Wait Patiently for the Master's Arrival

I love the Letter of St. James to his early Christian Church because it is so real!  When they (or we!) gather, we know that everything that can do wrong eventually does; that our Christian churches seem to collect sinners!  St. James, however, is able—lovingly, honestly and wisely-- to bring to the surface, diagnose and deal with the quirks and misbehaviors present in his community.  I especially appreciate how Eugene H. Peterson renders the corrections and encouragements of James in contemporary language (The Message).  Listen, also, as you read the conclusion of the Letter of St. James:

. . . Friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival!  You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work.  Be patient like that.  Stay steady and strong.  The Master could arrive at any time.

Friends, do not complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know.  The Judge is standing just around the corner.   Take the old prophets as your mentors.  They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.  What a gift life is to those who stay the course! . . . .

Are you hurting? Pray.  Do you feel great?  Sing.  Are you sick?  Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing- prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet.  And if you have sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.  The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.  Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it would not rain, and it did not—not a drop for three and a half years.  Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did.  The showers came and everything started growing again.

My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered from God’s truth, do not write them off.  Go after them.  Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

 

Common Ground Garden
Green Beans Coming Up

Good advice for us too?  I think so.  It’s the merry month of May and the farmers are showing us how to live in quiet expectation  awaiting the Master, the new rains, the crops, and our willingness to live in our Easter communities, helping, healing, praying, forgiving, loving one another and the God who raised Jesus from death unto LIFE.  Alleluia!  He is risen and we, too, shall rise again, on the last day! Alleluia!

 

Renee Domeier, OSB