James 5:7-10
Advent 3 - Year A
Prophets are fine examples of patient waiting. By nature they are as clear and noisy as they can be about what they currently see going on as they project the consequences of present actions some way down the line. They have no control over how their insight and presentation of that (in word and theater) will play out. Will people hear and understand and change? Will people hear and understand and keep on the same track anyway? Will people hear but not understand? Will people even go so far as to hear?
Who knows how prophecy will play itself out. Its intention is to effect change but is not in charge of that change.
The way in which we discern a false prophet from a true one is in the results—did people change and thus come to a new future? Did people not change and the consequence come to be? Only afterward can one tell self-serving prediction from that of community-serving wisdom. And if people change and a different future comes about than the one prophesied, can we ever tell if the people really changed or if some other factor came to bear on the situation?
Prophets must wait to see the fruit of their labor. Evangelists, preachers, and teachers also have some wait built into their work to see if what they do sticks with folks and makes a qualitative difference in those lives, but their venue and timeframe is usually far narrower and shorter.
At the same time there is this burning inside a prophet if they are slow to carry out their task and so there is both a hurry-up and a wait component to their work. I suspect it is easier to get relief from a pent up message than it is to wait to see how it will be received. This type of prophetic patience is not a passive waiting, but active. In the best of situations a prophet persists in a message and in the worst of situations a prophet whispers and goes off to sit and wait and see the destruction they expect and even desire.
Those who read here are part of the prophetic tradition. It is a difficult task to prophesy and be patient; it almost takes a split personality. This is one of the reasons that a prophetic community is so important and why it is important to be part of a school of prophets and a tradition of prophets. Let’s keep talking together that we might be encouraged to be prophetic, in season and out. What keeps you going, persistent and patient?
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
This last week Beth Stroud, United Methodist Pastor, was convicted of crossing an official line measuring one's gifts and graces for being a pastor in this/that denomination. For living fully in a committed relationship with another woman she was legislated out by the majority of leaders elected to discern the will of G*D through the lens of their tradition and expectation. How patient would you be in a setting where your very being was judged incompatible with your very faith by those had nurtured you in that faith?
You may be interested in seeing how Beth handled that in her last sermon before her trial and dismissal from "sacramental" opportunities. I think she passes the James test and I will be glad when she again will look someone in the eye and again encourage them through her flesh to join her in modeling Jesus' use of the cup as a sign of a new covenant, a new way of living -- forgiveness for me, for you, for many, for all.
Power in Reverse [MISSING URL] a sermon by Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud.
Again, how are you doing with the James test? How did Beth do? Pay attention because the test will come again and again. Let's continue modeling for one another how to live in these in-between times — between evidence we can do better and our delay in doing so.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html
Prophets are fine examples of patient waiting. By nature they are as clear and noisy as they can be about what they currently see going on as they project the consequences of our actions some way down the line. They have no control over how their insight and presentation of that (in word and theater) will play out. Will people hear and understand and change? Will people hear and understand and keep on the same track anyway? Will people hear but not understand? Will people even go so far as to hear?
Who knows how prophecy will play itself out. Its intention is to affect change but is not in charge of that change.
The way in which we discern a false prophet from a true one is in the results — did people change and thus come to a new future? Did people not change and the consequence come to be? Only afterward can one tell self-serving prediction from that of community-serving wisdom. And if people change and a different future comes about than the one prophesied, can we ever tell if the people really changed or if some other factor came to bear on the situation?
Prophets must wait to see the fruit of their labor. Evangelists, preachers, and teachers also have some wait built into their work to see if what they do sticks with folks and makes a qualitative difference in those lives, but their venue and timeframe is usually far narrower and shorter.
At the same time there is this burning inside a prophet if they are slow in carrying out their task and so there is both a hurry-up and a wait component to their work. I suspect it is easier to get relief from a pent up message than it is to wait to see how it will be received. This type of prophetic patience is not a passive waiting, but active. In the best of situations the prophet persists in the message and in the worst of situations the prophet whispers and goes off to sit and wait and see the destruction they expect and even desire.
Those who read here are part of the prophetic tradition. It is a difficult task to prophecy and be patient, it almost takes a split personality. This is one of the reasons that a prophetic community is so important and why it is important to be part of a school of prophets and a tradition of prophets. Let's keep talking together that we might be encouraged to be prophetic, in season and out. What keeps you going, persistent and patient?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html
James 5:7-10
Luke 1:47-55
Matthew 11:2-11
or
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 146:5-10
Be patient, therefore, "bewombed".... This is variously translated as brothers, beloved, friends, etc., but the awkward neologism is more accurate and evocative.
Patience is possible when we look at our common connections that puts the present in larger perspective. Patience is difficult in the face of a temptation to grumble, not a lot, just a little mumble that will, inexorably, eventually grow to judgment and division. To see a common source life, rather than simply my individual life, brings a gift of humility needed for patience.
When having waited for seemingly too long, it is difficult not to question a soft little question, "Are you the one...?" It is likewise difficult not to spin a response, even one based on experience of sight and sound. For the moment, though, suppose you were called on to respond to a question (presume it is lovingly asked) "Is the church the one...?" Where would you point to ground your response? If you can point at all, would it be toward a common start of creation, particular instances of resurrection, or a tentative sign of hoped for things to come?
Put another way, what are we willing to go to any length or locale to find? Might it be connected with the meaning found in a prophetic tradition of suffering (repentance and renewal) and patience (forgiveness and hope)?
With the prophets we find the terror of G*D - salvation. This terror has to do with the consequences of life lived out of blindness coming home to roost as well as a necessity to admit to the need to change direction. Who in their right mind would look forward to honest consequences or one more change?
In craving a joyful moment in a time of waiting, we can be satisfied by recognizing an antidote to the terror of suffering is a gift of patience.
- - -
your patience while I am harried
adds to my sufferingI see desert all about
you find cool, clear water
thirsty for any relief in a wilderness
I bemoan your pilgrim's way
are you simply you or mirage?a messenger go-between would be nice
to test everlasting joy
joy within and beyond
suffering patience
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
Is it time yet? Are we there yet? So ask kids in the car and John in prison.
How unsatisfactory the response, "Be patient beloved."
I have met farmers waiting patiently for crops to come in, but not any that do so without anxiety. Any day can bring disaster.
So it is we also wait with advent anxiety. We tell one another to be strong, not to grumble and doubt lest such bring exactly what we feared. It is all too easy to see a Judge and to begin preJudging ourselves as incomplete and liable for the full sentencing power of a mandatory sentence.
And then the kicker about following the model of the prophets who were not the least bit patient. They had a call to follow where it led. They did not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. Their task was so important that action had to follow immediately upon the heels of their call. Sometimes that action was to run away and sometimes to dive into it deeply, with nary a second thought.
So, be patient as a prophet! Be as patient as was Jesus in healing and teaching. Beloved, be this patient. Right now!
- - -
Barbara (Reader) said...
Keep up the good work.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html
Want to practice strengthening your heart? Don't grumble. Holding back a grumble is a good isometric exercise.
Want to be ready for a better tomorrow to arrive today? Be prophetic about values having particular outcomes (you can't talk a good game and not play it and then expect your pious words to have more power than your questionable action). Prophesying can't be done without a cogent critique of today and how we got here in dynamic tension with a stronger evocation of a preferred future.
So, exhibit some patience toward yourself as you have patience with one another. When you skip a day and let a grumble pass without it exercising you or you fall back into securing life by means of current resources, simply recognize it and get back on the wagon.
So, know, also, that suffering is part of heart-strengthening. To cross the threshold of tomorrow, today, takes a quantum leap of energy and that some of that energy is generated from suffering as well as from vision.
Still the Advent question comes - for what are you preparing the way?
Are you willing to give up a correct and self-evident answer for a right relationship?
Are you willing to stick your neck out on behalf of others and tomorrow?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/12/james-57-10.html
Patience as passive waiting is not healthy patience. Adding tapping fingers while waiting, doesn’t help the wait. These church culture niceties and passive/aggressive behaviors keep us from a creative waiting.
Creative waiting has something to do with prophetic action. This is more than an example. Prophets define active waiting.
There is a recognition that suffering is present. Beyond recognition is the sense that this doesn’t have to be put up with. Once that is clarified, a variety of actions are available to begin moving toward a better outcome. In the process of acting there is likely to be more suffering. Both the prophet and those they are advocates for will be blamed for breaking order. With blame will come some form of preemptive punishment.
Before and during creative waiting, resolution waiting, restitution waiting, there is suffering. Patience without these waiting styles is resignation, not patience.
Advent is a time to practice identifying arenas of suffering and to begin an active waiting process until they have been cared for and exiled people return home. Obviously this approach to Advent is more than lighting candles and waiting for G*D to intervene on our behalf. Advent is an active time or it is an empty ritual.