Consider some of these quotes about
patience:
-A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
(Dutch Proverb)
-Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius. (Count de Buffon)
-Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet. (French Proverb)
-Rome wasn’t built in a day. (Latin Proverb)
-He that can have patience can have what he will. (Ben Franklin)
And finally this one from George Jackson which also adds a
warning, “Patience has its limits. Take
it too far and it’s cowardice.”
If we look at our
Bible readings for today and consider them from the perspective of Pentecost we
realize how patient God is with us. The
first section of John we read comes from the Last Supper. Jesus is instructing the disciples on many
things. Among them he gives the promise
of the coming Holy Spirit. It is a good
message in the midst of what is basically a farewell address. He will be leaving and he wants his disciples
to know that they aren’t abandoned or forsaken.
In the next
section of John we read it’s the evening of the resurrection. Jesus has appeared to Mary Magdalene and she
has reported the resurrection to the disciples.
Some of the gospels report that the disciples did not believe her. John doesn’t report that, but he does note
that the disciples are basically hiding out with the doors locked out of
fear. Their leader was captured,
arrested, and executed. They’re all
running more than a little scared, and so they hide. For how long they will hide or what their
plan is we don’t know.
Whatever the case
Jesus comes among them despite the doors being locked. How he does it isn’t the focus for
today. For today we want to focus on what
Jesus does. The first thing he does is
say “Peace be with you.” Notice that he
doesn’t criticize them for not believing Mary.
Nor does he upbraid them for their fear and failure. Remember, they all fled when Jesus was
arrested leaving Jesus to take all the blame.
No, Jesus has forgiven them of that and is not meeting with them
again. And as he promised in the Last
Supper, the Holy Spirit is given to them.
The text tells us, “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the
Holy Spirit.’”
It would be
better translated, “he breathed into them…”
Not, “he breathed on them…”
John’s gospel is calling to mind God’s act of creation in the Garden of
Eden when God breathed life into humans.
This is meant to be a close and powerful encounter. They are not fully equipped to go out, be
bold, take risks, probably get into trouble for it all too, but to do it
anyway.
Notice this is a
very different receiving of the Holy Spirit than we get in the book of
Acts. There we have the dramatic coming
of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples with the sound of a rushing wind, the
tongues of fire on people’s heads and the speaking in different languages. There’s nothing so dramatic here, and
historically it’s hard to know what’s really the accurate depiction. Luke is a reasonably reliable historian. Whatever the case, for John’s gospel, this is
it. The disciples are now
empowered. And if the story would go as
you’d expect they’d be leaving the room with the locked doors and the next
scene would be them out in public proclaiming the good news of Jesus.
But where do we find them a week later? A week later we find that they are still in
the room with the doors locked. So much
for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus comes to be with them again.
And this time we expect Jesus to lay into them for their failings. How can they be so cowardly? They’re embodying the George Jackson quote,
“Patience has its limits. Take it too
far and its cowardice.”
Does Jesus
upbraid them? I mean, how many times can
a group of people fail and you give them another chance? Yet Jesus is still patient. His first words to them are, “Peace be with
you.” This is not some cheap quote like
I think we use in worship during the Passing of the Peace. This is a real statement that there is peace
and no conflict, anger, or condemnation from God. It is saying they are in good relationship,
but Jesus again pushes them to go out.
Okay, now do the
disciples get it? We meet them again in
John 21. Did Jesus tell these guys, “Go
back to your old jobs and act like nothing has happened”? No.
He’s empowered them and sent them out into the world with something
dramatic and new. But what do the
disciples do? Peter says, “I am going
fishing.” And this is not a man who
wakes up early on a Sunday morning and before getting out of bed says to his
wife, “I’m not going to go to worship today.
I’m going fishing.” No, Peter is
a professional fisherman. It is his
livelihood. For him it is a commercial
enterprise and he knows how to make money at it.
Despite his
skills, and the skills of James and John, who were also there and also
professional fishermen, and who knows how many of the other disciples were
fishermen as well, they catch nothing.
Well, so much for a backup plan if being an evangelist fails!
Jesus comes to
them again and says, “Come and have breakfast.”
He’s cooked for them and is welcoming them yet again. I love the way John’s gospel records, “Now
none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was
the Lord.”
Yep, complete
embarrassment, caught red handed and smelling of fish. At least they’ve gotten the courage to leave
the locked room but they still aren’t doing what Jesus commanded.
This time however, their lives will change. If we would have continued our reading we see
Jesus having a heart to heart conversation with Peter. There was probably other conversations
too. We know the beloved disciple comes
into the picture one more time.
Whether it was
the loss of their livelihood or what, we don’t know, but this time the
disciples do finally move on and do what the Holy Spirit empowers them to do.
God is
patient. That is a good thing, because I
think we all need a lot of patience. God
forgives us for a sin, and then we do it again.
God forgives us again. And then
we do it again, and God forgives us again.
Being the clever
people that we are we figure that if forgiveness is so easy then we’ll just
keep on sinning. Why change if there are
no consequences after all? And we find
that God will forgive us for that attitude as well. Yet at some point it has to stop. We need to take ownership of ourselves, and
our sins and make some changes.
I think we should
get two things from our reading of John.
First, God is indeed patient with us. We may look back over our past and see lots
of failings – times when we’ve been too greedy or too arrogant, times when
we’ve acted in hate, and times when we’ve failed to proclaim the gospel or live
by it. It may feel like we are stuck in
a rut of failure, and so we are tempted to quit. Consider the dieter who has tried every diet
that’s come along in decades and failed at all of them. It’s easy to just give up and despair. But that’s not something we can afford to do
when it comes to sharing the gospel. We
can’t afford to do it because the world desperately needs the gospel and God
wants us to proclaim it. And we can’t
afford to give up because God’s patience keeps empowering us to try again. And after all, our failings make us powerful
witnesses. Who is the better one at
helping an alcoholic beat the addiction?
Another alcoholic who’s been there and done that and managed to succeed,
or someone who’s never struggled with an addiction ever? Certainly, it’s the alcoholic who knows
firsthand what it is to fail and fail again over and over.
If you feel like
a failed disciple and evangelist, know those failings equip you well.
And the second
thing we should remember from John’s gospel is to be patient with each
other. Just as Jesus was patient with
the disciples so we need to be patient with each other. Indeed patience does have its limits. Eventually it can become cowardice, but it
usually runs out long before then.
God has called
you, a sinful, broken, failure-prone human being to spread the gospel
throughout the world. And God has called
the person next to you, who is also a sinful, broken, failure-prone human being
to also spread the gospel. That goes for
all of us and for all the baptized. It
only makes sense that we show patience with each other as God shows patience
with us.
And so, empowered
by the Holy Spirit let us not hide behind locked doors of fear. For as it was with the disciples, so it is
with us. We can do nothing apart from
God. But true strength and fulfillment
come when we embrace the presence of the Spirit and make it real in our lives.
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