Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany

Patience is a virtue. Perhaps you have heard this saying, or perhaps, even said it from time to time, perhaps when a friend or a family member is rushing you along or needs something from you very urgently. Essentially, it’s a polite—or not-so-polite—or maybe tongue in cheek—way to ask for someone to wait, and of course, to wait cheerfully, or at least, to wait quietly. But this idea of waiting as central to what it means to be patient, no matter how we are using the term. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is patient? When we use the word to describe God, like St. Peter does in 2 Peter chapter 3, we use it to describe the fact that God shows restraint—He doesn’t bring the consequences of sin right away, but rather waits for the best time, in His wisdom, to judge. But when we use the word to describe us as human beings, that patience is a virtue that we are to develop, it means that we are waiting in hope—that no matter what trials or circumstances we face, that we wait hopefully. I want to consider these two types of patience, these two types of waiting, that is, God’s waiting, and our waiting, this morning. The 19th century Anglican priest Melville Scott says that this is a Sunday of patience—and I want to consider with you today that God shows patience toward us—so that we might show patience by doing all that we do in His name.

              The parable that we read this morning for our Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 13—found on p. 116 of the Prayer Book—is one of the great parables in the New Testament, in which the Lord Jesus explains something very important about the nature of His Kingdom, and does so with an agricultural metaphor. Now, in this cold winter, where we’ve had a bit of snow, and more snow is coming, those of you who have gardens may long for the time when you can plant seeds and see them come forth. And that’s what Jesus tells about in the story. There’s a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds—tares—among the wheat. In other words, bad seeds were sown among the good seeds. So when the plants came up, the servants in the field noticed that there were tares among the wheat. It is likely that Jesus was talking about a very real thing that happened to growers of wheat in the ancient world—although, of course, adding in a nefarious enemy who actually sowed the tares! There is a form of weed, darnel, a rye grass that has poisonous black seeds, that when it first springs up, to the untrained eye, looks a lot like wheat, and is only obviously not wheat when it comes to maturity. The servants of the master, of course, notice when it first came up—Master, they say, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? There seems to be a bit of blame in this statement. Sir, can’t you tell the difference between the good seed and the bad? And of course, the master’s response was straightforward. Yes. The enemy did this. So the servants, in seeking to be helpful, said: can’t we just go an gather up the darnel, the tares, now? But the master said: no. Not now. In gathering the tares, you might root up and disturb the wheat, which is what I want to gather. Let them both be together now, and in at harvest time the reapers will be told to separate the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, and gather the wheat into the barn.

              This parable is one in which Jesus tells us the explanation later in the chapter—in a section which is not included in this week’s reading. Let me read to you Jesus’ explanation: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

              The question that the parable seems to be answering, then, is a perennial one. Why is it that God doesn’t come back and judge the world right now? Why doesn’t God just destroy it all right now? Why doesn’t He just deal with injustice and sin and iniquity and everything right now?

              Jesus’ answer is that it is because He is patient. He waits until the right time—the end of the age—before the judgment, and the punishment, comes. And why? The answer is implied here—for the sake of the wheat. So that the wheat may not be uprooted along with the tares in the present. St. Peter puts it this way, in answering the question of scoffers who say that Jesus hasn’t come back to judge evil yet, and therefore He won’t: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering (patient) to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God shows patience for the sake of His saints, and to give space for repentance! St. Augustine, in one of his famous sermons on this parable, says this. For Christians who are in sin, don’t presume on God’s patience. Amend yourselves before the harvest comes. Say not: I have sinned, and what has befallen me?” God has not lost his power, but is requiring repentance from you…for they that in in the field, who are today tares, may tomorrow be wheat. God is patient now, to give space for repentance. The wheat and the tares rise up together now—that the tares might repent, and trust in Christ, and be delivered of their sins—for God can do the miracle of changing the tares into wheat. For God’s patience is not forever. He has appointed a day, in which Christ will come back, and He will send out His angels, and gather all causes of sin and the tares, and cast them into the place of punishment—the fiery furnace. So now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of repentance.

              But if God has such patience, for a purpose, then we who are His people are to have patience as well—but our patience is different. For we are not the people who are bringing the judgment or the punishment ourselves. We are people who are waiting for the promise of His coming. Now, this does not mean that if a person shows themselves to be a wolf among the sheep, to be a tare among the wheat, that we do not seek to deal with that. That is the purpose of Church discipline. But there’s a fine line here, that can be hard for us to discern if we care greatly about theological precision or personal holiness. Our role as a Church, and as individuals, is not to be overbearing, so that we try to uproot all the tares right now—so that we end up destroying the wheat along with the tares. Part of our discipline of patience, then, means that we are waiting. We are looking to God, and waiting for Him to work, for Him to judge, for Him to reveal, for Him to work out His good pleasure.

              But as we wait in patience, we are also to wait in obedience. This is what our Epistle lesson for today tells us. We are to put on, as the chosen of God, the elect of God, the wheat of God, a heart of compassion, meekness, long-suffering—that’s patience; forbearing one another (that’s showing patience toward one another) and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave us, so we are to forgive others. And above all things put on love, which bonds all the virtues together. To allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, growing in wisdom, praising God in His way, and whatever we do, doing it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by Him.

              So waiting in patience, looking to God in patience, means that we are able to entrust the judgment to God. It means that we live in obedience to His Word now, as an act and as a function of our patience and our trust in Him. Doing things in His name means that we do things under His authority and His leading. It means that not matter what we face, we are formed by His Word to be a people that can patiently wait for Him.

              Are you patiently waiting for God today? Are you trusting His promises? Can you be still, and know that He is God? And are you repenting of your sins—are you laying your sins here by repentance before His throne, trusting in the shed blood of Jesus for your forgiveness, and ready to follow Him where He leads? Let us not presume on the patience of God, but let us patiently hope for His coming—and in the meantime, let us follow Him. Amen.