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"Waiting – Another Personal Trainer” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – June 28, 2015 Centenary United
Psalm 130; Mark 5:21-43 This morning we are going to be discussing those moments in our
lives where circumstances cause us to wait in order for our desires to
be met. In preparation for
my message this morning, I found that there was no shortage of material.
Many people do not know how to turn the experience of waiting
into their personal trainer
for developing the skill of having patience.
Such a skill prevents hasty judgmental responses and a host of
other self-diminishing attitudes. In the grocery store last week, a mother sent her children to
look for the shortest check-out line while she was collecting a few more
items. A little girl
exclaimed, "Here Mommy!"
The mother said, "Get in line and hold my spot."
Imagine what she is teaching her daughters without even thinking
about it. Certainly, none
of us ever wants to get in line behind someone who is shopping for two
months' worth of groceries. However, on that same day Lois and I were behind a couple whose
bill came to over $400. We had a
chance to practice patience because most of our groceries were
already on the conveyer belt.
This drama was worth watching.
The assistant manager had to be called because the man's credit
card had insufficient funds.
She was late coming to the aid of the cashier, so all the people
in line behind us immediately
abandoned ship in search of a shorter line.
His second credit card also had insufficient funds.
Fortunately, the assistant
manager was still in the vicinity and returned to the register to clear
the machine for a second time.
The woman, who was with this man, glared at him with
daggers and swiped her card
and all was well. It was interesting to sense the emotions that surfaced within
everyone involved with that encounter. I had eye contact with the
cashier who communicated with her eyes, "Why do I continue to get these
people in my line?"
Everyone is in a hurry, but where are we going? In the business world, many of us operate under the illusion that
documents have to be in the hands of other people immediately.
Industry responded by developing fax machines and now documents
can be scanned in color so that they arrive at the other end looking
like they just arrived in the mail. We have Automatic Teller Machines that allow us to be constantly
near a supply of cash.
Today, people can use their cell phones to deposit checks and make
payments without having to travel to a branch bank in order to conduct
their business. The gas pumps at the ESSO station down the street from the church
were no longer accepting credit cards for months.
While paying for my fill up, I heard the man in front of me ask
the cashier, "When are your pumps getting fixed?
I don't want to keep coming in here and stand in line behind
people that are buying chips and candy bars just to pay for my gas." His
impatience was winning. In the near future in the United States, companies like Amazon
and Pizza Hut could be delivering what we have ordered by drones.
Since people in every generation adjust to what they have come to
expect, we are now in an
I-can't-wait-another-minute for my delivery.
Many people are so addicted to instant gratification that,
when they have to wait, they act like children who have grown accustomed
to always getting what they want when they want it.
In our Scripture lesson this morning, we are dealing with Jairus
whose 12-year old daughter is extremely ill.
He learned that Jesus was in the area.
Knowing that he could heal her, he approached Jesus and pleaded
with him to come to his home and place his hands on his daughter.
Jesus readily agreed to do so. Try to imagine what went through Jairus’ mind when he learned
that he would have to wait.
Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ home when a pressing need surfaced. A
woman hidden in the crowd imagined, "If I can slip up behind this man
and touch the hem of his garment, something might happen."
She did so and immediately the woman was healed. While Jairus was mentally
urging Jesus to hurry, his heart had to skip a beat when Jesus
stopped and said, "Someone touched me."
The disciples were confounded by his comment because lots of
people were pressing in on him as he made his way along the road.
However, Jesus knew that energy had left his body and he started
looking around for someone to come to acknowledge what had just
happened. A woman came forward and fell to her knees before Jesus and told
him her story of how she had been bleeding for twelve years.
She had been treated by doctors, had spent all of her money
trying to get well only to find that her condition had grown worse.
Jesus said to her, "Your faith has made you well.
Go in peace and be healed of your trouble."
After this delay, Jairus looked up and saw a messenger coming
from his home with news that devastated him, "Your daughter has died.
There is no need to trouble the teacher any longer."
Upon hearing this news as well, Jesus told Jairus, "Don't be
afraid. Have faith and trust me."
We know the rest of the story.
Jesus entered the home of Jairus, took his daughter's hand and
asked her to get up and she did.
We can remember the time when Mary and Martha both lost patience
even with Jesus who was their best friend. They had sent word to Jesus
in plenty of time that their brother Lazarus was gravely ill.
Jesus did not make it to his bedside in time.
Lazarus had died and was already entombed.
When the sisters saw Jesus approaching their home, both of them
scolded him at different times, "Had you only been here, our brother
would not have died." (John
11:21) In both cases, having to wait for an extended period of time did
not affect the outcome. Developing
the skill of waiting in peace when we urgently want a particular outcome
requires trust and patience that we are in a process over which we have
little control. Generating toxic energy by dwelling on being inconvenienced or
blaming others for our having to wait create responses that come from
our quick-to-judge inner world.
Our inner world causes us to believe that if everyone and
everything were out of our way, we could achieve exactly what we want
and need. What kind of people has our society conditioned us to be?
Has the allure of instant gratification become that powerful?
When Lois and I both retired in 2010, people asked us, "What are
you going to do now?" I told them that we had not thought much about it.
When they heard that we had no plan for what happens after our
retirement, they became crazed.
"You don't have a plan?
Are you both out of your minds!
You have got to have a plan."
Honestly, Lois and I never thought much about that.
Why should we?
Something interesting has always come up.
Suppose I had developed a plan and made some promises to people
to work part-time at their company in the For those of you that attended that first meeting when we came to
Centenary, you may recall that we were sitting in a circle in Stephenson
Hall. Some you asked us
questions. Lois and I had come
simply to look at what was being asked of us. We had no idea that the
decision had already been made by the Bishop and the Cabinet.
After the meeting was over, someone came up to the two of us and
said, "If Dorothy Buckley likes you, you are a shoo-in to be our next
pastor. I've been watching her.
I think she likes you." It turned out that she did and we ended
Centenary's drought of having no pastor for months.
One of the interesting aspects about God is that creation does
not occur because people have a need that appears to be urgent.
There is a waiting process for everything from finding a partner
with whom to spend the rest of our lives, to finding a vocation that is
a near perfect fit for
expressing the talents and abilities that we have within us.
We have a problem with waiting.
When we realize what is happening, we learn that waiting is just
another personal trainer for
developing our patience. Patience
does not become a part of our spirit by any other means. Once we learn to develop patience, waiting becomes a marvelous
experience, particularly when we wait with a sense of expectancy that
life is a process that requires time to unfold.
As our lives unfold, we find it is like being in a boat that is
flowing gently down the stream toward our next adventure, merrily,
merrily, merrily because life is but a dream.
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