A Tale of Two Prisoners
Pastor Mathew Magera – 12/16/18 – Sermon 319
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times." This, of course, is one of the most famous opening lines in literature next to
"In the beginning...", mind you, as Charles Dickens begins A Tale of
Two Cities. The language of that opening sentence, pitting good and bad
together, forcing contradiction, confusion and uneasiness to open a novel is a
risky literary choice. What’s also risky is trying to put Paul and John the
Baptist in the same prison cell after readings like the ones we have today. But,
I'm always up for a good challenge. On one side we have Paul saying,
"Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice!" Then, on
the other side we have John the Baptist saying, "Are you the one who is to
come, or should we expect someone else?" Two completely different moods
going on that I would combine into an opening line that reads, "I will say
it again: are you the one?"
We don’t have problems with
patience around the holidays, do we? I mean, everybody had their Christmas
shopping done months ago. Nobody travels for the holidays so there’s no one on
the road, right? There’s no lines to check out at Meijer. On the off chance
that any one of these isn’t true, patience becomes something we might want to
add to our Christmas list. Paul and John the Baptist are impatient. But, their
impatience is very much different. John's impatience in prison comes across as
"I've had enough." I've had enough. Paul, on the other hand, comes
across as saying, "I can't get enough!" Two prisoners. Two believers
in Jesus. Two completely different statements.
So, let me ask you this: Which of these two
prisoners is your cellmate? Whose impatience do you embody most right now? Who’s
had enough? Who can’t get enough? Given today, this week, this month, this
year, whatever it may be, are you more John the Baptist in saying "I've
had enough" or are you more like Paul saying, "I can't get
enough?" Are you "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:
rejoice!" or are you saying "Are you the one who is to come, or
should we expect someone else?" It’s a tale of two prisoners.
When
patience comes up as a lesson in the church, sometimes it sheds bad light on
those who don’t have patience. Who hasn’t been told “you need more patience?”
There might be truth to that, but patience is not something you can simply put
on like a Christmas sweater. In fact, it may be much more difficult? So, how
can we find freedom when we can’t get enough or when we’ve had enough? You
can’t just go up to someone and say, “Hey, be patient!” Jesus does call us to
patience but I think John and Paul have every right to be impatient at their
given points. I think we can either preach about impatience and how Jesus calls
us to be patient or we can acknowledge the impatience knocking on our door, or
maybe sitting in our living room, and preach directly to it.
If you had to pick which of
our two prisoners needed more patience, I think you would say John. Paul just
seems awful excited. John has a little cabin fever. I think we’d say that John
has to change. But, what if the Gospel could meet John where he’s at? What if
instead of saying that John has to change in order to get something good we see
that something good can come to someone like John in the midst of his
impatience to call them out of it, to provide a hand to meet Jesus even when
we’ve had enough?
I'd like to use Paul's words
in Philippians 4 to help us out. Though Paul seems to lean toward one side of
the impatience scale, what he says can be freeing no matter if you feel like
John or like Paul. Other than becoming patient, is there any hope when we just
can’t?
Rejoice in the
Lord
Paul says “Rejoice in the
Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!” Now, if you’re John the Baptist,
this sounds like the last thing you would want to hear. If you’re standing in a
really long line at the store, just testing your patience to the point where
you’ve just about had enough and someone comes up to you and greets you saying,
“Merry Christmas” I’m doubting you’ll want to be all merry and bright in
return. How can someone who’s had enough even think about rejoicing? It seems
like you would have to be like Paul in order to be that cheerful.
One common misconception of
Paul's words to rejoice in the Lord always is the belief that Paul is calling
the Philippians to be happy. Hey, don’t worry; be happy. Instead, in the
context of Paul's letter here, these words to rejoice in the Lord are more like
a blessing, more like a benediction to his letter, maybe even a prayer. We
might compare it to the blessing at the end of our worship or in casual
conversation something like "take care." It's more like giving the
reminder of a promise. God has done something good for you. God has reached out
to you. God loves you.
Now, there may be people who
read this statement from Paul and are very happy. Some may be excited to
celebrate Christmas. Some may be excited to have good health or have had their
health recently restored. But, there are also people who might want to be
honest about not being happy and we shouldn’t add to their burden by placing an
expectation on them to be happy because it’s Christmastime. There are people,
you may be one of them, who hear this lesson and have serious doubts and fears.
They may be facing many uncertainties. Should this exempt them from Paul's call
to rejoice? Absolutely not. Whether you are in prison with John or with Paul, you
can join in the call, in the blessing to rejoice in the Lord.
Epichaea
Following Paul's call to
rejoice is this phrase that seems to explain his appeal to rejoice. Paul says
"Let your gentleness be evident to all." Hear that word gentleness. It’s
not typically a something I would feel if I’m impatient. In Greek, the word is
Epichaea and it sometimes gets translated in different ways. Sometimes this
word gets translated to be reasonableness or forbearance. How I think Paul is
intending this word epichaea to be useful for us is to think of it as an
attitude you have when you are certain everything will work out alright. In
other words, it's like Paul is saying, "Let that feeling of certainty that
everything will work out be evident to all." It doesn't limit us to
gentleness. It doesn't mask the impatience. It doesn't shun the impatience. It
acknowledges it but still gives hope.
No matter if we are like
Paul or John, that epichaea still applies to us. Paul is calling us to revert
back to our faith. Whether things are going really well or really bad, revert
to your faith for hope. Remember that God created you. Remember how Jesus died
for you. Remember how the Holy Spirit was given to you in Baptism. Remember God
has made a promise to preserve your life and save it. That's where Paul's call
to gentleness comes from. If we’ve had enough or if we can’t get enough,
drawing us back to faith is where we need to go. It's going to work out. Jesus
promised it. Be assured of it. Let your epichaea be evident to others.
The Lord is
Near
Lastly, I want to say that
to this point Paul is basically telling us what we can do. You can rejoice. You
can let your gentleness, your epichaea, be evident to all. You can have faith.
But, while he is trying to tell us we can do all of things despite our
impatience, no matter what side it’s on, we still haven't gotten to the why.
Why can we do all of this? Why is this helpful or beneficial for us? So, this
last part of this verse really shows us why we are talking about it in Advent.
Paul says, "The Lord is near." This is the kicker. The Lord is near.
This is why we are called to faith. This is why we are called to rejoice in the
Lord, because He is near. The Lord is coming. Whether you find yourself in some
kind of captivity or where you are free, we are not exempt from rejoicing
because the Lord is near. Whether the culture around us is healthy or sick, we
are not exempt from rejoicing because the Lord is near. Whether our health is
solid or shaky, we are not exempt from rejoicing because the Lord is near.
Whether we feel alone or swamped with people, whether our finances are booming
or busting, whether our faith is strong or weak, we are not exempt from
rejoicing because the Lord is near.
It’s like this… In the
animal kingdom there are big animals and there are small animals. Well, in this
story, it was a big day in the animal kingdom because the small animals had
challenged the big animals to a game of football. Well, this was pretty big
news and it got around fast. Loads of animals came from all over for this game.
News cameras were everywhere. The big animals stomped onto the field followed
by the small animals. As the game began, the small animals realized their star
player wasn’t on the field and was nowhere to be seen. Within minutes the big
animals had scored and the small animals were getting impatient. Where was
their star player? It was became a one sided game relatively quickly. By the
end of the third quarter, there was little hope for the small animals now. The
team was even more impatient and now their hopes were beginning to dwindle.
But, then from out of the locker room came this tiny centipede. The coach put
the centipede in the game and before long the game was tied. Before it was
over, the small animals came away with the victory. Everyone was amazed and
started asking the centipede why they took so long to get onto the field. The
centipede replied, “Well, I would’ve been there sooner, but I had to tie my
shoes.”
We can’t just stop being
impatient, we have to play through life, much like the small animals had to
play through their game. Whether we’ve had enough or can’t get enough, we still
need and benefit from that blessing and we need that epichaea because the Lord
is near. We can be impatient and we can keep praying for patience but we can
keep going too. Impatience is just a discomfort we experience. It's okay to be
uncomfortable. The Lord is who we need to address that discomfort we feel and
the Lord will set us free from it. We can’t expect to be able to do it on our
own.
Faith in our impatience
brings us peace. That epichaea brings us peace. You might feel like Paul just
feeling like you can't get enough Jesus or you might feel more like John the
Baptist and feeling like you've had enough of Jesus. It's truly a tale of two
prisoners. The best of times and the worst of times. Jesus comes to both of
these men, both of these captives, just as he comes to us, and he comes with a
promise that sets us free. The Lord is near, Paul says.
As we move closer to the end
of Advent, coming closer to Christmas, let us be reminded that we are coming
closer still to Christs' second advent. We are impatient. But we are given
faith to see us through. We are uncomfortable, but only so Christ can be the
comforter. No matter who you identify closer with, Paul or John, the message is
the same. Revert to your faith. Show your gentleness, your epichaea, the
assurance of the promise, and receive the blessing of joy in the Lord for the
Lord is near. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.