Good Morning, Church! This is the day the Lord has made and we REJOICE and
we are GLAD in it.
Did you see the video? What does it say? Patience, My Dear!
Now, look at your neighbor and tell him/her Patience, My Dear!
*Now turn to your other neighbor and tell them the same, Patience, My Dear!
We have many expressions for our many conflicting emotions.
There are many ways in which we allow them to show. Right?
Now, close your eyes, touch your finger like in yoga.
EXERTS say it is supposed to do something – Let’s try it.
Now, tell yourself, out loud, Patience, My Dear!
BUT, before we dive into it, how about we pray?
*Holy Spirit, thou art welcomed into this place.
Fill our lives with YOU.
Open our eyes to see,
Open our ears to hear,
Our minds to understand,
And warm our hearts to believe.
Now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be
pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.
Patience is one of the least cultivated virtues in humanity, and perhaps one of the
most difficult ones.
We hold our breath and try to count to 10.
Or, we try to look the other way OR go out for a walk, hoping that that will
help our anxiety go down and our patience go up.
Yesterday, I had to take my mother to ER and . . . OMG! . . . I have to confess that I
lost count of how many times and of all the different ways in which my patience
was . . . TESTED.
From - incompetence to repetition to procrastination to delays and omissions,
etc. all I could think off was,
Really, God? Is this your way to prepare me for Sunday?
2Rev. Elizabeth Marrero Asbury United Methodist Church
And I am supposed to teach about PATIENCE?
But then I thought,
What is it about patience that makes it so difficult,
AND yet so important in our human relations and in our relationship with God?
In Psalm 139:23, the writer asks God in his prayer,
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
Believe it or not, that is a prayer I would think twice before I say it.
Know my thoughts? Know my heart?
HONESTLY, there are some things I wish God couldn’t see or know in OR ABOUT
me.
Because they are NOT that godly.
Try me? Why? because some of our true motives might be deeply buried.
*That is the moment when the verse from 2 Corinthians 13:12 becomes true:
THEN I shall understand fully,
even as I have been fully understood. [HOMEWORK]
One of Jesus’ favorite things to talk about the kingdom of heaven was FARMING.
- “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in
his field; 25 but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds
among the wheat… 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds
appeared also. [because the weeds/temtations will always appear when things
are good/when the conditions are favorable for the blessing.]
28 [That’s why He said}, ‘An enemy has done this.’
BUT, 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers . . .
[in other words, time will tell which fruits are good and which are bad.]
*Working for six (6) years among farmers, I was able to see a different level of
spirituality, especially when we visited Jesus stories about the land.
3Rev. Elizabeth Marrero Asbury United Methodist Church
Farmers know the times and the seasons. They know about patience, because
they know that time reveals the right time and the correct seed.
At the hospital I was upset and impatient. Because I care much about
professionalism and ethics and I was not seeing it? Yeah! BUT also, because while
I cared about good treatment and efficacy, I was being more concerned about
having the time to get home to finish getting ready for today’s worship.
Shame on me? Yes and No.
Instead of exercising God’s virtue of patience and learning to see God’s move, I
was more concerned about . . . what I regarded as MY skills and gift of
perception.
Patience, My Dear, Patience. In other words, it is a matter of time. *
We serve a God who is patient and does NOT snap fingers at our first wrong doing
. . . or second . . . nor third. INSTEAD, God, continuously, makes provision for us to
find our way back to God.
God, continuously, makes a way for us to notice, to hear, to correct our ways.
Why is it so important? because the kingdom of God is about dying to grow into
the image of him who loved us unconditionally.
*2 Peter 3:9 reads,
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance".
What I learned about farmers’ patience was that just because a seed does not
sprout when they want does not mean a harvest is not happening.
Yeah, it’s hard. It takes effort and energy. It takes planning and going out of our
way to be mindful and caring. But it’s worth it. It is our sign of God’s love in and
through us, groaning for God’s will to be fulfilled as God intended.
God’s patience is about TIMING.
GOD’s patience is about MERCY.
GOD’s patience STRATEGY.
GOD’s patience is about WISDOM.
GOD’s patience is about. LOVE.
*So, Patience, my dear, Patience.