Title: Advent People Are Patient People
Text: Romans 15:4-13
Thesis: In the Season of Advent, we are reminded to be patient with God and patient with people.
Introduction
Frank Thomas was a great baseball player who really came into his own in the 1990’s when he played for the Chicago White Sox. He was known for his “keen eye and immense power.” He is the only player in major league history to have seven consecutive seasons of a .300 average, at least 100 walks, 100 runs, 100 batted in, and 20 home runs between 1991 and 1997. He is known as one of baseballs most patient hitters. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Thomas_ (AL_baseball-player)
In 1992, the New York Times ran a story quoted Frank Thomas who said, “If I’m going to make an out, I’m going to make an out on a pitch I can hit.” When speaking of his outstanding bases walked record he said, “I’ve taken a lot of walks… I’ve learned to be patient. If a pitch isn’t in the strike zone, I’m so picky I won’t swing the bat.” (Murray Chass, The New York Times, Baseball; Patience Is Only One of Thomas’s Virtues, March 12, 1992
Here the greater Denver Metro area, we saw the power of patience of patience as the Red Sox defeated the Rockies for the World Series title. The New York Post ran a story headlined, Red Sox Are Killing ‘Em With Patience. (Joel Sherman, New York Post, October 27, 2007)
There is a certain peace that characterizes a person at bat or a team that is willing to play the game with patience. There is also a certain peace that characterizes the Christian who has learned to be patient.
The Christian who is at peace is patient with God.
1. Patient people are patient with God.
Such things were written in Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises. Romans 15:4
For Christians, patience is what we demonstrate when we trust God in all areas and aspects of life. When we are sure that God can be trusted to do what God promises we are then able to wait for God to act in God’s time. Whatever the circumstance, we are able to retain our hope and with peace of heart and mind, wait patiently for God to act.
In his book, The 50 Most Romantic Things Ever Done, Dini Von Mueffling wrote of a man and a woman who spotted each other on the morning New York to Washington shuttle. Sparks flew, but no words were exchanged. She got in a cab, looked back and saw him running after her. She begged the cabbie to stop but he kept going. She scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and held it in the back window of the cab, even though she knew he was too far away to read it.
She went to her meeting but couldn’t stop thinking about him so she returned to the airport to wait for him to catch the shuttle back to New York… she waited until 9 p.m. and then caught the flight home.
In New York, she deplaned, dejected and discouraged as she stepped into the gate area – and there he was. He spoke the first words spoken between them asking, “What took you so long? I’ve been waiting all day.”
This is a beautiful story that speaks of the love of a man for a woman and his willingness to wait for her. It speaks of the patience of a loving God who waits for us. And it speaks of the love of a people who wait patiently for the arrival of the Christ.
Sometimes promises dangle out there, for what seems to be a terribly long time. The imminent return of Christ is just such a hope based on the promise of God. It has been some time since Christians first heard the promise of Christ’s return. In John 14, Jesus assured his disciples that one day he would come again. He said, “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” John 14:1-6
Two thousand years have passed since Jesus first uttered those words but God’s Word speaks to us still reminding us, to not forget that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want any to perish, so he is giving more time to everyone, to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief… II Peter 3:8-10
Patient people are patient with God and in harmony with one another.
2. Patient people live in harmony with each other… and worship with one voice.
May God who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other – each with the attitude of Christ toward the other. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God… Romans 15:5-6
Harmony is the combination of simultaneous musical notes. It is the pleasing combination of color and form in art. Harmony is what results when people live together in tranquility or in one accord.
A congregation or faith community may be known for many things. A church may be known for its steeple and its stained glass. A church may be known for its orchestra or its rock band. A church may be known for its support of social issues or political agendas. A church may be known for its generous giving to missional causes. A church may be known for its ethnicity or its heritage. A church may be known for its convictions or lack there of. A church may be known for its ornate architecture or its simple, big box design. A church may be known as a refuge for the poor or a fortress for the privileged. William Barclay says that if a church is not known first for its harmony, it has lost the first essential of a Christian fellowship. (William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, p. 215)
We who lay claim to the affirmations of the Evangelical Covenant Church believing that “united in Christ, we offer freedom to one another to differ on issues of belief and practice where the biblical and historical record seems to allow for a variety of interpretations of the will and purpose of God. We in the Covenant Church seek to focus on what unites us as followers of Christ, rather than on what divides us.” (What Does the Covenant Believe, A Brief Look at Covenant Affirmations, Covenant Publications)
Christians learn to live with the tension of differing opinions. Christians do not always agree with each other and not every congregational vote is unanimous. But Christians know how to live together in harmony, as Barclay says, “quite sure t hat the Christ who unites them is greater than the differences which may divide them.” (William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, p. 215)
The text says that it is only when Christians are living together in harmony that they are able to praise God with one voice. When we are not living in harmony, we cannot offer harmonious worship to God. When we are not living and worshipping in harmony, the sound that rises to God is discordant. When we are not living in harmony, our worship is a cacophony of dissonant clashing sounds. But when we live in harmony, the sound of our worship is music in the ears of God.
Researchers from the University of Utah have found that when married couples discussed sensitive issues, women who buried their anger rather than speaking out were more likely to succumb to heart disease that wives who were more vocal. And the study found that when women became domineering and controlling, rather than seeking consensus, damage was done to the husband’s coronary health. The researchers understood that disagreements are inevitable but concerns may be addressed without doing damage to each other.
A twelve-year British research project in which they studied married civil servants, even after removing typical contributing factors like obesity, smoking, and drinking, those who were living in hostile intimate relationships were 23% more likely to have a heart attack.
The lead researcher concluded, “If you have good people around you, it’s good for your health… and if you have bad people around you, it is much worse for your health.” (Ted DeHass, Bedford, Iowa and Brandon O’Brien, assistant editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: “The Fin are of Marital Dispute,” The Week, 10/19/07, p. 22, “Study ties marital strife, heart disease,” Associated Press, Yahoo News, 10/08/07, “A Bad Relationship Can Cause a Heart Attack: Study,” Reuters, ABCNews.com, 10/08/07)
Harmony is important to each of us and it is crucial to our ability to do even the most elemental aspect of our faith, that being the worship of our God.
One of the ways we can learn to live in harmony is to learn to accept each other.
3. Patient people accept each other just as Christ has accepted us.
So accept or welcome each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified. Remember Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to his promises. And he came so the Gentiles might also give glory to God for his mercies to them. Romans 15:7-8 (9-12)
Romans 15 comes to us in the context of tension between Jewish and Gentile Christians who found themselves at odds over matters of conscience. The Jewish Christians were more legalistic in the practice of their faith and consequently judged the Gentiles in their midst as unspiritual. What we are reading in our text today is a carry over of the earlier conversation in which Paul speaks to the discordance asking, “Why do you condemn another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God. So don’t condemn each other anymore. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not put an obstacle in another Christian’s path.” Romans 14:10-13
The bible says, God’s purpose was to show his wisdom in all its rich variety to all the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. They will see this when Jews and Gentiles are joined together in his church. This was his plan from all eternity and it has been carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10-11
Paul makes similar claims in Galatians and Colossians where he wrote:
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians – you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Colossians 3:11
When our differences in race and ethnicity, our ages, our gender biases, social status or lack there of, our levels of learning, our differences in social sophistication, our personal preferences and practices leave us unwilling to live together in harmony, we have not accepted each other as Christ has accepted each of us.
Paul says our hearts are to be tender and sympathetic. He says we are to wholeheartedly agree with each other and love each other and work together with one heart and purpose. He says it is a good thing to be humble and to be considerate of others, not thinking only of our own interests but of theirs. He says our attitudes should be the same of Jesus Christ, who made himself nothing, humbling himself even to death on a cross. Philippians 2:1-11
We have two neighbors who have pets. Ron has a black cat with white front feet. He calls his cat Spatz. Don has a black lab with white feet. He calls his dog Socks. I don’t think Spatz knows he is a cat and that Socks is a dog. I don’t think Socks knows he is a dog and that Spatz is a cat. They just like each other and they get along just fine. They play together. They lay around together. They accept each other despite the fact that conventional wisdom says they should be enemies. Sock should be barking at Spatz and Spatz should be hissing and scratching Sock’s nose… but they exist in harmony with each other by not taking notice of their differences.
Paul concludes this passage by expressing his prayer that God, who gives us hope, will keep us happy and full of peace as we believe in Christ. In the Season of Advent, we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Christ and to live in peace as we anticipate his return.
There can be no peace without patience. When we are patient with God and learn to be patient with each other, we live hopeful, happy, and peaceful lives.
Conclusion:
Ernest Thayer said toward the end of his life, “Now I have something to say and I am too weak to say it.” Some suggest that Thayer was something of a Casey at Bat.
The Mudville Nine are playing a baseball game. They have two outs, it is the bottom of the ninth, and they trail 4 to 2. They must have a three-run homer to win the game. However, between their slugger and victory are two batters described as a “hoodoo” and a “cake.” But Flynn singled and Blake doubled, which brought the mighty Casey to the plate.
Thayer wrote, a straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast. They thought, “If only Casey could but get a whack at that. We’d put even money now, with Casey at the bat.”
Casey stood defiantly at the plate and let two strikes fly by… and everyone knew that Casey would not let that ball go by again. The poem continues, Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout, but there’s no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.
It is true, there is a hope that springs eternal in the human breast… but it is not a hope that goes up in the smoke of despair over the outcome of a ball game or an election, the collapse of the housing market or Wall Street woes, green house gasses or the melting of the polar ice cap, the excesses of televangelists or corporate executives, the designs of dictators or the threats of terrorists.
It is hope that gives us peace as we wait patiently for the coming of our Christ
It is hope rooted in the promised return of Christ and the hope of heaven… our hope is rooted in the written Word of God that describes the day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The day when the holy city, the New Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband. The writer of Revelation said of that day, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, “Look the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.” Amen
