Can anyone identify this plant? (Show picture on screen.) How about now? (Show another picture.) It’s wasabi. You sushi lovers are familiar with wasabi, but you’ve probably never tasted the real thing. Even in Japan it’s estimated that only 5% of the restaurants there serve real wasabi. What you get instead is a combination of mustard, European horseradish, and food coloring. Why? Because a kilogram of raw wasabi goes for $425. In comparison, a kilogram of Spartan apples at Superstore costs $1.88!
Why is wasabi so expensive? It grows naturally in Japan but in rocky riverbeds—an environment that’s hard to duplicate in a greenhouse or a farmer’s field. One Canadian has been trying to do just that for nearly 30 years! And he thinks he’s finally figured out the secret, which he will share with you for $70,000. But it’s going to cost much more than that to grow wasabi commercially. Plan on spending $700,000 an acre to get your wasabi plantation up and running. And then you’ll have to wait over a year for the wasabi to mature, so you’ll need patience if you want to see profits. (bbc.com/news/business-29082091)
Ah patience. Now that’s a fruit of the Spirit that seems to be as rare and as valuable as real wasabi! And yet the Apostle Paul says that patience is something we Christians possess because the Holy Spirit is active in our lives producing it. You and I have patience, we just don’t use it very often (like that trombone I have hidden away in a closet). Those who practice patience are a joy to be around. They’re also less stressed so wouldn’t you like to become more patient? Let’s find out how this is not only possible, but is also God’s will for us. Listen to our text from 1 Timothy 1:15-16. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, makrothumia is the word translated as “patience.” Makro means “long.” Thumos means “anger.” So makrothumia literally means “long to get angry.” Someone who is patient has a long fuse. It takes a lot for them to get upset. Unfortunately I think most of us struggle with a short fuse. If I have to wait more than 30 seconds at a stoplight, I’ll impatiently tap the steering wheel, as if this will make the light turn more quickly. When I am asked to repeat my email address over the phone to the customer service agent, I sigh as if I have just been asked to wash a week’s load of laundry by hand. But that’s just the way we are. Poor drivers make us nuts, and we get mad when the kids leave their craft material scattered across the floor.
Oh, but we can help this impatience. Have you ever been yelling at the kids when the phone rings and you answer it as nice as can be? That proves that you can control your anger. You can be patient. We just usually choose not to. “But Pastor, you don’t know what I have to put up with!” I’m sure I don’t, but does it compare to what God puts up with? Isn’t that the point of our sermon text? The Apostle Paul confessed that he was the worst of sinners. He was thinking about how he had once persecuted Christians—travelling far and wide to track them down and haul them off to prison. But God was patient with him, and God is patient with us. I mean would there be anyone in heaven if God didn’t give second, third, fourth and many more chances? Although Judas, Jesus’ betrayer, didn’t make it to heaven, think of how Jesus was patient with him even though he knew that Judas was stealing from the disciples’ treasury all along. Right up to the very end Jesus did his best to win that disciple over to him.
Jesus’ example teaches us something important about patience. Patience is not a grim, gritting your teeth kind of forbearance—like what you do when you’re stuck in the back of a school bus squeezed into a seat with three others. You put up with it, even though you’re not enjoying yourself. That kind of patience won’t last, and when it snaps, look out! No, patience, as God lives it, is a joyful mercy. Patience sees the other side of things. Patience at the grocery store sees the clerk as she is, a mother who is trying to fit in a few hours of work in between caring for her children and aging parents. Patience will cut her slack then when she has to call the manager because she doesn’t know the correct code for that exotic fruit you’re buying. Patience sees that sassy kid at school as someone who is probably dealing with stress at home. And so what he needs is kindness, not dirty looks and people talking about him behind his back. Patience looks at the bigger picture so that when you’re delayed on the highway you realize that at most, you’re going to get home 10 minutes later than planned. Why not use that time to look around and pray for the people in the vehicles behind and in front of you? We can afford to be patient like this because we are not the masters of our lives, God is. So if it’s important that we zip through the checkout line, or never suffer a flight delay, then he will be sure to make that happen.
We become impatient so easily because we think that if something doesn’t get done NOW, it’s going to mess everything up. But really, has being patient ever gotten you in trouble? Sure, maybe you missed out on that internet deal because you didn’t act right away, but could waiting in a situation like that keep you from spending money on things you don’t really need?
It’s when we refuse to be patient that we get ourselves into trouble. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the word anger is just one letter away from the word danger. When we’re angry we’re not in the frame of mind to make good decisions. A verse from Proverbs states: “A stupid man gives free reign to his anger; a wise man waits and lets it grow cool” (Proverbs 29:11). So should someone cut you off on the road, in your anger you might want to speed up and tailgate that person. But that’s not safe for you or the other motorist. Or when someone says something to get your blood boiling, you want to rip right back into them. But those words will only damage the relationship further. Instead say to yourself, “Ah, here is that situation that makes me mad. I’m going to let it go this time.” Acknowledge the inconvenience and then let it float away like a leaf down a river.
The Bible is full of examples of people who were impatient and the results were never good. Samson showed impatience when he demanded that his parents arrange a marriage with a Philistine girl he liked, even though it was wrong for Israelites to marry such people. Samson would pay for his lack of patience in one failed relationship after another. Dear young people, don’t let the same thing happen to you. Sure, you may eager to find a life-partner, but don’t settle for anyone. Be patient and pray that God sends a good match—a person who is open to coming to church with you and studying the Word.
Abraham was also impatient at one time. He was tired of waiting for God to fulfill the promise of giving him a son so he slept with Hagar, his wife’s maidservant. He did receive a child through that union, but that child, Ishmael, would later bully Abraham’s real son Isaac. The animosity between the two continues to this day as their descendants, the Arabs and Jews, show no love for each other.
Patience is essential for parenting. We want our kids to shape up but often just yell at them because that’s the easiest thing to do, rather than doing the hard work of figuring out and enforcing appropriate consequences for poor behavior and attitudes. And while we may have made a good start with our home devotions, have we let them slide? It takes patience there too to see God work through the Word as he has promised to do.
Patience is important for ministry work too. And I say this perhaps more for myself than for your sake! Just because more people aren’t coming through these doors doesn’t mean that our efforts of evangelism are pointless. I think of the many people my father worked with for years in Japan before they came to faith. Could that also be God’s timetable here? Will it take years before that friend of yours takes you up on your offer to bring them to church and study the Bible with them? Anyway if ministry success is merely defined in terms of numbers, then we would have to dismiss the ministry “effectiveness” of nearly every biblical prophet. Not many of them were successful in converting large numbers. And yet their message is still bearing fruit hundreds of years later in the lives of millions who continue to read the Bible today.
Will it also take patience as you wait to receive your new pastor? Sure. It might take months before one arrives. And why would God put this congregation through something like that? Well, think of the wasabi plant. Where does it thrive? In rocky soil next to running water. It doesn’t seem like a place where anything can grow, but wasabi does and it’s valuable. Can anything grow here if there is no pastor on site? Of course, because you’ll continue to have the life-giving water of the Word flowing through this church. And even though the road ahead might be rocky and difficult, God is giving you the opportunity to bond closer together as you link arm and arm to keep the ministry going. What grows from that experience will be a stronger and more unified congregation.
You can do this. You can exercise patience no matter what the circumstances because patience isn’t rare like real wasabi. God’s patience is all around us. He forbears and forgives our sins every day. He treats us gently, as works in progress. Thank him for being slow to anger, for not giving up on us. And then when your own patience is tested, be confident that the Holy Spirit will help you bear with others in love, for patience is his fruit. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
What does the word “patience” (makrothumia) mean in the original Greek?
People often say that they just can’t help being impatient. How do we know that’s not really true?
Fill in the blanks. Patience is not a ______________________, _______________ ___________________ _________________ kind of forbearance…it’s a ______________ ________________.
(2 questions) What does it mean that “patience sees the bigger picture”? With whom can you be patient by seeing the “bigger picture”?
List at least three people in the Bible who got into trouble because of their impatience. (The sermon listed two. Can you think of one more?)
So what motivates and empowers us to be patient?
