Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/63

Contributor - Rev. J. R. Euwema

Title - The Impatience Of a Parson - Part 2

Topic - Patience

THE CURE OF UNHEALTHY IMPATIENCE

Now just a moment or two of suggested advice. Of course advice is cheap, and it is just as deeply resented. It will be said, "What? Some more advice? Can't we ever get along without some one wanting to run our lives?,, But do not close your ears and hearts as yet. This is not because my advice is so good and holy, but a few years of service in the Kingdom of our Master have done a bit to myself and I am just trying to pass it on to you.

I am not, offering this advice as the retiring president of the Classis. It is being offered as one servant of the Lord to another and as one who also has been an "impatient parson" but who has learned to know that the mills of God grind ever so slowly, but they also grind ever so fine." What so easily may happen is that in our impatience we ourselves are liable to become the victims of our own eagerness. Of course we want things done, we have entered the ministry and the consistories for this purpose. Not one of us is of that type which lets "things as they are". And this is as it ought to be. A minister or a consistory man who is content to let things as they are is obviously unfit for his .holy office. Such a one needs either a replacement or a dismissal from his place of leadership.

Here are a few things we should however keep in mind and heart. Parsons and consistory men are in the employ of the King of Kings. To that holy office they have been chosen by God and His church. The daily task is to advance the cause of the One who has employed them. This is also their ideal which they seek to realize. It is a great and a glorious ideal and it at times dazzles us so much that we are apt to develop a "blind spot". Our life in the glory of His radiant Presence may even blind us so that we do not see things too clearly. Even the Twelve Disciples of the

Lord developed a "blind spot" as was evident by the request of two of them, James and John, tne sons of thunder. The itinerant group, Jesus and his disciples, were to enter into a Samaritan village; but "the people would not receive him" and of course the disciples neither. Luke records (Luke 9: 51-56) that these two impatient disciples said to Jesus, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?" Just because these Samaritans refused to entertain the Christ these sons of thunder became indignant and in that way showed their impatience. We at times take a page out of their life's record and become similarly impatient with those who refuse to entertain the Christ and His Gospel of redemption. Jesus rebuked his impatient disciples and in that way teaches us a lesson too. We are so readily inclined to cleanse the threshing floor and to burn the stubble in our impatience. And in our impatience we too may become petulant and irritable in our ministry.

No servant of the lord has reason to expect easy tasks. His Lord has forewarned him sufficiently and even emphasized the fact that they were being sent as "sheep amid the wolves." That has not as yet been changed for the same tempter still has power over the people of God, even though it be a limited power. Of course there are the so-called "honey-moon days" when all is nice and sweet. But after the "honey-moon" period there comes the steady and uninterrupted task of the business of the King. It is then that the nerves may become frayed and the impatience becomes evident. During this period both congregation and parson get to know each other. The pastor gets to know some of the faults of the congregation and the congregations begin to realize that their pastor is a man. In some respects the ministry of our Lord is repeated in almost any congregation, and pastorate. The first year is usually one of obscurity (Jesus spent His first year in Judea, it seems and was little known ), the second year is one of popularity (as was Jesus' ministry in Galilee) and then comes the third year of opposition (this was Jesus' year of conflict with the religious authorities). Evidently this third year is the year which is crucial, nerves are set on edge, tempers flare and impatience becomes so evident.

Of course not each pastorate follows exactly the same pattern. There are frayed nerves sometimes much sooner, or even later. But they will and do come and it is then that the impatience of the parson also becomes so evident. Instead of some mutual regard for each other as pastor and congregation we are liable to resort to mutual dislike. The parson is secretly looking for a way out, and the congregation looks for evidences to criticize and condemn. And soon both come to an impasse. The impatience is not only found then in the parson, but also in his charge.

Let us remember just a few things. First of all, Jesus' criticism did not come from his disciples, but from outside His small group. If there was any impatience shown it was not by, nor with the Twelve; but always with and by those outside the fold, To-be-sure Jesus at times referred to the "little faith" which the disciples exhibited, but that was one of His methods of teaching them to understand the truths of the Kingdom. When we as church leaders are impatient we are thus only legitimately when people are slow to grasp the -eternal truths of the Gospel. Even then our impatience must be one of love and forebearance and not of the scold and the fault-finder. Also let us realize that though faith can and does grow, it does not develop very rapidly. Look at the slow development of the disciples. They were in the presence of the Light of the World for some three years but the spiritual chlorophyll did not develop rapidly. Even toward the very end of the three glorious years these disciples "slow of heart" were not adverse to engaging themselves in an argument as to who as to have the most important place at the Passover and which- turned out to be the Table of the Lord. And when their Master was arrested by the authorities, where was there courage? When finally He was crucified, the only one who evidently was present was the Apostle John. Where were the others? The followers of Jesus Christ are not much different today than were these original Twelve.

But now notice this, our Lord did not become impatient with them because of their defection in the Hour of Trial, He did not scold them for being cowards who fled when courage was needed. Even Peter's denial was never referred to by our Lord as far as we have the records There was only one occasion when Jesus, after His resurrection, seemed a bit impatient. Luke tells us of His meeting with the travellers to Emmaus and saying to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!...... Luke 24: 25. In the doubtful passage from Mark's Gospel there is another reference, but that cannot be wholly relied upon, so we pass that by.

Shall we as representatives of the Christ be different? Shall we become impatient with the people of God entrusted to our care and ministry? Shall not we rather follow the example of the Master and be patient with those whose growth is slow and unspectacular? It took each one of us as parsons a number of years to develop into leaders of the church and this was a day and night program, practically without any let-up. If we would bring our thinking along the line of our own experience we would find that it probably would take others whose daily tasks and round-of-duty demands almost all of their time, that they cannot be expected to come to our standards within a few decades. So let's not become impatient with those whom God has called, let us remember that they too, like all of us as parsons and consistory men, are but human and subject to all of the faults and failures of sinful men. After all they too are people of God, they are the saints of the Lord, they too have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb and are on their way to be with the Lord forever. They may be like sheep which go astray, but they are sheep nevertheless.

Paul may have shown some petulance when he wrote this letter to the Galatian church, but they were still "brethren" in the Lord and he wanted them to see the glory of the cross, for that cross shines forth in almost everything he wrote to them. Let that cross become evident too in all of our ministry, whether it be the ministry of the consistory or of the clergy. And we'll sing together:

In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time,

All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.

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