Fruit of the Spirit: Patience

Sermon James 5:7-8 June 5, 2016 Ordinary Time. Series #4

Fruit of the Spirit: Patience

Let me begin with a few quotes this morning about patience…

“Why is patience so important?"
"Because it makes us pay attention.” 
― Paulo Coelho

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.” 
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Finally brethren, Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

I must admit I am the most ill equipped to share with you the words of patience today. I am known for my struggle with patience. So, I begin today with my confessions of being a poor example of the fruit of the spirit of patience.

We are studying the Fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-25 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I come from a profession of nursing prior to my move to ministry. In the business of nursing and medicine we were very much in the business of “fixing”. Our goals were to offer healing in the manner of “making things better.” If someone came in with a broken bone, we set it and it was fixed and we sent them on their way. A person came in for stitches and we could sew them up and we had fixed the problem. As a mom I thought my job was to “fix” things for my kids as well. If they had a boo boo it was my job to kiss it and make it all better. I spent my life in the fix it business. As a nurse and as a mom, I, we, wanted to insure health by “fixing” what was wrong or ill.

In life, however, I have learned the manner of “fixing” is not necessarily the way to go through it. Life as many a counselor and spiritual director have shared with me, is not about “fixing” but more about a “process”. Life isn’t meant to be fixed but it is meant to be lived. Fixing has a time frame, but a process allows for a lifetime of transformation. So, I am comforted to know that the patience I yearn for will take my lifetime to occur.

So, again, what is patience as we’ve read it today? In the Biblical sense we have the Hebrew word “qavah”, which mean to wait for, look for, hope, expect. In the Greek “hypomeno”, to remain, to abide, to persevere, endure, bear bravely and calmly. The two Biblical words have a little bit of variation in their definition. But, this variation offers a full and an all-encompassing look at patience. The lesson in James gives an example of patience through the illustration of the farmer.

-What things in life have proven to be worth waiting for, for you?

Both the farmer and we humans are dependent on something beyond ourselves, beyond our control to provide for us and sustain us. We are encouraged to look ahead to the hope of good things to come.

The hunter, the fisherman, the gardener, the cook, the student, the parent, the teacher, all look forward to the hope of good things to come from their patience in the process of their actions and their waiting.

-What things in life have brought us to utter impatience? Our pet peeves?

Share your list-telemarketers, long lines, an unmet goal, disappointment, unmet needs, waiting rooms, etc.

-What are the emotions and behaviors that come with impatience? Anger, frustration, stomping feet, yelling, walking out, shutting down, depression, hurting self or others, physical changes-increased heart rate, high blood pressure, red face, stomach conditions, tense muscles. In our culture, the faster things work the less patience we have developed. In our fast paced 21st century culture we are used to instant gratification. We Google things and get answers right away, we get the weather at the touch of an app. We get things quickly and expect things quickly and when they do not come to us as we have expected them to come, we lose it! We cannot fathom that we have to wait for something to come to us in a slower pace. The old art of waiting does not exist in our current culture.

Our list of things we are not patient about is probably much longer than our list of things for which we are patient.

When we say to someone or someone says to us, “Have patience”, we are all the more frustrated with this admonition. We usually do not feel better when we hear this.

-So, AGAIN, we ask, what is patience?

Patience is not passive, weak or an act of giving in. Patience is a virtue, a power, and a fruit of the Spirit, it is a gift. And like all gifts given to us it is within us. It is there waiting to be harvested and utilized.

Patience is a form of compassion. Judith Orloff says, “Patience is a way of emotionally redeeming your center in a world filled with frustration.” She says it is a way of appreciating delayed gratification. Patience occurs in relation to relationships. It occurs when we open ourselves up to understand the other in whom we are engaged. With practicing patience we nurture love, joy and peace. We begin to recognize that relationships take time.

Practicing patience gives the opportunity to breathe, to get to know God, to get to know the inner wisdom within us and to draw on it. We learn about ourselves and what we are capable of being and doing. Being in a waiting room or in a line is one place to grant the opportunity to practice patience. Here we can daydream, engage in conversation with the people around us, and begin to form a relationship with others and in doing so recognize we are not alone in our frustrations and in so doing share the goodness of waiting and how we grow.

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.” 
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

In the space of waiting we seize the moment to be engaged in a way we haven’t allowed ourselves to enter before. We use the moment as a gift, a chance to live well in the waiting. We offer up the time to God, to prayer, to connecting with ourselves or with others. The next time we find ourselves in a waiting room or a long line, consider it as free space, as a chance to use this time in a new way. We can become genuinely surprised in our engagement with waiting. We discover the joy of our patience and then without realizing it we have practiced patience and that which we have been waiting for arrives before our eyes.

Our God is full of patience, grace and mercy. May our lives be filled with the experience of all God offers us and may we share the same gifts we have received. Amen.