An Old Man's Patience (Hope 1)

Advent begins in hope. Patiently. (Mostly patiently.)

Welcome back to Jesus Daily. Today we begin again, with an Advent & Christmas series based on Galatians 5:13-26. Before you do anything else, I encourage you to read that passage. These daily entries - which will take three days to focus on a different fruit listed in verses 22-23 - will refer to this passage for the next month.

I felt led to do this series in light of some of the strife currently on-going in the US. While there’s much to be said about the larger realities of US society, ethics, and politics, I’m really only writing Jesus Daily for the Church within it all. I don’t think Jesus expects the world to be like him. But he sure does expect his people to follow in his example. We’ve spent three years now looking at his life and teachings in these daily readings. I, for one, feel like I have a better sense of who Jesus was and is and what he expects of me. Not that I live up to it all the time, but I sure do feel like the picture, posture, and person of Christ is much clearer.

…and so far from so much of the Church’s witness and example.

It follows that these reflections and prayers are most often written with the Church in mind, and because I live in the US, the Church in this nation.

So this series - The Fruit of the Spirit of Advent & Christmas - came to my heart and mind in light of who Jesus demands his people to be as a result of the work of the Spirit he sent to guide them. I’ll say more about the passage in Galatians as we go along, but to begin for now, just know that the central idea is this: If we are led by the Spirit of God whom Christ sent, our lives will produce these kinds of things: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

One more note: I’m re-arranging these fruit in light of Advent (sorry to those who memorized them as a child!). The four Sundays of Advent usually come with a theme and the most traditional order is: Hope, Peace, Joy, & Love. I found it notable that these, in reverse order, match the first four fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul. So on the Sundays, we will take them in that order. On Wednesdays, we’ll look at the other three interspersed. Each fruit will receive three consecutive days of readings and reflection. Saturdays will serve as a catch-up or further reflection on something else going on.

Thanks for joining on this journey.

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Right off the bat, you may be thinking, “Hope is not a fruit of the Spirit.” Indeed, the word is not in Paul’s listing, except that it also is. Hope is deeply in essence a form of patience. You might think of this as hopeful patience.

Advent is not only a season in preparation for the coming of Christ (the first time as a baby). It is a remembrance of Israel’s waiting for Jesus the first time and the Church’s waiting for Jesus the second time. That means right now. We are living, waiting for the Second Advent. (For more on the development of Advent, check this out.)

And so the Church is called to this hope, and we wait with patience.

With patience…right?

This is certainly something we desperately need today. It is very easy to have little to no patience today. The technology forced upon us and the speed of delivery in so many aspects of life can rob us of hopeful patience if we let it. It’s so easy to do. The tyranny of the urgent is ever so strong.

The story of Israel waiting centuries for a Messiah speaks right at this. And it reminds us in the Church that as we wait for Jesus to do his thing in finality, we live in the midst of a world that does not realize or seek to actualize what he has done, is doing, and will do.

His people are called to live within it all with a belief as though he has already done it all. Does that seem foreign to our lived experience? I’ve got to admit that it does to me. And honestly, it seems somewhat ridiculous at points. But at a growing number of other points, it is what is setting me free bit-by-bit from the chaos of it all.

A growing hope and patience is being conceived within me. By the way, pregnancy is a central image in Advent, for both obvious reasons within the biblical story, but also thematically. Pregnancy is still one of those things for which humanity must wait. Pregnancy is not passive waiting. It is active preparation through nurturing, expecting, enduring. The best of pregnancies sees a mother’s wisdom in putting the right things in her body, taking the time to rest, but also actively preparing for what is to come. Patience, too, is active.

Patience doesn’t mean sitting around and waiting without whining. It is active, living life as though we believe that that for which we wait will actually come.

Today’s gospel passage reminds us of the story of Simeon, a man who waited into very old age to see the Messiah. Note the interplay of his hopeful anticipation with the work of the Holy Spirit. Three times in this short passage, Luke tells us that it was the Spirit who produced these things in Simeon.

If we let it, Simeon’s example can inspire us all toward the same patient, hopeful posture. Simeon isn’t simply patient. He is Spirit-led in his patience. And that connection is precisely why Paul lists patience as a fruit of the Spirit. This is not a patience of minutes or hours, days, or even months. It’s years. Years of patiently living in God’s righteousness. In this way, the news of the day will not shake us all the time. But we will live with a measure of God’s perspective, which the Spirit helps deliver.

Galatians 5:13-26

Luke 2:25-32

A man named Simeon was in Jerusalem. He was righteous and devout. He eagerly anticipated the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he wouldn’t die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Led by the Spirit, he went into the temple area. Meanwhile, Jesus’ parents brought the child to the temple so that they could do what was customary under the Law. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God. He said,

“Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation. You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples. It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel.”

Prayer

Holy Father of all Creation,

I see your loving justice in Jesus of Nazareth. By your Spirit, make me more like him.

I do have hope, Lord. I don’t always remember it. And I often tend to try and hold it impatiently, which I know isn’t really hope. So help me as I live each day to do so with the mind and determination that Christ already is. He was and is and will be.

So help me, God. Produce in me the fruit of your Spirit which leads to a patient hope.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.