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If you've ever prayed for patience, then you've probably learned not to. The old joke is that if you pray for patience, God will indeed give you every opportunity to be patient. Meaning you end up learning patience through those difficult events in your life where you're forced to be patient. Unfortunately, there seems no other way to learn patience. The way the world perceives patience is simply by endurance. The patience, that patience is nothing more than standing there after getting punched in the gut by life, just waiting for the pain to subside. Or when you have to wait on your child to finish doing the chore that you asked them, and it seems they take forever. So you wait. Maybe tapping your feet a little bit, waiting for them to get the job done. Or when you've asked someone to fulfill their oath, and you're left there waiting day after day, week after week, month after month, just waiting for them to deliver on what they've promised. This is what our world perceives, what it means to be patient. These are our views of patience. In this world, there is a lot of hardship and pain and suffering. All around us, we witness all kinds of things that seem out of control, much less out of our own control. Things like sickness and death. Russia pummeling the Ukraine or the pandemic we had in COVID and its multiple mutations. The flu, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, life seemingly swallowed up in death in the blink of an eye. And there is nothing we can do to stop it. So we perceive then that patience is simply waiting for all the bad stuff to just end. This says nothing of our own lives, by the way. The frustrations, the dangers, the toils, sometimes the same day in, day out, not to mention the wrestling we all have with our own sin. How often are we deceived into believing we're not all that bad? That is, of course, until the word of God gets a hold of us and we're left blinking while staring in the mirror of God's law, and we see ourselves completely disfigured with our own sin. And we're so often overwhelmed by life, worn out by all of it and our sin that it feels like we've got nowhere to turn except to be trudging along the same path, just waiting for all things to just come to an end. Patience, dear saints, does involve waiting. Waiting for someone or something to act. Although the impact is the same, this is not the patience that Saint James is talking about in tonight's epistle. Yes, God is teaching us patience. But he calls us to be patient in ways we can truly not do ourselves. He writes, Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. The farmer must wait for something he cannot control. He must depend on that which is completely outside of himself. And thus it is the same for all of you. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. You can't do what St. James is exhorting you to do without Christ. You can't establish your hearts outside of Jesus. You can't be prepared for the coming of the Lord without being covered in Christ Jesus. The moment that you believe that you can is the moment you'll lose patience and you'll succumb to your own sinful flesh. You must rely on that which comes from outside of you, outside of yourself, which is Christ Himself who comes to you in water and word and body and blood. It is our Lord's word which makes this clear to all of us. You are the branch, I am the vine, apart from me, you can do nothing. The patience Saint James is calling us to have is the patience God in Christ has with us. We are called to be long-suffering and steadfast like him. This is why, in fact, Saint James points to the saints of old. He writes, as an example of suffering and patience. Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Job could literally do nothing. He was stripped of everything. Everything that he held dear, his family, his children, all his possessions, even his own skin became diseased. The only thing that he was left with was relying on the mercy of God. He had no knowledge of God's conversation with the devil. He knew nothing about the bargain the devil tried to strike with God over Job. Job was simply at the mercy of God and what the Lord had allowed Satan to do. And once Job's own patience, his own patience began to fail, the Lord remained patient with Job. The Lord was patient even once Job became impatient and questioned God's care over him. He said, I cry to you for help and you do not answer me. I stand and you only look at me. You've turned cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. And how did God answer Job? He never gave Job the answer Job asked for, by the way. He only reminded him that he was God. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man? I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding, who determined its measurement? Surely you know, or stretched, who stretched the line upon it, and on what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And in doing so, God rebukes Job and calls him to repentance. And Job repents, saying, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Hear and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. You're baptized. God is patient. He's patient with his people. He's patient with sinners. He's patient with all of you. Scripture fundamentally calls his patience long suffering and steadfastness. And this is a good thing. It's good for you to know this about God. So Saint James admonishes us, do not grumble against one another, brothers, that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Because when you grumble against each other, or as the saints of God in Christ Jesus, you put yourselves under the same judgment that the Israelites did, who received in the wilderness and were bitten by snakes. So then, as the baptized believers in Christ, you must forgive as he has forgiven all of you. You must not grumble against one another. It is of no value to you. Our Lord is long-suffering with us, and he waits for us, and he reminds us over and over again to turn away from our sins and our misgivings, and away from this world and all its trappings, and away from the temptations of the devil and even our own flesh, and return to him where he offers himself to you. This is the life of the baptized Christian. Daily repentance and forgiveness. And as his baptized beloved children, we have the promises of God when and where he delivers them to us, to sustain us, because the coming of the Lord is at hand. Our confidence is not in perishable things. It's not out there. But in the imperishable. That is, Jesus Christ Himself, who is the way, the truth, and the life. This is the only way you can have godly patience, by the way. It's the only way you can endure long suffering. You need Jesus. You need Jesus when and where he comes to you to strengthen your faith toward him and your love toward each other. Thus we must wait for the Lord. Knowing that he is compassionate and merciful in all things, as the words of Jeremiah tell us, those who wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings like eagles. He may not give us a 30,000-foot view. Yet he may not show us the immediate path and outcome. And although we want answers for now, sometimes our Lord simply says, wait, beloved. And in that moment, all we can do is have patience that He gives us to hope in what He promises. Hope is the key to patience, to godly patience. And that hope is that is only given by the enfleshed word of God, which is Jesus Christ our Lord. There's no way to sugarcoat it, friends. Patience only comes with suffering. And we can only endure suffering through our hope, which is in Jesus. And our hope does not put us to shame. It is our anchor and our antidote against impatience. This is the patience that St. James is talking about. Only Jesus, only in Jesus can we have true patience. Only by the hope in his promises can we wait for the coming of the Lord with confidence and endure to the end. And he will come. But until then, be filled with your crucified and risen Lord. Let him sustain your patience through faith and hope until he returns again in glory. Amen. In the name of Jesus. Amen.