Are We There Yet? a Sermon Based on James Chapter 5 Verses 1-11

One of the things, beside "I have to go to the bathroom" that you are likely to hear if you take a car trip with small children is...

"Are we there yet?"

Patience has never been one of my strongest suits. And I was one of those kids who would just get in the car and already want to be there.

You could say I had my eye on the destination, and didn't care so much for the scenery along the way.

As we have entered into the holiday season, this seems to manifest itself it two very specific ways for two differing groups of people.

There are those who can't wait for the holidays to arrive, and those who can't wait for them to get over.

As children, most of us could not wait until Christmas.

We counted the days.

We counted the packages.

We counted the days until we could open the packages.

And by this time in December things had reached a fever pitch...

Unknown to my parents, at least I thought..........

I had already opened a number of my presents and carefully rewrapped them. I just couldn't wait to get to The day to arrive.

It was just so exciting. I had a little calendar thing that you opened up a door each day and got a piece of candy. Each door you opened was one less until Christmas.

Then Christmas Eve would come. "I just can't wait till tomorrow."

Then we'd go to Christmas Eve service at church. "I just can't wait for it to get over so I can go home and get to bed."

The ONLY night of the whole year I actually wanted to go to bed, so I could

Lay there, and lay there, and lay there......

Can't wait till morning.

As we get older, this tends to change for many of us.

Somehow now with Christmas, or any holiday, we just wanted it to get over.

The hussle and bussle of getting things all ready, the shopping, the traffic while shopping, the cooking, the decorating, the things you just HAVE to go to, the relatives coming to visit.

Then there's the clean up and packing up and finally getting the household back in order, and paying for all the stuff that you really couldn't afford to buy anyway.

Instead of "I can't wait for Christmas!"

You now hear people say "I can't believe it's Christmas already, where did the year go?"

I give my son a little grief sometimes when he says "I just can't wait for tomorrow" but the truth is tomorrow is... WELL, ... tomorrow. And that's either really exciting, or really scary.

It would make it much easier if whoever schedules "tomorrows" would simply make them happen a little sooner.

One more, short, little story, and then I'd like to get into our reading today from the book of James.

One other way that impatience has manifested in my life is a desire to race to the very end. Make a plan until the goal is in sight and then rush to the finish.

I have tended to not stop and enjoy and express my thankfulness to God for the present moment.

Every year in August for many years, uur family would go on a road-trip vacation.

And besides and including all the "bathroom breaks" and "are we there yets?" we would really have a great time.

But this was my M.O.

And every year, I would plan out the whole trip. I would write down all the places we will go and what we will do in each leg of the journey.

For example...

A couple years ago we planned a 28-day auto tour of the USA and Canada from Oregon to Washington DC to Maine and thru Canada to Michigan and back to Oregon. We'd go 10,000 miles in 28 days.

We had a great time. We visited my daughter a couple of times. We toured all the big landmarks and saw my grandmother on the east coast. We did everything we wanted to do, and stayed the course for the entire trip...until...day number 26.

You see, on these vacations...it's not till the very end I can't stand it anymore and change it.

Every year, I promise myself I will not change it...

But every time I do.

Every time, I get to the last OFFICIAL destination and it is time to return home....I get out the map...and say to myself.....we're only 1000 miles from home.

"If I drive thru the night we can be home by Tuesday...."

We are not due back until Friday, and have several more days to casually make our way back. Drive a few hours each day...stop and spend time relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

But...Every time, and I mean EVERY TIME, I decide to RUSH back home with a big SWEEP.

I decide the vacation is over in my head and just drive and drive and drive.

For 26 days, we enjoyed our trip city by city, highway by highway in no particular rush...and then for 2 days I race like a maniac to get back home.

I have tried and tried to break myself of this. But in the end, it usually still happens.

In the 5^th Chapter of James, the writer tells us to slow down, and be patient.

But first he warns those who think that if they die with the most toys they win!

Going too speedy can produce some unpleasant consequences.

[From NLT - New Living Translation]

1 Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2 Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. 3 Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. 4 For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 5 You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.

It's not soft and pretty talk.

James gives a clear and graphic depiction of what can happen if you try to race to the finish by acquiring money, and power, and without showing kindness and mercy.

We don't take any of it with us, and we can hurt a lot of people including ourselves along the way.

But he quickly clears that up for us.

7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. 8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look-the Judge is standing at the door! 10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

Slow down and be patient, he tells us.

Think of the farmers.

They wait till the end of the season to harvest.

What good does it do them to dig up the fields at day 26, when the crops don't even start to yield until day 28.

Be patient for like the farmers, he tells us.

The Lord will soon be here!

What a great verse for Christmas, especially for the impatient children in all of us.

When Christmas day seem like it will take decades to arrive...

Be patient like the farmers and don't give up, the Lord will soon be here!

And then James reminds us of the prophets and how they endured, how they were patient and how they stuck it out to the end.

Job was patient for 42 chapters!

But there was no shortcut. No racing to the end.

What a wonderful verse for Christmas when we can't seem to get out of the parking lot back into traffic and just wish the whole season would be over.

Be patient like the farmers and don't give up, The Lord will soon be here!

Job was patient like the farmers, and although he certainly had his trying moments, he did not give up, for the Lord would soon be there.

And he knew it!

The Lord was with him all along. And he knew that to.

But this was a test of patience and faith.

Would he get so close, and then turn away and race in another direction.

No, he didn't.

In the end, he was to have even more than he started with.

He was to have everything even more bountiful than that which he had lost.

The folks we read about at the beginning of the chapter James tells us they will never find happiness because of the way they got and kept their riches. They were greedy and cheated those who helped them. They stored up their wealth instead of being generous and having faith in God to provide. Instead of living in the blessing of the present moment, they id whatever it took to lock in a good time and full stomach.

And they wanted it NOW!

Job was rewarded even greater because he lost it all, but was still rich.

He simply had to be patient. Keep his faith. And wait.

Had he decided all was over at chapter 41, and lost all hope and all of his faith. The story would have ended there with no happy ending.

The Lord is merciful and kind to those who are faithful and patient.

James tells us that we praise those who endure the most, and God helps those who are patient because of his kindness.

"Slow and steady wins the race," the turtle would say to Bugs Bunny.

So as we do our racing around this Christmas season, I encourage us to slow down and remember God's kindness and mercy and love.

There is never another moment exactly like the one we are living right now. It has never come before, and it will never come again.

People will day "I sure can't wait to get to heaven. Things will be so great!"

I couldn't agree more. Things will be so great, I'm sure of it.

But we forget that the Kingdom of heaven is here and now.

In the very present moment we are living in.

All around us in everything and in everyway, as Christ said "I've we have eyes to see, and ears to hear."

The excitement of anticipation of something wonderful is a great thing at times.

The hope that something unpleasant will end also has its' value.

But as we set our eyes on a certain END stop, and rush to it with everything we have, we lose touch with God's presence with us right here and how.

We can find ourselves "leaping" past Christ and the meaning of Christmas, just to get it all over.

Or we find ourselves leaping past the rest of the year, in anticipation His arrival.

If we find ourselves doing these things....

I hope we'll stop and take a moment

And then take another moment.

Hey, why not, take a third moment

To consider these words from today's scripture...

Be patient like the farmers and don't give up! Christmas is all about remembering the truth that "The Lord will soon be here!"

We can take some time to stop and let Christ enter our hearts and minds and lives TODAY, because the arrival of Christ is not just a once a year thing.

And he's not just at some destination waiting for us to race to HIM.

Christ is already with us, always had been, and always will be!"

©2007 Timothy Henry