Patience, it's a matter of faith.... Sermon given August 14th, 2016

Photo by Christian Begeman
Prairie Sanctuaries
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On Sunday, August 7th, the sermon was over 'Faith'; in that sermon, I chose to hit especially upon the concept of 'obedience' and 'living out' your faith.  As the book of James relays, faith without works is dead.  I read that as stating that a true faith in God precludes the ability to be inactive in His creation.  An 'obedient' faith does not allow one to sit idly by.

This past week, I decided to disconnect with the Lectionary verses and instead to pursue the concept of faith a bit further and in a different direction.  The sermon this past Sunday was focused upon 'Patience'.  Faith often necessitates us being patient while God prepares the way for us.  The scripture verses which I have chosen for today are Colossians 1:1-14.

Colossians 1:1-14New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters[a] in Christ in Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3 In our prayers for you, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant.[b] He is a faithful minister of Christ on your[c] behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s[d] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled[e] you[f] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.[g]

Footnotes:

a) Colossians 1:2 Gk brothers
b) Colossians 1:7 Gk slave
c) Colossians 1:7 Other ancient authorities read our
d) Colossians 1:9 Gk his
e) Colossians 1:12 Other ancient authorities read called
f) Colossians 1:12 Other ancient authorities read us
g) Colossians 1:14 Other ancient authorities add through his blood

Let's highlight verses 11 & 12:
11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled[e] you[f] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

"Endure everything with patience", it's not like God is giving us an easy task to pursue here.  My personal experience in life has never been that 'patience' was ever the long suite of human beings, or at least of most human beings.  There are those few out there who are certainly counted among the Saints, who seem unrattled by the world and can keep going right along while waiting, waiting and waiting.  

Before we go any further, let's determine just what the word 'Patience' means in the English language.
If we look up the word 'Patience' we read the following:
pa·tience
noun
1. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
"you can find bargains if you have the patience to sift through the dross"

synonyms: forbearance, tolerance, restraint, self-restraint, stoicism; calmness, composure, equanimity, imperturbability, understanding, indulgence
"she tried everyone's patience"

perseverance, persistence, endurance, tenacity, assiduity, application, staying power, doggedness, determination, resolve, resolution, resoluteness
"a task requiring patience"

There are actually several Greek words which are translated into English as 'Patience'.  The two most generally used are:
Makrothumia which is clarified as patience in respect to persons, while Hupomone (endurance) is putting up with things or circumstances. The Greek word that we find here in Colossians is the word 'makrothumia'.  Strongs Greek Concordance lists makrothumia as a noun and relays that it is the feminine form. The definition is stated as; patience, forbearance, longsuffering. Strong's goes on to state the following: Makrothumia embraces steadfastness and staying power. If in English we had an adjective 'long-tempered' as a counterpart to 'short-tempered,' then makrothymia could be called the quality of being 'long-tempered'. . . . which is a quality of God.

The Greek Lexicon relays; Makrothymia (mak-roth-oo-mee’-ah) n. Longanimity – Calmness in the face of suffering and adversity, that is, (objectively) forbearance or (subjectively) fortitude: longsuffering, patience; good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence.

Makrothumia is especially related to love, hupomone is especially related to hope.  We endure circumstances because we always retain hope.  The distinction between hupomone and makrothumia can best be seen in their opposites.  The opposite of Makrothumia is wrath or revenge, and the opposite of Hupomone is cowardice or despondency. 

The one thing we should not about both makrothumia and hupomone is that neither in their definitions says anything about being idle.  Patience isn't about sitting still and doing nothing, patience is about persevering and working continually even though we should by all rights become discouraged and stop entirely.

Let's look at the famous missionary Adoniram Judson.  Judson was one of the first Christian missionaries to go to Burma and the only one to remain more than a short period of time.  At the time of his arrival, there was not one known Christian convert in Burma.  It took six years before one person was baptized as a Christian.  After twelve years of hard work, he saw eighteen converts.  By the time of his death at 62 years of age, and after 38 years in Burma, he had established 100 churches with 8,000 Burmese converts.

How many of us could honestly say that we would continue working when after a year we had seen no results... how about three years... what about six years?  I can certainly attest that it would be exceedingly difficult to keep up the faith for six long years with no results to show for one's efforts.  Of course during these six years Judson wasn't just sitting still and doing nothing, rather he was busy learning Burmese, translating scripture into Burmese, and creating a Burmese dictionary.  All of the while that Judson was preaching to apparently no effect, he was working to set the stage for his later success.  Patience means following the direction that God has placed us upon whether we feel discouraged or not.

Be patient, God can and will work through you in good time, just don't sit idle... keep doing the work that He has set you to.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In His Grace,
Roy

2 Peter 3:8-9  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.