"Remember: Patience" (Numbers 21:4-9)

Here in Joliet we have vultures . . . turkey vultures, in fact.  The proper name for a group of vultures is “wake”.  Which makes sense when you think about it . . . vultures wait around for things to die in order to eat.  Imagine them mourning over something with their heads hung down.  We have seen these opportunistic birds floating high in the sky and sitting around trees . . . patiently waiting we assume. 

Do you remember that poster of the two vultures sitting on the limb of a tree out in the middle of nowhere?  The one leans over to the other one and says . . . mind you this is edited for church this morning: “Patience my butt! I’m going to kill something!”  Apparently, the time for being patient has expired for this vulture.  The vulture is hungry.  In its hunger it has had enough and lets its buddy know.

 

We know where this bird is coming from because the odds are, we have lost our patience at points in our lives and let it be known to whoever or whatever was around us.  We have declared patience to be pretty worthless especially in those moments when we have not received what we expect.  We know the vulture’s sentiment . . . patience does not always stack up when we are waiting and have expectations of what it is, we are waiting for.  We get grumpy.

 

So did the exiles from Egypt.  Having escaped their enslavers--the Egyptians, the exiles are wandering around out in what they perceive as the “middle of nowhere” trudging towards a land that has been promised to them to call home.  They have great expectations, but what they are experiencing is a far cry from those expectations.  The writer tells us: “But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  There is no bread!  There is no water!  And we detest this miserable food!”

 

Can you hear them in their lament?  “Patience my butt! I’m going to kill something!”

 

Sure, you can!  Who wouldn’t be complaining . . . wandering directionless in a perceived wasteland . . . no bread . . . no water . . . and, lousy food to boot!  As far as the exiles were concerned, they had had enough and they let God and Moses know.  Poor Moses couldn’t do anything but listen to the complaints, but . . . God . . . well God could do something about it.  God’s response was quick sending out venomous snakes among the people.  These snakes bit people and people died . . . lots of people died.  Apparently for God there are some consequences to those who are impatient and cannot wait.  You could call this a form of behavior modification if you like . . . and, it worked.  The people were quick in admitting their mistake and seeking a solution.

 

Some have said that “patience is a virtue” . . . others have said that patience can be a hindrance.  As a virtue patience becomes a reflection of a person’s ability to wait for something.  By calling patience a virtue, or a state of moral excellence, it leads people to believe an ability to wait without agitation is an admirable quality . . . mastering this virtue will make for a happier life.  On the other hand, patience becomes a hindrance especially when it comes to getting started or something done.  Here the stream of thought is that if a person doesn’t get up off his or her rear end nothing is ever going happen.  So, if you are hungry . . . kill something!  Action equates reward.

 

I suppose both views of patience have a place in life.  Apparently for the Israelite exiles, they needed a little more of the virtuous patience when it came to their situation.  Yet, at the same time a little action . . . like doing God’s will would have gone a long way in pleasing God and helping them endure the situation as they traveled towards the promised land.  The snakes were a great prompt from God to get the people back on the right track.  Things straighten up . . . at least for a while.

 

Are you a patient person or are you like that vulture sitting up on that tree limb?

 

Most of us are probably a combination of the two . . . it all depends upon the situation.  Right now, I have seen a lot of people hovering on the vulture side of patience.  Take for example the pandemic.  Well over a year now we have been dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 virus on all the aspects of our lives . . . you name it and the virus has impacted it.  Needless to say, I am pretty certain that most of us are sick and tired of waiting for solutions to get rid of this virus and its impacts upon our lives.  But, hey, we need to remember that this is a brand new, never before seen, virus that had no known remedy.  Not only did the medical and science fields have to understand the virus, they also had to come up with a remedy to get rid of it.

 

In the meantime, we were asked to be patient.

 

Though it has been longer than most of us wanted, things are improving.  What we have seen in a span of a little over a year could certainly be called miraculous . . . a vaccine for millions and millions of people in a span of a year.  Miraculous.  And, what is even more miraculous—if we can pull it off, will be the inoculating the millions and millions of people across the world to reach that point when the pandemic can be knocked out.

 

As amazing as it is that we got to this point . . . patience has worn thin.  There is a lot of lamenting taking place . . . lots of complaining . . . and, lots of people who are sick and tired of waiting.  They are ready to kill something . . . anything . . . to get this said and done once and for all.  They do not want to hear, “Be patient.”  Yet, that is all we can do right now . . . is to be patient.  It is going take some more time . . . maybe another year or two before there is a declaration that the pandemic is over.

 

And, as difficult as this virtuous patience is, we should not let it become a hindrance either.  There are things that we can do as we patiently wait that can and will make a difference.  Whether we believe it or not there are a few things that will help . . . wearing a mask does work . . . social distancing does work . . . good sanitizing and personal hygiene works.  A little precaution goes a long way in making a difference as we patiently wait.  I know that there are those who disagree with me on this . . . but, I do believe in doing whatever we can make a difference physically, mentally, and spiritually. Time will tell.

 

Now, what does any of this have to do with us . . . today . . . as we journey through this season of Lent?  Well, it has a lot to do with us.  The journey through the season of Lent is one of self and corporate examination of faith . . . our faith as individuals . . . our faith as the body of Christ—the “church”.  It is a time often symbolized as wandering through the wilderness like our descendant relatives of the exile.  We know what we have been promised and now we are patiently and dutifully working our way towards it.  As the exiles moved toward the Promised Land, we move towards the gift of grace and love found in Jesus.  We know the goal . . . we know the destination, but we are getting tired of the trip . . . tired of being told to be patient.

 

Yep, like the exiles before us . . . like the early followers expecting the kingdom’s arrival . . . and, that vulture up on the limb . . . we are tired of patiently waiting.  We are ready to kill something . . . anything . . . to embrace the reward.

 

But . . . we are told to be patient.

 

With mumbling hearts, we turn back to being patient.  Yet, at the same time we also turn back to what we have been asked to do as we journey towards the promise and gift of Easter . . . we pray, we discern, and we pray some more as we examine our lives in relationship to God and one another.  We hold it up against the rubric of Jesus and see how close or far we are from being who God created us to be.  We focus on the spiritual and practical side of faith . . . we work on those relationships that pull us closer to the Easter realization of grace and love.  And, in doing this, the waiting is not so difficult . . . it is not so bad.  It is all part of the journey.

 

Remember: patience.

 

Whenever I was feeling impatient or anxious growing up, my mother used to tell me, “Be patient . . . this, too, shall pass.”  And, we need to believe that “this, too, shall pass.”  We only have to look at Jesus to know this truth.

 

Do you remember the solution to the exiles’ problem with the snake?  God instructed Moses to create a snake sculpture and place it upon a pole.  When the people who were bitten looked upon that snake, they were healed and did not die.  As the followers of Jesus we know that this is often referred to as a metaphor for Jesus upon the cross.  It reminds us to look upon Jesus for our strength and resolve for the journey of faith . . . especially during this season of Lent.

 

Remember: patience . . . this, too, shall pass.  Amen. 

 

“Tearing Down the Walls” (John 2:13-22)

 

Do you remember this little rhyme?  “Here is the church.  Here is the steeple.  Open the doors and see all the people.”  Too often we have associated the church building as representing the “church”.  In the past year, if we have learned anything at all from the pandemic, it is that the “church” is not a building.  Having been unable to physically meet in our church building only served to reinforce the statement many of us have said before, “The church is not a building.”

 

So, then, what is the “church”?

 

I think that is a question that lots of churches, denominations, and ecclesiastical bodies are struggling with right now.  Though it is not a “new’ question, it is a question that has been pushed lately with more urgency as the pandemic has amplified the fact that it is not “business as usual”.  No, it is not as the “church” is struggling and folks are wondering if the “church” as we know it is going to survive in a way that is recognizable to those who claim to be the faithful.  It is a big question.

 

I want us to think about this as we explore our scripture reading for this morning as we make the spiritual journey through this season of Lent trying to understand our own faith and understanding its impact on our lives.  Our reading deals with Jesus clearing the temple courts in Jerusalem of the vendors and moneychangers.  You know the story . . . Jesus shows a little less than the normal restraint one expects from him as he fashions a whip out of cords, turns over tables, and generally gets testy with those selling.  He exclaims to them: “Get out of here!  Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”  We get it . . . Jesus is not happy with what is happening in this sacred place.

 

We also know that those who witness what happens question where he gets the “authority” to do what he is doing.  What gives him the right to upset the apple cart and the way that things have always been done . . . to disrupt the economy of it all?  To which he responds rather cryptically, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

 

Of course, that statement seemed ridiculous to those who heard it.  Everyone knew that it had taken forty-six years for the temple to be built into what it was in that present moment . . . so, yeah right!  Jesus was going to rebuild it in three days!  A ridiculous idea . . . ridiculous statement.  But, like everyone else let in on the secret from the writer of the Gospel of John, Jesus is speaking metaphorically.  The writer tells us that he is not speaking about the actual temple, but of his own body . . . this would be the temple that would be built in three days.  And, to emphasis that point, the writer tells us that this is how the disciples end up understanding it once Jesus is raised from the dead.

 

Good, sound theology.  I am not going to argue with this interpretation as it has been found acceptable for generations of the faithful from the beginning.  Yet, at the same time, I am also not going to deny that there are many levels and understandings of the words that Jesus spoke.  And, that the faithful must explore all the layers of Jesus’ words and actions to get at the heart of what he means.  With this being said, I think that we step into the idea of Jesus’ words being pointed at the “temple” . . . the symbolic representative of the so-called “church” of his day . . . and, that his statement of “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” is a challenge to those in power and control of the sacred.

 

Apparently, the vendors and moneychangers holding shop in the courtyard of the temple goes against how Jesus envisions the faithful and how they conduct business and life.  As we always say when preaching or teaching this passage, the vendors and moneychangers were advantageous in the treatment of their customers often taking advantage of them.  Many of those who were taken advantage of could not afford being fiscally gouged.  This was wrong as far as Jesus was concerned . . . wrong for many reasons, but most of all that it kept people from freely worshipping God.  Yet, we also like to throw in there a little background knowledge that this corruption was not limited to those in the courtyards hawking their wares . . . there was also the black market business being conducted out the back door of the temple where the priests were taking the sacrificial offerings and selling them for consumption and pocketing the profits.  Throw on top of that the general understanding that we derive from the gospels, the so-called “church” of Jesus had lost its way, became enamored in the politics and power of the time, and forgot its focus of serving the people.

 

Based on that . . . I must wonder if Jesus wasn’t implying that the “church” as they understood it needed to change.  His statement fits . . . look at how the “church” changed after he was raised from the dead.  Remember, Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to enforce the law as God desired it to be . . . to establish God’s Kingdom.  What we see happen after the resurrection is nothing less than a reformation within the “church” of that time . . . a reformation that continues to this day as we deal with the question of “what is church?”

 

Someone posed the rhetorical question to me about which church Jesus would attend if he were suddenly to come back.  It is something to ponder, but I am not sure that there is a certain answer that will satisfy everyone.  I believe there are no churches that would entice Jesus to join.  I say this because I do not think that Jesus was even thinking about this idea of “church”.  In fact, Jesus never spoke of “church” as we understand and practice it.  Never did he mention “church” in the words that he spoke.  Others like the Apostle Paul do in the epistles of the Bible . . . but, Jesus does not. 

 

The building we call “church” has come to prioritize “worship” . . . the gathering of the faithful for praise and thanksgiving . . . the fellowship that is shared by those gathered . . . as the central purpose of the “church”.  And, as good as that is, that is a minor part of what “church” is about.  Unfortunately when we embrace that the word “worship” only represents such gatherings then we diminish the words and challenge of Jesus when he tells us that we are to “love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength” . . . in other words our whole being and lives are thrown into the equation of being faithful and worshipping God.  Worship is more than gathering to offer praise and thanksgiving . . . to fellowship among the faithful.  Worship is how the faithful choose to live life.

 

As important as it is for the faithful to gather and worship through praise, thanksgiving, and fellowship . . . would that be enough for Jesus?  One of the things about the pandemic, even though it makes the faithful question what it means to be a “church”, it has shown us that the “church” is not dead.  Worshipping God has taken on new forms during the pandemic . . . people are discovering new ways to show their love of God and others without the need of a “building” and “structure” of “church”.  If anything, the pandemic has pushed the urgency of needing to discover other ways of worshipping God in the broader sense of that word.  The walls have been crumbling for some time now, and Jesus is urging the faithful to go ahead and tear them down . . . the embodiment of Jesus will rise from the rubble.  The Kingdom of God will come.

 

During this season and journey of Lent we are challenged to explore our faith in the presence of Jesus, his life, and his call to follow him.  Daily we are challenged to consider all the aspects of our faith and how we live . . . to weigh it against the model we have been given in Jesus.  Is it stacking up?  Is it working?  Are we really following in the footsteps of Jesus?  And, if not, are we willing to tear down the walls and change . . . change in the way we understand worship?  Are we willing to contemplate what it is that God is calling the “church” and us to be considering the pandemic and the sweeping impact it has upon us all?  Whatever we choose to do, we must remember that it is no longer “business as usual”.  The “church” is not a building . . . it is the people—individually and together—serving the Lord with their whole being and lives to bring the Kingdom of God into existence and practice.

 

The journey continues . . . traveling mercies for us all.  Amen.