feeding . . . gathering . . . carrying . . . leading . (Isaiah 40:11)
Dear family,
At the beginning of the story of the church in Acts of the Apostles, the hope of Christ returning, the fulfillment of the hope of our salvation, was communicated to the disciples by the angels immediately after Jesus was ascended and before they could take a step into their new life. “This same Jesus who you have seen being taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” But what had been communicated by Jesus before that? “Wait…” (Acts 1:4) And of course, that question that comes to challenge our hope arises immediately in v6, where they are basically asking: “How long?” “Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” And then comes the answer that sets the course: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” You see, only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of hope, would be able to resource them for what lay ahead, and be the supply of hope for the blessed hope that they were about to hear from the angels. Jesus had immediately then said, “But you will receive power…” They would not have the comfort of knowing the timing of everything, but they would have the comforter to empower them in that unknowing and in the inevitable waiting that would be required. It is the supremely charismatic work of the Holy Spirit according to Paul in Rom.5:5 that ensures that this hope will never disappoint us. “Hope does not disappoint us because God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Paul tells the Ephesians that it is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that helps them to know, better and better, the hope to which they have been called. To be charismatic is to be filled with the hope of God.
What I have been suggesting is that the disciples’ very last moments with Jesus established the relationship between hope and waiting. Their version of “How long” had a long history. “How long Lord? How long?... How long Lord will you forget me? Forever?... How long will you hide your face from me?... How long must your servant wait?” These cries of the psalmist are echoed by about every prophet. Isaiah had his “Woe is me” experience, and then says “Here am I send me!” God tells him what to say and his very first question of God in his new ministry is “For how long O Lord?” Jeremiah’s “How long will the land lie parched?”, Habakkuk’s “How long must I call for help?”, Zechariah’s “How long will you withhold mercy?”, Daniel’s vision that asks “How long until the vision will be fulfilled?” And to make things worse, I know that in Revelation it says at last that “there will be no more delay” but what is way more memorable is that same question again, that they’re even asking in heaven: Rev.6:10: “How long O sovereign Lord…” – basically, how long really till all this is sorted out, so we can get on with the rest of our eternal life?
The litany of “How long’s” that resonate through biblical history always jostle uncomfortably with the affirmations of trust and faith. Did you hear it in the U2 song that we played that used the words of Psalm 40: 1-3? “I waited patiently for the Lord… I will sing, sing a new song…” But the refrain is taken from another psalm: “how long to sing this song…” Is the “waiting patiently” being presented with the possible refrain of impatience in the cry, “How long…” And what is the tone of the question? What are the emotions behind it? It will sound different depending on whether it comes out of weariness or frustration, annoyance or despair. There is a tension, is there not? And so there should be for this is precisely the geography of biblical faith, being extended between what is no longer and what is not yet, between the wanting and the waiting, the hoping and the having. In Christian quotation books you will often find an old Puritan saint, Thomas Brooks, quoted on this: “Waiting is indeed but an act of faith stretched out.” If I was to do a quotation book I would include this one from Os Guinness: “Waiting is not the falsification of hope but merely the duration between the promise and the fulfillment.” And why not quote Os again as he says it in fewer words than I could. “The vision of faith takes the flow of time and history and charges them with a dynamic of hope, freeing the Christian to wait for God with meaning.”
If only hope did not require waiting! But precisely because it does, it requires something else. See if you can work out what it is by listening to the following: “We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces patience; and patience experience; and experience hope…. But if we hope for what we do not see, then we do with patience wait for it… for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope…remembering without ceasing…your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Roms. 5:4; 8:25; 15:4; 1 Thess. 1:3) And the key word is? PATIENCE! This does not sound like good news!
There is no presentation of hope in scripture which doesn’t require this seemingly slow waiting, this crock-pot faith, or is it crack-pot? You cannot read about our hope in the NT without tripping over the same word again and again. The interplay between hope and waiting patiently has led someone to say: “Christian hope is both the parent and the child of patience.” Hope produces patience and patience produces hope. Working in unity, they preserve the strength of the believer, even under great trial and suffering. Surely, those who hope patiently in the Lord, will renew their strength. Can you take any more? Listen for it again: “Imitate those who through patience inherit the promises…” (Hebr.6:12) “For you need patience after you have done the will of God, that you might receive the promise…” (Hebr.10:36) “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us…” (Hebr.12:1) “Be patient until the Lord’s coming…be patient because the Lord’s coming is near.” (Jm.5:7-8) “I John…in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ..” (Rev.1:9) “The beast was given power to make war against the saints…this calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints.” (Rev.13:10; 14:12) “So after waiting patiently Abraham received what was promised.” (Hebr.6:15) “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently I will also keep you from the hour of trial…” (Rev.3:10) We see then that the pursuit of the hope for which we have been saved, of necessity demands the virtue of patience, the spiritual capacity to wait.
It sometimes takes several different words to capture the range of nuance and meaning of another word, and not surprisingly, when it comes to a biblical study of patience, it is not enough simply to look up all the specific references to “patience” in a concordance. However, if you begin by doing that, you will get a long way, and you will find that there are two predominant Greek words that are used:
Greek makrothumia. makro=long; thumos=wrath. "long-temper" The idea is to “bear long”. It denotes a delayed reaction or response: positively, it is a response related to other virtuous dispositions like love (I Cor. 13:4 - "love is patient"; Gal. 5:22 - "fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace… patience”); negatively, it is a response in which anger, frustration, re-activeness, impulsiveness is restrained (I Thess. 5:14 - "be patient with all men”; James 5:7,8 - "be patient until the coming of the Lord")
Greek hupomeno. hupo=under; meno=to abide. "abide under" The idea here is of a yielding that involves endurance and continuance. Again, there is the idea of a delayed response that does not give expression negatively to despair or despondency, or fear or reactive panic; to withdrawal or escape or flight (Rom. 5:3 - "tribulation works patience"; Rom. 15:5 - "the God of patience"; Heb. 10:36 - "you have need of endurance"; James 1:3,4 - "test of your faith produces endurance"); positively, it is most often related to hope (Roms. 12:12 – “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation.”)
The biblical words for patience, and related words, generally cover two main ideas that come up again and again:
the need to stand firm under pressure: this may often have to do with staying where you are, patiently holding a position against the odds, and not being dislodged by pre-emptive strikes of self or circumstance or Satan against your soul.
the need to stay cool under provocation: (Loseth not thy cooleth!) the idea of holy calm and self-control and restraint in the face of anything that disrupts or distracts, that assaults or assails, that diverts or subverts, that hinders or hurts. Augustine said that the one who shows patience “prefers to endure evil so as not to commit it, rather than to commit evil so as not to endure it.” That is profound and simple and captures the truth that our impatience in response to provocation is usually sinful.
Join me on Sunday as we “patiently” pursue this matter of patience in order to more faithfully, pursue the hope that is set before us.
Pastorally and “hoping to be patiently” yours,
Stuart
http://www.christourshepherd.org/pastlet.htm (and follow links to download MP3 audio of sermon)