Waiting for the Fruit
James 5: 7-11

 

 

          If you are a farmer in Israel today, the planting cycle has changed little for you from the time of Jesus. You sow just before the autumn rains of October and November. If you sow after those rains, the seeds won’t germinate. Then you wait. You wait for the spring rains. They usually come in April and May as the grain matures. You do not harvest until those rains have fallen. Never mind that three fourths of the rains in Palestine fall from December to February. It’s not the same. You must wait. You must be patient.

          James talks about patience and perseverance in the fifth chapter of the New Testament book bearing his name. He starts his letter with an appeal for perseverance and ends it with another appeal for patience.  The book is thought by most who think about such things as having been written by James the half-brother of Jesus, who became quite influential in the early church. He was often called the Bishop of Jerusalem.  Martin Luther didn’t like him, calling his book an “epistle of straw.” Luther thought that James’ pronouncement in chapter 2 that faith without works is dead flew in the face of Paul’s teaching that by grace are we saved through faith. Later theologians have come to realize that James and Paul had much more in common than their differences.  At any rate, James is concerned here with the parousia, the second coming of Christ. Parousia is a Greek term having to do with the coming of a king. Jesus promised return as a king, hence the parousia.

          James calls his audience here “brothers,” indicating that he is no longer talking to the rich, but now speaks again to the Jewish Christians reading the letter.  His use of the word “therefore,” or “then” indicates that he is referring back to the previous passage, which is about the rich who take unfair advantage. He cautions the lesser advantaged to exercise self-restraint.  He then compares the second coming of Christ to the more common analogy of a farmer having to wait for the precious fruit of the field. But this is not a passive activity. This is not the kind of waiting that is accomplished in a rocking chair on the front porch.   It is an active, pursuing, conscious waiting that engages in life and prays for that fruit to ripen. Waiting for Christ is done with an eye toward preparation, toward participation. Waiting for Christ is not a spectator sport.

          James warns his audience to “establish your hearts.” It is another way of saying “stand firm.” He encourages them to use long-suffering patience even in the midst of unfairness. James sees the second coming as imminent. Then James uses another example. He talks about the prophets and the patience they had to exercise. Jeremiah comes to mind. He was put in stocks, thrown in prison, lowered into a wet dungeon, yet he kept pursuing his ministry without bitterness. Jeremiah had patience. But Jeremiah had that active kind of patience which kept him moving toward righteousness. It taught him how to wait for God’s hand to guide him.  Writer Richard Hendrix tells us that “waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in Godliness, maturity, and genuine spirituality most of us ever encounter.”

          James gives us a third example. It is a lot like patience, but it is not the same. James uses Job to remind us of our need for perseverance. We often hear of Job’s great patience, but that really is not very accurate. While Job had a fair measure of patience, he had a lot more perseverance. He never quit believing in God, even in the face of one unexplainable disaster after another. Some translations call it steadfastness instead of perseverance. Either way,  the words convey similar meanings. Job stuck it out. And God rewarded him.

          Perseverance is not just a character trait.  It’s a way of life. Former Congressman Newt Gingrich once said that perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. Ivan Downing tells a story about perseverance I can relate to. A fellow who had been at it a long time decided to retire from the ministry. One Sunday he explained his decision to the congregation: “I wear two hearing aids and trifocal glasses; I have a partial plate, and sometimes I walk with a cane. It seems to me,” he concluded, “that the Lord is telling me it’s time to retire.” After the service, a white-haired lady told him, “Reverend, you have misinterpreted what the Lord has been saying to you. He’s not telling you it’s time to retire; he’s telling you that if you keep going, he’ll keep you patched up.”

          It is the season of optimism. It is the third Sunday of Advent, a Sunday in which we light a candle signifying joy. Can anything really be bad? Baby Jesus is about to be born. A magnificent choir of angels in heaven is about to sing its chorus. The star in the East glows brighter with each passing day. Jesus is coming. He can cancel our debts and cure our troubles.

          We know that the rejoicing of Christmas and the candles of Advent, the descent of the Christ child to Bethlehem, will all too soon be replaced with the ascent of our Savior to an unadorned hill where a Cross awaits. But that is for another day. It will come soon enough. And even in its tragedy lie the seeds of that long waited for fruit, the fruit of salvation. Today there is Joy. Let us be patient as the farmer and the prophet. Let us be persevering as God’s servant Job. For James reminds us that even now, the Judge is standing at the door.

          Are you ready? James instructed those early Christians to “Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord.” It is good advice even today. James didn’t know when Jesus would come again. Our Lord Jesus said that even he did not know. We do know this. He is coming. Praise God that he has waited these twenty centuries to continue the ingathering of his people. God is patient too, as more and more people are brought to a saving knowledge of his salvation from sin and death.  Be patient and persevere. He is coming.

A Signal for the Peoples

Isaiah 11: 1-10

 

 

          Here we are at the second Sunday of Advent. The Second Advent candle was lit today honoring the theme of Joy. The children’s choir sang Joy to the World, a familiar Christmas hymn, to remind us of the news that was shared so long ago…news that we herald in this season in both remembrance and reminder. We remember the birth of the Christ child and we are reminded of the reason for his birth. The birth of Jesus was a watershed event. It was the beginning of a change that would affect the entire world for the rest of its history.

          What is a watershed event? It’s something momentous that happens. It usually marks a major change of course or it is something on which other important events depend. For instance, today we remember the seventy third anniversary of the sneak attack upon our Naval Base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941. 2388 sailors, soldiers, marines and civilians died in that attack. That was a watershed event. We declared war on the Japanese later that day. The next five years, the entire country entered into a war effort that would see millions of our country’s men and women go off to the Pacific and Europe to engage in a conflict for our freedom and our very way of life. Over sixty million people died in World War II. It changed the world.

          We have watershed events in our own lives. They may not change the world but they are of singular importance to us when we have those experiences. Watershed events might be a death in the family, a graduation, a marriage, the birth of a child, a divorce. They might be our conversion to Christianity…our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Watershed events change the course of our lives.

          The Bible is full of watershed events, from the creation story to the flood to the stories of the Patriarchs, beginning with Adam. But without question, the signal watershed event of the Old Testament and of the nation of Israel, is the Exodus, the story of God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. I have heard it said that there are periods in history when the world is in great need, and with uncanny accuracy, unusually great leaders rise up to lead in those times. Such is the case with the nation of Israel in captivity. In their time of great need, God sent them Moses as their leader. Of course, we know that Moses was guided by God. It was Moses’ obedience to God, his willingness to be guided by God, that made his leadership so great.

          And so, after plagues and famine and partings of waters, the people of Israel moved forward as one body toward the Promised Land. Their job, which by the way they continually failed to do, was to act as what Michael Goheen calls a contrast people. They were to stand in contrast to the nations all around them. They were to worship the one true God. They were to live in example, example of what God wants and expects from his chosen.

          Many generations passed. The Promised Land was lost. First, the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, broke down, exiled and re-assimilated the nation of Israel until it was without political power and had lost much of its identity. During the Exile, the prophet Isaiah, along with the prophet Micah, spoke for God over a thirty year period. Isaiah was a prophet in Judah, the Southern Kingdom, which was still ruled by King Hezekiah. He spoke of a theme of restoration and salvation. But Isaiah prophesied beyond the reign of the kings of Judah. He foresaw a time when a final heir to the throne of David would appear. He looked toward a time of salvation and that salvation extended beyond any national borders. His prophecies were remarkably accurate.

          Did Isaiah know how his prophecies would play out? There is no way for us to know that. Some speculate that he foresaw all that would come to pass. Others conjecture that Isaiah was pointing forward only to a day when Judah would be saved and Israel would be restored to political prominence. Regardless of how one interprets it, the fact of the matter is that Isaiah’s Messianic prophecies were ripe with details of what came to pass in the first century. Today’s passage is exemplary of that.

          Isaiah prophesies that a “shoot from the stump of Jesse” will come forth. Jesse, of course, is the father of King David, and a shoot from that stump would seem to imply that the Davidic line of kingship will die out, but that the Messiah will come from that bloodline, which indeed Jesus does. Upon this person shall rest the Spirit of the Lord,  a Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel and light, of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This new leader will come to judge and he will judge not with his eyes and ears, not with the traditional evidence that people employ, but rather with righteousness and faithfulness.

          Isaiah goes on to prophesy of a world which we have never known. In fact, it is a world which no one since Adam and Eve has known. While we may live in the middle of God’s creation, we nevertheless live in it as a flawed, corroded version of the real thing. Mankind has corrupted that which was flawless. God’s creation was and is so marvelous that even centuries of brutalizing it still find it breathtaking in many ways. But the world that Isaiah describes is entirely different. There is no strife. Relief and trust have returned to the creation…so much so that the animal kingdom plays and resides not only side by side, but even so that a little child can frolic in the midst of lions and leopards and venomous snakes without fear. There is total trust between man and animal, man and man. It is the creation restored. And Isaiah says that in that day, none of creation’s creatures will hurt or destroy. Isaiah can see a day when the natural working order of the world is restored and all of creation lives in harmony. He talks of it taking place on God’s holy mountain, which some take to mean Mt Sinai, but others would expand to all of God’s creation. God is too big to be confined to one mountain and indeed, with God residing in it, all of creation becomes God’s holy mountain.

          How can that day come? How can harmony be restored? Isaiah prophesies: First, Isaiah tells us that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” Imagine a world in which everyone and everything is full in the knowledge of God and who he is and of his sovereignty. Isaiah says the earth will know, not just the people but the whole earth. All of creation will once again be bathed in the knowledge of God. Second, Isaiah says that “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.”  In that day, the coming of Messiah, the coming of  the Son of God--in that day—Jesus, the root of Jesse, the promised Savior, will stand as a signal for the peoples. It is a beautiful image painted by the prophet, and it includes not only the remnant of the nation of Israel, but “the peoples”—all the nations of the earth.

         “ In that day,” says Isaiah. Does he refer to the birth of the Christ child? Does he refer to the Passion? I think first of all that Isaiah speaks from his own knowledge, but I think he also speaks from that which he has been guided to say by the Lord. He may not even know the full ramifications of his prophecy. I think that probably without knowing it, Isaiah has pointed to the Day of the Lord, the day when Christ returns at the end of the age, when all creation is restored for all time and everyone is judged. But in that day could also mean the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem, for either way you look at it, a watershed event is about to happen.

          Jesus is coming. He is coming as a babe wrapped in a manger. He is coming as the Lamb of God. He is coming as the Suffering Servant. He is coming as Messiah, the anointed one, that  “shoot” from the stump of Jesse, but he is coming. And he will come again one more time as John calls for in the close of the Biblical canon, saying “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”  No matter how you choose to look at it, Jesus is coming, and six hundred years before his birth, Isaiah heralded his arrival.

          This season, we celebrate not only the coming of Christ, but the fact that his coming was a watershed event in the history of the world. While long ago, God caused Moses to move his people in one body from one point to another, the coming of Jesus is not a going forth, but a coming together under the leadership of the Lord himself. We celebrate that he does indeed stand as a signal for the peoples. His is the voice of hope, of joy, of peace, of love. He is coming among us!

          Joy to the World! He is coming!