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THE REALITY OF JESUS' "LOVE AND THE POWER OF HIS PATIENCE AND KINDNESS
(makrothumia - Greek)"
August 2005
We are designed for Peace - Patience and Kindness. (makrothumia - Greek)
There is building work going on in our Church centre and this will continue for at least two weeks or more if things go according to plan anyway. It took us 10 months to raise the funds from our friends and well wishers, 5 months to get the faculty, two months the get the contractor to start working, hopefully, (17 months and 2 weeks) to get the work done.
I learnt one important thing from our Church architect during the planning for this work. Before an architect designs a building, he asks, "What is its purpose?". The answer to that determines everything. Before God created you He decided the role He wanted you to play, then prepared you for it. He also planned each day of your life accordingly.
We are designed for Peace - Patience and Kindness.
Look at it in action. Oscar Romero was Archbishop of El Salvador until 1980 when he was murdered whilst saying mass. Previously the church had protested against government injustice. Church offices had been bombed, church workers harassed, and several priests kidnapped. Archbishop Romero had become 'the voice of those who have no voice.'
He condemned Government policies which would 'benefit a few and wring the life-blood out of many'. He had a vision of a just society with fair distribution of food, land, houses, and power. But he was not a starry-eyed idealist; "he was a realist with a vision - Patience"
Patience (makrothumia - Greek) is a gift from God and is the Christian attitude which enables you and I to live in the interim period between having a vision and seeing it come to pass. It does not sit down and wait for things to happen. It does not grit the teeth and endure. It 'can endure delay and bear suffering and never give in'. It is a result of faith; a fruit of the Spirit.
It is for ordinary Christians. It can sustain the long-term unemployed person looking for work but living with the reality of many rejection notes. It is how the social worker copes with seeing what a client ought to do but finding the client rejecting all help.
Patience (makrothumia - Greek) is the quality needed when a couple with marriage difficulties have a vision of the happiness they want to recover but have yet to take the many painful steps to put things right. It is how the bereaved live through the early period of their loss - pain bitterness, denial of reality - the recent London bombing.
We need Patience (makrothumia - Greek) as we pray for a world without 11 September 2001, Iraqis' chaos and suffering, poverty and injustice, and then turn on our televisions to see our hopes and dreams dashed.
It has strong biblical roots. With his vision of the Kingdom of God, Jesus needed Patience (makrothumia - Greek) to live creatively through the years of his ministry. The Old Testament prophets needed the same quality as they proclaimed their message of justice in an unjust world of conflict, rejection, fear and terror. It was part of the experience of the people of Israel both in their wandering through the wilderness and also during their exile in Babylon.
Patience belongs to the nature of God. The author of 1 Peter 3:20 sees God waiting until the ark was built before allowing the flood. He uses the word makrothumia to describes God's attitude. God still sees his Kingdom delayed because - clutching at war, hatred terror and injustice - we prevent his purpose.
Makrothumia links well with kindness, the fruit Paul also mentions.
Kindness is the bridge between the twin ideas of patience and long-suffering. Kindness will not let patience be inactive. It will not let long-suffering be heartless or bitter.
Kindness helps patience to dissolve any bitterness or anger in the waiting his vision. It may lead to reconciliation in broken relationships.
Martin Luther King, the American civil-rights leader, said: "The past is prophetic in that it loudly asserts that; chaos, bitterness, terror, destruction and war are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means."
Have a nice and peaceful summer holiday!
Modicum
"Babbling, rambling and ill-considered words, though uttered by many people, should never be spoken by the people of God. It's no good opening your mouth wide to sing God's praises if you only open half an ear to hear what He has to say and never get around to doing what you promised him you would do."
Ecclesiastes 5:5
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