March 2005

by Pastor Jim Berger

"Be patient, then brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." James 5:7-8

A poet once said, March is the longest month. Winter weather is almost gone, but it is possible that we will be visited by that four-letter word, snow, again. Days will be warm, but frost will visit us at least a few times, hopefully only in the first days of the month.

But March storms lead to April showers and April showers bring May flowers. The world turns from winter into spring, But, Oh, how hard it is to wait for the warmth of the summer!

So it is with the Kingdom of God.

I've always half-jokingly called the farmers the greatest gamblers in the world. They don't know when the rains, frost, droughts, or disease will come. Yet, they place the seed into the ground and, because of their risk, this nation reaps and abundant harvest.

Why do they take such risks? If they didn't, they would not be farmers. It is part of what they are. If they would stop they could no longer hold faith with the earth. The farmer must wait patiently for the rains and the warmth to prepare the ground for planting. It is not a thing that can be rushed or forced to go on our own time scale.

Christians, likewise, wait. From the fall of humanity into sin and death "we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time" (Romans 8:5). For all those ages the world waited for the work of the Son of God. Then came the cross and resurrection.

All life hangs upon that pivot point, Before that day the world did not know for what it waited. When Christ came the whole of humanity was unprepared. The cross was unthinkable and the empty tomb more so.

But when Good Friday and Easter happened. it was like the first rain that began to break the drought of the human soul. The winter of sin was broken and the warmth of spring promised. We have a future. Suddenly we were given hope for things to come.

Now we are again in a time of waiting. He has taken divided humanity and given it what it never had before. In Ephesians 2:14-16 Paul tells us, "For [Jesus] himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

We know that as He died and rose from the dead, He is coming again. We desire His return, for then will come the eternal summer of Glory and Victory and Praise and Death will die. But as the farmer must, we need to patiently wait for the day, prepared in heart and body and actions for when that time comes.

Yet our hope should be fuller than than that of the greatest Old Testament prophet. They only dimly could perceive the cross. We have seen Christ's victory. They could hope only in things dimly understood. Christ showed the world the gift of His all powerful love. We are even more blessed then the farmers. They don't know what the future will bring, if a crop will even be had. We know that when all has been completed, Christ will return and we will be restored. how blessed can we be?

Let us pray that God will make us patient, strong and brave. The day of His coming is approaching. Sin failed against the empty tomb. All the forces of hell will not be able to stop Christ's return, in His day and in His hour.

Happy Easter!

Pastor Jim, Sarah, Katherine &

Dorothy