the very first thing that

James tells us in those instructions is to be

patient. Now, to be clear, the kind of patience

James is talking about and teaching about here

is not a passive kind of patience. It's a John

Lewis. It's an active kind of patience. It's

the kind of patience that assumes this posture

where you keep showing up every day and feeding

those around you, be they chickens or be they

people, in the ways that you know how. It's the

kind of patience that keeps attending to the

small details of life even as you wait for the

big picture to come more fully into focus. It's

the kind of patience that persists in the face

of setback. James even gives us an image for

this kind of patience. It's the image of a farmer,

appropriately enough. Now, if you are a farmer,

and some of you are, and some of you have grown

up or lived at different points in your life

on a farm, when you plant the crop each year,

do you just plant it and then go back home and

sit there and wait for the rain to come and just

wait and see what happens? No. You keep working

the soil even as you wait for the crop to come.

You keep pulling those weeds. You keep tending

to the plants, even when they're tiny little

seedlings. It's an active kind of patience. Now,

what empowers? What empowers us to live with

that kind of patience? According to James, it

is the assurance, it is the knowledge that the

Lord is near. We can be patient. We can stand

firm. We can assume that posture of hopeful endurance

because the God we know in Jesus Christ is not

a God who is absent or indifferent to our suffering

and our pain, but rather is a God who is near

to us and who is faithful, always faithful, in

keeping God's promises. James writes, strengthen

your hearts. What a phrase. Strengthen your hearts,

for the Lord is near. We can be people who live

lives of quiet, faithful acts of service. No

matter how small, like feeding the chickens each

morning, or how big, like leading a movement,

we can be these people who embody lives that

practice quiet, faithful acts of service. Because

we are prepared to answer God's call when it

comes. You see John Lewis as a child out there

preaching to the chickens. He trusts. That something

more is coming in this world. That something

more is coming in his life. And so he prepares

himself every day for it. He seems as a young

boy to almost intuitively understand that in

order to achieve the monumental, we have to first

learn to patiently tend to the mundane. He seems

to understand that movements, movements are not

built solely on dramatic marches or soaring speeches.

Movements require first humble, unglamorous,

repeated, slow work behind the scenes among people

who often don't seem to be listening. much less

caring much about what you have to say. I'm talking

about committee meetings. I'm talking about training

sessions. I'm talking about choir rehearsals.

I'm talking about one -on -one conversations.

I'm talking about preaching to chickens, in other

words. That, that is where the seeds of God's

kingdom I made a really bad mistake last night.

I read the news before I went to bed. Pro tip,

if you want to sleep well, don't read the news

before you go to bed. Because what I read in

the news were headlines that this uncertain It's

an uncertain time in which we are living. Well,

it's just grown even more uncertain. But what's

amazing is that when I woke up this morning,

for some reason, I can't explain it, for some

reason, I woke up renewed in my certainty about

one thing. And the certainty that I awoke renewed

to was that the same God who called a boy to

preach to chickens is the same God who still

calls us to preach hope, to sow peace, and to

stand firm in love. Yesterday, as it happens,

I completed another trip around the sun. I'm

not that old. Some of you would consider me a

child even, I'm sure. But I will say the older

I have gotten, the more I have come to believe

that history Well, history turns less on events

involving bunker buster bombs, and it turns more

on the acts of faithfulness that nobody ever

notices. History turns more on prayers that are

offered at empty kitchen tables. History turns

more on patience that is shown towards a difficult

person. History turns more on those small acts

of courage that absolutely no one claps for.

History turns more on our dogged commitment to

just keep doing what is right. what is just,

and what is merciful. Friends, these, those small

acts upon which history turns, these are the

seeds that in God's hands have always changed

the world. So don't lose heart. Don't lose heart

if your faithfulness feels small today. Don't

lose heart if the chickens still don't seem to

be listening much. Don't lose heart if the world

still feels uncertain and heavy when you wake

up tomorrow morning. Be patient. Practice patience.

Because, friends, the Lord is near. The Lord

is near. The Lord is nearer to us than our greatest

fear. The Lord is stronger. Hear this. The Lord

is stronger than the world's greatest chaos.

But the best news. The best news that we can

be absolutely certain of is that the Lord is

faithful to finish what the Lord has begun. Friends,

in that certainty, in that dogged hope, Let us

go to the Lord in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious

and loving God, it's just hard to be patient

right now. It's always felt so hard for us to

wait for anything. for a kernel of popcorn to

pop up, for a toy to get wrapped under the tree,

for love to come. And yet, God, we know that

you are near, that you are the one who is never

far. And so in this time where the headlines

do indeed scream of such uncertainty, make us

certain again. Of the astounding and abounding

good news that we have glimpsed in your son,

Jesus Christ. The good news that even when it

feels like we are preaching to a bunch of chickens,

you are not far away. You are the one who tends

to our small acts of faithfulness. And you are

the one who will bring the harvest home. Help

us, O God, to wait in that truth and to live

our lives accordingly, now and always. Amen.