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Active Patience in the Lives and Proclamation
0؛Moses and Matin Lather King, Jr.
Jan Schnell Rippentrop
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Passive Patience in US Culture US culture often dismisses “patience” as a passive characteristic. Stephen Webb lOte mUk Christian Century,
In our plugged-in culture, it is the distractions that make our lives so hard, and patience, rather than helping US escape the hustle and bustle, simply prepares US to face more calmly the day’s crowded schedule. But patience needs to be an end, not a means, if it is to become more than a way of coping with the demands of multitasking. The church teaches patience by setting aside Sundays for worship, which should be a restful alternative to the laborious efhciency of the workweek.!
Webb identihes patience as a characteristic that helps one feel more calm and restful. This asseition describes the US cultural usage ol the term. Similaily, MerriamWebster dehnes patience as the capacity “to bear pains or trials calmly or without complaint.”? The dictionary piOvides this illustration: “I don’t have the patience to wait in line for hours just to buy a ticket. ”3 This meaning ol patience as calm, restful, and waiting prevails in US culture, but it differs drastically from the Pauline view in Galatians 5.
Active Patience in Galatians In Galatians 5, Paul includes patience as a fruit of the Spirit, not as an individual and calm attribute, but as an active force in community. Patience (μακροθυμι,α) literally means long-passion or longsuffering, as the King James Version translates it. Long-passion is not passive, calm, rest&l, or for oneself. Long-passion or patience behaves actively and generatively for the life of the world. It bears active and community -oriented characteristics.
Patience Serves Community Patience serves thewhole community. Individuals do not own patience, but instead,
nity. The lhetorical function of Galatians 5 differs from other Pauline lists of spiritual
gifts (Rom 12:6-8, I Cor. 12:7-11). Galatians 5 highlights the community-building effects of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit causes and then effects changes in the community. With the fruit of patience, the Galatians community is increasingly guided by the Spirit and moves away from competition among themselves.
Patience as an Active Practice Patience is an active practice. The Spirit is not passive nor does the Spirit guide communities to passivity. The Spirits patience is an active, long-tempered gift that
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bears with people in their weaknesses, without resorting to retaliation. It buoys others up so that they themselves can move forward. As an active practice, patience does not flee in the face of urgency and conflict. On the contrary, patience is precisely the fruit needed under these conditions. True patience exhibits itself most cleaily under duress. Moses and Maitin Luther King, Jr. piOvide two models of active patience harnessed for their communities.
Active Patience, for tire Community: Moses Moses cleaily behaved impatiently at times. He flared with anger at the forced labor of the Hebrew people and retaliated, killing an Egyptian soldier. 4 He hastily called the Israelites “you rebels” and stnick the lock in frustration. ؛Yet, Moses grew into a leader who left an exemplary legacy of patience. How this occurred offers some guidance and hope for those who can easily recount impatient behaviors that mark their past. Moses grew as a patient leader between the time he hastily struck the lock, which resulted in God telling Moses he would not enter the Promised Land, and the time he looked out upon the Promised Land before he died. It took Moses his entire liletime to develop patience. He did so among and for the Israelites, and the book ol Hebrews remembers him as a leader who persevered.؛ Moses’s patience enabled him to see the journey ol the Israelites as larger than himsell. He led as one who valued his community, reaching the Promised Land even when he would not personally attain this goal. His patience imbued him with a long vision that served the community ol the Israelites. Moses also enacted patience on behall ol the community by supporting the succeeding generation ol leaders. He did not just wait passively for others to take initiative. Moses took the matter up with God and advocated for a leader who could succeed him.
Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, the God ol the spirits ol all flesh, appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation ol the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son ol Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him; have him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and commission him in their sight.” (Numbers 27:15-19)
Out ol concern Loithe community, thatthey “not be like sheep without a shepherd,” Moses prepared for his successor. He invoked God to appoint someone, pointed out key job responsibilities, laid hands upon Joshua, and piOvided for his commissioning in front ol the people. Moses’ actions exemplily patience because they model remaining steadlast in the midst ol a dilficult transition. His actions employ patience on behall ol the community because they piOvide for the ongoing wellbeing ol the Israelites. Moses exhibited patience as an active practice. For Moses, formation into the Spirit’s patience took a liletime. The entire book ol DeuteiOnomy ؛alls between the lock strike at Meribah and Moses’ view ol the Promised Land from Mount Nebo. Moses does not become apathetic or passive due to his personal loss ol access to the
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Promised Land. Rather, Moses perseveres and remains actively engaged throughout their journey. Moses received multiple opportunities to rehearse patience thr oughout his lifetime , and he responded by continuing to contribute actively to his community. God repeatedly tells Moses to ascend the mount to see the land he will not enter (e.g., Num. 27:12, Deut. 3:27, Deut. 32:49). Moses responds neither in anger nor defeat; he responds by continuing active preparation of the Israelite people for their new home. Moses also got repeated chances to practice patience as he walked with the Israelites . He bore with the Israelites in their weakness. Instead of retaliating, he rehearsed the covenantal relationship and ordinances again and again. In Deuteronomy 4 Moses spoke, “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe. …”In chapter 5 he gave the 10 Commandments and in 6 the Shema, “Hear, o Israel.” In 32 he sang to the Israelites the words they would need to pass on to their children so that “they may diligently observe all the words of this law.” In 33 he blessed the Tribes. Despite the pain of his own non-entry, Moses rehearsed the law in multiple forms to the assembly. Moses’ patience grew thiOugh multiple iterations while he actively practiced it in community.
Active Patience for tire Community: Martin Luther King, Jr. Maitin Luther King, Jr. employed patience on behall ol the larger community by cultivating others ‘ talents instead ol relying solely on his own. He surrounded himsell with other committed and capable Civil Rights leaders. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a close conhdant ol Dr. King. The two conlerred with one another on major and minor decisions and piOvided encouragement as well as correction. King depended on Abernathy, among others, enabling each to lead Lrom his own strengths.
The different styles ol Abernathy and King combined to create an effective and inspilLng message at the boycott’s weekly mass meetings. While King emphasized the philosophical implications ol nonviolence and the movement , Abernathy helped energize the people into positive action. “Now,” he would tell the audience following King’s address, “let me tell you what that means for tomorrow morning.’؟
Although Maitin Luther King, Jr. led with chaiLsma, he surrounded himsell with competent co-leaders. He led out ol his strengths and looked to others like Abernathy to likewise contiLbute their best leadership. He invested in this wider circle ol leaders, cultivating their skills and inviting them to manage vaiLous paits ol the movement. King showed loith patience as a communal practice by surrounding himsell with collaborators. King exemplihed patience as a communal practice by deliberating in community about the effects that a Civil Rights action may have on the whole system. On April 12, 1963, King read a local newspaper in a Birminghamjail cell where he was being held because ol desegregation demonstrations. In it eight Alabama clergymen advised people to withdraw suppoit lrom Maitin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights actions in Birmingham. They wrote, “We recognize the natural impatience ol people who ؛eel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these
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demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”® In a response four days later. King wiote his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” in which he says.
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.5
For King, patience born of the fruit of the Spirit could not settle for injustice. Therefore,King rejects the so-called patience demanded in theclergymen’sstatement. He portrays it as incommensurate with the patience of the Spirit and exposes it as a racist maintenance of systemic oppression. King reflected on the action in Birmingham in his book Why We Can 7 Wait. The gioup of Civil Rights leaders had deliberated when they received the couit injunction that would have prevented the Civil Rights Movement demonstrations until after the activists argued their point in couit. The gioup discerned to move forward with the demonstration as planned.
The time had now come for US to counter their legal maneuver with a strategy of our own. Two days later, we did an audacious thing, something we had never done in any other crusade. We disobeyed a couit order. We did not take this radical step without prolonged and prayerful consideration. Planned, deliberate civil disobedience had been discussed as far back as the meeting at Harry Belafonte’s apaitment in March. There, in consultation with some of the closest friends of the movement, we had decided that if an injunction was issued to thwart our demonstrators, it would be our duty to violate it.“
What eight white clergymen had named as impatience was far from an impulsive decision. Civil Rights leaders had discussed it multiple times and came to a conclusion together. King reframed the decision as necessary patience, that is, active patience that moves tenaciously forward for the good of the community. Maitin Luther King, Jr. exhibited patience as an active practice by working step by step towardjustice and reconciliation. The “Commitment Card”thateachvolunteer filled out emphasized this work. This card necessitated volunteers to consent to ten statements that became affectionately referred to as the 10 Commandments of the Birmingham movement. Number 1 read, “Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus,” and #2 followed with “Remember always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory.”” These “commandments ” require patience. They are daily commitments minimally concerned with shorttterm wins but٦dcvo،tedU; ل : ل:ئ; إ:ا systemic ١1(1)0 (؛11)1ا؛ .Seeking t؛e longd،:
patience. King demonstrated that patience is an active piOcess when he turned others toward each other in a shared vision. In his final speech “I Have Been to the Mountaintop ,” he piOclaimed,
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Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difhcult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop . … And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
King condones anticipatory grief by saying “I may not get there with you” to an assembly who knew several threats had been made against his life. He displaces his own centrality by acknowledging that he will not always be there. King makes an overt reference to Moses when he talks about seeing the Promised Land and knowing that even it he does not reach it, the movement will. He drew a parallel between the Israelites who reached the Promised Land and the Civil Rights suppoiters. Not only will suppoiters ol the movement reach their goal; they will thrive and be blessed to be a blessing. King removes himsell from the center and turns people toward one another in suppoit and continued movement toward the goal. ThiOugh active patience, he equips others to persevere.
The View from the Mountaintop Moses’ mountain view resulted from active patience employed for his community . He treated the Israelite’s journey as a movement larger than his liletime, and he suppoited the leadership that would succeed him. He gave patience time to form even while he repeatedly rehearsed it. Active patience granted Maitin Luther King, Jr. his own mountain view. He surrounded himsell with collaborators and deliberated with many on the effects ol Civil Rights actions. He worked toward justice and reconciliation instead ol victory, and he turned people toward one another by sharing the vision. Patience allowed Moses and King to piOclaim God’s word for the people with endurance thiOugh adversity. ContrarytoWebb’sunderstandingofpatience as an end, patience is mostly enacted tenacity for lile’s journey. Life’s journey both forms patience and requires patience. Active patience equips the preacher with the tenacity necessary for the uphill climb. Tenacity enough to hold one’s community together during adversity. Tenacity enough to stay the course in the mission God grants a community ol Laith. The actual moment when one glimpses the Promised Land requires little patience. At the same time, that vision ol the Promised Land is crucial for active patience. Once glimpsed, Moses and MLK never lost the vision ol where the people were headed. In patience, they imbued others with this vision and equipped others to carry it forward. A clear vision ol the lelos piOvides energy to maintain active patience. For a preacher, the vision helps maintain the patience to endure in the midst ol lile’s messiness; it piovides a mainstay when settling for something less would be easier. In many ways, a preacher inhabits an olhce with a mountain view. How do you pioclaim what you see when you look over into the Promised Land toward which your community journeys’? How do you, as preacher, form yourself in the practices ol patience’? The lives ol Moses and Maitin Luther King, Jr. suggest some staiting points:
Practices ol patience that serve the whole community: 1. Treat the mission as larger than your lilespan.
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2. Support the leadership that succeeds you. 3. Surround yourself with collaborators. 4. Deliberate in community over the effects of actions.
Practices of active patience: 1. Anticipate patience requiring an extended formation time. 2. Rehearse patience repeatedly. 3. Work toward justice and reconciliation instead of victory. 4. Turn others toward one another by sharing the vision.
In Galatians 5, the Holy Spirit gives a particular brand of patience: it is active and it benehts the entire community. While patience may not always feel calm and tranquil, the Spirit’s patience does enable a community to face its greatest challenges and keep moving forward. You have glimpsed a vision of God’s mission. Active patience will enable you to persevere in your pursuit of that vision for the good of your community.
Notes t Stephen H. Webb, “Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus” in The ChristianCentury , Vol. 131, Issue 15, July 23, 2٥14. 2 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patient accessed 1.7.2٥16. 3 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patience accessed 1.7.2٥16. 4 Exodus 2: tiff. 5 Numbers 2.٥ 6 Hebrews 11. 7http://kingencyclopedi a. stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_abernathy_ralph_david_1926_ 199 /٥accessed 1.7.2٥16. % Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., EightWhite Religious Leaders, and the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (LSL Press, 2٥٥1), 235. 9 Why We Can’t Wait (NewVork: Signet, 2 ,)٥٥٥1.٥٥ 1 ٥Ibid., 68. 11 Ibid., 61. 12 Martin Luther King, “I See the Promised Land,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Λ ,.־ed. James M. Washington, Reprint edition (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2٥٥3), 286.
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