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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
November 18, 2022
The Invitatory
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The earth is the Lord’s for he made it: Come let us adore him.
Reading: James 5: 7-12
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Patience is a virtue. The idea behind this expression dates to the fifth century, to the epic poem Psychomachia. This poem serves to highlight Christian ideals and describes vices and virtues as people fighting one another. In the poem, Patience is one of the virtues, which is fighting Anger. We can then consider patience as the ability to wait for something without frustration, making patience a useful skill and a strength of one’s personality. Now cultivating it is a very different matter, especially when so much in our culture seems available to us in an instant. The more important matters of life often require, if not, demand patience. For those accustomed to achievements on a moment’s notice this waiting is almost unbearable.
With the shift to Eastern Standard Time recently made, highlighting that liminal time between darkness and light, one can now feel lost. As we rush here and there, we can lose sight of the very thing for which we long most deeply. The Letter of James calls us back both to ourselves and to our great hope. Let us focus on the human realities and everyday choices that shape our lives and give rise to the structures and values that determine the shape of our world. In a culture dominated by the valuation of power and the accumulation of wealth, and largely driven by envy of those who possess both, we are invited to consider an alternative way, one rooted in relationship with God rather than the world.
The exhortation to wait for the coming of the Lord is expressed in the manner of an instruction, and, interestingly, as a presupposition that the wait occurs in the midst of suffering. Here is a hard truth, giving meaning to waiting for the coming of the Lord. How do we come to an understanding of God’s relationship to the world? When urging our endurance, patience, and perseverance, this answers a question that continues to preoccupy human beings, namely, why do people suffer? Put differently, what do we expect of God?
Perhaps we need to consider the notion that God is in charge, as God is paying attention. In the same ways as some things remained a mystery for the world of the first century, some things remain a mystery to us, and we might occasionally be in need of a different language to remind us that we do not have all the answers and that, sometimes, we even need to be reminded of how to ask questions, about life and about God.
As the pulse of the “rat race” slows, new benefits slowly emerge and take hold of us. Anticipation for what comes next is accompanied by both a curiosity about what will be next and a newborn confidence that it will possibly bode well, and failing that will reveal some new possibility never considered that in time will lead to a much appreciated and needed outcome. Because the future is in God’s hands, we live in its anticipation in our present.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory
for ever and ever. Amen.
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