Community

Patiently Imperfect

shelliwilliams Uncategorized ,

(part of the “Waiting on the World to Change” Advent Series)

James 5:7-10 (Advent 3A)

7Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! 10As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Don’t you hate it when someone tells you to be patient?  I am, admittedly, not the most patient person in the world.  I mean, there’s so much stuff we have to do!  Am I right?  We’re told that we are supposed to be a part of this Kingdom of God.  We are told that we are to be instruments of bringing it into being.  And then we’re told we have to learn to wait.  And now we’re told that we’re supposed to do that patiently.  It’s enough to try one’s patience.

There is a story that I love (and have many times used it, so you’ve heard it before) about an American traveler on safari in Kenya.  He was loaded down with maps, and timetables, and travel agendas.  Porters from a local tribe were carrying his cumbersome supplies, luggage, and “essential stuff.”  On the first morning, everyone awoke early and traveled fast and went far into the bush.  On the second morning, they all woke very early and traveled very fast and went very far into the bush.  On the third morning, they all woke very early and traveled very fast and went even farther into the bush.  The American seemed pleased.  But on the fourth morning, the porters refused to move.  They simply sat by a tree.  Their behavior incensed the American.  “This is a waste of valuable time.  Can someone tell me what is going on here?”  The translator answered, “They are waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.” 

It’s about rest.  But it’s also about patience.  It’s about refraining from that continual push to “make” things change, to “make” things happen.  Change will come when it will come.  Yes, we’re called to work toward it.  But we’re not called to make something happen when the time is not right.  (Note to self!)

This passage is pretty familiar.  But we usually take it out of context.  Go back and read James 4:1 through this passage.  The whole thing changes.  This exhortation to be patient is not directed at our patience toward what is happening around us.  Rather, it is an exhortation to be patient with EACH OTHER.  (Ugh oh…that changes everything!)  The patience here is not merely a personal virtue.  It’s not talking about the way we wait for God’s coming; it’s talking about the way we act in relationship with each other.  It is a patience that is deeply grounded in faith, deeply grounded in who we are as the people of God. 

This patience, this strengthening of our hearts comes as the community lives and witnesses together.  It is a patience that enacts as we live as members who watch over and care for one another.  It means taking on a deep compassion and love toward the other.  The writer of James is telling us to be attentive to one another, to be compassionate, to not let things come about that are not conducive to our relationships, no matter how much we think they further God’s Kingdom.  God will grant all in God’s time.  What we’re called to do is love each other and I think that means that we work toward those ways that help each other.

And we thought waiting on the world to change was hard!  Now we’re told that we have to be patient with one another. (So, yes, you have to be patient with all those people that you think are wrong!) You know what?  We also have to be patient with ourselves.  See, we don’t live in a world that’s perfect.  God knows that.  We live in a world that is what God created it to be—for now.  And God calls us to love one another and together (yes, TOGETHER) to work toward that vision that God holds for all of us—together.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)

I discovered that in the spiritual life, the long way round is the saving way.  It isn’t the quick and easy religion we’re accustomed to.  It’s deep and difficult–a way that leads into the vortex of the soul where we touch God’s transformative powers.  But we have to be patient.  We have to let go and tap our creative stillness.  Most of all, we have to trust that our scarred hearts really do have wings. (Sue Monk Kidd)

Lyrics

Has this world forgotten how to love?
Are we blinded by the hate we let inside?
No one’s givin’ in or givin’ up
The lines are drawn and there’s no compromise

This isn’t who we are
It’s time for us to start

Looking for a window in the wall
Maybe we can see the other side
And find we’re not so different after all
Looking for a window in the wall

Sometimes hearts can grow as cold as stone
Then become the borders we can’t cross
The fertile fields of trust where love had grown
Slowly start to die when hope is lost

That’s where we are right now
But we can turn it all around by

Looking for a window in the wall
Maybe we can see the other side
And find we’re not so different after all
Looking for a window in the wall

We’re waging war, we’ve died enough
Fighting for everything but love
It’s time to heal (it’s time to heal)
To turn the page (to turn the page)
Too much to lose, so much to save
We have to change

Looking for a window in the wall
Maybe we can see the other side
And find we’re not so different after all
Looking for a window in the wall
Looking for a window in the wall

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Eddie Kilgallon / Tatiana Cameron / Thomas Paden

Window in the Wall lyrics © Pleezin’ The Breeze Music, Paden Place Music., Tajko Music Publishing

Grace and Peace,

Shelli

Community Pool

shelliwilliams Uncategorized , ,

(part of the “Waiting on the World to Change” Advent Series)

Isaiah 12

You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. 2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  4And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. 5Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. 6Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

This passage speaks of redemption, of God’s always-present faith in us.  Yes, that’s right.  Faith is not just a one-way thing.  We have faith in the faith that God has in us.  We love this passage.  We love to say it.  We love to sing it.  It brings us joy.  It is our affirmation that we trust that God will save us and that we rely on that.  And we wait and watch for those lovely flowing waters of salvation.  The writer’s vision is one of liberation—to the exiles, to the world, to all of Creation, to us.  The destiny is clear.  God is walking us all toward salvation and offering us healing waters and that is indeed something about which everyone should be joyful.

But notice, it’s not just about you and me; it’s about us—all of us.  It’s always odd for me when the language of prophets begins to sound like it’s intended for just one individual (i.e. the reader), as if it is called to direct the relationship that one person has with God.  That’s not usually the way prophets talked.  Their exhortations tended to be more collective.  They tended to talk more to the community rather than to just one individual.  So, I often find myself wondering if there’s some translation problems with some of the pronouns or maybe some confusion with the antecedents to which they refer.  I mean, what if God was OUR salvation.  Oh, wait, God is!

Faith is really meant to be more of a communal thing, don’t you think?  It’s not as if we’re in some sort of game to see who can come the closest to God.  After all, there’s that whole image of God thing.  If we are made in the image of God, then we are called to be trustworthy—for each other.  We are called to be the ones to draw waters that quench both physical and spiritual thirst–for each other.  We are called to be there for each other.  We don’t have individual wells. (Even if you HAVE an individual well, you’re still susceptible to the ground water from which you’re drawing).  The water is all of ours.  The well of salvation is a communal well.

And, yet, we still tend to wall ourselves off from each other and pull ourself into our own lives.  I think that is part of the reason that our society seems to be drowning.  You can’t wall off the water.  You can’t permanently hold it.  You certainly can’t choose who gets it.  It’s offered to us all.  You can’t quit trusting each other.  You can’t quit offering to each other.  God is in our midst, not to see if we’re doing everything right (because we’re probably not) but to show us the Kingdom of God—you know, the one for all of us.

When I visited the River Jordan (which is not the ACTUAL place of Jesus’ baptism but rather a part of the river where humans have again seen fit to wall it off and charge admission for the experience.  I’m not really sure if that’s what God had in mind.), I collected my perfunctory water to bring home.  All I had was a small pill bottle.  Yes, it made it home.  But it didn’t last.  Because water cannot be held.  (And apparently the seal on pill bottles is not all that reliable). It is shared whether we want to admit it or not.  I once was preparing to do a baptism and the mother of the child passed me on the stairs as I climbed to the next floor with the baptismal bowl (to go get water out of the sink in the lady’s bathroom).  She asked where I was going and my immediate response was “the River Jordan”.  She laughed and replied, “well as long as it’s clean.”  It was funny.  But think about it—water molecules don’t disappear.  They drain out, they evaporate, the return in as some form of water over the earth.  It continues forever.  Maybe some of those molecules in the lady’s bathroom HAD once been in the River Jordan.  Maybe some of those molecules were there with Jesus that day.  The point is, we’re really just swimming in a community pool all the time.

God IS our salvation.  God offers us the waters of salvation—over and over and over again.  There is no water destined for me.  There is none destined for you.  We really are just swimming in a community pool.  And while we wait for the world to change, the water remains.  Get out of yourself.  Even if it’s hard right now, realize that we are in this together—all of us.  We have the water, offered to each of us, to quench our thirst and clean our very being.  But it really is a communal well.  So don’t hold on so tightly.  Just let it refresh you and bring you peace.

One cannot step twice in the same river, for fresh waters are forever flowing around us.  (Heraclitus of Ephesus, c. 500 BCE)

Grace and Peace,

Shelli