December 14, 2025

Matt 11:2-15

According to Reference.com, Americans spend 13 hours every year waiting on hold with customer service. We also wait an avg 32 minutes when we visit the doctor. We spend 28 minutes in security when we fly. The average commuter spends 38 hours each year waiting in traffic. Americans spend 37 billion hours waiting in line and in addition to these annual totals, i these public challenges to patience aren’t enough, Americans spend 21 minutes waiting for a spouse ready to go out. Waiting is a frustrating fact of life. And the truth is the longer we have to wait the easier it is for us to lose patience. It’s always difficult to wait but when the circumstances are out of our control waiting can create anxiety and cloud judgment even when we should know better. In today’s reading from Matthew that is exactly what we see. The impact of impatience in the gospel shows up in one of the most important characters in the bible, John the baptist. The one of whom Jesus said, of those born of women there is no greater.

The prophet who prepared the way for the Christ and proclaimed with boldness that the kingdom of God was near. John the baptist, the hero of Advent, now finds himself anxiously waiting in Herod’s prison. The same temptations that attack us as we wait also plagued John. And confused by his situation, John sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus if He indeed was the One who is to come. No veiled or hidden meaning as he waited in his prison cell. John wanted to know from Jesus, are you the Christ? Are you the One promised throughout the OT? Are you the One we waited for or did we get it wrong? As John contemplated his fate, he questioned the very purpose for which he was born. In John’s impatience, John lost sight of God’s promise. Impatience had clouded his eyes, even for John the baptist, doubt had taken root. This story is so important for us to hear, because this is something we all understand. We hate to wait. (Whether we wait for kids, or doctor with test results, the anxiety of impatience can drive us to distraction.) Like John, the confusion of our sinful hearts blind us to God’s promises and to the people we are called to serve.

I want to share with you a Jewish folktale about Father Abraham, and in the folktale father Abraham was sitting outside his tent and he saw an old weary traveler coming toward him. So he rushed out to meet this guest and he brought him in and washed the old man’s feet and graciously gave him food and drink and then he watched this man, without pausing to say any kind of prayer or blessing over the food, quickly dug in and began to devour the meal. The man’s apparent ingratitude shocked Abraham and he asked “don’t you worship God?” The old traveler replied he only worshiped fire and he would show reverence for no other god. And when he heard this from the old man, he was furious. He grabbed the old traveler and threw him out of his tent. After the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked Abraham where the stranger was? Abraham proudly replied, “I kicked him out of my tent because he did not worship you.” And to Abraham’s indignant reply, God answered, “I have suffered him these 80 years although he dishonors My name, could you not endure him one night?”

This little fable cuts to the heart.  Because just like we see in this story about Abraham, our prideful impatience blinds us from the good things God is doing in and through our lives. James writes to us, “be patient, until the coming of our 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, you also be patient.” This word of God is crystal clear and yet we struggle and ultimately we fail to follow this command. We are called to bear with one another in love and yet we quickly write off those who don’t take our advice. We complain about those who have treated us with disrespect and yet we are quick to speak about those same people behind their backs. We justify our own failings but all too eager to point out the flaws of others. We explain how we have been wrongly judged while jumping to conclusions about our neighbor. If God treated us with even a small measure of our own impatience… we wouldn’t stand a chance. But that’s not how God has treated us. Instead of punishment, we have seen patience. And Instead of condemnation we have experienced compassion. Instead of judgment we have received joy. Instead of death we have been given life. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness. But He is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” The apostle Paul writes “that at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” This means, that for our sinful and selfish hearts, Christ died. For our anxious and confused priorities Christ died. This means for our willful impenitence Christ died and for His sake you are…. forgiven.

We have all failed to be patient. And in our impatience, we have tried to force God to meet our demands in our way and according to our schedule. But God’s timing is impeccable and His patience is persistence and because of God’s perfect patience we have been freed from the power of sin! This means that God’s forgiveness has given us the power to forgive others and it also means God’s love enables us to be patient with others that through us and our witness the gospel may be preached. And the HS may bring to faith and salvation to those for whom Christ died. Even when it doesn’t fit into our plan or go according to our schedule.

I know some of you are struggling as you wait. As you wait for direction and what this year may bring, an answer or the results of a test or as you wait for your body to heal or grief to subside or as you wait for some other issue or event in your life to unfold in your life. Waiting can be confusing and can cause anxiety but God has never and will never give up on you. Just as He did for John the baptist, God reminds you that through Christ, you can endure the uncertainties of this life with confidence in God’s promise that He will save you and He will use you, even in your weakness. Even as you wait to accomplish His saving purpose.

Dear friends in Christ, you can wait and you can remain steadfast because the Lord’s coming is near and His patience with you is perfect. In the name of Jesus. Amen.