“First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’” (2 Peter 3:3-4)
Sadly, but inevitably, right now some moderate-to-well-known pastor or some religious person is doing something that will raise a scandal whenever that thing is discovered. Living in an era where church secrets are exposed to public scrutiny (and this is by no means a bad thing, mind you), we are all but guaranteed that somewhere, right now, a “celebrity Christian” is about to make a fool out of him or herself.
Naturally, we should feel pity for such folks because being a Christian in a globally-connected world is not easy. Just recall, for instance, how many times the author of today’s reading – Peter – made a fool out of himself before Jesus and the other disciples. Just, like, all the dang time. If there was an opportunity to stick his foot in his mouth, then he started making both jaws and hamstrings limber to do it! Christian leaders biff it all the time.
Also naturally, of course, we feel more than pity, but resentment and frustration. It’s not easy being a Christian in our culture. We’re far from actual martyrs, but the tides have clearly turned against faith these days. And so, we don’t need some celeb Christian, some lecherous priest, some greedy preacher making matters worse for us by acting a fool and making us all guilty by association.
Typically, when these things happen, we say things like, “Well, I’m not that sort of Christian,” but if that is a victory at all, it is an emaciated one. It’s true that I’m not a “Prosperity Gospel” preacher, but that doesn’t mean that my ability to minister isn’t adversely impacted by the existence of those preachers. I can protest the differences all day long, but for so many folks, guilt-by-association is just real. Also, even though I’m not one of these preachers, I have no doubt that I am still bound to them by the baptism we share and our mutual adoption into the family of God. So, I can protest against them all I want, but all that means is that I display disunity instead of being united in faith.
All this to say, being a Christian is tricky business.
But really, though, this is nothing new. As Peter’s letter makes clear, there have always been scoffers who find some reason to practice their guffawing at the church. In his letter, it’s all about people who say, “Yeah? Your God made things better? Then why do they still stink?” It’s a valid question when asked in a Bible study, but it’s an invitation to a war of words when uttered as a mocking accusation.
Peter’s response is important for learning to be faithful even in the midst of the church’s poor witness: Patience. Be patient. Don’t be patient just because it’s a good strategy. Be patient because, Peter reminds us, God is being patient. As such, being patient is a very godly thing to do. Don’t mix up efficiency with faithfulness. Wait it out. See what happens.
As a fan of fine craft beers (and a brewer of almost-fine craft beer), I’m reminded that the entire process is one of patience. I can buy the supplies and brew the batch in the course of one day. It’ll take me about an hour-and-a-half of running to the best brew supply store (kudos to anyone who wants to open one of those in Marysville!). Then it’ll take me about 5 hours to boil, cool, and rack the beer into a fermenting pail. But I don’t have beer at this point. At this point, I have a sweet wheat tea. Tasty in its own right, but not quite the real thing. No, for me to have beer, I have to wait for fermentation. That’ll take 7-10 days. After that, I have to bottle the beer and wait for carbonation to occur. That takes an additional 4-6 weeks. The whole thing is about patience. There is no efficient route to the fine final product.
Well, if this is true for beer, then how much truer must that be for the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom has to be at least one million times better than beer (maybe even 10 million times… but let’s not push it past that!), so that means I have to figure out how to be one-to-ten million times more patient for the Kingdom than for beer. And if beer isn’t your thing, then pick any good thing that takes patience. A new child takes 40 weeks to gestate before entering our world and even then, it’ll be another 18 or more years before they become a fully functioning adult. That’s A LOT of patience. As of today, Santa is still three weeks away from arriving, which – if you’re eight or younger – feels like slightly less time than it takes to travel to another galaxy and back.
Scoffers are going to scoff at how slow God is and how poor Christians are at representing Him. So be it. But we who have had our lives captured by the goodness of our God know that patience is the real key to joy. Indeed, if Christians can scoff at anything, it might just be those who thing great things can come quickly. And so, we can pray, “Come, Lord, come,” but we’re more than prepared to be patient until this prayer is answered. Amen.
