Ecclesiastes 7:8; James 5:7-12 

Did you hear about that teacher from Texas who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help, and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, “Teacher, they're on the wrong feet.” She looked, and sure enough, they were. 

It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. He then announced, “You know, these aren't my boots.” She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and yell, “Why didn't you say so before?” 

Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, “They're my brother's boots. My mom made me wear 'em.” Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry, but she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. 

Helping him into his coat, she asked, “Now, where are your mittens?”

He said, “I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.” 

****

There are certain professions that seem to me to be filled with patient people. We were talking about this in our Evergreens Communion group this past Thursday, and that was our conclusion. We couldn’t decide if the professions made people patient - if they taught patience - or if patient people were attracted to them because of their nature; but we all agreed that there are some professions that simply require great patience. 

Right at the top of that list would be teachers – pretty much any kind of teacher – sciences, math, music, art, Bible... It takes a long time to teach anything that is truly worth knowing. When a teacher loses their perspective, when a teacher becomes impatient with their students, or their colleagues, they have lost something critical. Something important. 

All the farmers that I’ve known over the years have been patient as well. Many of them grew up on farms, so maybe it came naturally to them, I don’t know. But trying to make a living in an area in which practically every aspect of what you are doing is completely out of your control, and where from A – Z there are so many things that can go wrong and wipe you out, well, you are either patient, or you don’t stay in the business for long…

I’m sure there are other professions that also require patience. 

There are a couple of different Greek words in the New Testament that are translated as ‘patient’ or ‘patience’. Interestingly, most of them derive from warfare terminology, they are the language of the battlefield. (Maybe that shouldn’t surprise us!) 

The main word, and the one that Paul uses in his list of the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5, has a rather interesting root. The word is makrothumia, and it is built on the root word thymos – which means…anger!  Who would have thought that the word for patience in the Bible is built on the root word for anger? 

Macrothumia, in a literal sense, refers to the prolonged restraint of thymos, anger. It is the opposite of ‘oxythymia’ which is a sudden outburst of anger; like, ‘road rage’ would be oxythymia. So, basically the main word for ‘patience’ in the New Testament means, ‘holding back your anger.’ 

Now, in case you didn’t notice this, the very word for patience, then, automatically recognizes that there are going to be circumstances in life that are going to push our ‘angry’ buttons. Patience does not mean never feeling angry; rather, it is keeping that anger under control. It is choosing an alternative response to anger. (Is it just me, or does there seem to be rather a lack of this in our culture today?) 

The New Testament writers took this word and shifted its meaning from it’s use in Classical Greek. The ancient Greeks talked about patience as a kind of ‘passive resignation’. No matter what happens, I will not be moved. Even more to the point, the virtue of patience in classical Greek thought was all about a person’s own character development, i.e., it was ‘inwardly focused’. (All about ‘me’.) Jesus and the New Testament writers came along and turned that inside out – the focus of patience in the New Testament is not ‘us’, it is our neighbors, our communities, our ‘fellow human beings’. 

The parable of Jesus in Matthew 18: 23 – 35 can be said to summarize the whole New Testament teaching on patience by the way it makes a distinction between Divine patience and human patience and then adds a little ‘zinger’ at the end … let’s read it (from the Message): 

23-25"The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

 26-27"The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance [makrothumia: be patient with me, refrain your anger!] and I'll pay it all back.' Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

 28"The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!'

 29-31"The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance [again, same word] and I'll pay it all back.' But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

 32-35"The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy." 

God’s patience in this parable is represented by the King, who turned aside his justifiable anger against this servant who had accumulated this enormous debt, one which he would never have been able to pay off in multiple lifetimes.  The New Testament use of this word comes into it’s own as Jesus points out here that not only does God give us new life when we’ve done nothing to deserve it, not only are our debts cancelled… but when he tells us that the proof of the genuineness of that new life from God in a believer is that we are practicing the same kind of forgiveness as we have received. In the same way that God holds back his anger toward us, we are to be patient with one another. 

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology sums it up like this: “[Patience] is something active which makes a person always ready to meet their neighbor halfway and to share their life with them. In other words, human patience or forbearance in this sense is not a character trait but a way of life. Indeed, it is the primary expression of love, for “love is patient [makrothymei] and kind; love is not jealous or boastful” (1 Corinthians 13:4)[1]

There are other aspects of patience as well in the New Testament. They have to do with the endurance of suffering, with living in an unjust world patiently waiting for justice.  They are based on our confidence in the character of God and God’s plan and ability to follow through on his promises. Pastor HeyYoung’s message on peace last week really covered that aspect of ‘patience’ very well (you can get that message on our Web site if you missed it.) 

The main word in the New Testament for patience, and the one that Paul uses in his list of the Fruit of the Spirit is all about how we treat each other. It’s, as we just read, about being ready to meet our neighbor halfway and to share our life with them. It’s about remembering that we are the recipients of God’s grace and compassion, and we have a commission to go out and love others in the same way that we are loved. 

While still a college student, a woman named Heidi Neumark took a year off from prestigious Brown University to be part of a volunteer program sponsored by a group called Rural Mission. She was sent to Johns Island—off the Carolina coast—where she learned from the sons and daughters of plantation slaves who allowed her to listen in as they sat around telling stories. In her words: 

"The most important lesson I learned on Johns Island was from Miss Ellie, who lived miles down a small dirt road in a one-room, wooden home. I loved to visit her. We'd sit in old rocking chairs on the front porch, drinking tall glasses of sweet tea, while she'd tell me stories punctuated with Gullah expressions that would leap from her river of thought like bright, silver fish: 'Girl, I be so happy I could jump the sky!' I never could find out Miss Ellie's precise age, but it was somewhere between 90 and 100. Maybe she didn't know herself. She still chopped her own firewood, stacked in neat little piles behind the house. 

"Miss Ellie had a friend named Netta whom she'd known since they were small girls. In order to get to Netta's house, Miss Ellie had to walk for miles through fields of tall grass. This was the sweet grass that Sea Island women make famous baskets out of, but it was also home to numerous poisonous snakes: coral snakes, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and copperheads. 

"Actually, Netta's home was not that far from Miss Ellie's place, but there was a stream that cut across the fields. You had to walk quite a distance to get to the place where it narrowed enough to pass. I admired Miss Ellie, who would set off to visit her friend full of bouncy enthusiasm, with no worry for the snakes or the long miles. I also felt sorry for her. Poor Miss Ellie, I thought, old and arthritic, having to walk all that way, pushing through the thick summer heat, not to mention the snakes. 

"I felt sorry—until I hit upon the perfect plan. I arranged with some men to help build a simple plank bridge across the stream near Miss Ellie's house. I scouted out the ideal place—not too wide, but too deep to cross. I bought and helped carry the planks there myself. Our bridge was built in a day. I was so excited that I could hardly wait to see Miss Ellie's reaction. I went to her house, where she wanted to sit in her rocker and tell stories, but I was too impatient with my project. I practically dragged her off with me. 'Look!' I shouted, 'a shortcut for you to visit Netta!' 

"Miss Ellie's face did not register the grateful, happy look I expected. There was no smile, no jumping the sky. Instead, for a long time, she looked puzzled, then she shook her head and looked at me as though I were the one who needed pity. 'Child, I don't need a shortcut.' And she told about all the friends she kept up with on her way to visit Netta. A shortcut would cut her off from Mr. Jenkins, with whom she always swapped gossip; from Miss Hunter, who so looked forward to the quilt scraps she'd bring by; from the raisin wine she'd taste at one place in exchange for her biscuits; and the chance to look in on the "old folks" who were sick.

"'Child,' she said again, 'can't take shortcuts if you want friends in this world. Shortcuts don't mix with love.'"[2]

…I think sometimes love means choosing the longer way… 

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace … patience.

Am